Hike #891; Manahawkin/Cedar Creek Area

 Hike #891; Manahawkin/Cedar Creek Area

11/3/15 Manahawkin Area with "Major Tom" Conroy, Jennifer Berndt, Jason Itell, and Tracy Brown.

Near Cedar Run and Drum Point NJ

Our next hike would be a point to point in the area of Manahawkin, coincidentally between two creeks that bear the same name at the Barnegat Bay. This hike came about in a strange way; I had thought I had done all of the perimeter stuff, but I figured I’d leave some weekends free just in case, and there was always Election Day for one.

Jersey Perimeter completed so far...

Well, it turned out I needed this extra time in order to complete one missing segment of the perimeter.
When I was planning them out, I didn’t know how close I would get to the perimeter, or if I’d ever push to do the entire thing. For a long time, it didn’t seem like it’d be that interesting for me to do. Along the way, I started doing some of the strange road walk sections that I just avoided in the past, and found them to be very interesting. It was then I started getting really serious about completing the perimeter.
There was a problem though: in connecting the hikes, I skipped sections of the perimeter. I had hiked from Toms River south on the Barneget Branch Trail, not the actual perimeter in order to reach Long Beach Island. At the time, I just wanted to get something connected so I had beach hikes I could do the following Summer. As we continued south, I utilized the Tuckerton Railroad all the way to Tuckerton. By doing this, I missed several sections. Over the past year, I’d thrown those and other similar sections onto the hike schedules in order to get them done. Somehow, this one slipped by me and I never got to doing it. I discovered it when I was reviewing the perimeter to be sure for the final hike coming up November 8th.
I had been hoping to do a non perimeter mountainous hike on this day, but plans changed and there I was. Almost the entire hike was perimeter stuff I had been missing.

View of LBI from Cedar Run area

We met in the morning at a Wawa in Stafford Township, which would be near our end point. Newcomer Tracy who lives in the area recommended we could leave cars at the nearby high school without a problem. We drove around a bit trying to find a spot to park, and once we figured it out shuttled with Jason to our start point. Jen ran slightly late because she ended up at a different Wawa very close by.
We began walking at the end of Dock Road at Cedar Run County Park. There were some nice views out to Long Beach Island and of the Barnegat Bay from there. We walked along the end of the road before pushing off along the road. We followed the road back inland with some lovely views of the creek. It was light residential for some of it, which then gave way to mostly woods.

Cedar Creek

We continued to walk until we got to a sewage treatment plant on the right side. As per aerial images, it looked like we could get no through by skirting this place to the right. It would then take us over to what the images showed as the abandoned extension of Newell Avenue. We turned right and avoided the main gate. We followed the chain link fence line looking all innocent, and got about half way past the facility before someone came out and hollered at us. He said for us to come on back. I went to the fence to show him we were heading for a trail. Indeed, google maps showed the Newell Road section out to Newell Ave further to the south as a bike trail. I showed the man this. After showing him where we were going, he was actually pretty cool and gave us directions on how to get out of there. He told us to go back out to the road, turn right, and then turn right again when we got to the dirt road.

Former Tuckerton Railroad

I didn’t understand totally what he was talking about, but we figured he didn’t totally understand what we were doing either. He said if we kept going we’d be bushwhacking and that we really couldn’t get through going that way. None of us believed that, because he doesn’t know us. Still, we turned around, and as we were leaving the place there was some huge alarm going off. Maybe they signaled that we were off the property.
Whatever, we followed the road and reached the sand road he was talking about, and it turned out to be the former Tuckerton Railroad I had hiked through the area on before. This was the way we went that meant we skipped sections of the perimeter. It turned out that this section was in fact the perimeter, but only for a little while. We followed the old railroad bed, now wide woods road, near some houses and out to Newell Road.

