Hike #945; Morris Canal; Paterson to Pompton

Hike #945; Morris Canal: Paterson to Mountainview with Pompton Feeder

6/19/16 Morris Canal; Paterson to Mountainview and Pompton Feeder with Brandan Jermyn, Dan Lurie, Justin Gurbisz, Kellie Kegan, Jessica M. Collins, Lyz Hagenbuch, Ric Giantisco, Captain Soup (David Campbell), Uncle Soup (Jim Campbell), Pappy Soup (Capt. Soup’s Dad), Jamie Chwala, Doug DeGroff, James Quinn, Marion Barbato, Kevin Gondek, Terri Allen, Edward DiSalvo, Gail Ingham, Serious Sean Dougherty, Mary Anne E, and Dan Asnis

Our next hike would be a point to point, the third in the Morris Canal series, this time heading from Paterson to Mountainview, then the five miles up the Pompton Feeder Canal.
I had done a variation of this hike back in 2009, and hadn’t repeated most of it since. There were a lot of changes or improvements that made it worth seeing, and I would do some of it a bit differently than we had in the past.
We met at the Home Goods, by Moe’s Southwest Grill along the Pompton River, as I had the previous time. Serious Sean entertained us by playing the Star Wars theme song on electric guitar, using a little amp, while riding a pogo stick! Amazing!
We then shuttled with as few cars as we could to our start point, the Garret Mountain Castle, former home of silk mill owner Catholina Lambert, also known as Lambert Castle or it’s official name, “Belle Vista”. It was completed in 1892 on the edge of the First Watchung Mountain. Today, it is a history museum. We didn’t take the time to go all through it on this hike, but we did walk along the edge of it to view the New York City Skyline.

Garrett Rock Observation Tower

We rather quickly made our way up hill from the Castle on the former “Great Notch Path”, the semi forgotten trail that once traveled from the train station in Paterson to “The Great Notch”, near where the Great Notch Inn is today. The old hiking trail has been severed by development, with only a few sections remaining still in public land.

We headed up hill to the Garrett Rock Observation Tower, which was also part of the estate of Catholina Lambert. It had been closed for many years, and had only been re opened in 2014. I had been to the site before many times, on hikes, and even for the wedding of my friends Cristina Van Houten and Andrew Vanhouten, but none of the times I visited was the tower open. I was excited to go up it for the first time. There was a park employee guarding the place so no one would cause any problems. I suppose that’s certainly something to worry about around the Paterson area. We climbed the steps to the top, where the view was phenominal.

View from the Lambert Tower

It was also cool that we had a nice big group including both Captain Soup’s new girlfriend Jamie, as well as his father. I had talked to him about it earlier, and was instructed not to call him “Pappy Soup”, and how his father wouldn’t appreciate the craziness. Of course, I had to do just that, and then bring it to all new levels of inappropriate by trying to hold Captain Soup’s hand, give him big hugs, and even kissed him on the cheek later. His dad was actually a really cool guy, and got a kick out of my teasing his son.

Lambert Tower historic image

Most of the group all went up the tower, even though it was insanely hot. Inside the thing, it was far worse than it was outside, which was really really warm. We couldn’t stand to be in for too long.
We headed back down, and then continued on the Morris Canal Greenway Trail.
One might wonder, “Why were they up at the tower to hike the Morris Canal Greenway?”. Well, the Morris Canal of course remained at a lower elevation through Paterson, but most of it was built over for Interstate 80. Only a few places does it come out from under the highway until it nears the Woodland Park border.

Inside the tower

Technically, there are two Morris Canal Greenways in this area: one follows closer to the actual canal route on roads through Paterson, which we walked the previous month, and the other takes to high ground above Rt 80, where one is looking down on the former canal, now Rt 80 (as well as the former Lackawanna Railroad’s Boonton Branch, both were destroyed for I-80). This route is better for hikers because it keeps us off of the roads and provides for a more “backwoods” experience, as well as a different perspective on the canal.
The canal passed through Paterson not only because it was a huge industrial center, the “Silk City”, America’s first planned industrial city, but because it provided passage through the Watchung Mountains.

