Hike #925; Bloomsbury to High Bridge

Hike #925; Bloomsbury to High Bridge

3/24/16 Bloomsbury to High Bridge with Jim "Uncle Soup" Campbell, Annika Krystyna, Jason W. Briggs, and Dan Asnis

This next one was another night hike, again trying to put something together that would be somewhat new, but also adding in some old favorite places as well. I planned out a route between Bloomsbury and High Bridge, where I could get out there easily right out of work, and cover some of the Highlands Trail and other stuff.
We met at the lot in High Bridge where we always meet, then shuttled to the west to Bloomsbury. The hike began by tracing some of the route of the former Central Railroad of NJ.

Former Jersey Central line

We got going pretty quickly, and simply walked the inactive tracks from town heading west. I’d been walking this line with my grandfather since I was little, when it was still active. They have the ability to get a train to this point, but the rust on the rails showed us that it’s really never used.
We continued on the line to the east until we got to the Vliet Farm Road, which was after passing under Rt 78 and over Rt 173, which is old Rt 22. We turned right here, and headed up hill for a short time on the road to reach Rt 174. We cut a corner on the grass, shortly walked the busy highway, then turned right on Turkey Hill Road.

LVRR underpass

It was here we passed beneath the former Lehigh Valley Railroad line, which is now active Norfolk Southern. The culvert is half original masonry, which is beautiful, and the other half concrete from when the line was widened.
We walked up the road just a bit more, and came to the first public property on the left, part of the Audobon Society’s Deerpath Sanctuary. I’d hiked some of this before, but this tract was somewhat newer. I suppose each section gets it’s own name. This one, as per the map at the kiosk, was the Turkey Hill Preserve. There were loop trails in it, and I wanted to hike them, but there was not enough time this time. I’ll have to go back and plan another trip specifically to explore this and some of the other properties nearby I’d not seen.

Map of the Audobon properties

We continued past on Turkey Hill Road, and I also noted that there was what might have been a grade off to the left in the farmlands parallel with us, but after the railroad underpass. The Lehigh Valley Railroad had a spur at one time that went to a mine on Turkey Hill.

Old shanty at Turkey Hill Preserve

I had never tried to follow it, as most if not all of it is private land. I had not realized it until this writing that we could probably explore some of this former right of way in the Turkey Hill Preserve section we had passed, because it would go through maybe not all, but part of it anyway.
We did however explore an old sheet metal shanty that was on the preserve property, just off of Turkey Hill Road up ahead, next to a lovely little brook. We wandered in and had a look inside. It was really a nice little spot.
We continued back to the road and started following it up hill. I started looking at driveways and such noting when they were rather level grades, and I wondered how much of this might have been rail or mining tramways.

Location of the former Lehigh Valley Railroad mine spur at Turkey Hill

When the brook came close to the road on the one side again, I noted large piles of pretty obvious tailings along the road. This would certainly have been from the old iron mine the railroad served. It turns out the rail line came right to Turkey Hill Road. I have nothing to say that the line ever crossed the road, or had spurs across the road, but it was there at some point. I noted a driveway that could have been a part of it, but will merit further research.

Deerpath Sanctuary at Rt 78

We soon reached Deerpath Sanctuary where the Highlands Trail goes from Turkey Hill Road into the preserve. We headed up hill on that, and passed the old two story spring house ruin. When we got to the power line crossing, instead of following the Highlands Trail, we turned left to follow the power line trail, which I had never done before. I always want to add something new to the hikes. We followed this down hill to Rt 78, then the trail turned right and slightly up hill through some woods. It was tough to see any of the metal Audobon society trail blazes, because they hammer the things all the way into the trees, and most have all grown out at this point. I think we found one. We continued until we rejoined the Highlands Trail, and followed it down to Tunnel Road. From there, we turned left and the HT follows the road to Rt 173.

