Hike #881; Liberty Corners to Wawayanda

Hike #881; Liberty Corners to Wawayanda

9/14/15 Liberty Corners/Wallkill to Wawayanda State Park with Jim "Uncle Soup" Campbell, Annika Krystyna, Karen Ezzo, and Stephen Argentina.

The group on Canal Road

Our next hike would be a point to point, one of the four remaining Jersey Perimeter hikes I had to do. This one was the one that occurred to me the latest, originally conceived as two hikes with segments and then put together as one long one.

I was so glad people actually showed up. The hike was posted on a Monday, which is very atypical for me. They are of course almost always Sundays, and if not Saturdays, but this time I was working the NJ Outdoors Expo on Saturday, and on Sunday I made an exception to attend the memorial service for my old friend Brian Rapp who passed away recently.

I don't even know where to start describing what I've been through in the past, and how I handle loss like this. When you walk hundreds of miles with someone you really get to know them pretty well. Brian took his own life, and I can remember him and his depression, not often but strong, and how he felt like he just didn't measure up. I have a lot of friends who get concerned about whether people like them, whether it's worth it for them to even show up to something or not. I relate to it more than people realize. I fight my own depression by posting these hikes. My obligation, where people rely on me to be at a certain place at a certain time, forces me out. I know it's all going to be good, but if it were just me heading out, I'd probably never make it to my destination. This works for me, but I don't have the answers with how to help anyone else who has that kind of depression.

Life experiences I find turn out to be pretty meaningless when I do them all alone. I've spent so much time in the woods alone. I do still love it, but in smaller servings. Seeing another's reaction to an overlook, historic ruin, or just about anything gives it so much more power and definition. I've learned that these things in life are best shared. When you stop sharing, your purpose begins to diminish. I think that's what happened to Brian. He questioned his own value, he thought he clashed too much, so he went off to be a truck driver where he could be alone, and the world wouldn't have to "put up" with him. All that time alone can drive anyone mad. He stopped eating, because what is the point? No one cares. I know that feeling. I hadn't spoken to Brian in over two years. We used to be good friends. We'd hike together, we'd hang out, went to the bar, exploring a cemetery, or to a party. We'd talked on the phone about wild mushrooms. We had a good friendship, and nothing went wrong. He just slipped away, into his self imposed isolation. he stopped sharing his life.

When I started the hikes, it used to deeply bother me when I'd be waiting at the Port Colden Mall for friends who promised they'd be there, and then none would show up. So many times I found myself there, and when no one showed I'd head home feeling alone and worthless. I'd force myself to do something. I'd often do a long hike by myself, but when I started in that kind of mood to begin with, I'd only slip deeper into the depths of depression in the long run. Fortunately, I have not posted one of my regular weekly hikes with no one showing up since May of 2004. My life has only continued to get better.

This particular one was worrying me though. On the last perimeter hike, only Serious Sean and Steven Smith came out. I couldn't believe that such a high number signed up and such a low number showed up. If that could happen on a Sunday, what was going to happen on this, a Monday? I feared the worst, that my record would be ruined, and that I'd have to come back and post the hike again. Thoughts went through my head like "People no longer consider this important", "Everyone that's free would rather not be spending time with me", and "I'm not really a priority for anyone".

The group

At first, only Annika signed up, but then a few others did. Of course, some of them didn't show up, but We ended up with a group of five which is still pretty good, and we ended up having a pretty nice time.

For me, once we get in the cars, shuttle to the start, and get to walking, I feel completely relieved. Whether it's day hiking or a backpack, I know how susceptible to disappointment I am, and I can't feel at peace until I'm actually on my way. This time, we were on our way as soon as I arrived, which was late. I forgot that I can no longer drive into Wawayanda from the west side, so I had to go all the way around. I ended up being about 25 minutes late. We didn't dabble around too much, we headed in Karen's car to Liberty Corners area of Wallkill National Wildlife Refuge, a parking area off Oil City Road on Liberty Loop Trail.

We started walking to the west. Liberty Loop Trail paralleled the road, then got to the Lehigh and New England Railroad right of way, abandoned since 1962. I had walked this section before, but not since May of 2006. There were great views of the wildlife refuge at the former sod farms.