View on Garrett Mountain

The Watchung Mountains are taken from the Lenape term “Watch Unk” meaning “High Hills”. There are three ridges, two of them very prominent, which make up the first, second, and third Watchungs.

Watchungs Map

They are comprised of igneous intrusive basalt similar to that of the Palisades, and the Passaic River makes it’s cut through the ranges to the north, which is why the Morris Canal makes the dramatic turn north that it does.
We continued on the path out to an awesome overlook at a parking area. Paterson is in good view from this spot, and it’s referred to as “Garrett Rock”, however I’d been told that the “real” Garrett Rock was another place off trail just a little further west where more of the historic photos were taken from. We continued past the parking area, then back into the woods further to head toward the other rock. Dan had been there more times than probably any of us, and so he was able to point out where exactly we needed to turn from this direction in order to get to the rock and overlook. We soon reached the old Garrett Rock and took a little break to enjoy the view once again.

Postcard view of Paterson with Morris Canal

Looking at the historic images from Garrett Rock, one can use prominent features such as the church steeply and city hall dome to compare earlier photos with ones from today, which makes for an interesting study.

Paterson from Garrett Rock

The landscape has changes so much it’s difficult to place what is what.

Historic view of Paterson

Again, note the church steeple and it’s proximity to the capital building to make comparisons.

Historic view of Paterson

Historic Paterson view

We continued back to the trail, and along the hill with Interstate 80, former canal, always either visible or audible. The trail made it’s way slowly down hill and emerged at a small neighborhood along the edge of the mountain above Rt 80.

Morris Canal in Paterson, where 80 is today.

The Lackawanna Railroad’s Boonton Branch was up at a higher level than the canal slightly, but immediately parallel closer to the mountainside.

Morris Canal in Paterson, where 80 is today

We made our way a couple of blocks out to New Street, which crosses Rt 80. We were there on the previous hike and had parked close by. At this point, the canal was on the north side of 80, and had not been completely obliterated by it.

Morris Canal in Paterson

After crossing 80, immediately to the left is Paterson’s only Morris Canal park, in that swath where it is free of 80. It was developed and cleared somewhat recently, but now no one is maintaining it. It’s grown over badly with weeds, but it does have a bench and a trash can.
Road such as Barnes Street and Ramsey Street could be followed along the north edge of 80 to remain closer to the former route. The canal went back under the highway briefly, and then emerged again in some form, sometimes only as the former towpath, but still some of it could be seen. It’s really interesting to pick up on obscure remnants as we travel.

A tiny bit of Morris Canal in Paterson's west side.

We took one side trip to a store for drinks while walking through on this section. There was a place that had some MD 2020 so I was quite happy. Captain Soup joined in on this quest, and we also admired a hot classic car from the mid seventies I believe outside.
We continued back to close to the canal route, to Mary Avenue. Here, we could see a tiny bit of the canal to the east side of the road, in the form of a level area, and it looked as though Mary Ave was built over some of it. We then crossed over 80 on a pedestrian bridge, and turned right on Maple Ave, left on Woodrow Ave, then right on Mt. Pleasant Ave heading southwest.

We soon turned right on Brophy Lane where we were able to pick up the next bit of the Morris Canal Greenway. This section is really good, with towpath and prism pretty well intact. It’s been developed further with stone stanchions at the entrance in Woodland Park. When I’d walked it last in 2009, it really had no improvements.
The trail continued well out toward Mt. Pleasant Ave again, at a little developed park with a sort of wetland garden thing, near the intersection with Browertown Road. We took to the road for a short distance, and then I noted the undeveloped section of the canal across near Lackawanna Ave.

