Hike #879; Alloway Creek/Stretch Point to Stow Neck

Hike #879; Alloway Creek/Stretch Point to Stow Neck

9/6/15 Alloway Creek WMA/Stretch Point to Stow Neck with Serious Sean Dougherty and Steven Smith.

Giant tree at Hancock House

Our next hike would be another point to point, and the final section needed in the Lower Delaware/Delaware Bay area. We had recently done the little missing Moore's Beach section, and this was the last full day hike in the region, connecting Stow Neck with Stretch Point at Abbot's Meadow Wildlife Management Area.

Jersey Perimeter almost complete

Because this was the last one, I posted it not only on the Metrotrails Meetup group, but also as a Facebook event. It was looking like I'd have quite a large crew for this last one in this part of the series, and I had every reason to believe I would because so many came out for the past ones, and this would be the last. At one point, over twenty were signed up between the two postings.

However, as the date neared more and more people dropped off. Even the day of the event I thought more people would show up. I picked up Steven Smith on my way down in Flemington, and then only Serious Sean showed up to the start. A lot of people were partying the night before, or had one thing or another going on. Most stayed up far too late. Even I had a family party at my Aunt Pam's house and was out late, then went to work at 10:30 PM because I had been working on water systems and needed the peace of mind that I was leaving it in good condition for my co workers coming in in the morning.

It was disheartening that most people bailed on it, but we certainly made the best of it. Both Sean and I had reached the meet point almost empty on gas, rather unprepared, but we would be alright. We shuttled in my car to the starting point, and stopped off in Salem on the way to get gas and snacks.

It was cool getting to Abbot's Meadow. I had been there what seemed like an eternity ago. I had finished a hike there coming out of Fort Mott State Park, then abandoned that section in favor of finishing from Cape May northbound. All of the hikes down in that direction since then, over a year I think, had been working my way back to the north. Closing this gap was a huge deal to me.

We started off at what is shown on Google as Money Island Road, not to be confused with the road of the same name and marina further to the south we'd visited. From this area, there was one trail that went off to a loop to the west, and another at the south end. I'd done the loop, but not the south one, so we started with that.

View at Abbot's Meadow

The trail was paved at first, then went to some crushed stone to a nice wooden deck overlook. We could see the nuclear power plant plain as day as well as the wetlands filled with phragmites. Serious Sean pointed out a "grandfather" fly I think he called it, eating another fly on the wood railing.

From here, we headed back past the cars and north on the road. We turned right on Mason Point Road, another beat up old back road, and passed a rough looking old house that appears to have a lawn that's cared for but the house is vacant.

We continued on the road, and there was a spot in the woods where to the right there appeared to have once been another house. There was nothing there now, and the access lane simply left the road and came back to it.

Indian bent tree?

We turned right on Rt 624, a wider but still little used roadway. Soon, to the right an old woods road broke off. We opted to follow this through Alloway Creek Wildlife Management Area. The road seemed substantial in that it was built up a bit above the wetlands in some spots, but it was still in mostly high and dry area because we could walk off of it to the right and stay dry. Along this route, there was an old tree with a strange bend in it. Could this have been an indian bent tree? These trees were bent by native Americans in order to mark their trail routes. The road reached an access point and parking area for the wildlife management area, but continued on the other side. If this was the previous route of what is now Rt 624, it could have been an old native American path prior to that, because most of their routes were absorbed into modern roads. The size of the tree definitely suggests this is possible.

We turned right into the parking area, but there was an old road going straight, blocked by a galvanized rail. It looked like it was never used. I figured we might as well try to follow it, see if there's anything interesting. I hadn't even looked at my GPS.

Weird phragmite laden road

The road was overgrown to the point where the Phragmites were just falling over into it. It was like a foot path. We walked along it and it turned sharply to the left. We continued down and I started to see what I thought might be the roof of a house! I couldn't believe there would be a house out so far on these wetlands. Who would do that?

As we reached the end, sure enough it was a house, but it was not just any house. This was something very very special.

Abel and Mary Nicholson House built in 1722

The house had a sign in front: "PRESERVED". This was really cool. Then, looking at the side of the building near the peak of the roof it bore the date "1722". This house was among the oldest we've come across. It was another example of the Quaker English patterned brick wall construction, in which vitrified brick bears the date of the home's construction. The house had one later addition, but remains mostly the way it would have looked in 1722. It's quite amazing. I couldn't believe the grass around the place seemed to be kept low even though it looked as though the road was seldom if ever used.