Wallkill National Wildlife Refuge view

We continued to the south along the former railroad bed, which offered us some really good views not only of the wetlands, but of Pochuck Mountain to the west of us. Pochuck is an interesting mountain because it's like an island out in the middle of what is known as the "Drowned Lands", Wallkill River valley to the west of Pochuck, and Pochuck Swamp area to the east.

View of Pochuck Mountain and farm

We continued until we reached the Appalachian Trail, where it leaves the wildlife refuge. We turned left on that and continued on a very long section of puncheons through wetlands to the east.

Vacant house along the Appalachian Trail used for getting water.

Pochuck Shelter

Abandoned cars in halves on Pochuck Mountain

When the puncheons ended, we ascended briefly to cross over Lake Wallkill Road. The trail continued up hill, with an old driveway near it to the left. I figured this was probably the driveway to the vacant house that the ATC must own, used for drinking water. I had first visited this house back in 2006. I was surprised that there was a blue blazed trail that goes off the AT to the back of this house where a water spigot can be used for drinking water. Even then I was surprised that it wasn't damaged.

This time, I wanted to see the house again, almost certain that it would be a mess. It was really refreshing to see that not only was the house still intact, it had not a single broken window. It was in reasonably good shape, and even the sliding doors in back were well secured. The only difference was there was now a lot of trees and vegetation growing on and around it.

We headed back to the AT, which began to ascend Pochuck Mountain further from here. There were switchbacks and some stone steps, and it wasn't too hard a climb. With all of the NJ Perimeter hikes I'd been doing to the south, I really hadn't done so much climbing this Summer, so I was feeling pretty out of shape. Normally I handle the things much faster and easier.

When we got to the blue side trail to Pochuck Shelter, I went over to have a look around. I signed in the trail register that I was doing a NJ Perimeter hike, and continued back to the rest of the group. We started further up hill, and when we got to where it started to level off, there were a lot of old cars in the woods off to the left. I went over to have a look.

All of these cars appeared to have been strangely cut in half. Uncle Soup came up with the only thing that seemed to make sense to me, that people were taking only certain parts they wanted off the things and leaving them in pieces. It still was strange how they were all in two. We headed back onto the trail and continued for a while more, and then came to a woods road going north/south over the mountain. I had been here before. On the previous hike, I had followed the AT west, then returned on Pochuck Mountain, and back to the AT on this woods road. I had never tried to stay along the state line to the east of this area. This was part of my planned route. We turned left and began following the woods road to the north, soon passing another half vehicle.

Karen and Annika were looking at bear tracks they'd seen in the old woods road. I wasn't worried about them, in fact it'd have been nice to see a bear. We continued on, and I saw the "Great Wall of Pochuck" off in the woods to the right. The stone row is enormous. We continued on this woods road until we came to the lake on top of the mountain. I had been here before, and actually swam in the lake. This time it looked even more inviting than it did the last time I was in it, so I took a dip. The girls thought it was far too cold for swimming, but not for me. It felt perfect.

Pond on Pochuck Mountain

We continued on the trail from here to the north. Just to the north side of the lake was a fork in the road. I had already followed the one in from the left. To stay on the state line, which we were very close to at this point, we had to make a right. There were a few side paths, and the area was very heavily used by ATVS. We continued on the most obvious woods road, then came to the lovely second pond. I don't recall if I'd ever been to this one before.

Second pond on Pochuck

We headed on the west shore of it, off trail briefly, then on a vague trail to a better one. When I finally looked at my phone GPS again, I realized we had walked well above the state line. The line was surprisingly directly between the two ponds. We doubled back the way we came.

Old woods road on Pochuck Mountain

When we got to the section of woods between the two ponds, it worked out well for us that there was a good ATV path between. We simply followed this, and I saw there was a fantastic camp site to the left, right there on the shore of the second pond. It turns out the state line is just over the bottom end of the pond, but I didn't realize it at the time. We were very close to it, but we couldn't walk it because this body of water was in both states at least to a certain degree. We continued following the ATV path, and went off and on it briefly. I watched my phone GPS to stay as close as we could to the state boundary. The ATV path became an old woods road, and it actually followed very very close to where we wanted to be, and ascended a nice ramp of stones over outcroppings of the mountain.