The road had a house at the first part of it, but even before that it looked very little used. Beyond the house, it just became a sand road going off into the woods. It certainly was not a bike route, not even if it was clear. Tires would just spin in the sand, and it was washed out a bit in some places. There were several giant trees down over the route, but we managed to get through. At one point we had to walk through a section of high weeds, where I was concerned about Major Tom getting through, but he got through no problem.
We walked on and had a good discussion about politics, and foreign perceptions. We talked about World War II, and how no one really seems to know why the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor (Because America was sinking Japanese Ships out of China). It was a good discussion about how history is skewed, and how we get to a place of stereotypes and strange celebrations. During WWII, the anti German sentiment caused German Valley to be renamed Long Valley, but now we celebrate Octoberfest and Musikfest. Jason mentioned that in Japan they have a “Real American Christmas” where everyone buys a bucket of fried chicken.
The road came out at the corner of Newell Ave and Jennings Road. From here, there was nowhere to go down Newell, so we turned right on Jennings. We then passed a polling place, which wasn’t that busy.

Mill Creek view

The discussion turned slightly more political with the recognition that the area seemed 100% Republican.
Political affiliation is often times a touchy subject with people, but I’ve always been pretty comfortable with talking about it, and the great thing is most of my friends tend to have the same attitude. The thought I always like to share, which was something I came up with completely on my own, was that Democrats are supposed to be “Liberal”, but they’re not so with items like guns and the right to bear arms, even though one might think that’s something they might be “liberal” about. Similarly, Republicans are always labeled as “Conservative”, but at the same time they seem to typically be the party less for conservation, more for lifting environmental restrictions for big businesses. This will be an interesting election year because perhaps for the first time, social media and internet has more pull with voters than television. We see it clearly where Democrats are trying to say Clinton is leading, though it is clearly Sanders, and Republicans are trying to say Carson is winning, when in fact it’s Trump.
The polling place had Republican signs everywhere, with names of their candidates, and pictures of star and stripe adorned elephants. The signs were all up to the front of the place, clearly in illegal fashion. Further, the sign for the building was clearly the same maker, reading “Vote Here Today”, in the same color pattern and fonts as the rest of the Republican signs. I’ve no problem with the Republican party per say, but it’s obvious there is a swayed vote in the area. I typically tend to agree with Republicans more in local politics and Democrats more in upper levels, though Reps seem to be lifting too many environmental restrictions and Dems are really pushing closer to Socialism. I continue to sit back and listen.
We walked on out a dead end pedestrian only road from Jennings Road and reached a confluence on Mill Creek where it split and flowed out into neighborhoods. We walked in the water a little bit for a good break here.
We followed the pedestrian route back to Jennings Road and turned right, then turned right again after a residential area on Jane Drive. We made the next left and headed out of the way only a short distance to stop for lunch at Brazzi Brick Oven Pizza. Jason treated us to lunch this time, and I had a high piled delicious slice of whole wheat pizza covered in tons of vegetables. It was just awesome. We left here and headed back the way we came to continue on Jane Drive which became Mill Creek Road.
We went past the split in the road where we’d have to go left, just so I could go around the small but pretty Mill Creek Park.
It was an unseasonably warm day, in the mid seventies. This is why so many of us were keen on standing in the water. Jason mentioned that this might be a good time to swim. He reminded me that we had swam in November up near Boonton a few years back, and that this date was actually later than that time was. We had to go in!

Mill Creek swim

The water felt cold, but still pretty nice. Jason and I got totally in, and Jen got partway in. Tracy decided to head on home because she wanted to go paddling before the close of the day. She seemed pretty cool, and I thought for sure she’d join us for the remainder of the hike, but she knew where her car was and how close were were to it. The rest of what we had left probably didn’t seem all that interesting to talk about, even though it ended up being great.
Major Tom took photos of us swimming around with my camera before we headed out. From here, we walked through the park on the waterfront, which had some good views down the creek and out onto the bay.

Maj. Tom at the observation thing

We went around the outside of the park, then headed back Mill Creek Road the way we came. There were observation decks on the south end of the park, and there was graffiti on the top of one of the boards reading “Do not defile”. Jason commented that it was quite ironic that graffiti would say such. I asked him if that made this an “Irony Board”, quite possibly the most ridicules pun I’d come up with all year. We both paused for a few moments until it seemed funnier, and we burst out laughing.
There was no way through if we were to continue the Mill Creek Road so we had to go back that way. We turned right on Jonathan Drive, then right on Jennifer Lane. We continued to Morris Blvd, where we veered to the right and crossed a bridge.