Vitrified brick date

Abel Nicholson was apparently born in North America or brought here very young. The following record was found on the family:

“Samuel Nicholson liveinge at Deifton in the county of Notingham in Old England, And from thence removed or transported himself with his wife and children to America in the shipp called the Griffin beinge master who all arrived in Delaware River in the province of West New Jersey the 23 day of the ninth month, 1675, and soe to the place now called new Salem where they inhabite”

Historic view, Abel Nicholson House

The present west wing of the building was constructed I believe in the early 1800s, but we know that this wing was constructed on the site of an even earlier dwelling on which the current main house was built. The house has remained unaltered, amazingly, for 285 years now, and has no plumbing or electricity yet!

I was just blown away to find this amazing old home. It turns out there is some sort of easement placed on the property to keep other entities from altering the building. We headed from here back the way we came, because there was literally no way into the site otherwise. We then returned to following the abandoned roadway parallel with the current one.

The old road continued out to where it went through impenetrable weeds. At this point, there was a wooden foot bridge, sort of obscured, leading to the right. We crossed it into a swath of woods where someone had been cutting up fire wood. We doubled back the way we came then cut through the woods to the present automobile road.

Old road bridge

Just ahead, we could see where the old road came out to the present road. It had indeed been rerouted at some time. There was still a bridge in place over a small tributary. Also, from that point Hagersville Road cut off to the left at an angle that matched up will with the older road alignment. If this was indeed the old road, it could easily have been an even earlier aboriginal trail and the tree we saw could have been an Indian Bent Tree. We turned right to continue on the road to the east.

Abbots Farm Road was on the right, but dead ended at a private farm. This road at one time would have gone through to Stretch Point where we had started on a causeway. This causeway has been purged out for many many years though. We continued out to the intersection with Salem-Hancock's Bridge Road and turned to the right. It didn't take all that long before we came to the bridge itself, Hancocks Bridge, or at least the modern incarnation of it, over the Alloway Creek. This was a very historic bridge site that I'd been looking forward to reaching on the perimeter hikes for quite some time.

Alloway Creek at Hancocks Bridge

We reached the bridge with the grated deck and were treated to a nice view of Alloway Creek passing underneath. We stopped to have a look in both directions. The cooling tower of the nuclear power plant to the west was always looming on the horizon, and roads bore signs of emergency evacuation routes.

The bridge itself is not the original, and actually isn't really historic at all. The original bridge at the site was built by John Hancock in 1709. Several wooden spans were erected at this site for trade through the area. The bridge was a crucial point during the American Revolution, as it was used to bring Cattle and farm goods to General George Washington and the Continental Army camping out at Valley Forge in 1778. With British occupying Salem to the north, the rebels decided to destroy the draw of the bridge for safety. On March 20, 1778, British army under command of Major John Graves Simcoe entered the village of Hancock's Bridge, and in the early hours of the morning of 3/21/ 1778, 300 British troops entered the home of Judge William Hancock and bayoneted all occupants while they slept. This became known as the Hancock House Massacre. Judge Hancock did not survive the attack.

Hancock's Bridge today

The bridge had planks re-laid the next day and the British used the bridge to cross.

Wooden bridges continued to span the Alloway Creek at this site, up to the last one built in 1847. In 1886, a swinging metal truss bridge was constructed at this site. The truss span remained at this site until 1952 when it was replaced by a modern metal span.

Historic view of Hancock's Bridge

Directly across the bridge was the famous Hancock House itself, built in 1734. The building was in great condition and had a water spew lever on the outside we could fill up with. I needed it pretty badly. There was a beautiful giant Sycamore tree around the left side, and interpretive signs around the back where the parking was.

Hancock House built in 1734

On the south wall, it bore the same kinds of vitrified inverted bricks, this time in a pattern known as the Flemish Bond. This is another pattern taken from the Quaker English to created a Herringbone pattern. This building also had 1734 as it's date of construction placed near the very peak of the roof, but also initions "H" at the top, with "W" and "S" below it. This was for "Hancock", and "William" and his wife "Sarah".

Initials and date on Hancock House

We walked all the way around the Hancock House and doubled back to the tiny little cabin sitting on the grounds. I had assumed that this was some old cabin that was moved to the state land in order to protect it from demolition. I was only sort of right in that assumption.

This was the Swedish Cedar Plank House, an historic home made of 400 year old Atlantic White Cedar timbers.

Swedish Cedar Plank House

The cabin was in fact rebuilt in 1931, but it is using all original timbers from the John Tyler property's original cabin which was located in Salem. A sign in front of the building showed a picture of the original before it was dismantled and moved to this site.