We weaved around more, and eventually we came to where the mountain began dipping off to the east. We remained on the woods road, now not as used by ATVs, and headed down hill gradually. We were right by the state line. As we were losing elevation, I looked off to the right and saw less trees. I thought that just might be an overlook out that way. I told everyone "Wait, I have to see this...". I went off trail through the woods, past some fallen trees, and then out to the point I had spotted.

I was right. It was a fantastic east facing overlook! I was so happy to find this place. We must have been looking toward Amity and New Milford NY area, and Glenwood NJ. We had to stop here for a bit and just take in the view. What a neat spot.

Off trail view to the east on Pochuck Mountain

When we got moving, we headed down hill further on the woods road, and I pointed out to everyone where exactly the state line should be. We headed down hill on it, and if we were to the left or right of it I would try to point it out. I announced several times during the hike that we should be looking for border monuments, but we actually found none using the GPS.

The woods road led down hill I recall to a flat old road. I didn't think anything of it at the time, and we continued down hill, after only following it a short distance, trying to stay on the state line. Later, I realized this was something that I'd been wanting to explore for many many years and just missed out on it. It was the rather forgotten Glenwood Branch of the Lehigh and New England Railroad.

This railroad was originally it's own line, called the Pochuck Railroad, and was completed in 1897. It certainly didn't last all that long, and went from Glenwood Junction on the Lehigh and New England Railroad's main line by Pine Island to Glenwood itself in NJ. Apparently there was quarrying or a mine, and one mine tunnel of sorts that is now blocked off in a development.

We headed down hill further from the old rail bed, passing through a very dense growing  young stand of Yellow Poplar trees. We continued until we were getting too close to development, and we weren't finding another good way out. Vegetation was getting bad, and there was a little creek to cross. We headed to the right, knowing I couldn't stay on the state line, and then reached what looked like a clearing for a power line or something that was never built. At the edge of this, another woods road went to the right. We followed this and soon got back to the railroad bed.

Former Glenwood Branch of the Lehigh and New England Railroad

We walked the railroad bed for a little while until I finally realized what we might be on. I saw that we were on a bit of fill, and that when it was a shelf, it was particularly well graded to level. Most woods roads would not be done so nicely. I brought it up to the group that this might be a rail bed. I was pretty certain of it after a little while.

We walked the right of way for a while, and were soon going by giant pipes pipes and concrete drain boxes. I was thinking that this was a development road before I realized it was the railroad bed actually. Maybe it was intended to become part of the development but was never finished. When we reached a fork in ATV paths, we turned left and headed down hill. It was of course closer to the perimeter but I didn't know where we'd end up. This took us out to what looked like it was supposed to be a retention pond. Somewhere along the way the road we had been following turned off of the railroad bed, or it was a spur line. I saw on historic images that there was some sort of a spur there. Either way, we hit this retention pond, and the main line would have been somewhere on the other side, but we didn't get to it. The ATV path led out and around it, then up to a private property sign. The person who owns this land went to great lengths to keep people off because there was junk all over the path (trees), and several trees had been chainsawed down over the path.

We turned back the way we came all the way up to the level path, then followed another ATV path up a hill, but this led to the rear of someone's house. We headed back down hill again to the more main path, and we had one more option to follow to get out of there. This last one, the widest one, went right and headed gradually down hill a bit, then came to a wooden fence. We couldn't see anything through the fence, but beyond there were obviously houses, and my GPS was showing that we were coming up on Bailey Drive's cul de sac. When we walked around the fence, we reached the cul de sac, and saw that the wooden fence was covered in tons of no trespassing signs. Oops. We headed onward down the road.

We turned left on a fork of Bailey Drive, and I didn't realize it at the time, but we must have crossed the former route of the Pochuck Railroad in that stretch. I can't be sure, but it appears it should have been there, just after a turn in the road. We stayed on Bailey Drive to a right turn on Slayton Road. We continued on this and made a left on Armstrong Road. This led us to Glenwood Road where we turned right and soon passed a bed and breakfast built into an old barn.

