Hike #961; Morris Canal; Rockaway to Landing

Hike #961; Morris Canal; Rockaway to Landing

8/14/16 Morris Canal; Rockaway to Landing with Justin Gurbisz, Jim “Uncle Soup” Campbell, Edward DiSalvo, Gail, Dan Lurie, Sue Olivar, Brandan Jermyn, Kevin Kowalick, Terri Allen, Gregg Hudis, Dan Asnis, and Jennifer Tull, Larry Ashley, and Diane Reider

This next hike would be the next in the Morris Canal series, covering the historic route from Rockaway to Lake Hopatcong/Landing area.
This would also end up being one of the hottest hikes of the year with not nearly enough swim spots, but we made the best of it.

Morris Canal aqueduct in Rockaway

We met at a grocery store, which I forget the name of, at Landing. It used to be a Stop and Shop or something A&P related, but since all of them closed down last year many were taken over by other outfits. So I can’t remember this one.
We shuttled in as few cars as we could east to Rockaway, to the field off of Wall Street where we had finished the previous hike.
The field has an aqueduct that is now used as a road access on the other side back toward Rt 513, in really nice shape. We started the trip by climbing down and looking at the fine stone work that still holds up well today.
We exited the park to the west to Lakeside Drive south and got onto 513. The canal is off to the right side of the road behind houses and business, some of them built on top of it.

Maybe an old tramway?

At one point there was a level grade going off to the right from the road, most certainly built up and higher than the rest of the ground, but not associated with the canal because it was at a gradual down grade and on the opposite side of the road.
All available USGS maps make no mention of their being a railroad at this point, but I figured it could have been an old iron mine tramway, because those did exist on the hillside to the west of us. I can’t be sure and just can’t find any mention of it.
The former canal crossed over the road ahead as we continued south out of Rockaway.
We turned left on Elycroft Ave, then made our way down to Woodland Ave. The canal went behind what is now a bunch of stores, and the slope is probably part of it.

Interesting former Morris Canal retention pond

We walked out behind a Chrystler Jeep dealership after crossing Rt 46, and then just cut around the back of the lots with grassy slopes and such.
When I last walked the canal route through this area, we came from the other direction and I didn’t see any remnants, and there did not appear to be a way in while heading eastbound.
This time, heading westbound, we might find something more I figured. After all, it worked out alright finding the inclined plane at Towaco on the previous one.
We didn’t have to go far before reaching a retention pond with a walkway along the edge. I soon realized that this was actually the former canal route, and that a sort of trail and mock canal was built up as the retention pond, perhaps to fit in with the greenway in the future should it come to fruition.

Morris Canal between Dover and Rockaway

After entering the woods, it got far better. We followed an ATV path in just to the north of where the canal was, and we were able to head down through the prism and up to the towpath on the other side easily.
This was a surprisingly nice section, totally undeveloped, but
clear enough to walk.
We followed the canal as far as we could. It involved a little bit of thorns, but was worth it. There was a big oxbow bend on the canal south of here, but that is now an industrial site and completely inaccessible. We walked until we got to the fence surrounding the place. People’s back yards bordered the other side and I didn’t want to chance cutting across.
We backtracked a bit, and then turned left, northwest, on an ATV path I’d spotted on the way out. This took us easily up through the prism, then to the left parallel with the canal on the other side. We emerged on St. Jude’s Place, which connects to DeHart Street. We took that back out to 513 and walked it to the south a bit, to the intersection with Blackwell Street.
The canal must have been right here at this intersection. The former CNJ railroad line which goes up to Hibernia Mine Railroad continues still active across here. Since the Rockaway River was right there, I used the opportunity to take a dip and cool off. A lot of stuff had been going on in every aspect of my life, and I was literally feeling crazy. The water helped a lot. A few others came in as well.

Morris Canal towpath approaching Dover

Across from us, into the woods from a parking lot, I found yet another intact section of the canal I was not expecting to find. It’s only a small swath of woods, but overall a substantial portion of the canal. A path went into the woods, still following the old towpath.
We had a really nice walk in this section. It might have remained more clear, but there was a small creek flowing through, which ran through an opening in the towpath away from the canal. This was probably another weir site because such a small creek would not have merited having an aqueduct.

Morris Canal nearing Dover at a washout spot in the towpath

The towpath wasn’t quite as clear on the other side, but it was very obvious what we were following. These sections are especially awesome to me because I know so many people who are die hards on the canal, and they likely don’t even know about some of these amazing remnants.
The former canal emerged into the Dover Shop Rite parking lot. It turns out the hillside on the east side of the lot is formerly the berm side of the canal. There is not a single sign anywhere denoting that the canal went through at either end of this section. I would think someone might have something along the side of the parking lot, but there’s nothing.