LBI bridge construction

We reached the highway here and the long bridge out to Long Beach Island. I had walked this road before. As a past perimeter hike, we followed it to make a connection to LBI, but I moved hastily and skipped the sections of perimeter we had just walked, as well as another piece on the north side, called Mud City.
I thought to go directly across, but it looked as though we could probably walk completely under the bridge to LBI, and Jason convinced me that we should go that way. He was absolutely right.
The view offered from the vantage point at the west abutment to the bridge was really cool because we could see the new highway bridge under construction. The “Dorland J. Henderson Memorial Bridge” as it is officially called had a new bridge going in directly to the right of it. There was no construction going on at all where we were standing, but obviously something soon would happen.

Remnants of old railroad bridge to LBI

We descended and made our way under the bridge. On the other side, there were still remnants of the very long railroad bridge that once spanned the Barnegat Bay to Long Beach Island,parallel with today’s Rt 72.

1890s view of the railroad bridge over the bay

The Long Beach Railroad, seen in this picture from the 1890s, was built between 1885 and 1886 to connect Manahawkin at the Tuckerton Railroad with Long Beach Island near the Ship Bottom section for passenger traffic to the shore. It most certainly would have been an impressive bridge. From the time of it’s completion until 1914 when the first automobile bridge was built to LBI, the railroad bridge was the only bridge connecting to the island. Traffic on the spur to LBI continued to dwindle as the automobile age proceeded. By the 1920s a better bridge was built out to LBI.

Bridge over the bay

Pennsylvania Railroad operated this line for a time, but it was turned over again to Tuckerton Railroad due to some poor track conditions reportedly.
Service continued on the line until a nor'easter hit on November 16th, 1935. One freight train crossed the bridge that day, despite water crashing over the rails.

LBI rail bridge

The next day, tidal swells destroyed the Tuckerton Railroad’s bridge out to Long Beach Island. By that time, automobile traffic had deemed it unimportant to rebuild. One gondola car was stranded on one remaining section of the bridge, which had to be removed by other means in pieces.

LBI rail bridge

With the connection to LBI missing, and rail service overall dwindling, Tuckerton Railroad couldn’t hold it together much longer. Most railroads in New Jersey seem to have been abandoned between 1955 and 1986 I have found, but some gave up much earlier. Such was the case of Tuckerton Railroad, which saw it’s last service in January of 1936.

LBI rail bridge

Because the line was abandoned so early, it surprised me that there were still bits of that old trestle remaining. Looking off to the bay and across to the other side, the footings for the bridge were still in place, with the north end collapsed into the water, but the south ends still very visible.

LBI rail bridge

I realized that we were doing this hike almost eighty years exactly since the bridge was destroyed.
There was now a large posh building occupying where the railroad would have reached the west shore. I looked closely at the dock in front of the place to see if maybe they might have used some of the old railroad footings for their pier, but they did not.

LBI rail bridge

We walked on to the west, parallel with the large building. It looked pretty out of place there, pretty, but of a sort of neo Victorian style that would not have lasted that long. It certainly would have been destroyed from storms like the one that took the bridge.

LBI rail bridge

We followed East Bay Avenue away from the waterfront, heading toward Mud City. I looked as we walked for more remnants of the old railroad, but most every trace of it through this area had been obliterated. I’d tried following some of it further to the west in previous hike, but this time we had to leave the railroad and get back to the perimeter mission.
We turned right on Avenue A into Mud City, at about where the railroad used to cross the water bodies. The road was very small, almost the width of an alley rather than a street. Mud City is not really a city at all, but rather just a small number of streets with a regional moniker. Part of me was hoping that Mud City would really be a hole in the wall type of run down place, so that it fit the name. It’d make a more interesting story when I would go to describe it. In some ways, the town really delivered in that regard.
The small houses were mostly up on sticks. This has become quite the trend after the big storms that hit the area. Tracy told us earlier that she’d had hers lifted early on.

Scenic downtown Mud City NJ

When we got to Avenue D, we turned right and crossed a waterway on a walkway over a nice little foot bridge. This was called the Hazelton Footbridge, named for C. Edward (Ned) Hazelton, who was a lifelong resident and Stafford Township’s first historian. The bridge provided a nice view of the waterway, high up enough for boats to pass beneath.
We headed out to Heron Drive, making our way out of Mud City. There was an abandoned house with a for sale sign, sitting all cattywumpus in the muddy wetlands. I figured that’d be the poster home for the town of Mud City.