We continued down the Glenwood Road and passed a vacant house, then reached Rt 517 at Pochuck Farm. There was a sign painted "Credit" to the left at the store, and "Cash" toward the orchard up to the right. I thought that was cute. We turned right here a tiny bit and stopped in at the farm stand. We went inside and Annika treated us all to Apple cider and apple cider donuts which were delicious. We hung out for a little bit of time, and I talked to Stephen on the phone as he was trying to meet up with us.

We headed out from this point along 517 south. I still had to do this bit to do the NJ perimeter. I had only followed the AT in this section. We then headed to the left into a cemetery. We followed around the outside of that, then back onto 517, and then made a left onto Anne Place. We turned right on Carol Drive. There was a nice view of Wawayanda Mountain from the road. I had to stop and change my camera battery, and had a brief panic because I thought they were all dead. I got one to work fortunately. Annika and Karen walked ahead, and Uncle Soup hung back with me. They got way ahead, so we both started running to catch up.

When Carol Drive reached 517, we turned left a short bit and soon reached the Appalachian Trail again. We turned left here onto the long boardwalk over the Pochuck Quagmire.

Pochuck Quagmire

We weaved around on the lovely boardwalk. It was a perfect day to be out there. There were lots of turtles in the green wetlands. When we reached the long suspension bridge over the Pochuck Creek, I could see Stephen off in the distance heading toward us. There was an older man and his wife at the bridge there, checking out wildlife. I must have looked sort of nuts. I went and laid down in the Pochuck Creek right away. The guy started chatting with me about search and rescue stuff, and we talked about some of the local trails. We had a pretty nice conversation.

Together with Stephen, we continued on across the remainder of the Pochuck Quagmire and boardwalk. The trail led into woods on the other side and over a knoll, then to Canal Road, a section of a once through road now closed to traffic.

Indian bent tree?

Canal road begins as just a trail now. It's still obviously an old road, but closed to traffic. We followed it north to a cul de sac where people can park. Along the old road, I found a giant bent tree, which I figured could very possibly have been an Indian bent tree, which they'd make to point to a trail. This looked like it might have been an earlier aboriginal route that would have been rehabilitated for road use because it's along more of the height of the land out of the wetlands a bit.

We continued along the road to an intersection with Bucky Lane and continued straight on the narrow Canal Road. The road was paved now, but so narrow that it was still narrower than many trails we've used. We followed this to Rt 515. We turned right here and followed this busier road on the narrow shoulder to a fork where Meadowburn Road went left.

At this intersection we reached the historic Price's Switch School House, a one room school house painted white with two old out houses in back.

Price's Switch School House

The school was built in 1840, and was the last one room school house to operate in Sussex County. The station was originally located along present day Rt 94 a quarter mile north of Price's Switch Road, but it was moved to it's present location in 1883. It remains completely intact with coal stove, desks, chalk board, and of course the out houses. The school closed in 1958 when local students went elsewhere.

I don't know what the school house was originally called. Price's Switch is obviously a railroad related settlement name, and the railroad didn't exist in the area until around 1880. Maybe it was the Vernon school. I'm not sure.

We continued on Meadowburn Road, then turned right on Dekay Road because Meadowburn just goes ahead over the state line. We crossed Wawayanda Creek, and there was a sign for an historic Dekay Cemetery, but we didn't see any historic graves in the area. It must be off on private land or something. We crossed the railroad tracks, former Lehigh and Hudson River Railroad in one of the few sections of it I've never walked, then reached Rt 94 and turned left.

Wawayanda Mountain view near Dekay Rd

The Rt 94 section was among the worst parts of the entire hike. I had already hiked the Appalachian Trail through here, which is the closest you can really legally get to the state line in this area, but this time we walked just barely over the state line to turn right on Barrett Road, which heads just over the state line and remains closer to the border. I felt obligated to definitely walk this road.

The road was steep, and rather busy surprisingly. It was pretty though. To the right, there was a brook with a little cascade on it. We very soon crossed the state line again, and there was a fantastic road sign that read that the roads were designed for eighteenth century travel and to please drive leisurely.

A nice sign

We continued walking up the road, which got steeper. With no shoulder, the cars coming by made the road rather treacherous. We made the best of it and continued moving upward to get the road walk done with.

While we were walking, we passed a cool old abandoned house on the left. It wasn't anything I could check out because there was an occupied house very near to it and just far too many cars going by. It also had a good fence around it that was pretty much completely growing over with weeds.