Highlands Trail on Jugtown Mountain

We crossed Rt 173 and entered Jugtown Mountain Nature Preserve, then climbed steeply up the mountain. There were some pretty good seasonal views up there. We moved along pretty quickly, and regrouped at the top of the rise. It was a tough climb even for me. Just another reminder that I need to do this more often. I’ve still been spoiled with some of the easier hikes and need more exercise going up hill.
We weaved back and forth on the trail to the old Swayze mine area, across the parking area, and I showed everyone the old truck scale spot right off the trail. We continued on Highlands Trail out of the preserve, across Mine Road and into an elbow of land that leads to the former Rohrig tract. Some of the HT had been moved in this section after the county got it. We crossed a power line and carefully made our way along the less obvious trail until we reached Tower Hill Reserve. We took a break there briefly.
From this point, I was thinking we could probably follow power line to another preserve and cut an interesting corner, but there is also a stream down there and no one was into wading it, especially in the dark. That might be tougher than we were willing to take on at this time.
We continued along the mowed path sections, past where the farmhouse used to be, and onto Mountainview Road. I really get a bad taste coming through this area when I think about that perfectly good house, no mold issues or anything, in great shape and very historic, and then the fact that the county tore it down for no good reason.
We headed down Mountainview Road to Norton Church Road, still Highlands Trail route, and then turned left toward the church. Uncle Soup was entertained by the fact that his brother lived just up ahead, and that he never realized the trail went right in front of his house. When we got to the house, we all paused, and he called his brother up to come to the front door. We were all out in the road waving and saying hi to him when he opened up.
We continued from here down to Charlestown Road, turned right, then headed to the former Van Syckles Tavern, historic building on the corner of Van Syckles Road. Rather than follow the Highlands Trail through the mess from here, we followed the road for just a bit to save time. The trail goes through lots of fields and can be somewhat tough to figure out in the dark, and I had been in touch with William Honachefsky Jr who was offering to come out and give us a limited tour of the historic Joseph Turner House, built about 1860.

Turner House is the UFHA museum

I first met Bill from UFHA when I worked for Hunterdon County, and we met to go over the new trail connector he was planning to bring to all of the historic sites associated with the Taylor Iron and Steel Company. They had a successful run of the Solitude House Museum in High Bridge for many years until the municipality refused to offer them a good lease (In order to be eligible for most grant money, a non profit must have a minimum 15 year lease. The town offered 5 years that could be terminated at any time, a caviat which made it impossible to function).
After basically being removed from Solitude House, Union Forge Heritage Association chose to continue on with their work, and had recently secured a thirty year lease on the Joseph Turner House within Clinton Wildlife Management Area.
Eleven thousand acres were purchased by William Allen and Joseph Turner for their ironworks in 1742, and the first portion of the Turner house was built in 1760. UFHA has done an outstanding job with decor and exhibits in the building which is open certain Sundays as well as by appointment. They have an amazing collection.
Bill was good enough to show up at this odd hour to give our group a tour of the museum and impart some of the history to us. His willingness to come out for us is a testament to the dedication of UFHA to be there as an historic resource to the people of Hunterdon County and beyond.
We toured what we could of the house (it is under renovation), then continued on our way. I think Bill had to get back to work himself, or had just gotten out. He’s got a crazy schedule but often manages to break away with us when these things are going on.
We made our way from the museum onto the proposed connector trail to the Highlands Trail, which runs around back of the building. I couldn’t figure out how to get back to it however. We ended up bushwhacking throush some weeds, and I cut my ear pretty badly when I got it caught on a briar.

Cut ear

It was alright though, and we pushed on through on the footpath without any further trouble, up and down over a driveway, then out onto the original route of Van Syckles Road. We went by the well house for Spruce Run, then out along the waterfront. It was quiet and peaceful, and no one around. I was tempted to bring everyone to meet our shop cat, Puss Puss, but resisted the urge and continued.
We skipped the Highlands Trail through Union Furnace Nature Preserve because that would have been a huge up and then back down. My original plan was to go up to Buffalo Hollow Road and climb down the railroad bridge, but we’d already covered more than enough distance. We instead kept to the waterfront, then cut up to the parking area near 31. Once we crossed Spruce Run itself, we turned right on the old highway route, which is usually under water, but the waters were still low enough that we could just walk it.

Climbing down by the pier.

We crossed the long abandoned highway bridge over Willoughby Brook at it’s inlet to the reservoir, then shortly after that there is a footbridge over another tributary to it, from behind the Rita’s Italian Ice (not legally in place either, because it’s on state land they are using). We crossed the bridge, came out behind Rita’s, then headed up and across to Cregar Road.
I pointed out to everyone the former intersection on the highway. Cregar Road used to go to a four way intersection at Van Syckles Corner, where we could have gone straight on the highway, left on Cregar, or right on Van Syckles Corner Road. We could still see where the abutments were to the bridge that would have crossed Spruce Run.
We walked up Cregar, and then since it was dark and closed, we walked on the golf course paved paths just up from the road until we got to the former Central Railroad of NJ underpass, the same railroad line we started walking at the beginning. We climbed down and turned right, and were soon at the junction where the High Bridge Branch turned off to the left. That led us directly to where we were parked.
It was another really great night to be out, and I acquired more valuable tidbits of history I’d been wanting to look into for quite some time.