Hike #913; Stephensburg to Long Valley

Hike #913; Stephensburg to Long Valley

2/4/16 Stephensburg to Long Valley with Jim "Uncle Soup" Campbell, Annika Krystyna, Dan Asnis, Euin Gonzalez, Jason W. Briggs, Jen Berndt, and Cory Salveson

Our next hike would be yet another point to point, this time between Stephensburg, a little community off Old Turnpike Road, formerly the Easton-Morristown Turnpike, over the Musconetcong Mountain/Schooleys Mountain formation to the highest point in Hunterdon County, through parklands and backroads to the former High Bridge Branch of the Central Railroad of NJ back to Long Valley. A branch of Patriot’s Path known as Gillette Trail connects back to where we met.
The meeting point was at Krauszer’s in Long Valley, a nice little food and liquor store in a strip mall with ample enough parking for a night hike. Uncle Soup, Annika, Dan, Euin, and newcomer Jason showed up here, and we shuttled in mine and Dan’s cars to near Stephensburg.

New Musconetcong bridge construction at Stephensburg

One of the bridges over the Musconetcong River was being replaced, and there was a good spot to park along the river where the old fire department building used to be. There was a state no trespassing sign at the lot, but I put my placard in and we had no problem.

New bridge

The first bit was to cross the bridge; it was already a span in place, but the decking was not poured yet. It was only metal re-bar that will soon be hidden by concrete. We were able to easily walk over it though. Maybe not so easily, but without too much difficulty anyway. This was the old route of the Easton-Morristown Turnpike, which is why it is today known as “Old Turnpike Road”, an early predecessor to Rt 57. Even Rt 57 nearby had been rerouted, and the river moved to get around a bend. We followed the road on the other side with next to no traffic since the bridge is closed off to public.

Bridge stuff

We walked across to the other side; Uncle Soup was particularly thrilled with walking across an incomplete bridge because he’d never done it before.
Once on the other side, the road took us slightly up hill past an old house. There was public lands of Musconetcong Wildlife Management Area on the right, and foundation ruins of an old house. The road walk went by fast and was very pleasant.
While walking, I chatted with Jason about his hobbie: treasure hunting. It turns out he goes diving for treasures from centuries ago, and we talked about finding old buttons and badges, as well as coins and such that date back to the days of the Revolutionary War at offshore islands.

New bridge

We made our way along the road a bit further and came to an old farm. There was a barn foundation made of stone in pretty good shape, and also some new silos. One of the silos was built right into the foundation of what was probably an even older silo, which was really cool. Much of the old masonry structures of the farm remained in place without roofing.
We continued along Old Turnpike Road to the east from here, toward the middle of the little community of Stephensburg.
Stephensburg is one of those forgotten little communities, in Washington Township, Morris County (we had parked and started walking in Warren County).

Old foundation, new silos

Stephensburg was no strange place to me. I’d been around the area most of my life. My Aunt Deb and Uncle Mike technically live in Stephensburg I suppose, just on the other side of the river along Rt 57. When we would take walks “around the block” there, it was Old Turnpike Road and 57 with Stephensburg Road. At the time, I noticed ruins and such, but I have a greater appreciation for it now obviously.
When we arrived at the town area, the first thing I noticed was the Stephensburg Brook, and how it appeared to once have a dam on it. There were masonry remnants of the structure in plain view from Old Turnpike Road.

Old dam ruins at Stephensburg

There was some sort of an old foundation, I think concrete, up the stream and to the left, probably part of a farm area. There were no other immediately obvious foundation ruins in the area. We figured there must have once been a mill in the area, but we knew nothing about it at all.

Stephensburg Map, 1868

I studied maps of the area when I got home, and as per the 1868 one, there was a saw mill at the point of the masonry dam ruins we found!
We followed Old Turnpike Road to a left turn on Stephensburg Road and began following the creek gradually up hill. We came across the remnants of yet another dam at that point, which at first looked like a stone row. There was nothing showing another mill of any sort on the historic map however.

Another dam ruin on Stephensburg Brook

The road led gradually up hill, and across Stephensburg Brook on a concrete bridge with nice wrought iron railings. We continued to gain elevation while the creek stayed far below us.