Morris Canal in Woodland Park NJ

I had walked this section in the past, but figured we would have to skip it, because certainly this time of year it would be too overgrown to do. When I opted to go and try to do it, most of the group followed me anyway. It actually wasn’t all that bad.
We followed the towpath through a bit of woods, and then it came to a dead end at a little apartment complex. There was even a brown “Morris Canal Crossed Here” sign at the entrance to it. We then headed back out to Browertown Road and continued parallel with the historic route toward the Route 46 overpass, where we would break for lunch.

Morris Canal parallel with Browertown Road

The canal had been developed over for a parking area just before the 46 underpass. We paused briefly under the bridge, because it was nice and shady, and I went over what we would do for lunch.
There was a Shop Rite across from us to the west, and a Taco Bell just to the east of us. I of course had to stop at the Taco Bell, there could be no other scenario. Some felt the same as me, and so they followed me onward, up the slope of 46, then across, where we met up with Uncle Soup. I got some cheap delicious slop, and tormented Captain Soup a bit more. Jamie was really cool too, and played along with teasing him from everything about sharing him on alternate Sundays to his dimples.

Morris Canal parallel with Browertown Road

Although Captain Soup, Pappy Soup, and Jamie were going to cut out at this point, I convinced them to continue ahead a bit further because it was nice and flat, and really a relaxing section to walk. Most of the canal through the area we were headed into was now developed as a trail, save for tiny sections that were optional.
They agreed to continue with us for a bit, and we made our way back to Rt 46, where most of the group was now waiting for us. We walked a bit further on, and I soon pointed out the former site of an aqueduct that carried the Morris Canal over a small creek. Everyone could continue on the road and head up Stewart Ave and skip the weeds, but I was going to get on the canal.

Remains of Morris Canal Aqueduct in Little Falls by Shop Rite

I headed down through a mess of sticks and high greenery, then nearly fell getting into the creek at the former site of the aqueduct. There is still masonry abutments left of the old structure, but I really don’t know what it would have looked like while in service. I don’t think anyone has any photos of it. Ed headed down and basically fell through the mess of sticks, clearing his own path for anyone else to follow. We then headed up the other side through more weeds, and emerged on a somewhat clear remaining section of the canal towpath, though it was filled in in this area.
Justin was close behind me, and not many others chose to continue on except Ed.

Morris Canal in Little Falls

We continued through the high grass out to the next road, and Doug had already headed further ahead. Some went to follow him out to Long Hill Road.
We continued from here along the greenway, mostly a paved path weaving around from the towpath to where the prism was, and soon reached a sort of cul de sac of pavement back in the woods. This was once the end of the greenway, but it has since been extended. The Soup family unfortunately opted to leave us at this point, and continue on with other plans, while the rest of us continued forward, over a sort of hump where a utility right of way crosses, and onward on the former canal.

Morris Canal Greenway in Little Falls

This next section I found very impressive when I first hiked it. The canal greenway was much better than I’d anticipated it would be when I first saw it through.
We walked a good section of towpath all the way out through to Cedar Grove Road, where it would have crossed over and had an aqueduct over the Peckman River. On my last trip, I climbed down and was able to find some obviously cut blocks that might have been a part of the original aqueduct, but there’s really no way to be sure about it. It’s been gone for so long. We turned left, and I thought to go down and wade across the Peckman River to take a short cut, but I didn’t.

Morris Canal in Little Falls

When I had walked this section before, there was no greenway at all, just swaths of grass in this section, and the undeveloped towpath behind people’s houses that we were able to get through on.

Cul de sac on a trail!

We turned right briefly on Linsley Road to cross the Peckman, then right on Wilmore Road. As we walked up this section of road, we were able to cut over to the right to another paved cul de sac for bikes, the end of this swath of Morris Canal Greenway.
We followed the paved pathway just a little bit, and I saw a rather new trail going off to the right. Dan knew this area pretty well; even though I’d walked the section before, I was not yet familiar with the newer parklands. Dan explained that this was the Peckman Preserve but didn’t really have much to say about it. I opted to take the side trip and see what it looked like. It was brutally hot, and I was so glad we did.

