Hike #931; Dover to Chester

Hike #931; Dover to Chester

4/14/16 Dover to Chester with Cesco Tetto, Giancarlo Tetto, Angelo Ezzo III, Karen Ezzo, Jim "Uncle Soup" Campbell, Sue Bennett, and Dan Asnis.

Our next night hike would be a point to point trip between Dover and Chester. After the last night hike, adding new trails to the list of ones I’d never done before, despite them being local, I decided to do something similar in the other direction.

Hurd Park, Dover NJ

It was cool to have some familiar faces on this one that I hadn’t seen in a while. Karen and Angelo both made it, and it’s usually pretty unlikely for Angelo to come out on a night hike, but this one worked out for him. Of course, the Tetto brothers I’d not seen in some time, and it was great that they could both make it back out as well. It was also cool that Sue could make it to this because I have such a respect for her father, Al Kent, who laid out the Patriot’s Path in the area.
We shuttled from the Chester Shopping Center to the streets of Dover and simply used on street parking. It was a two hour parking area before six, and it was just after four, so it wouldn’t matter. The timing worked out well.
It was tough to get going at first because I made some wrong turns on streets in town. We had to get across the railroad tracks and across Rt 46, and some of the roads are under construction so I wasn’t sure what to do for the start. We took Park Heights Avenue from Blackwell Street, and walked through a stretch of Hurd Park, but then had to climb out when it got to private land.

Indian Falls at Jackson Brook, Hedden Park

Our way into Hedden Park was by way of Park Heights Avenue, which is closed off into the park and only used for walking. We took the abandoned road past Hedden Pond, then walked through sections of new pavilions and newly developed multi use paths. It surprised me how much had gone into Hedden since the last time I had hiked there, which was in 2007. We walked west to Jackson Brook on some of the new trails I’d not seen, then to the trails along Jackson Brook. I’d walked these before, but things tend to change. The trail changed colors a couple of times following the creek, as they are part of larger loops. I got down into the creek by Indian Falls to get some photos of it.

Above Indian Falls, the narrow foot path picked up a more level route. It seemed to end rather abruptly, but I assumed that this absolutely must be the remains of an old mill raceway. This one was so grown over with large trees that it must have been abandoned over a century. The trail followed this for a time, then turned off to take higher ground. The trail then came back down to the brook, and I’m not sure if there was once a dam down below or not because we missed where it might have been. There was a large wetland and flood plain at one point which easily could have once been a pond of sorts.

Old dam remnant near Indian Falls Road

The trail returned to the creek side, and continued up stream for a bit more, then we came to Indian Falls Road.
Here, the trail crossed the creek on the road bridge, and we continued on it up stream. Just after the bridge we came to an obvious old dam site. It may have been the dam I referred to that was associated with the mill race down stream, or it might have been an entirely different operation altogether. I just can’t be sure. There wasn’t really any sign of a mill race on either side of the creek from here as I recall, but one most certainly must have existed. It’s possible the raceway I saw was part of it, and that the sections from this point had been washed way in floods.

Skunk cabbage means spring

We continued on the trail up stream, and the section of the past slack water pond was now a marshy area full of Skunk Cabbage, a surefire sign of Spring. We followed the trail to the north and came to Randolph Ave. We turned left here, crossed the road, and followed it out to Canfield Ave.
I didn’t quite know what to expect in this next section. There was a big swath of green on the map that read “Dickerson Mine Preserve” when I planned the hike, and I knew that some of the West Morris Greenway was to come through somewhere, but I wasn’t sure where. I figured it should be easy to connect on down to the south somehow on it. We turned briefly left on Canfield.
To the left, there was a fenced in area in a tiny swath of trees. I decided to have a look. It was a big mine hole! I’m not sure the name of it, but it must be extensive.

Dickerson Mine Map

We headed down hill to the right on a power line clearing next, not knowing at all what we’d find. I figured that it would be just some bushwhacking down to the Sunset Lake area below. It’s rather uncharacteristic of me to not even google the name of the preserve to look for trails ahead of time, but I’m preoccupied with a lot of projects that have kept me from looking into things as deeply as I usually would.
Turning off of the power line, there is an old road, completely overgrown, and some masonry remnants. I wondered what it all was, but kept going through to find a wonderful cleared trail. It had no blazes but was obviously well used. We turned left to follow it to the south.
We then reached the white blazed trail we would continue to follow for some time. This was all standard marked and very easy to follow. Because it is a mountain biking trail, it has tons of curves and doesn’t really go anywhere on the fastest route. Still, it was quite interesting. The trail went both left and right, but we went left.