Stephensburg Road

I’ve always loved this road, driving between Mansfield and Pleasant Grove Road, and had always wanted to walk it. This was both the perfect time of year, and the best day to finally do it. The scenery was really nice.

Stephensburg Brook

We continued up the hill, high above the creek which dispersed into a bit of a flood plain. There was evidence of old roadways going up the slopes on the other side, and a cliff face that from certain angles looked like it might have had a mine hole in it.

Big tree approaching Scrappy Corners

After a bit, we kept the same elevation, but the brook came to the same point and passed beneath the road in one of those old stone culverts. I told everyone how Hunterdon County is home to over two hundred of these, which is more than anywhere else in North America. This particular example doesn’t even count in that two hundred because it was in Morris County.
We weaved to the left a bit, parallel with the creek and past a pond on private land, then turned right and crossed a finger of the brook again, on another old stone culvert. Fisher Mine Road broke off as a dead end to the right. I had always wondered what would be at the end of that road, but we hadn’t the time to explore this time.

Big tree near Scrappy Corners

We ascended away from the brook on the road, and made our way to the intersection with Pleasant Grove Road, which I grew up knowing as Scrappy Corners. I haven’t heard the name applied to the place in a very long time.

The area here is very confusing today. We were very close to the border between Hunterdon and Morris Counties, and for that matter, Warren County where we started. There are several problems with this area.
First, although the little community is known as Pleasant Grove, and even still has it’s own charming little church called the Pleasant Grove Church, almost everyone today just says they live in “Washington Township”. It’s pretty ridiculous because we are only a short few miles from Washington Township in Warren County as well, not to be confused with Washington Borough with is at the center. I suppose each one of these townships have their own connections to the famous General and President, but no one wants to give up the name for something else.

Pleasant Grove Cemetery

The township on the Hunterdon site is Lebanon. This is another big issue, because the town of Lebanon is far away from it, but is called Lebanon Borough. A century ago, Lebanon Township surrounded Lebanon Borough, so it was appropriate, but now it’s just confusing.
That is not the worst of the problems with this area. From Scrappy Corners, we continued straight across on Califon Road. Not only is Califon Road NOT in the borough of Califon, it changes names a short distance down at the county line to Pleasant Grove Road, the same name of the road we had just crossed. The Pleasant Grove Road we crossed changes names to Penwell Road when it crosses the Warren County line.

Pond and sunset at Pleasant Grove

It gets even better. Within only a few miles of each other, there are two Califon Roads, two Hollow Brook Roads, as well as two Pleasant Grove Roads, and each one does not connect with the other. It’s a point of great confusion for anyone from out of town, and even some from within the towns.
We continued past Pleasant Grove Church to a park property to the right of Califon Road. There is a nice little pond there, so we headed down through the grass toward it. The sun was going down nicely over the lake, which afforded us a great view. When we got to close to the shore of the lake, we turned left to follow it south.

Pond at Pleasant Grove

The grass was wet and it was like walking on a sponge. My feet were pretty soaked after walking through this grassy section.
We then came to the main parking area and a little access to the pond. It was starting to get dark, and the sun continued to set. I didn’t want to take too much time, because I wanted to get through the tougher trail sections before we totally ran out of light.
We cut across the access road and onto the driveway, then continued to the right over more of a grassy field to reach the paved Ascot Drive, a development road that makes sort of a loop. We hurried along the road up hill for a bit.

