Hike #861; Mount Olive Area Loop

Hike #861; Mount Olive Area Loop

7/2-7/3/15 Mount Olive Area Loop with Justin Gurbisz, Cory Salveson, Linda Whiteford, Lowell Perkins, Alyssa Lidman, Connie ?, Dan Asnis, James Quinn, and Sarah Jones.

The group

Our next hike would be a great loop in the Mount Olive area, heading along trails and back roads to visit some favorite places from the past and a few I hadn't hit yet. Our meeting point would be in front of the Home Goods in Mount Olive.

Lowell was coming with his cousin Connie and was running a bit late, so I told him how he could catch up with us more easily a couple miles or so in. The rest of us started walking from the store through a development behind it. We continued out to he end of the development, then headed to the left and bushwhacked a bit through trees behind a commercial building. We ended up coming through the woods to the roadway behind it. We walked through that, around the building, and came out at an access road for International Trade Center. From here, we crossed directly and got on paved pathways that followed along the retention pond area. This is a rather nice one, with a fountain in the middle. There are a few of them along these buildings, between the NJ Transit tracks and the roads. The paved paths between them make for a nice walking route. We followed these for a while, and watched as a train went by us.

We eventually had to come over to International Drive, follow it south on the other side of the tracks when the paths ended. We continued to the intersection with Waterloo Valley Road where we got to Mount Olive Station. It was here we met up with Lowell and Connie. I had wanted to possibly just follow the tracks from this point because there's a nice little piece of the Morris Canal that is on state land beyond, at the former Inclined Plane #3 West, but there was an NJ Transit vehicle sitting there. I had thought someone was in it, but it had tinted windows. There must not have been because it was there when we got back in the wee hours of the morning.

Instead, we walked Waterloo Valley Road up  hill and past the last commercial buildings. I mentioned to Justin about the abandoned house that used to be just beyond, but it appeared that they'd torn it down. Just then, I saw a roof. They hadn't torn it down, it was still there, just totally obscured by brush! Of course, we had to go check it out.

Abandoned

We got to the building where there was an open window on the far side. There was really nothing left inside. Most of the house was still sturdy save for a rear portion where the roof had collapsed. We wandered all through it, and when we got to the rotten room went to exit that way.

Hole Alyssa found

As we went through Alyssa's leg went through the floor and she slipped down all the way to her hip! There is no real basement on that portion of the house, but apparently the crawl space there is pretty deep. I did also check out the basement, which was gross. We left the building and continued from here onto Waterloo Valley Road.

This road is among my favorites in Morris County because hardly anyone drives it. Waterloo Valley Road used to continue on to Waterloo Village from it's east to west side, but when Interstate 80 was built, it severed the road completely. Also, the bridge over the Musconetcong river in Waterloo was destroyed by a careless quarry truck driver taking an oversize load across it. The road was rerouted to go by Rt 80 and then head up to International Drive. The section that was newer along 80 is the only part that is not a bumpy mess, and so hardly anyone goes back it.

Train passing by

As the road approached the railroad tracks, a train went by. We waved to the engineer and then headed down across the tracks on the road to the abandoned former westbound right of way of the Morris and Essex/Lackawanna Railroad. I always loved hiking this section parallel to the active tracks because the westbound was on a lower level than the eastbound. The west bound would have been the original line, with the other being constructed later.

The old rail bed

We continued along the right of way for a while, with a bit of a view out over 80 to the right. It was a while since I'd walked this section, and it was somewhat more overgrown than it was on my past trips. We continued to the old road route that passed beneath the eastbound tracks, over the westbound. This was the site of former Waterloo Junction. There is a Station Road further up by Budd Lake, and I can only assume this road used to go on through from there.

The bridge under the tracks

We went off to the right a bit first, and I showed everyone the old turntable pit for the Sussex Railroad, later Sussex Branch of the Lackawanna. That right of way too was severed when they built Rt 80. We continued on from here underneath the undperpass and onto some well built but unmarked trails in the extension of Stephens State Park. I had to watch my GPS to be sure we were going the right way, which proved difficult.

Unofficial trail

The trails went all over the place. I knew I needed to find an old woods road, maybe Station Road, that'd lead us over the mountain. We found one and followed it for a while, after taking a turn and heading up hill with a bit of off trail. This woods road led us in some kind of a circle and I found we were going the wrong way, back down toward Waterloo Junction. We had to turn around again, then got to a woods road that was going the correct direction. We followed this until eventually we reached the green blazes of one of the formal trails.