Peckman!

There was a nice deep pool on the Peckman River, so I got right in and cooled off pretty quick. It didn’t really seem that gross, and I needed it. It didn’t seem to bother the others all that much either, because a good number of us were out in the water enjoying it.
After the dip, we headed back the way we came to resume on the Morris Canal Greenway westbound.
The next point of interest along the paved path is the little park in Little Falls, where there’s a tank and some signage. The most important pieces in this park are the tablets that once graced the walls of the Passaic River Aqueduct.

Tablet from Morris Canal aqueduct

The tablets graced the walls of the great Passaic River Aqueduct, which carried the canal high above the rapids of the Little Falls themselves, a small waterfall that was blasted away for the most part, to protect against floods.

Former Morris Canal in Little Falls

In retrospect, this hike went really exceptionally well compared with previous times passing through this section of the former canal. I was able to stay on the canal much more than we had previously, and this was where it got a bit more substantial. When we got to the greenway section at Main Street, in the past we had followed some parallel roads, but this time I decided to try to follow the former canal dead on. To my happy surprise, it worked! We headed out and around buildings and found the former route to be not covered over, and simply part of some lots. It was pretty easy to follow the aerials compared with what was there today.

Former Morris Canal in Little Falls

After passing by some storage containers, we came to a swath of trees we simply had to pass through. There was a slope to the one side that was in all likelihood once the edge of the canal. We headed out and emerged onto Paterson Ave at the intersection with Maple Street, and continued across onto a paved access road to a parking area built directly on the canal. There was a brick wall thing that read “Morris Canal” on gold on it at this point. We followed the former canal along the edge of the parking area, and then reached the entrance to the greenway trail ahead. The paved path remained on the former canal for a good while high above the Passaic River. There was a new trail down to the river I considered checking out, because I’d not seen it, but we held off.

Petroglyph

To the left of the trail, there is a big rock that looks like it has no business being there. On it is what is believed to be one of the very few Native American petroglyphs in the region.
I walked up to the rock, knowing what I was looking for, but could not for the life of me find it. We all scoured the rock trying to figure out where the thing was. I finally asked if anyone had a flashlight, because we needed to cast a shadow in order to see it. Some of the group walked away by this point, but by shading the thing with my pack and my hand, I was able to find the bird petroglyph. There’s also some other thing on it to the right a bit, but I couldn’t really tell what it was. It’s actually really cool for those who will take the time to try to find it.

Then and Now view of the Passaic River Aqueduct site

We paused along the trail to play with kids equipment, those small animal things on springs that bob you around, then moved on to the site of the former Passaic River Aqueduct.
Every time I think about the destruction of this amazing bridge it strikes me as one of the biggest tragedies in historic preservation in the state’s history. They claim that it was difficult to get the old structure to fall. The facade apparently looked rough, but it was standing strong. Today, the site is the route of a water pipe aqueduct bringing drinking water down from the Pequannock highlands. We took a break here, and a few of us decided to take a walk down the steep slope to the river side. I’d never really given a good look at the Little Falls site itself, and it seemed like the right time for it.

Little Falls

It was absolutely beautiful, and I kick myself for not descending to the spot sooner. I think Lyz and Ric were off into the water first. It was among the most refreshing and beautiful spots we visited over the Summer, though most held back from getting in.

Historic view of the Passaic River Aqueduct

The industrial buildings on the shore had the look of antiquity, but a cascade of water coming down from next to it looked like a natural waterfall. Most of the group came down the slope and had a nice break on the rocks on the shore.

