Hike #843; Tranquility to Oxford

Hike #843; Tranquility to Oxford

4/16/15 Tranquility to Oxford with Dan Asnis, Annika Krystyna, and Cesco Tetto.

At the Rt 80 underpass, Long Bridge NJ

Our next hike, another night hike, would be a repeat of one of my popular past ones from the days when I was relying on my grandmother to drop me off at the start points.

When I first started these hikes, all of them had to pretty much end at my house because it was tough to get people to show up let alone work out complicated car shuttles. In 2000, I first hiked through on the former Lehigh and Hudson River Railroad in Warren County on two hikes, one on the section to the northwest of me, one to the northeast. Since that time, I've run the same hike many many times and seen the right of way change incredibly.

This line is particularly strange for me because it feels like it should really make me feel aged.

LHR rail bed in Tranquility

When I was a boy, these tracks were still regularly used. The line, first developed in the 1870s, was abandoned in 1986. The tracks remained in for a while longer, and even by the time I was in high school, the ties were all still in place throughout the entire line. I recall going to visit a girlfriend by bicycle who lived in Townsbury and trying to ride over the ties from there. They have all since been cleared there, and it's "officially" a trail. In more recent years, much of this rail bad had grown over badly and was nearly impassable.

With my stressful situation at work remaining much the same, revisiting this comforting and familiar right of way I've loved for so many years would prove therapeutic.

I met with Annika and Dan in Oxford, and Cesco would be meeting us near the start. I was really glad he'd make it out because I hadn't seen him in so long. We started off by parking at the Tranquility post office. The railroad used to go right through there.

Lehigh and Hudson line in 1946 just south of Tranquility

I was happy to see that the first little bit of it was still in good shape, with mowed grass. We wandered along that, but soon it was overgrown with trees and such. It wasn't too much worse than I'd seen it, in fact it was pretty easy to circumnavigate the saplings and there was enough canopy above that it kept the scrubby abrasive bushes from growing too much.

About the same area today

We continued south and crossed the farm access of Tranquility Farms. No one bothered us through here and it was not nearly as tough to walk as it had been in the past. At one point, they had put a cross brace and several pipes up over the right of way apparently to keep ATVs from riding it. The cross brace was still there in bad shape, but the pipes were gone. The state was going to purchase this section, but the deal ended because of contamination on the rail beds.

We crossed the lane after which the right of way was totally clear. Someone went by at the crossing on a kawasaki mule, but they didn't bother us. After the farm crossing we were in some nice woods for a while.

Historic map of the LHR line

The right of way was narrower here and there were still some railroad ties in place that the pathway followed. We continued ahead and the cars crossing at Rt 612 in Allamuchy became clearer.

Original Allamuchy Station

We soon reached the historic Allamuchy station site. The freight station still stands and was preserved and restored in part with grants from the Warren County Municipal and Charitable Conservancy, which I used to sit on the board for, though not during the time when this was restored. There was apparently a passenger and freight station together but only the freight one survives.

Allamuchy Freight Station

When I started doing this hike, the freight station was in a terrible state of disrepair. It was structurally not too sound and the doors were all open. It had obviously been used for storing hay over the years following abandonment because of the abundance of it on the floor.

Allamuchy Freight Station historic view

I wasn't involved in any Warren County politics really at the time. I was already involved in historical societies and attended smart growth meetings, but had not the contact list I have today, so I was totally surprised when I came to the station a few years later to see it completely repainted and restored. This time, there was a new sign erected on the highway about the history of it.

We continued across the road on a path that continued to be very nice, and we made the first crossing of the Pequest River on a concrete bridge. It was the first of six times we would be crossing the same river.

Just after the crossing, the Pequest joins with the Trout Brook and grows in size. We then reached Long Bridge Road where I had intended for Cesco to meet us. Unfortunately, the large lot that was in the past great for parking a few cars was now marked with "no parking" signs because the area was to be used for fire trucks getting water out of the river. There was a little spot to park just north of the rail bed along the road, so I had Cesco park there. We then continued on the rail bed across another bridge over the Pequest, which was noticeably larger now. We had to go off into fields to the right of the rail bed this time because it was so badly overgrown. I knew this section would be bad because it was already worsening the last few times I hiked this. We then went under Interstate 80's bridges after which the rail bed was much clearer and easy to follow.

Cesco brought his dog out with us, which handled the hike well. We talked for a long time, catching up on what we've both been doing. Cesco had been working at an animal shelter nearby and was not initially going to make it...until I told him where the hike would be and he realized how easily that worked out with his work. He's got lots of interesting stuff going on including animal rescue stuff and attending the world's largest family reunion.

Whistle marker along LHR in Alphano

We reached the Alphano area and the new trail across from the Allamuchy Township Municipal Building. The trail is going to be part of the Warren Highlands Trail, if we can ever get our act together to connect it to there. Time will tell.

We then passed the ball fields and continued out over the Alphano Flats, where the sod farms are still very active. The area was beautiful as ever, and the walking easy. I was also nice to see when we got to Young's Island Road that a new state park gate had been erected on the rail bed. The path beyond this point, which had in the past been nearly impassable due to overgrowth, was now clear because of ATV use. It's a controversial topic, but at least in the interim they are helping out to an incredible degree to keep these rights of way open.

