Hike #852; Harmony Roundabout

Hike #852; Harmony Roundabout

5/28-5/29/15 Harmony and Phillipsburg Area with "Major Tom" Conroy, Jess Collins, Dan Asnis, Jen Berndt, Cory Salveson, and James Quinn.

The group with a Harmony overlook

This next hike would be many different things; a refresher on the future trail routes we're working on between Warren County and the state, a missing piece of the Jersey Perimeter series I'd needed to fill in, a stress relieving walk, but also a frightening look at what could happen if I'm not more careful.

Most of all, it was a warm feeling of gratitude for my friends who were looking out for me.

The hike started off like so many of them do. Many couldn't make it on time for the 4 pm meeting, but Dan, Jess, and Major Tom were ready to start off from the beginning. It had been a long time since Major Tom joined us, so it was good to have him back out.

We met at Union Square, Phillipsburg, and then shuttled a short distance to the Farmers Fairgrounds field area where the Warren Highlands Trail comes out. We'd follow the proposed route through state and private tracts to Merril Creek Reservoir, then the spur or possibly main trail to the north, to Hoff Vanetta Farmstead. We'd continue to along the Delaware and the old rail bed south to get back to Phillipsburg.

I'd been seeing a doctor a lot lately, far more than I usually would. Dizziness, constant congestion, headaches, muscle aches, they were all there. I had started feeling better while backpacking, but it just wasn't long enough. I was depressed coming back home so early, and I couldn't get enough of being out. I still felt out of it.

Things were starting to improve a bit at work, and I was ready to jump headlong into trail planning and work again. Before making a move, I wanted to re-familiarize myself with the route, so this was perfect. We walked from the Farmers Fairgrounds up Strykers Road to Rt 519, turned right, passed the golf course, then went up to the left on the Fairway Road where we cut into the woods. It's a pretty steep ascent to get onto the state property there, but we managed. Major Tom doesn't like going through weeds, but he handled it really pretty well. We ascended to the more prominent woods road and followed it to the right. We then entered the Shandor Tract. Bob Shandor Jr, son of the former owner, had given us permission to put the trail through the land ahead of it being purchased in development rights by the Highlands, or by Green Acres. We discussed a plan of putting a memorial to his father up there as well. Mr. Shandor Sr.'s chair still sits at his favorite spot.

Shandor's chair

When Mr. Shandor was a boy, as the story goes, he and his friends ran up the slope of this piece of Scott's Mountain, and when at the top, he proclaimed to them that he would one day own it. Shandor did go on to own the property, and held the same title on Board of Recreation as I do, until his untimely death at a Freeholders meeting. He would get all fired up fighting for what he believed in, and  he's become somewhat of a legend. I want to see a formal memorial to him put at this site which of course his family is on board for.

We continued up hill from this point along the woods road to reach the state owned fields. This will be a spot where we will have to have a lot of posts in to delineate the trail. Dan was taking some video of the hike, with commentary by me on the future of the Warren Highlands Trail in the area, explaining the view and such. If we can get the entire trail route it will make a good documentary. We talked about how some of the footage would be great for a video on the trail, and some of the other stuff could just be a madcap video promoting Metrotrails.

We hiked across the field, then down to Fox Farm Road. There's an intersection right there, where we continue to the right on Fox Farm Road. We walked up that and soon reached the entrance to Merril Creek Reservoir. Jen was the first getting close to meeting up with us, so I instructed her to park down near Harkers Hollow due to limited parking and make her way to where the buried water line for the pumped storage facility crosses the road.

Delaware Water Gap from Stecker Tract of state park land

The rest of us turned right to the trails at the reservoir, and started following the Perimeter Trail, which will be the Warren Highlands Trail. We turned off of the official route and headed down to the shore, and I took a dip (which I'm sure I'm not supposed to do), and we continued walking along the outside of it rather than the main trail since it looked more interesting and I'd never done that before. We followed this to the dike on the west side, where our proposed trail connection to Harmony Township and Hoff Vanetta farmstead would be.