Sunset on Ascot Drive, Pleasant Grove

We made the second left to continue on part of the looping section of Ascot. When we got past the final house, I looked at the height of the undeveloped land, which should be the highest point in Hunterdon County. I had never gone to it, but I wanted to. I knew from working at Hunterdon that it was just off of the county land at the Crystal Springs Preserve, which was an addition to the Teetertown and Mountain Farm properties while I worked there. I had found a way of walking from this development to connect with the trails I helped to develop there.
When I first met John Trontis, who is now my State Park Director, he was Director of Hunterdon County Parks Department. We discussed his plans to try to convince Freeholders to purchase land adjacent to Mountain Farm because it was headwaters of the South Branch of the Raritan River. Somehow, it was agreed upon, and Crystal Springs came into existence. The preserve adjoined Mountain Farm, the upper level of the Teetertown Reservation, and through it ran this tributary which in part I believe flows out of the pond we had just passed.
We turned to the left and headed up slightly to that high point, then down gradually through the woods and some really crummy briars to reach the north end of the Crystal Springs fields. I had developed this trail with a group of volunteers from our regular hiking group. In 2008, I was joined by Shelly, Kyle, Jack Susie, DJ Ray, and others to clear the field breaks necessary for the perimeter trail at Crystal Springs. I hadn’t led a hike on it in several years at this point.
We made our way to the left, and just skirted the field edges. We made our way through the one break, and I saw one of the trail markers growing into the tree. It was not nearly as nice as it used to be when I worked there. I had put several posts into the ground to mark the trail, but almost all of them had been removed, and the ones that were still in place were now far out into the weeds because no one had mowed around them.

Overgrown bench

After cutting through the field break, we came to the parking area. The sign we had put in is still in pretty good shape, but the picnic bench I set up at the site in 2008 is now completely grown over in weeds. Obviously no one has sat on it probably in a couple of years.
At this point, I had already heard from Jen and Cory, who were both trying to meet up late. Jen was closer first, so I directed them to park on the cul de sac that leads to Crystal Springs, an obscure dead end road off of Califon/Pleasant Grove Road with no name on the street sign, just numbers. Jen parked at the end, and I had her walk down the dirt road to catch up with us. Cory arrived at the same place slightly later, and would walk the road to meet.

Busted bridge at Crystal Springs

We all turned right on the access road from here. There are no good trail blazes to tell anyone where to go any more. If you don’t know how to get around, you’ll certainly be lost. I led everyone to where the houses used to be, and we turned left to cross over the brook between the few ponds up there. We crossed the beat up concrete bridge, then headed up hill to the cultivated fields. We skirted them to the left on the official trail route, then when we got to the corner near the end, I looked around for where the trail should go in. It was getting pretty obscure.
I missed the turn we had to take, or we didn’t get to it. I wandered into the woods near the corner of a field looking for the trail. Eventually I found it because I found the log foot bridge that was made over the tributary there. Sadly, the foot bridge was now half broken.
We crossed the bridge and struggled to remain on the trail from here. There was some turnpiking built by Student Conservation Association years ago, but it was tough to stay on it because the plastic blazes had mostly all worn off of the trees. Fortunately, I was able to spot one of my paint blazes still visible, and we used that to find the correct route. Still, it was very wet an my feet were soaked by the time we got to the Pleasant Grove Road crossing. We hung out in the woods here and waited for Cory to catch up with us on the road.
Once on the road, we crossed directly and went through the Mountain Farm fields. I showed everyone the shelter and developed campgrounds, then we went across the big field to their wilderness campgrounds. The Red and White Trails make for loops on the east side of this preserve near the campgrounds, and we followed it down to the intersection with the Blue Trail, then turned left to continue down toward the ravine the easiest way.

Old culvert at Teetertown

The rushing of the water in the creek was quite audible before we ever reached it. When we got to dirt Hollow Brook Road, my favorite road in Hunterdon County, we turned right to follow the stream down hill.
With all of the rushing water, it makes it even more amazing to me that this road was left open to public (for motor vehicles). When I was working at Hunterdon, they were already discussing turning the road over entirely to parkland, but I never heard of it going anywhere.
I pointed out the sign for the old mill that was re-assembled down south, the Middle Valley Trap Rock Company, and the old stone arch bridge at the base of the ravine.