Abandoned

Uncle Soup and Karen went ahead pretty far, and Annika was having some trouble with the hill. I waited up when we neared the top. This was the start fo the state park land associated with Wawayanda. The section is part of the High Breeze Farm. From the hill I had a good view of Mount Adam and Mount eve, two mountains protruding from the otherwise flat Vernon Valley/Warwick Valley.

Mt. Adam and Mt. Eve

There were more views from the road itself, and from the other side of the road of another somewhat bald topped mountain peak. I don't know what this was, but I want to get up on there!

Soon, we reached the farmstead to the historic High Breeze Farm. Uncle Soup and Karen were sitting on the porch of the structure waiting for us to catch up. We weren't really much behind at all. The road had little shade near the top, so the farm was a good cool place to stop, and I wanted to have a look around at the historic structure anyway.

High Breeze Farm

The house was built in 1828, and from 1860 to 1986, the farm was home to four generations of the Barrett Family. The house never had plumbing, central heat, or a telephone. The Barrett Family operated the farm almost as a time capsule  until 1986. The farm was purchased by the state as part of Wawayanda State Park in 1981.

I walked around the building to have a look around, and the back porch was made of the single largest piece of slate slab I can ever remember seeing.

High Breeze Farm House built in 1828

The building was well secured and locked up. No one had really damaged anything that I could see. It was just victim of neglect. Across the street there were more barns and another house that appears to be lived in, apparently by some caretaker.

Historic view, High Breeze Farm house

We made our way from High Breeze Farm further up Barrett Road. I had been looking priot to and after this for a good spot to cut off of the road into fields, but it was badly overgrown with briars and such, and I would want to go left. I didn't know where state land started until the houses. After that it was all fenced and I didn't know what we'd find to get through. We simply stayed on the road to the Appalachian Trail and turned left on that. The trail ascended a bit, and an unmarked trail kept going straight at a turn. We stayed straight, and it took us to a former home site. It was definitely too narrow to be a barn foundation, this was a former home. The road was gone or overgrown ahead, so we doubled back to the AT until we got to Iron Mountain Road. I had never followed this to the north.

The stream below the AT was known as the Double Kill, and old Iron Mountain road sort of followed it. This was now the route of Iron Mountain Trail. We turned left to follow it north, over an old through pony truss bridge, then up hill for a bit. Across from where we came out, the AT went into the woods. I'd never walked this section, when I did this, the AT went over the bridge the way we went. I saw the blazes for the former AT to the right, now painted out. We continued on Iron Mountain Road up hill, then gradually down hill.

When we neared the state line, the trail route went to the right onto a side road known as Cross Road. We turned here. We then turned right on Wawayanda Road.

I noted near the intersection with Cross Road, there were two stone stands, like an old estate entrance. I saw no evidence of a house anywhere, but it'd be interesting if there was.

Iron Mountain Trail

We continued on this road for quite a ways, and then went to the left when another woods road broke off after a while. this was again the former AT route. I could see more of the painted out blazes. I also recognized the route as well. It was easy and I remember the pleasant section from the last time I was here several years ago. I'd like to revisit Wawayanda and do the sections of the AT that are new and I'd not seen, but I'm not at this time making it priority.

When I posted this hike, I decided this time to put an end time. I put 5:30 as a sort of average I thought we could do. No one seemed to think we would make it. I was 25 minutes late, we waited a bit after I arrived, and we took some good breaks. How could we ever make it on time?

Perimeter done so far

As if by some miracle, we finished the hike at 5:29 pm. We had it all done exactly when I had predicted even though I was almost certain that we would definitely be late.

It was really a very nice day hitting some of the popular, famous spots, but also some totally obscure spots that no one knows of or would consider visiting. I was so glad I put the trip together for this particular time.

With the completion of this hike, there are only three hikes remaining in the Jersey Perimeter series. There are a great many people signed up for the final ones, and everything is going very well with that.

I have secured permits to use the state capital steps for the conclusion of the series and press conference, state owned lot in Trenton for parking, and NJ Transit to shuttle people to the start. Things are really starting to come together, and there are even greater things on the horizon. I'm wide awake with anticipation.