I need to work out details of formalizing this route, because it's going really well now with the rest of it. We headed down hill from the dike and onto a tiny foot bridge, crossed Fox Farm Road, then descended via steps over a galvanized guide rail to the access road down the right of way. I'd done many hikes down this before, but wanted to re-familiarize myself with it. We followed the road down hill and around a bend where the pavement end. We went around a chain link fence and then descended by way of the cleared right of way for the pumped storage. It was easy to head down hill and reach the creek. We crossed a brook at a wet crossing, then ascended to Harmony Brass Castle Road. It was here Jen, Cory, and James joined us.

Creek crossing

From this point, the trail route doesn't follow the pipe line, but rather a nicer parallel old farm land to the west. We went into the woods on the farm road to the ruins of an old stone barn in a section of trees. There is a masonry ruin of the main structure, an extant silo next to it, and a messed up old corn crib a little further along. We checked out the barn ruins more closely, and then went into the silo where I started singing stuff including Billy Joel's "James" when James came in. I also sang some Don McClean. Dan filmed some of the silliness before we moved on and the trail returned to the water line route.

Barn ruins

The route is already pretty much a tailored trail, seemingly made for the purpose of walking. We made our way on along the path to the access point to the water line off of Ridge Road. I brought everyone up to the nice overlook of the entire area, where we could see throughout Harmony Township and into Lopatcong Twp, and to the north to the Delaware Water Gap and much of Nothampton County PA.

We made our way from this point out to Ridge Road where we turned left for a bit of time to reach another ATV path that leads further down the right of way.

James and the water gap view

The route was pretty as ever, and much easier than it had been in the past when I'd brought groups through on it. I recall doing it before, we had to fight through some really nasty stuff. This time, part of the reason for doing this hike was to simplify it and try to find a way of walking that would involve little to no maintenance on my part save for keeping the markings easy to follow. We were able to easily stay with the fields and come out right behind the large barn at Van Nest-Hoff-Vanetta Farmstead.

View on the pipeline

Van Nest Hoff Vanetta Farmstead

We also passed more fabulous views along the way. Once at the site, we walked around all of the buildings, and I did another interview for Dan about the history of the site and how it will fit in with our trail plan. I discussed how we are going to echo what other counties have done, with their trail systems closely tied in with their living historical farms; Fosterfields in Morris County, Howell in Mercer County, and another in Lehigh PA.

I was on the board that appropriated funds to the site too, through Warren County's Municipal and Charitable Conservancy Trust Commission. The farm looks great today, with the barn restored, the house still in the process, spring kitchen looking great, and three out buildings all moved back from the right of way of Rt 519.

We headed up 519 briefly and turned left on Hutchinson Road. Until this year, I had no idea that I had such ties to this area as I do. As it turns out, my Great Great Great Grandfather, Michael Cline Allen married Jane Hutchinson, from the family for whom the Delaware River town of Hutchinson takes it's name. It's really something for me to realize I'm descended from these founders.

The group at Hutchinson

We reached Hutchinson at the underpass for the former Bel Del Railroad. There is a little bar called "The Hutch", a true old man bar along the river, and we had wanted to go in but arrived too late. We sat on the porch along the river there, and some old guy was looking out the window at us. Jen walked around the place, and the guy peered his head out and said that they were closed. He didn't mind us hanging out, but he told us not to go "snooping around"! That was rather interesting. There was a great view from the site, out over the river.

After a short while, we made our way to the former Bel Del Railroad tracks and climbed up. I'd already walked this many times, most recently with Justin Gurbisz on a night hike. We took the tracks south to Brainards from here. Once in Brainards, I posed the question to the group if they wanted to see some ruins across the river. There are good walkways on the bridge over the Delaware to Martins Creek Pa.

Bridge and train

We began to walk out onto the bridge, which was nice, but not long after going out onto it, I could hear a sound and faintly saw the lights of a train coming from the south. I yelled out to everyone that there was a train and to get off to the side. I knew it was safe to be out there because there is plenty of room, but I think it creeped everyone out a bit! The train makes a lot of sound, and the three eerie lights on the front of them rushing at us in the dark are certainly unnerving, especially for those who don't know any better.