Linda was behind, so we waited up here. Eventually Cory  had to go back to find her because she wasn't showing up. Lowell and Alyssa took off too, and Justin and I sat around while Connie grilled us for how old we were. Justin was trying to convince her that he was 42. It took a while, but eventually they all came back and we continued on along the green trail.

Budd Lake Fire Tower

The green trail leads to a woods road, the fire road to access the 95 Mile Tree Fire Tower, also known as the Budd Lake Fire Tower. We turned left to follow the woods road, and took it up to the top of the hill. I was beginning to get concerned that we wouldn't make it to the tower before the sun went down, but we were alright, though behind schedule. I quickly ran up to the top of the tower to take in the view.

View from 95 Mile Tree/Budd Lake Fire Tower

I could see Budd Lake clearly and a lot of the surrounding area. The others followed up after me, but I didn't realize I had aggravated a hornets nest on the way up! A few of them got stung on the way up to the top. We enjoyed the view for a while, but were apprehensive about going back down in the cloud of swarming hornets. Eventually, one by one we ran down through the mess of them and I don't think anyone got stung on the way.

On the tower

We headed back down, then out the same road we took up there, and back onto the green trail the way we came. James parked his car with Sarah at the Station Road lot and was walking toward us to meet. It wouldn't take long, and then we all turned onto the southern portion of the white blazed loop trail. We'd continue on this for some time.

We moved along at a prettty good pace, gradually descending on the trail that was sometimes foot path, sometimes old roadway. I waited up at turns so everyone could see where we were going. Eventually, we turned right on the pink blazed Maze Loop Trail. This wasn't easy to follow the entire way. We somehow found either white blazes or more faded pink blazes, and we followed a portion of an unmarked trail that goes up the middle of the Maze Loop. I waited up for Cory and Linda who were behind, and the others went ahead which was taking them back up the  mountain. I had to tell them to go back and we continued on the trail till we found blazing again. Cory, Linda, and I followed this crazy circuitous route east, then west again barely parallel with Waterloo Valley Road, and eventually we just had to cut right through weeds to get to it. The others ended up on the same road just a bit further to the east. After getting back together, we walked the road to the intersection with Kinney Road and turned left.

Our next point of interest was the Tilcon Quarry Lake. We cut to the right behind the gate and headed to the sandy beach area for a swim. It was a great spot to be. We swam for a bit before moving on.

We then followed the short of the lake heading east. It missed the regular trail turn we make, the old woods road, and followed one more closely to the shore. Fortunately it got us to the same spot. We made our way around, and when we got down by the bottom of the hill where the trail turns up toward Waterloo Valley Road again, we bushhwacked over to the informal trail that goes beneath Rt 80 and Musconetcong River. This ended up being much harder than I'd anticipated it would be. What a relief when we got to the fence along 80. That posed another obstacle that someone with us was able to get u through too.

We continued on the pathway under 80, then up the other side and to the abandoned house on the south side from Waterloo Village.

Abandoned house

We went through all the rooms here, then continued on along the abandoned Waterloo Valley Road heading toward the Morris Canal Inclined Plane #4 West. It was pitch black by now, and harder to walk than it usually is, but we went up the inclined plane and onto the towpath heading to the east. There is a trail that branches off to the left from the canal when it reaches Rt 80, and we opted to follow that to Continental Drive. At one point there was a giant spider with it's web across the trail.

Spider

We got through this section and turned right on Continental Drive. It was way later than I had anticipated being out. I was so tired and could barely stay awake. Justin said at some time earlier that he had already been up for 24 hours straight, and that was already a while ago. Still, we pushed on. I recall sitting along the side of the road and I zonked out a bit. This was nothing like when I passed out on the tracks however. This time I was tired, that time I wasn't. We got up and continued on back to the Mount Olive Station. We weren't making it all the way back to mine and the others cars. Lowell's was closer thankfully, and so we just headed to there. We covered more than enough miles at this point anyway, with all the looping around the trail did.

The cops were there when we arrived, wondering what was going on. We told them we were just hiking, and I assured them we did the trails during light hours and back roads in the dark. They were all fine then and left.

Justin and I talked in the lot when we returned to the cars. We were commenting on how insanely late it was, about 3 am! Justin said he was tired, but then threw in "But I feel GREAT!!". I felt the same. It really was altogether a great walk around the area, and I'd do it all again. I felt completely alive, and that's all I really need overall from this type of thing.