Hike #917; Chester Area Loop

Hike #917; Chester Area Loop

2/25/16 Chester Area Loop with Jim "Uncle Soup" Campbell, Annika Krystyna, James Quinn, Jason W. Briggs, Dan Asnis, and Al MacLennan

The group in Black River Park

This next hike would be a loop around the Chester NJ area. There are so many trails there, and all of them are really great. I figured I need to start hosting more of these hikes in this area, especially with the days getting longer and the ability to cover more ground before dark. Some of them are a bit narrow, and the one I came up with was probably pushing the limit a bit much, but it worked alright because we too ended up pushing the limit. We maintained an average pace of at least three miles per hour, which is pretty unheard of on these hikes, but the trail mileages and GPS didn’t lie...we covered 15 miles and were done before ten PM.

We met at the Chester Hill Mall area, which used to be a rail yard for the Central Railroad of NJ’s Chester Hill Branch. It came up from Chester Furnace, then a branch continued, the Chester Mine Branch, to mines on the other side of town. It was at one point intended to be rerouted as a main thoroughfare through town, but that plan never saw the light of day. I think the line has been abandoned since the thirties.
We started walking rather quickly, didn’t waste much time. It was a bit windy, so I got a sweatshirt on over my coveralls, and we were off. We walked the parking lot, former rail bed, then crossed Rt 513 onto the cleared section, which is now Patriot’s Path. The right of way led down hill at a surprisingly steep grade for a rail line.

Patriot's Path on Black River area

We soon passed by two watered mine pits, and continued across a power line to where the main white blazed route of the Patriot’s Path turns off to the right. This area has had a lot of re-routes over the years, but it’s been about he same now for a bit. We continued ahead on the rail bed, which is the blue blazed route of the Patriot’s Path, known as Black River Trail in this area.
Al continued with us to just beyond the red spur trail that goes up to Chubb Park. He had already hiked earlier in the day with our friend Pete Beck, and so he didn’t have to do the entire thing. It was nice he could make it out with us for a bit anyway.

Along Black River

The trail continued along the river rather closely, and I checked out a rock outcropping from which I could see a little bit of the right of way of the Hacklebarney Mine Railroad across. We then continued on the often muddy trail in some light rain until we got to a dam.
The circular shaped dam is right at the bridge that carries Rts 513 and 24 over the river. At this point, the trail leads under the highway by way of a really cool concrete lined pipe tunnel. On the other side of this is the historic Cooper Grist Mill, which still works. Dan fell behind a bit here, there is a bit of elevation on the trail section, but not much.

Dam on the Black River

The trail continues down steps adjacent to the old mill, and then passes by the impressive water wheel. It then crosses a couple of little foot bridges over the mill race and other tributaries to the Black River. We walked down along this to where we could see where the Hacklebarney Mine Railroad used to cross over the river. Abutments are still in place, but deteriorated to the point that no one would recognize them unless they knew what they were looking for. We continued on the trail which kept to the high ground, away from the rail bed at first. It joins the rail bed after it starts to get more dry, on a fill.D

Cooper Mill

I always loved this section of railroad bed because it really doesn’t have the characteristics of the rails to trails movement. It’s not too wide, it’s not overdone, it’s more like a fisherman’s footpath. The line has been abandoned since the early 1900s, and it shows.
We walked along the shore of Kay’s Pond, formerly the estate of Elizabeth D. Kay, an early horticulturalist. From there, the trail goes out and around the Hacklebarney Mine, the fenced in old iron mine the railroad serviced. From that point, the path follows the right of way of the former Langdon Mine Railroad, a narrow gauged line that was only used for a few years in the late 1800s.

Abutment to the Hacklebarney Mine Railroad over the Black River

We remained on that rail bed until it crossed over the Black River itself, at an even more obscure site. I pointed it out to the group, where the trail left the railroad bed.
We continued down stream along the river, and passed where a road bridge once crossed. From that point, the trail led away from the river, following the valley of a smaller tributary to the east. It utilizes an old woods road to make it’s way to the Elizabeth D. Kay Environmental Education Center. I remembered that Allen Barlow, Nature Conservancy guy had had an office there, but not sure he still does. He was the guy who was supposed to maintain White Lake Natural Resource Area, but for whatever reason (TNC’s direction or his own prerogative) he didn’t show up sometimes for a month straight.