After the train had passed, we continued across the bridge, and then down a slope on the other side to a cool old concrete building I'd gone into in the past. We took a little break in there for a while, and I could hear engines and stuff nearby. I figured maybe a railroad person might have called someone to look into us, so we took some time to just hang out there for a bit. After a little time we headed back up to the bridge and re-crossed the Delaware to head south along the Bel Del further.

Abandoned

We headed to the south, remaining on the tracks, but then headed down the slope when we got to Harmony Station. From here, the little piece of the Jersey Perimeter I had been missing was our next leg. It was only a short bit of the road along the river that went a little closer to the river than what I'd actually walked, so I had to do that little section. Once that section was done, we climbed back up the culvert to the tracks on the other side and continued along the tracks.

Something happened between here and our end, something I can't explain, but something that scared the hell out of me. Somehow, half of the group got far ahead of me, and Jen and Cory and I think James had thought they were behind me, but I was behind them. They continued walking ahead, and I was behind.

I was planning on the hike ending at around 11 pm. Many of the night hikes are finished by that time, or just slightly later, so I figured that this one was pretty straightforward and would be no different. But at some point I blacked out. I don't remember anything, I had stopped drinking earlier, and had been drinking a lot of water.

I woke up disoriented, in the middle of the tracks. The side of my head hurt; I hit it at work while cutting trees earlier, but I'd been wearing a helmet, and I hit it slightly climbing through stuff earlier. I can think of nothing else that would make me black out. I had far less Schnapps to drink than I had on previous hikes, and had been well rested, just feeling out of it. What appeared to be allergies as of late were bad, and I was dizzy a lot at work. I even took a few sick days. I don't know what was going on, and I didn't even remember that I was doing a hike.

I stood up, very cold and by myself. It was totally dark, and I reached for my phone to see the time. It was dead. I knew I had to move, so I started walking carefully along the tracks for a while.

While walking, I realized that the Delaware River was to my left, I was heading north! I realized I was hiking with the group and was heading southbound, and the river should be on my right. I was frustrated and still didn't fully realize where I was. Further walking started making me think more sense. I continued to where there was enough light from a nearby house to dig through my bag for spare phone batteries. I found one, put it in my phone, and it would not work. A second battery hesitated, but soon powered up the phone. I forget exactly what time it read, but it was the wee hours of the morning and I had been passed out for between 2 and 4 hours!

I immediately tried to call Jillane, still not quite realizing where I was, or how I got there. I got no answer, and I texted her for help. She must have been asleep. I then saw I had also missed many many calls and texts from my friends trying to figure out where I was. I forget who the last one was to call, either James or Cory, so I called back the last number to find that they had arrived in Phillipsburg without me, wondering where I was. I don't know what I said, or if it made any sense at all. As I walked, an idling train was on the tracks not too far to the south of where I had been passed out. If I'd been out for any longer, I certainly would have been crushed. I could not hear the phone sounds, so I probably would have been out for a train as well.

I recall stumbling along the tracks until sections where it closely parallels River Road by the Marble Hill area, River Road. I turned from the tracks to the road at this point to continue walking so I could be found more easily. Thankfully, Dan, James, and Jen showed up to rescue me. I don't remember much at all of this. I somehow got back to my car, and I felt still completely out of it. I remember Jen asking if I was going to be alright to drive. I thought I was, and we headed out.

On Strykers Road, I immediately went off the road after pulling out. I did not feel drunk at all, awake, but dizzy and off balance. I had to pull over and close my eyes for a bit, though I was not really feeling tired. I managed to get home, still disoriented, and fortunately I was off work the next day or I'd have called out.

I eventually made an appointment with my doctor to get a CAT scan, of which I've still not received results. I had no hangover headache the next day or that night, and only a slight pain on the side of my head where I'd hit it.

Thankfully, I had friends looking out for me who noted my absence, and stayed around to make sure I was alright. The ordeal was a real shock to my system. I've had so many close calls in the past, and I was reminded that one of these days won't be a near miss, it will be the last one. I feel fortunate that if I meet my end that I've had such a fulfilling and eventful life, but I also am not at all ready because there are so many things left undone that I would love to do. These events are still at the point where I can barely perceive it. All I could do is just keep moving forward with life and my plans.