Morris Canal berm at Shop Rite in Dover

From here, the canal is pretty badly obliterated through Dover. There’s really nothing left to see of the canal through Dover itself. It followed right along present day Rt 46 from the Shop Rite all the way to the park at Bergen Street.
We just followed the streets to the west from here, and figured we’ll find something to eat.
Dan always makes me promise him burritos when we go on hikes like this with a good sized latin neighborhood. I honestly couldn’t complain about that, I was craving the same, so at the first latin place we found, we stopped for lunch. I forget the name of the place, as well as what I had, or if it was good. I actually think it must have been Marino’s Cafe. It was different, a sort of Peruvian restaurant, but not bad I don’t think. Likely whatever I ordered disappeared to fast to remember.

Former Morris Canal in Dover

I certainly ate way too much because I do remember being too stuffed. Especially for the kind of heat we were facing. Kevin joined us in Dover to finish the rest of the hike with us at this time.
From here, we simply followed the former canal route along Rt 46 west to the park where it cut across to the south parallel with Bergen Street. This park used to be a canal basin, basically a canal boat parking lot. Boats could be built or repaired at these places at good intervals along the entire route. There is really nothing left to say the canal was here except a mural on the wall of a building depicting the canal on the west side.

Former Morris Canal in Dover

The canal crossed the Rockaway River in Dover, but there is no sign of the crossing today. Every trace of the canal heading south from here is gone. We took the road across to the other side, and the next notable remnant of it was down along Rt 46 at Jackson Brook. There was a sign and a slightly clear swath. We then had to continue to Princeton Avenue, where we turned right to Rutgers Street to resume on the canal trail. It’s a good, wide towpath section from here, following along the up stream Rockaway River. We stopped a short distance in to take a dip.
There were a lot of people around swimming, but surprisingly no one in at this accessible spot we had chosen.

Big Sycamore

Feeling much more cooled off, we made our way along the trail heading to the west.
We passed an enormous Sycamore tree along the way. It seemed really like it was too big to have been growing only since the abandonment of the canal, which was 1924, but it appeared to be on the edge of the towpath. The area is so altered, I suppose the original towpath might have been on the other side.
As we walked the towpath, we could hear big splashes into the Rockaway River. Apparently there is a better spot to swim that we didn’t know about, which is why we didn’t see anyone where we went in. No matter, we continued on to the former site of Inclined Plane #5 East.

Historic view of Plane 5E

I got what I think to be a pretty good then and now shot of the plane. It’s so much different now, but it’s still there. I’d only hiked it on my own in the past, never brought the group up it because there was no good way of going through on it.

Present view of Plane 5E

Like many other spots in this part of Morris County, there was no signage whatsoever to denote the engineering marvel that was the inclined plane. It’s fascinating that other counties are going all out on Morris Canal stuff, and Morris County (the best county park system in the state) has really nothing on it.

Historic view of Plane 5E

We walked up the plane, which was somewhat overgrown. No one had been driving it, but it was kept somewhat clear over the years.
I imagine there could still be some sleeper stones on it, but none could be seen at this time. When we got to the top, there was a chain link fence blocking access to Whitlock Packaging Corporation. We weren’t going to try to climb the fence, we had to try to skirt it and continue parallel with the former canal. This is why walking it in the opposite direction from what I had can be tough, because we just never know what we might encounter.

Plane 5 E empty

We didn’t have time to really explore the site, though there are certain to be some sorts of historic remnants. I’d like to see if there is anythign left of the turbine chamber, power house, and tail race tunnel. That will be for another day, however.

Plane 5E

I wanted to find a way into Wilfred Hocking Park on the other side, but there was no hole in the fence, no opening, the only option was to go up hill and skirt someone’s yard to get to Eileen Court. We hurriedly crested the hill, crossed the end of Eileen, and then headed up hill on a path to Hocking Park, which is situated just up hill from the former canal route.
We were able to follow the edge of the park from this point on to Wharton, where we followed Fern Avenue into town parallel with the historic route. The canal would have come out closer to Kossuth Ave, or right between the two.

Morris Canal in Wharton

On the other side of the main street, we couldn’t follow it. It was very obviously the canal from the next block west, at Burns Street, but we couldn’t get on it this time. Coming from the west on previous hikes, we walked through from Hugh Force Park, and I guess we cut out through a yard. This time, I didn’t even know where to access to try to do that, so we had to take Pine Street I think it was out to Hugh Force.
Hugh Force Park is now the most historically accurate part of the entire Morris Canal.
The section at Stanhope I feel at one time was more accurate, but railings were added to make it into a Braille Nature Trail. It’s nice that they made something like that, but it also somewhat undermined the historic integrity of the canal.