Dickerson Mine Preserve trail

The white blazed trail followed an historic grade of some sort. Whether it was a roadway or a mining railroad I am not sure, as I’m not really familiar with the property yet. I thought it was cool though that the volunteers had cut a notch into a living tree that was hanging over the trail, but no longer poses any other threat, rather than just cutting it out.
This trail took us on a very gradual up hill route to the intersection of an old road with giant abandoned pit mines full of water. This must have been the Dickerson Mine itself. I was amazed that I’d never come to this place to explore myself, one way or another. We opted to continue following the white trail from here.

Dickerson Mine?

The trail turned right on the old road, then immediately left into the woods. It followed a very circuitous route, and weaved around almost back on itself it seemed like at times.
At one point, we came to an interesting stone ruin. It had rounded edges of a masonry material, set into the ground for some reason. The top of it had no roof, but was set up that if it had one, it’d be slanted facing away from the trail. It does not appear to be anything to do with a mine shaft. The best guess I have is that it could possibly have been a safe storage for whatever powder or something they were using in the mines. Keeping it in the ground might be a safety precaution.

Ruins

We continued on the trail from here, which began to weave around even more. We went down hill a little bit and could see Sunset Lake. We then turned away from the lake and were heading inland a bit again. We could see a blue blazed trail parallel with us just through woods, so I opted to cut over to that, but then that seemed like ti was most certainly going the wrong way. There was an unblazed old woods road or something that seemed to be going where we wanted, so we instead followed that to the south. We got to a power line, then turned right to follow it down hill.

Randolph Park

The power line took us down a muddy route to a very active ATV area. There were kids riding quads around, and only one hung around as we walked by, kicking up dust. It made for some really cool photographs that Sue got.
We continued on the power line because there was no good way of walking on the east side of the Triple Lakes at Randolph Park. There was a fence around that part so we had to go west, then turned south, to the left between the lakes. There was a good spot for a swim I had to take note of to come to in the Summer time!
There was a good path along the west side of the lake that has the beach on it, so we followed it, then came out along the side of the park where there was some construction going on. We then headed to the Black River Barn, a bar that I hadn’t been to in many years. We didn’t bother going in this time because we still had so far to go.
It made me remember the last time I was there, with my old buddy Ervin de Jesús. I used to frequent bars and sing along with him and his beautiful guitar playing. I forget exactly which songs we did the last time there, but I distinctly remember the last one was McCartney’s “Band On The Run”.

Free mammogram fence

We turned to the left to pass beneath Rt 10 via a narrow culvert, then turned right on Rt 617 past a golf center. We then turned left into a business complex with many buildings that butted up against the railroad tracks. I figured we’d just walk those a bit and head into Horse Shoe Lake Park, but it wouldn’t be that easy.
We cut into the woods, but then when we go to Horse Shoe Lake Park, they had put in a large metal fence that was tough to climb over and tough to fit through. There was one spot that might just cram us through. We all found a way over or through, and I amazed myself that I could fit through the same bent fence thing as Karen, since I’m not skinny like I used to be.
It was very fortunate that Angelo was present to help Karen squeeze herself through the free mammogram fence!

Cherry blossoms at Horse Shoe Lake Park

There were a lot of people walking through the park and seeing us there. I tried to diffuse their suspicious looks by letting them know we were just trying to take a short cut walking from Rt 10. I told one lady who looked particularly disturbed that the fence wasn’t here the last time I walked through. Annoyed, she looked at me and said “The fence has been here for over ten years”. At that point I was annoyed enough to say “I walked through here last in the Fall of 2009, and it wasn’t here”. It’s a good thing I remember these details well enough. Fortunately, no police showed up to hassle us.
We walked south through the park filled with cherry blossoms, and I reminded everyone that those who attended my next hike would be passing through Newark’s Cherry Blossom Festival.

Horse Shoe Lake Park

We remained on the paths, which will be part of the West Morris Greenway. Much of that follows the old railroad after the tracks become abandoned.
This line was formerly the Chester Branch of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad. The line was built in 1869 to reach the Chester Furnace, and never actually reached the town itself. The section of it parallel with Horse Shoe Lake Park is still active as an industrial spur, and the section from there to Ironia area had long been closed to public on water authority property. Fortunately, in recent years it has been opened up as a trail. I had hiked through it twice before when it was technically off limits, and this would be my first time through otherwise.

New bridge on the old Chester Branch

The trail went from the end of the park fields to gain the railroad right of way just north of Righter Road.
We crossed the road, and I was surprised to see that the bridge over the Black River there was built up. It used to be a concrete structure down low, but now we had to go up and over a much higher thing.
The trail was super wide, because I’m sure it still accomodates lots of water authority vehicles who need to pass through. They’re obviously worried about security up there because the sides of the trail are lined with countless signs saying not to trespass and to stay on the trail.

