Hike #880; Flemington to Clinton

Hike #880; Flemington to Clinton

9/10/15 Flemington to Clinton with Lerch, Dan Asnis, Jen Berndt, Jim "Uncle Soup" Campbell, and James Quinn.

The group near Stanton Station

Our next trip would be another night hike, this time covering some more ground between Clinton and Flemington. My reasoning for posting this one is the fact that there are good swimming spots and it made sense to do a last "hoorah" before it starts to get colder. I'll of course continue to get in the water, but most of the group won't.

Meeting point was the A&P in Clinton. Only Dan and Uncle Soup showed up there. Lerch was running late, and Jen and James had to join late due to work. We headed in Dan's car to the start point, which was a pull off gravel lot along the South Branch of the Raritan across from the building that used to be Lipton Tea.

Crossing the South Branch

From this parking area, we can wade across the South Branch of the Raritan and get to the South Branch Trail in the Wings Section of the South Branch Reservation. This time, when we went to wade over, it was hard to find the trail. I don't believe they are maintaining it for as far out as I did when I used to work for Hunterdon County Parks. I tried getting out of the water at two locations to get on the trail but couldn't quite get to it. We had to walk up stream in the South Branch and get out of the water twice before I finally found a spot where I could get to it. Then Uncle Soup and I had to wait for Dan to catch up. He went onto land and was trying to get through prior to where we were. Eventually, we got to good land and I found the trail in a good state of repair. I was happy to see that the county was still taking good care of it. I had met with Jaybird Strauss who works at the arboretum, and he told me he had been taking care of the South Branch properties, so they were actually in good shape.

We followed the trail to the north through the pouring rain, which wasn't all that bad. I actually think it was kind of interesting. Uncle Soup seemed to be getting a kick out of it too.

We followed the trail rather easily and I noted a trail I didn't remember going off to the right. This is most certainly a new connection to Readington Township lands, but I just hadn't been on it yet. Rather than do extra exploring this time, Lerch was to meet up with us at Deer Path Park, so we kept going the way I knew.

When we got to the side trail that is the Readington Connector Trail to the right, it was completely overgrown. This trail goes along the backs of people's yards, but no one was maintaining it. The first bit of it is on Hunterdon County land, but the trail has pretty much disappeared. It's too bad too because it's still on the maps. No one will ever find it.

Readington Connector Trail

We made our way along the backs of people's yards, which is where the trail goes, to the fields owned by Readington Township. There was still a red trail marker here. We continued on the trail along the fields, then came to the intersection of a newer trail to the south. I figure this must be the one that goes to the South Branch Trail further on down.

At the end of the fields, the trail has recently been moved. It went directly into the woods instead of at the old angle, and there was turnpiking work that kept the trail from holding water and getting extra wet. We walked on through the woods section for a long ways, then down over a creek twice, then climbed back up to Deer Path Park. Lerch was calling me, but I couldn't get to it because it was pouring rain and the phone was way down in my pack.

When we reached the open area of Deer Path Park, we headed directly over to the Overlook Pavilion. Lerch was already in the park, but he went to Cedars Pavilion nearby.

He headed over to meet up with us, and the rain was starting to let up a bit. We headed past the restroom building and then to the north past some somewhat new exercise stations before crossing West Woodschurch Road to Round Mountain. We took the left fork beyond on the mowed trails, the ones I used to mow, and continued beyond into woods heading up Round Mountain. This trail was looking to be in good shape. When we got to the next trail fork, we turned right to head out across even more fields and up further. Another new trail went off to the left beyond the power line that I didn't recognize. I really have to go back and explore more. As we continued on the orange blazed Peter Buelle Trail, it got really badly overgrown. Walking the trail was like walking through a car wash it was so bad.

James and Jen parked on a road called Deer Run a bit further down. We headed down the trail to reach the gravel road and parking area on the north side of Round Mountain. There was a new blue trail up there I've yet to follow as well. I just have to do another hike in the area to explore it. We headed down the road all together, turned right on Foothill Road, then left on Stanton Road. On the mountain, Dan was right behind us, but he turned right on the white trail. We were staying on orange. We texted him back to stay on orange, but he stayed on white for longer. When we finally got a hold of him, he was way too far behind. We instead had him follow white to Stanton Road further down, continue ahead on Foothill Road, then Rt 31 to Stanton Station Road, and a right on Lilac Drive to join us.

We walked up Stanton Road to the back of the Hunterdon Arboretum. We headed through to the trails there, and kept to the south side and out to the Vincent Aubrytis Wetlands Study Area on boardwalks. This led us out to the maintenance access road. We crossed that, then opened the deer fence to enter the gardens area. We walked through and I showed everyone the pavilion in the middle that dates back to the 1800s.