Hacklebarney Mine Railroad bed

The trail came out at the building, and someone was going out to their car. I didn’t want to deal with Allen because I know how he is, and he’d probably try saying that the park was closing and we’d need to get out or something. It was still plenty of light at this time, but I didn’t really want to deal with anyone. Dan was still behind, but I told him to remain on blue blazes. I figured he’d be alright.
The trail went out around the building, crossed the parking lot and followed a grassy swath through the property. It emerged onto the access road from Pottersville Road, then followed that out the rest of the way.

Hacklebarney Mine Railroad bed

When we got to where another road forked off of the road, we decided to wait to make sure Dan was showing up. James was getting close, and I directed him to park at the state lot near the corner of Lamerson Road and Pottersville Road, then walk the road to the red blazed Conifer Pass Trail to connect with us. If he followed that trail it would connect with the blue fork of the Patriot’s Path. When Dan was visible, not far behind us at all, we continued on. The trail turns right on Pottersville Road, and the blue fork changes names to Bamboo Brook Trail, because it continues to Bamboo Brook Outdoor Education Center.
We all cut into the woods when it turned left, but Dan was still behind. He ended up having to follow the road to Lamerson Road, then turn left to catch up with us there. The section we were following was quite a bit longer than I’d remembered, weaving back and forth through the woods.
James was waiting for us behind a tree when we got to the trail intersection, but it was not the intersection I had thought it would be. Apparently now the trail forks in two, and there is a lower route. We ended up passing the upper route after a short distance more.
The routed signs at these intersections give mileages between points, and I was rather surprised at how far we’d come. We were definitely moving along pretty quickly, but we were doing really well. We continued on the trail down hill, and had to climb over some blow downs, cross some wet areas and little brooks, and fight through a few thorns because the trail wasn’t that well used. Dan was of course already at the crossing on Lamerson Road when we got there.
At that point, I did not want to continue on the blue Patriot’s Path to Willowood. That would be well above the miles I was planning on doing. Instead, we had the option of either looping at Hacklebarney, or otherwise following back roads to the rest of the preserves I’d planned to get to the end.
We opted for the latter, which in retrospect I am glad we did, but it ended up being pretty tough for a time. We turned right on Lamerson Road, then right on Pottersville Road to cross where we had already been, then continued out to Rt 206. We turned right and across on the old highway, and then immediately left into the fields of the McGregor Preserve. It was obscure, and if you didn’t know where you were going here, you’d miss it.
At the other end of the fields, I found our way right to the path to cut in, and we had a nice easy trail heading down hill to the Peapack Brook. We made a wrong turn at one point on a gas line, but corrected it shortly.
We turned to the right a bit, and ended up going all the way to the south side of the preserve. When we got to where the trail crossed, there was no bridge, and the water was high. We would either have to wade it or bushwhack to the north. We opted to bushwhack a bit, which was exciting, but we moved along pretty fast.
When the brook forked to the west, we accidentally followed that for a short while, but crossed when we could and bushwhacked over to the correct brook. I’m not sure when it becomes known as Tiger Brook instead of Peapack Brook, but must be somewhere here.
It was a mess getting through, but at least all of the rain stopped a while before. We eventually came to the woods road bridge over the creek, where we stopped and had a needed break.
Rather than continue on the road to the right, we remained on the same side of the creek we were on, and followed the road, now a trail route, up hill gradually above the reservoir in the middle of Tiger Brook Park.
The road took us right out to Cooper Lane. It was easy now. Right across the street from the entrance and parking area to Tiger Brook Park on Cooper Lane was a paved pathway that led through the woods to a road called Skinner Trail. At the cul de sac, people stared out their windows at the flashlights emerging from the woods. Surprising no one called the police out of weird fear.

Secret Shop Rite access

Amazingly, Skinner Trail had no sidewalks on it, despite the fact that it has a trail off the end of it. We continued to Colby Farm Lane, and turned left, on sidewalks. We then turned right on Tiger Brook Lane which has a paved path at the end toward Shop Rite. That path was closed off in the past for some reason, but there is a hole in the fenceWe managed to climb through and got over the galvanized rails to reach the Shop Rite lot. Dan was trying to get everyone to go and eat, but most of us really weren’t hungry, so we just continued on, across the Shop Rite lot, past Burger King and Wendy’s, and then across Rt 206 to the Chester Hill Mall.
The hike was done so quickly, but it really was rather adventurous, being out there in the weeds, along the rushing water. Such great memories and always adding new ones. I look forward to doing things like this in Chester more often.