Tidal road in Mud City

The last road off to the right, West Mallard Drive, was under water! The sea levels are rising, and this area is going under water. We walked down this road a bit, and a guy at the first house told us that Stafford Township will be raising the street sometime in the next year. He said ten years ago that the road never went under water, but that now it does regularly. I noted that on the map there was an east and west Mallard road. They probably once connected in the middle, but the tides probably messed that up.
We continued back to East Bay Ave and began walking west. We were all getting pretty hungry, and I saw what looked like a gas station that would have food, but it was closed. Ahead, there was a rug store or something that I at first thought was food, but again was not. We turned right in this area onto Hilliard Boulevard shortly, then right into the access road and parking area for Manahawkin Wildlife Management Area.

Wetlands of Manahawkin WMA

I wasn’t expecting very much from Manahawkin WMA. On the maps, it just looked like so many other estuary areas where we’d have to follow woods roads just barely in from the tidal wetlands. I could see some fields inland a bit that appeared to be plowed annually, and figured we’d just walk those.
We began following the woods road from the lot, which was pleasant enough.

Woods road in Manahawkin WMA

As we walked, there was another woods road to the right which seemed to be going out on a causeway. We turned right, and I felt certain that we would have to come back the way we came. This would just be another out and back with a nice view. We had a little more daylight left, and I felt like we had to do this, it’d probably be one of those worthwhile spots.

View of Manahawkin Wildlife Management Area

The views opened up and it was absolutely stunning. I was glad we went out there, but I still felt very sure that the farther we walked, the farther we would have to walk back. After going for quite a ways farther, Jason decided it’d be wise of him to jog ahead. If this was just going a mile out to nothing, it would help us to know so we didn’t all head out. Jen and Tom were behind me, so I waited up for them for a bit, and we all moved on along as the roadway continued on a long causeway with continued views.

Manahawkin WMA

The land on the other side was growing closer. I started thinking maybe this road just might go through! What an excellent location!
The old roads out on the bay in this area look like a crescent shape on the maps. I don’t know what the purpose of this was, but it is definitely interesting. We continued along the old road, which had been rather recently brush hogged, and found Jason talking to a hunter passing through. It was a good thing we found him, because it seemed like we were at the end of the line after all.
The hunter told us that a path to the right leads out to Stafford Road on another causeway. This worked out very well for us, because we didn’t have to turn back after all.

LBI bridge view from Manahawkin WMA

The views remained great to the end. We had outstanding vistas over the bay and the bridge to Long Beach Island.
I was so happy we found this place. The entire hike itself was again one that seemed like it wouldn’t have so much to look forward to, but we found places that were absolutely outstanding. We made our way through some low weeds over the last section of causeway, which had not been brush hogged like the rest, and reached Stafford Road.

View in Manahawkin WMA

Stafford Road ended a short distance to the east on the bay.
We followed the road to the west, and there was what appeared to be a grave stone on the right side next to another waterway that was associated with a second “Cedar Creek” (apparently a common name down there). Jason looked the girl up to see who it was, and apparently she lived out of state when she died, but was a native of Stafford Twp.
We continued along the road, which is very lightly used, heading west. I was hoping to find a good spot to cut into the woods to the right and wander through some of Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, but we never found a good access point. I tried going in, and it was somewhat impenetrable with the green thorns. We just continued on the roads out to where we had parked. We finished only a short while after dark, and went to Taco Bell for some sustenance.

Apart from a few blocks in the town of Belvidere near home I had to walk, this was just about the end of the Jersey Perimeter stuff before the finale. It left me with a feeling of completeness. Almost everything had been done. In less than a week I’d be organizing my largest event ever since starting Metrotrails. Although I was feeling complete, it still didn’t seem real that this long time effort was coming to it’s end. It was after getting home that I let it sink in, and reminded myself that it’s not an ending. The 1,400 some miles I’d covered as part of the NJ Perimeter series is just one piece of over 15,000 connective miles I’ve hiked, and it’s only one high profile series out of so many series that I’d been working on.
Even better stuff is coming up. That much is certain.