Historic view: Middle Valley Trap Rock Company

There is a quarry wall on the far side of the creek that was serviced by one of the shortest independent railroad lines in NJ, the Middle Valley Railroad. We would later be going past where it broke off of the High Bridge Branch of the Central Railroad of NJ.
The quarries are barely noticeable as such even during the daylight, because they just look like rock walls. We continued on and crossed over the nice little stone bridge. After that, the road became paved. I got everyone to stop once more where I pointed out the former home of Merv Griffin, on the right side.
The house was featured in the beginning credits of the Merv Griffin Show when I was little. Also, Griffin called his production company “Califon Enterprises”, because his address was Califon, although this was technically the unincorporated hamlet of Teetertown.
We continued on the road walk from here to Vernoy, the official connector trail route from Mountain Farm to the Columbia Trail, former High Bridge Branch of the Central Railroad of NJ.
I told everyone how I was somewhat responsible for this connection. When I met John Trontis in 2002, when he was director of parks, our first conversation ever was that the road walk was pretty and should be blazed as a connecting route. He agreed and actually made it happen.
We continued down to Trimmer Road which took us to Rt 513, then made our way to Vernoy. We then picked up the rail bed at the county line and followed it west through Crestmoore, across Jenkinson’s Tree Farm, then toward Middle Valley.

The group crossing the South Branch

I got a group shot of everyone on the long bridge over the South Branch of the Raritan River. We kept getting our feet wet, and it was rather cold. The snow was still a good cover along much of the railroad bed, which made for some more difficult walking.
When we got to a section where there was no snow, it was much more pleasant to walk. We were deviating from the regular path to the edge of the slope at times for the easier walking along the edges. We passed by some of the homes in Middle Valley, and a light went on in one of them, but we didn’t have any trouble with anyone.
We soon reached Middle Valley Road and crossed, where the station once stood. It was here that the Middle Valley Railroad spur broke off and went to the quarry at Teetertown Ravine.

Middle Valley Station

Middle Valley was once a much larger place, to justify a station stop as it did. Today, it’s a pretty laid back little hamlet with nothing going on. One will drive through it on Rt 513 and not even realize they are hardly passing through a settlement at all.
We passed the station site and headed into some rather deep woods. This is always to me the most boring part of the entire rail trail, but in the dark it’s usually not so bad. I actually kind of prefer it at that time. The snow changed that a bit. It was difficult to walk over all of the ice and slippery snow. My feet were getting sore trying to get through it.

Historic view of German Valley Station

For every bit of the last three miles of the hike, we looked at our phones counting down every tenth until we got done. It seemed to go on forever while we were walking the rough section with the ice and snow until we reached Long Valley.
Once known as German Valley, the settlement’s name was changed due to the anti-German sentiment during the World Wars. Today, nothing remains of the former station. We crossed the parking lot, then crossed Schooleys Mountain Road. We continued from here a block and crossed Springtown Road, followed by a little creek on a decked bridge.

Historic Middle Valley Station

On the other side, the trail turns abruptly to the right to circumnavigate a new development. It’s still weird for me to pass through this area, because it really hasn’t been there that long at all. We could always just walk across it.
Back in 2002, on the same day I met John Trontis, I was climbing on top of the then abandoned Welch Farms facility that used to occupy the site. Before that, when I was little, my dad used to work there. I remember him taking me in to work with him there on at least one occasion.

Historic view of Welch Farms

Now, all of it is gone. We skirted on the new trail route, which then came to the Chester Branch of the CNJ, follows it to the left, then right on the High Bridge Branch again, across Electric Brook on a bridge, then around the metal fabrication place that Jen knows the owners to.
Once on the other side, we turned right when Gillette Trail turns. There used to be a house here along a driveway, and the trail went around it on a foot path, then crossed the South Branch of the Raritan on an old concrete road bridge. Now, the house has apparently been purchased by the parks, and the trail follows the driveway to the former site. It then turns left into woods to reach the same old bridge. I wish I’d seen the house before it was demolished.
We followed the trail gradually up hill through woods, former farm lands, then through an orchard across the old Chester Branch rail grade. Just before getting to the parking area, we had to walk across a very muddy section of field the trail skirts. We managed this, then walked the short bit of Rt 513 back to the cars. We all had things to do, responsibilities to come, so we didn’t hang around. Euin drove me back to my car, and we had a nice conversation about music.

It was a pretty good hike, a nice time to re-acquaint myself with some places from the past, explore a few new ones, and share all of it with my friends.