Swedish Cabin was made from historic Tyler Cabin

The historic marker said that this was slightly larger than many of the cabins of the time, but it was still just tiny. The interesting construction required not only no nails, but not even wooden pegs because the logs were shaped as such that they'd stay together. Known as stugas, which translates to “room inside.” These cabins were built in small clusters or stood alone, depending on the size of the farm. Swedish settlers established small communities throughout Salem, clearing only enough land to farm..

I wonder if any cabins like this still exist anywhere else.

We headed from here back across the street to some nice paths beside the Alloway Creek and views of the creek itself. There were more interpretive signs there to read too. We continued from this point down stream along Alloway, and through town along Poplar Street.

Historic postcard view of Hancock House

We soon reached a boat launch area on the right. We walked on over to that, and I found a set of steps as well as a ramp for boat launching there. We had good views of Hancock's Bridge from there, as well as down the Alloway Creek and a private home a bit down. We could walk along the creek a little bit parallel with Poplar Street. I had wanted to go and hike down Poplar Street, because there is a way of connecting by foot to Grosscup Road to the south, but there are private land signs all over the area. It's far too open to just sneak through, so we'd have to go around. Besides, we'd have our share of craziness with that later.

Alloway Creek view

We headed from this boat launch area back into the town of Hancock's Bridge. One could tell that many of the houses were new, but mixed in there were a ton of very old ones. This was of course a very very old settlement, pre Revolution. I was thinking the older houses were further apart because there would have been small plots of land for farming between each one. The town used to have a store and other businesses, but we found nothing this time. I was hoping we'd find someplace for at least a sandwich or something. No luck.

Historic view, general store in Alloway Creek

I suppose we were fifty or so years too late to find anything like that. We headed down Main Street to the south. This led us to a fork in the road with some junk laid out, including a wooden goose thing. We then turned right on Powell Street, leaving town. There was a messy looking wetland to our right. Powell Street took us out to Buttonwood Ave where we turned right yet again. This led us in a very short distance to Alloway Creek Neck Road.

Silliness at Hancock's Bridge NJ

We turned right on Alloway Creek Neck Road. This road was the widest and most awful to walk at first. There wasn't a lot of shade. We figured it was going to suck when we started walking down it.

As we walked, we passed beneath some huge power lines that looked really insane. I could see them going off to the power plant, constantly in view throughout much of the hike. We spotted an abandoned farm on the right side of the road, with it's overgrown driveway heading to the vacant barns. I had an "of course it's abandoned..." thought in my head, with those round reactors and cooling tower so visible.

Foreboding abandoned farm and nuclear reactors

We saw to the right more abandoned barns ahead, now part of Mad Horse Creek Wildlife Management Area. We wandered into the fields and around the structure. As we were walking, I turned back to my friends and noticed, surprised, another beautiful old Quaker style Colonial building with the patterned brick in it. This particular house bore no date of construction. I looked it up, and it turned out to be the Nathaniel Chambless House, built in 1730! Amazing how many of these great historic homes there are throughout this area.

Nathaniel Chambless House built 1730

We headed around the back of the barn area and there was an opening where we could get in. An addition had been built onto the west end of it as sort of an overhang. It was open, so we walked on in. Inside, there were doors off to the left to go into the older main barn area. Much of it was in alright shape, but in some spots the roof was coming in, and the water damage was beginning to show on the wood that was in some places bracing the building. This barn won't have much time life if it continues to be damaged in such a way. There were little metal contraptions in there, and in the floor there were many troughs. I talked with Steven about what they  might be, and we agreed that they were probably for shit. The animals would go, and water could easily be put on to drain it all out of the place quickly. There were many stalls throughout it that could have been used for anything as big as a cow or as small as pigs.

We headed through and out the back of the building again to continue on.

Abandoned barn

A cop went by us heading all the way down the road at one point. I thought to myself that he would most certainly stop and talk to us if he was headed back in this direction any time soon. I sort of forgot about it.

We walked a bit further down the road, and soon came to a cool looking abandoned house on the right. I was just about ready to go on inside. I couldn't wait really. Just then, the police car came barreling back. We were still walking. As we walked and he went by. None of us turned back, but Sean announced, "And now we're gonna hear dat 'ckkkkwweeeeck' sound they make when they turn around real quick!".

He was absolutely right! None of us had to turn around, we heard the cruiser make the abrupt turn to come and see what we were up to. After all, this was three nutty looking guys walking toward the Nuclear Power plant wearing backpacks. How could this be any good? They stopped us right in front of the abandoned house.