We moved along very easily on this elevated section with fantastic views of the sod farm. I thought to myself that I would most certainly do this as a night hike again because it was so pleasant.

The post island bridge

I was also surprised to see the wooden beam bridge at Post Island section of the right of way was sort of decked. There was a small plank that went onto the thing, then the top of it was laid over with some plywood to make it more easily passable. It's rather rate to see a wooden beam bridge, and if the state were ever to develop this as an official rail trail they would most certainly want to put in some pre fab structure that would hold a lot more weight than the century old beams.

Cesco on the bridge at Alphano Flats

The last time I was at this point it was so badly overgrown I couldn't really even see the bridge, but this time it was nice again, and the rail bed on the other side was perfectly passable.

Photo from 2000 on my hike over the same bridge

When I had first done this hike with my late friend Ron Short, we had to fight through some weeds on the north side of it, but on the south side it was totally clear. Now it was clear on both.

We continued on the rail bed into woods and parallel with more fields. ATV trails joined from the sides, and we passed a couple old signal towers. I also pointed out old battery boxes still in place on the edges. After crossing Nykun Lane, we came to the state access and parking area in Great Meadows. The section ahead was not yet state land. Apparently the boundary is the center of the bridge over the Pequest River, the last of the concrete variety. We headed out over the bridge, then continued on the private land around some fences that apparently hold horses. We crossed another old beam bridge just beyond where we had to navigate around these things, and the other side of the Island Dragway, and then went under Rt 46 to the lovely old Great Meadows Station.

Great Meadows Station historic photo

It was getting dark at this point. We still had enough dim light to walk the section of the tracks which were still in place here. They were left in for ambiance at the station at the request of the owner of Pequest Engineering. The company has a rail car that is being restored and the station is used as their offices. Only two stations I know of have this interesting design, the other one being Vernon NJ.

We headed along the tracks to Cemetery road and then went to the right to stop for some more drinks at Nykun's Store, but we were too late. They  had already closed for the night. The only other place nearby that was opened was the Stage Girls bar, and we weren't going to go in there only to buy overpriced beer.

The hike was different in this next section than it had ever been. We had crossed the cemetery at the nearby church to reach Rt 46, and so returned the same way. There was only minimal light. I knew the next section would be one of the worst to pass through.

Church in Great Meadows

We went back up Old Cemetery Road, and rather than get on the railroad bed, passed through the open field below it to the south. This section is planned to be an expansion of the existing cemetery, and so it was clear. We continued on through that, and were able to cut through the other side into more rather open fields still parallel with the old rail bed. A path led away from the right of way, and I soon realized that there was a good possibility that this might have been a siding to the nearby quarries. There is still a small quarry operation back there, and we passed what appeared to be an abandoned limestone quarry down hill from the dirt road to our left. We continued on this and then through fields to the quarry access road, then cut across another field moving closely back to the old rail bed.

Even when I started hiking this right of way in 2000, this section was a section we had to go around. It was always badly overgrown, but when we got to the cut section, the path was and still does go back to the rail bed. We continued on it from here, somewhat overgrown but still passable. Our next obstacle was the deck girder bridge over the Pequest and Hudson Lane. It was the highest of the six bridges we'd have to cross, but we managed actually quite easily. On the other side, the pathway was not totally clear, but we were able to move through this section much more easily than expected as well.

As we neared Pequest Road in Townsbury, the route got much clearer, and after crossing that road, right down the hill from the Megaro's house where Jillane and I used to live, it was totally clear. We continued to follow it very very easily to the west.

I stopped everyone to see the 100 MPH speed limit sign on the next driveway crossing, which everyone always gets a kick out of, and we moved on through lovely woods. We were far enough away from Rt 46 that flashlights were fine to use in this section. Some of it was a cut that kept us totally invisible from surrounding areas.

We crossed the Pequest for the fifth time on a through girder bridge, then continued out across the Pequest Trout Hatchery access road. We were close enough to the highway that the light from it made flashlights unnecessary for the next bit. We continued easily out to the former Pequest Furnace site, crossed the road, and then crossed the bridge over the Pequest for the sixth time.

Historic Pequest Furnace view

Historic Pequest Furnace view

Pequest Furnace was an historic iron smelting furnace area rail lines served. It opened in 1873-74 to compliment the iron works in nearby Oxford, where massive quantities of ore were processed. At some point, the furnace was blown out and anything of value was removed from the site. There really hasn't been much written that I can find detailing the work at Pequest Furnace.

On the other side of the bridge, we turned left onto an ATV trail I know about that leads beneath the former Pequest Furnace Railroad bride site, then goes up past some of the works ruins, then onto the right of way of the same Pequest Furnace Railroad. We followed this right of way to the former Warren Railroad/Lackawanna old main line just on the north side of the Pequest Cut.

We hiked on through the Pequest Cut and out past the refuse pile area left from the furnace, then crossed Pequest Road. We had a nice and easy walk along the paved trail section to the south of here and back into Oxford where it was a short walk on Lower Denmark Road back toward the Busy Bee and Oxford Central School where we were parked.

I was dreading the thought of returning to work the next morning, but found some solace in the thought that if they did try to screw up my weekend hikes, I could still post a night trip and people will show up. If I can pull people in on a Thursday night, I'll certainly be able to do a Saturday or Sunday.