Along the Passaic River in Little Falls

Lyz and Ric and I swam around for a while, and I’m not sure if anyone else even got in. Totally their loss, it was outstanding.
We made our way from the aqueduct site back up to the trail, and then made our way out past some apartments to Union Ave, which we used to get us across the Passaic River.
It was from this point that many historic photos were taken of the old aqueduct. On my previous hike, I did a pretty good one of my Metrotrails Then and Now series photos showing the historic aqueduct site. The structure was completed in 1929, and demolished shortly after the canal was abandoned, Spring 1925, the beautiful structure was dynamited.

Then and Now: Passaic River Aqeduct site

It must have been a behemoth of a project to construct the aqueduct in 1827.

Historic view of Morris Canal Passaic River Aqueduct

The Morris Canal was abandoned in 1924, and work began almost immediately to purge the walls and drain it out of fear of liability. By 1927, it was effectively dismantled.

Demolition of Passaic Aqueduct

There were efforts to save the Morris Canal as a public water supply, much in the way the Delaware and Raritan Canal was saved, but it never came to be.

Post demolition

We continued across the bridge, and I pointed out the old stone building off to the east side of the road, where there is still a small arched canal aqueduct in place, barely within sight of the road this time of year.

Stones from Passaic River Aqueduct at Olivito Greehouses

We turned left off of the Union Ave at the Olivito Greenhouses. There, there is a stone wall along the edge that is reportedly made from the stones of the old Passaic River Aqueduct.
Ahead was a very nice section of the old Morris Canal now used by the more modern water line. It made for a great trail parallel with the river heading northbound to Rt 46, near a Dunkin Donuts in Totowa. We stopped here for a little break so people could get a bite to eat and use the restroom.
Once everyone was out, we had to head along Rt 46 east just for a short bit to cross over on Riverview Drive. Several box stores were then along the left side, and the canal went right behind them. We continued then beneath Rt 80 and turned left on West End Road.
I had not walked a bit of the canal back in this area because it went through a NJ Transit terminal property that we could not get through. I figured we’d had some luck, so we would try it.

Morris Canal north of Totowa

We came to a gate across the back access road to the NJ Transit facility, directly where the Morris Canal used to go by. I figured we might try to go around it, so we turned right behind some sort of business, and cut into some woods. It wasn’t going good at all, and we were bushwhacking some weird stuff. We then ended up behind another business, and found that we were out behind some chain link fences. Rather than try to continue through, I decided it would be best to backtrack and make our way to another road and go around. We fought back through more weeds and took West End Road to Maltese Road to the north.

Morris Canal historic view looking toward Little Falls

When the road ended, we continued around the left side of a large building, then skirted it from behind. Through the woods from the back, we came to the Naachpunkt Brook. IT looked like a mess directly across, but the canal route was rather obvious. Unfortunately, it was just too hard to bushwhack through to get to the other side of it from this point, and the access road for NJ Transit was within sight. We opted to just head over to that.
Unfortunately, this weird road was up on a very long bridge for it’s entire length! There was no way we could get down at all, even though we could soon see cleared towpath. We just hurried out along this access road to West Belt Parkway where we could get onto cleared canal trail once more.

Lift for the railroad crossing, Mountainview

This section actually took a lot out of me. It was frustrating not being able to get on the canal where I knew there was a good section we could just almost use. In the past, we had followed on a parallel railroad tracks. So, this time we got closer to it, but still sort of failed.
From West Belt, it was a good long stretch through woods, and we skirted the edge of North Cove Park. The old canal paralleled Pal Drive and some woods and ball fields, then passed beneath Parish Drive and it’s bridge.
The old canal was somewhat elevated on a berm because of buried pipeline, so we followed that until we saw a spot we could stop for some more food. Someone in the group, I think it was Dan, exclaimed that there was ice cream. Everyone agreed to stop and get some. I think Doug got pizza though.

Pompton Feeder today

Uncle Soup treated me to some delicious stuff, and once everyone was all done, we headed back to the former canal route just a little bit further to the west.
We soon reached where the Pompton Feeder joined the Morris Canal’s main bridge. The Pompton Feeder was a five mile canal that began at a bend in the Pompton River up near Pompton Lakes, predominantly to provide extra water to the canal, but also used for navigation itself. Just like the rest of the canal, it had a towpath and was navigable.
The area where the main canal and feeder come together has always been a sort of big question for me, because the way it looks now and the way it would have looked are far different.