The Chester Branch bridge over Black River in 2005

It was really something to see how much different it was. I didn’t really see the need for the higher bridge, but maybe the older concrete one was structurally inefficient. I got a photo of the Tettos on the same spot I took a shot years ago.

Tetto bros

It’s nice that this section has been kept up, because most of the Chester Branch abandoned in the 1930s, which is pretty early for a railroad. We pushed ahead to the next crossing, which was in Ironia.

Chester Branch near Pleasant Hill Road

From that point, we were on a section that has been trail for as long as I’ve been hiking it. It got narrower at this point, which was nice. I tire of walking rights of way that are basically roads.
Even this section was also resurfaced more than it had been the last time I was on it. I still prefer it to be less of that, but Morris County uses better stuff than a lot of other parks use, because it doesn’t hurt the knees so much to walk long distances on it. From Ironia and Pleasant Hill Road, we continued following the grade to the corner of Main Street, at which point it got narrower and didn’t have the surfacing. I could immediately feel the relief in my feet and knees.

Chester Branch in Ironia

The Patriot’s path joins the old railroad bed to from the left after this point. I had written an article on the Chester area rail trails for Skylands Visitor Magazine many years back, and it’s still available on line here:
http://www.njskylands.com/odhikerail
We continued on the grade as the sun continued to go down. There were signs along the left side reading everything from “Construction area” to whatever no parking sign one could imagine. Someone must have had a construction job and set up all of these crazy signs for trail users to see and get a laugh.
The moon came out during the next section, and shone so brightly that no flashlights were needed. The Spring Peepers became louder and it was an amazing place to be.
The trail passes through Black River Wildlife Management Area, in a long stretch skirting a huge wetland expanse.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

At some point, we came across a conifer that had tons of Christmas decorations hanging from it. That was kind of a neat thing.
We continued on the trail from there, and it got a little muddy at one point. The Patriot’s Path broke off again to the left, heading up to Black River Recreation Area. I had considered using that for this hike, but then figured staying on the rail bed would be more interesting in the long run, and probably easier at times. We followed it out to another Pleasant Hill Road, and I was thinking we’d continue straight across the former industrial site, and by where the Chester Station used to stand, but then there was a house close by, and I didn’t want anyone putting on flashlights or trying to wander through and get us in trouble. We instead opted to turn left to Oakdale Road, then turn right on Hillside Road.

Historic view of what is now Bernie's Hillside Lounge

Here, we came across yet another interesting spot where I also used to perform with Ervin quite a lot: Bernie’s Hillside Lounge. This used to be an old hotel and coach stop back in the railroad days and likely even earlier. There is a rather famous photo of a train crashed into the turntable pit nearby where an engineer went into the old hotel, got liquored up, then piloted the train into the pit. A copy of the photo hangs on the wall of the Chester Township Municipal Building.
I used to go to Bernie’s regularly and perform lots of Beatles songs with Vin. We’d do all sorts of renditions of things, as well as some acoustic Bee Gees numbers. The Great Meadows Band played a lot, and they did a lot of Greatful Dead tunes, but the front man’s girlfriend’s dad always loved the Beatles stuff. At one point, we did the entire Abbey Road medly.
From Bernie’s, there was a section of the old Chester Branch that was initially cleared as a trail, but then never blazed. Mr. Kent and Russ Nee decided that the crossing of Rt 206 was no good, and the chances of getting a crosswalk installed there were nil to none, so they routed through Chester.

Abandoned Patriot's Path

We were able to rather easily walk the fill of the old Chester Branch over the swamplands, despite the fact that it has grown in quite a bit. We then got to 206 and had to dash across pretty fast. On the other side, it was totally clear, but the white blazes that used to be on it had been painted out. Fortunately footbridges over wet areas were still in place. I wish it had been made just an out and back thing so people could still hike it and have something to follow. I always loved the section. We remained on the rail bed, and turned off when we got to the old Patriot’s Path routing, which had puncheons over wetlands. I found it by accident one day, and all the puncheons were left in place. They are still there, but the old trail is growing over. It’s really an awesome walk, and we still navigated it rather easily in the dark.
We soon emerged on Furnace Road, then walked to the right over the road bridge across the brook to the main Patriot’s Path route. Only the first bit was tough, because a tree had fallen over it, but we managed to get up to the former Chester Hill Branch of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, first opened in 1873. The old right of way is now the main Patriot’s Path route to Chester.
We had a very relaxing walk up hill gradually on the old rail route, parallel with Chubb Park to Chester. Only at one time did we get frightened by the scream of probably a fox off in the woods to the right of us.
There were some tough spots, but overall the walk through the expanse of the Black River lands on the old Chester Branch was a beautiful and surreal way to spend the early part of Spring.