When I let them know about the perimeter of NJ series, the guy who did all the talking, Corporal Jack Smith, was very impressed. He was a really cool guy and hung out to chat with us for a while. We told him where we were going and what we were doing, and he tried to give us some insight into what we were going to come up on. I told him we were cutting through Mad Horse Creek Wildlife Management Area, and that we would come out on Frog Ocean Road. He seemed leery about it, and said he didn't think that went through. I showed him on my phone that it appeared as though it did.

I did go one step furthe r than that: during the week prior, I called up the county offices, both their county clerk's office and transportation, and asked if we'd be able to walk through on that road. They confirmed to me that I indeed could, and so I planned accordingly. I let Corporal Smith know I did this, but he was still uncertain of it. He was not in any way a jerk about it, but said that there might be one person back there that might give us a hard time. Since I had called the county about it, he didn't argue it at all. He told me he'd walked it back there, but never driven it the entire way.

Before leaving us, Corporal Smith gave me his business card. He said "If you run into any trouble, give my office a call!". This left me feeling much better about what we were getting into, but also a bit nervous that we might NOT be able to get through at all. This guy obviously knew what he was talking about more than the county people I had talked to.

Mad Horse Creek Wildlife Management Area

After he left, I decided we'd better not try to get into this abandoned house. We'd better keep going. If things went wrong on this road we'd have a long walk back out and around that I did NOT want to do. We turned left onto the stone covered road, then it turned to sand. It went through high Phragmites and weaved back and forth a bit. I think this road must have been at one time an extension to Frog Ocean Road.

The road took us out to a side road that just ended, turned left, then went out across a field and into some woods. It continued on with a side road to the left that we didn't follow, then we passed a couple of obscure "no trespassing" signs, old and tattered, and more of them facing only into the lands to the left and right.

Berm road

There was a gate over the road ahead, but no signs at that particular point. Steven got behind a bit, so Sean and I let him catch up. In that time, we'd already discussed it and decided we'd continue on rather than try to turn back, and hopefully be able to make our way out. We could tell by aerial images that there was a house out near the end of it. We made plans to try to go off through the woods parallel when we got to that point.

There was one more spot with two wooden stands that obviously at one time had signs on them, but there were not. I figured maybe the state bought out more of it. Whatever the case, we were going through. We came out closer to the water, part of Marty's Fork and Terrapin Gut of the Lower Alloway Creek. The creek itself's main part was a bit to the west, but this was all part of the outflow to the bay.

Lovely view of the Lower Alloway Creek area or Terrapin Gut

It was an absolutely beautiful area on a long causeway. I was very glad we didn't skip this section even if we weren't supposed to be there. There was even a little house out on the water, sitting on the estuaries and inaccessible without a boat. There was a little dock and a boat to the right.

We kept along the main road until it turned away from the water a little bit and entered more of a line of trees. We kept going, and reached an intersection where a side road went out to a dock as per aerial images to the right, and to the left led to the house. It now had a gravel surface. We kept walking, and there were a couple of ponds on the left. There were paths down, and we considered heading over to those to get past the house ahead. I started trying to be sensible, and asked how Sean and Steven felt about just walking past the house and trying to get out of there quickly. We agreed we should just get out of there. We continued to we were right by the house, and just quietly and quickly kept walking.

There was no one home! Not a car in the driveway at all! This place must have had security though, because as we moved further on, we could see the big gate blocking the driveway and all of the no trespassing signs facing the house from this end. We literally had to climb over the fence. There was no walking around this. They didn't want anyone in there. Once we got over the fence, we ran the driveway out to the intersection with Fogg Road and Frog Ocean Road.

Because this road changes names at this corner, it leads me to believe that we were on what was once considered more of Frog Ocean Road. Old maps do not show this road going through, but I think it did at one point.

We continued straight on Frog Ocean Road.  It really wasn't all that far on Frog Ocean till we reached Stow Neck Road. I was now relieved because it felt like we were done. We were parked at the end of Stow Neck Road. What I didn't consider was really how far Stow Neck Road was. It's a really long road. Still, we turned right, with not nearly enough shade, and I was feeling really relaxed.

Abandoned house

We continued on the road, and Sean and I were talking about the incidents of earlier in the day, how I really wanted to go into that abandoned house, but when the police showed up I realized we really had to keep moving. Before I could finish what I was saying, my eyes caught the peak of a roof! "I feel better already" I said quickly, and I don't think Sean realized immediately why. I dashed off into the woods, and a car went by too quick. I laid down as not to be seen, but they slowed and knew we were up to something. I can back out and pretended to be walking down the road briefly, then ran back in to have a look around.