View up the Pompton Feeder canal with the railroad lift bridge

We reached where the canals would have come together, and the railroad tracks are right there. Even they are confusing because of the changes over between the former Greenwood Lake Branch of the Erie and the old Lackawanna Railroad’s Boonton Branch.

Historic view up the Pompton Feeder at Mountainview NJ

The old Greenwood Lake Railroad traveled parallel with the Pompton River south, and crossed the Lackawanna Boonton Branch at Mountainview. However, the Boonton Branch was abandoned east through Paterson where I-80 was built over it, and so when NJ Transit came in, they switched in Mountainview to follow the Greenwood Lake Railroad southbound, and the Boonton Branch was truncated as a spur.

Mountainveiw NJ railroad crossing the Morris Canal.

The area looks so different it’s amazing. The main canal apparently had a counter-weighted lift bridge where the Greenwood Lake Railroad crossed, and the Pompton Feeder had a differently framed lift bridge for the Boonton Branch.

Possible original canal feeder parallel with the Pompton Aqueduct

We continued walking north on the Pompton Feeder. I watched around me to look for canal remnants. It’s of course very altered from the newer pipe being beneath it. However, there was a couple of places where I could see what appeared to be a prism parallel with this route, which I assume is the old canal. They probably just laid the pipe in the prism for the most part, but it might deviate at times. There’s probably no way of knowing for sure. We continued north as the old canal route came close to the Pompton River. There was one weird spot where we had to come out across a yard to Morris Avenue, and it turns out Ed used to live over there somewhere. He also pointed out a place he used to live in in Mountainview earlier as well. We turned left on Newark-Pompton Turnpike, then right onto the canal again. We then came to where the aqueduct leaves the route and crosses the Pompton River on an old truss bridge.

Pompton Aqueduct bridge

Some of us stopped to take a swim when we reached the aqueduct.
The remaining five miles of trail after the ice cream stop in Mountainview is overall easy and is actually pretty pleasant walking, but it was hard to get back into it with the heat. I really wanted to get into the water pretty badly, and a lot of the group wasn’t into anything but finishing. We didn’t get to go in the water for long enough at all. Everyone was being too loud for where we were, too many houses close by, and then there were dogs barking. I wasn’t comfortable swimming around at that point, so we hurriedly moved on and decided to make more time at a better place.

Pompton Feeder Canal

We continued to the north, and by the time Lyz and Ric and I got out of the water, everyone else was already ahead of us by quite a lot. We passed beneath Rt 23 and remained on the former canal to the north. The river moved off a bit to the west, and we skirted swamplands on the left for a bit.
It didn’t take long till we reached the Pompton cross highway, where we simply had to turn to the left to get back to the parking lot where our cars were.

Pompton Feeder Lock

The canal continued straight ahead, though it’s badly grown over now and pretty much inaccessible. There was (and still is I believe) a dam over the Pompton River which provided enough slack water to feed into the canal. We followed the road the short distance across the bridge over the Pompton River and back to where the cars were, but I was certainly not done swimming.

Pompton Feeder Dam

There was a really nice looking spot with a path down to it I could see below the bridge and just out of the parking lot. Lyz, Ric, James, and I of course had to go and get in. I can’t recall if anyone else was up for it, but it was a really great and surprisingly deep spot to swim right off of that parking lot, but still pretty secluded.
James had to leave for a ride back to his car, but Lyz and Ric and I swam for a little bit longer. It was really the perfect way to finish off the day after the long stretch of uneventful feeder canal. It really was an overall great hike, and possibly the best for off road walking in the entire Morris Canal series. Maybe in another decade it will be further developed and we can revisit this with even greater satisfaction.