Next, we headed through the deer fence to the parking area an roadways for the arboretum building. Some sort of meeting was going on inside. We could see people. We kept going to the right, then used the tunnel under Rt 31, the connector trail to Echo Hill Environmental Education Center. I was happy to see that this trail had been rehabilitated. When I left Hunterdon Parks, they had torn down the trail markers and decided not to acknowledge the trail at all. It was now perfect and only needed a bridge to cross Prescott Brook for the best connection. It was still easy for us to cross on stones.

We headed across former fields on the other side; it was now growing over with Autumn Olive which is really sad to see. We kept that all mowed down seasonally, but now it looked like crap. We kept to the right, then headed up hill after crossing the raceway that feeds the pond there. I then brought everyone to the pavilion that we rehabilitated out of one of the old camp buildings when I worked there.

We followed the orange blazed trail to the right, out past where they do Maple Sugaring, then through a meadow and more woods. This was I think first time I'd been in there since the trees came down in Sandy and maybe Irene too. It looked so strange going through those woods with so much open space. We followed the trail down to the entrance road to Echo Hill, turned right and continued straight across Lilac Drive onto the railroad tracks. While waiting there, Dan was getting close. We ushered him over to us, then continued along the tracks to the north.

Soon, after a tiny brook crossing, we turned left onto the trail into Sunnyside Picnic Area. The trail led us down along the South Branch, across Old Clinton Road, and over a little bridge I built out of a beefy pallet with Adam "Bandit" Johnson. The thing was still in good shape except for one broken board.

We continued on to a split in the trail where we went left. We then decided to maybe stop for a swim. Lerch and I went in, but it was mucky there. I didn't stay in for long. We then continued to Awassogame Grove where the county's 911 memorial is. We made our way from here our to Kiceniuk Road.

We turned left on the road to cross a rare example of a three span Pony Truss bridge, then turneed right on River Road. It's a long stretch of road walk but it's really beautiful. It leads to another pony truss at Valinsky's Section of the South Branch Reservation. Lerch decided to jump off this bride a few times, and he had no problems.

We continued on the road, now called  Hamden Road with a dirt surface. This led us to the intersection with Camp Buck Road, another dirt road, where we went left. We continued only to the next pony truss over the South Branch, but we turned right onto a trail in the camp. I had never done this section before, but it looks like it's pretty clear and easy to follow. I had seen an access from further down next to the railroad bridge, so I figured we'd be okay.

Just as we walked into the woods, some guy came out and said "Are you guys with the camp?". I think Lerch responded "No, we're just hiking through". The guy said "Ah ok cool". Fortunately no one cared this time, but I wanted to get out of there. We followed trails for a ways, and I must have made a wrong fork because we couldn't get through anywhere. We had to turn back and take another fork, which went closer to the river, and from then, despite some fallen trees, we were able to get on through. We reached the river and I decided to wade a bit. Those who couldn't handle it, had to go up and across the railroad bridge, then descend the other side.

I love swimming in this spot, and I went right in. Lerch of course wanted to jump off the bridge. He ended up doing it a few times. The last time, he executed a jump flip. Somehow he hurt his lower legs or something. He stumbled in the water a lot, and I went in after him to help him. He's really skinny, but not a light guy! I dragged  him back up stream and stuck with him until he was good enough to move around some more. He went swimming some more, I don't know how, and eventually I got him to the other side again. He couldn't go on immediately, and it was getting really late. I told him I'd come back to get him as soon as I got to the cars, and that all he had to do was stay to the left of the river up stream, hit an abandoned road and turn left to the gate where I could get him.

Jump flip

We headed on the trail, which is rather overgrown at times, out to old Hamden Road, now abandoned in this area. We turned left here out beyond the gate, then turned left on Landsdown Road. We followed this to the south side of the Landsdown Trail, former Clinton Branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and followed it north. We went across the road by Wal Mart, the access to he water company, then soon passed under I-78 and reached the station at the lumber yard. We turned right to head back to the cars at A&P.

When I got a hold of Lerch, he was in a police car! He was alright, but he had gone I guess out the tracks to the next road and gotten picked up. They brought him to Clinton Station Diner, and I went there to check on him. When I was sure he was okay, I headed out to go home (work at 7 am).

It was an eventful night, but overall a really great hike and a great route that I've always loved, and have done in many other variations. This hike made me realize there are even more variations we will continue to do in the near future.