Abandoned

The house was full of all sorts of stuff, totally abandoned, probably for years judging by the growth all around it. I thought Jillane would have loved this place. The problem is there is literally nowhere anyone could park anywhere near this place. The only chance to explore it really was at this moment, or otherwise walk miles and miles just to get to it.

Stow Neck Road with hidden abandoned house

I didn't want to hang around for too long, because we had been seen. We continued on along the road, and the house from the south side was not even apparent either. It's so easy to miss. A few more abandoned houses were in open areas along the same road just ahead, but nothing I'd dare to go right in because close by neighbors would definitely see. We continued walking the road to the crossing of Malapartis Creek.

Malapartis Creek

The road bridge at the creek was interesting. The paved road went over the creek on a wooden plank bridge, but there was a second road bridge to the left with a gravel surface. We walked over and crossed the bridge with the gravel and checked out the creek. There was a path going into the woods to the left, and we could see where a foot bridge once crossed the creek within sight. We figured we'd check it out as a little side trip.

Abandoned

Abandoned

The area was obviously a place where people partied because of course we had the beer bottles and stuff, but as we walked through the woods there were piles of shit. Then we found toilet paper. It was gross realizing we were walking among lots of human shit. People must stop for breaks here. Sean jokingly called this Human Scat Woods or something. As we walked on along a rather obscure path, I spotted yet another abandoned house, totally out of view from the road. Hardly anyone must know about these places. We can't see them on aerial images. These houses are probably everywhere.

We went along the edge of the house and entered through the main door. It was really rough inside, had not been lived in for many years. There were still a few pieces of furnature and such, but hardly anything worth anything. The previous house was just full of stuff. There were also a lot of wasps nests inside. One of them looked like a pan pipe. We joked about jamming with a mandolin player.

From here, we headed back out to the road bridge. There were really great views of the estuary wetlands  here. We turned left and continued south on Stow Neck Road. Just ahead, we came upon a mailbox on the right side of the road, the top smashed off and the base bowed out on it's wooden post. The swath of woods next to it was completely overgrown. It didn't look like there could be a house in there, or if there was it had collapsed. It was just to thick to bushwhack into to look for anything either way.

We passed more wetlands on the left, and then soon came to the intersection with Long Bridge Road.

Connection...

This was the final connection to all of my NJ Perimeter stuff on the southwest portion of the state. It was sort of a melancholy moment as well as a relief. Sean and I talked about it a lot. He turned to me and said "You know, I'm gonna miss comin down here...". I would miss it too, but Sean added that we could come down and repeat some of the best of it and do other stuff. He mentioned the hike down by Bivalve and how good that one was, and that we could do that again. He was right. We could do more hikes in this area and add different stuff to it. I know this. But it won't happen as often because there's just so much other stuff to do. Coming down here so often to do the perimeter stuff has been a really special time that only Metrotrails members like Sean, Lyz and Ric, Gregg, and Mike Heaney among others really truly enjoy. For many of the core group members, they couldn't wait for this stuff to be over with.

Stow Creek wetlands

As I walked up on that intersection of what most anyone would consider meaningless roads, I reached a huge personal milestone. After this, only four more perimeter hikes remain. I had everything done from the southern tip of Cape May to Roebling, all by foot. Actually, I have already done the entire perimeter save for Roebling to Trenton. The other remaining hikes, Wawayanda, Forked River to Waretown , and Great Bay Boulevard are just sort of attachments, where I'd already hiked closely parallel, but those are getting me a bit closer. This section was something more special. This was a huge connection.

The end, Stow Creek

I wish more of my friends could have been there to share the moment, but either way, it was now done.

Although I'd finished this big thing, we were not finished with the hike. It was still a ways down Stow Creek Road to Sean's car. The road gets narrower and more beat up, and is actually more pleasant to walk from here. When we reached the Stow Creek, I got in the water and cooled off a bit. It looked gross, but I needed it really.

We finished pretty early, by 4:30 or so as I recall. Plenty of daylight left. This too was rather uncommon. I felt awake enough for the drive back home, which is not always the case.

We definitely experience a different kind of themed hike, sort of a transition between Lower Delaware and Delaware Bay at this point, with it's great exhamples of early Quaker English architecture and history, and estuaries that stretch farther inland than most anywhere we'd visited on the southwest portion of the state. It's becoming more and more real that the final milestone will be reached, and it's going to be an amazing time.