Morris Canal in Wharton

The towpath was also capped in crushed stone aggregate, which I’ll never understand. I think that sort of detracts from the canal at Wharton a bit, but oh well.
We walked the towpath west for a bit, and the Rockaway River was right below us to the right. It was still very hot, and it looked too tempting not to go and get in. Amazingly, hardly anyone else wanted to go down and cool off.

Historic view of Burd's Lock

We soon approached Lock #2 East, also known as Burd’s Lock. I’ve been to the site many times, but it never looked as nice as it did now. The lock had been filled in and some of it possibly destroyed over the years.

Present view of Burd's Lock

Now, the lock was dug back out and reconstructed to a degree, and in such a way as to be good for interpretation. It was really an awesome site. It even has the locks in place now. I was blown away by the condition of it.

The lock tender’s house is now a ruin along the canal. Some of the stone walls of it are still there, and it’s fenced in. That didn’t look so much different than the last time’s I’d been there.
Prior to it’s abandonment and collapse, that building had rails secured around the outside to hold it together.
We continued on the towpath ahead, which now just looks like a causeway out onto a wetland. There are beaver dams and such below on the Rockaway River making it naturally picturesque, but nothing like it would have looked in the canal days. The section led us to where a bridge was filled in at some point, with the Central Railroad of NJ above.

Towpath at Hugh Force Park

The former High Bridge Branch, which is now Columbia Trail, was just above the canal into Wharton, and partially serves as a trail now. In the late 2000s, a house was built on the right of way, blocking off some of it into town. Just to the south, a quarry has overtaken the right of way completely.From Kenvil, it’s still active as far as the Toys R Us in Flanders. The section we reached with the former canal was a spur that connected with the former Wharton and Northern Railroad at Lake Junction. This was also the connection area for the Ogden Mine Railroad. We climbed up the slope to the abandoned railroad bed and turned right. Continuing on the canal is impossible because there is a junk yard over it now. This was also the site of former Inclined Plane #4 East.

We followed the rail bed to the right until we came out on Dewey Avenue. Here, we turned left and followed it south to Berkshire Valley Road. The canal came up from the inclined plane near the road, and then continued on present day Berkshire Valley Road, or right next to it. This would be the worst part of the entire hike. A long road walk in the heat. Dan, Sue, and Brandan cut out early here.
The rest of us continued down the road and soon reached the underpass for the former Chester Branch of the Lackawanna Railroad. The bridge was actually built to span the canal, not for the road. The road might have crossed the tracks at grade, I can’t remember.
I know this fact because one day I was walking the tracks, probably in 2002, in Ledgewood when a train went by. The guys waved and I continued walking north. On their way back, they stopped the locomotive and told me they were going my way. I was able to climb up in the cab with these guys and ride in this awesome 1954 diesel engine.

Historic image of Plane 4E

The guys were history fans themselves, and they told me not only that some of the ties on the tracks we were riding were from the 1880s (the line was built in 1869), but that the Berkshire Valley Road bridge was built for the canal.
Up in the engine, and with no leaves on the trees at the time, I could plainly see looking down that the prism joined the road only at the bridge off to the left as we headed north.
They took me on to Lake Junction and offered me to ride with them to Morristown, but that would be far too far for me to get back, and I ended up walking the NJ Transit line west from there for several miles. I forget where I got picked up.
We continued walking Berkshire Valley Road south, with the obvious canal directly to the left of us at all times. It would be great if this was a trail, because it’s so easily right there.
When we got to the tracks, just after the Hercules Road, we turned right to follow them. The canal at this end of Berkshire Valley has houses built on it, and it crossed over the road parallel with the tracks, then continued parallel with them out to Rt 46.
We turned right on Rt 46, then left on Hillside Avenue for a short bit.

Abandoned industry

An industrial access on the right was about where the canal used to be. This was active not all that long ago, but was now completely abandoned. It didn’t look like it’d be a problem, so we just walked on in and past the big abandoned complex. I wanted pretty badly to climb up onto the thing, and I’m sure Justin and Kevin would have wanted to as well, but we did have a group and had to continue on toward the end. Justin of course made a note of the site and would certainly be back in short order. Perhaps he will read this and be reminded. We continued past the place and a paved trail picked up along the shore of a large pond.

Ledgewood tracing the old canal

The paved path roughly was where the towpath would have been. The large pond was right where the canal was, though I don’t know if there was ever a large body of water or a basin here. I think it was just canal that was overtaken by the development of the present lake.
This section led us out to Commerce Boulevard. Directly across looked like nothing, but I knew the canal was there just beyond the ornamental trees and parallel with a newer development to the left.
Why this section of the canal has not be opened yet as a trail I just do not know. I don’t know if no one is pursuing it or what, but it’s really cool that this rather intact section is just sitting there so closely parallel with Route 46, and so accessible to every business on the way. It seems to me this would be a Economic and Recreational Plan’s dream.

Morris Canal in Ledgewood sort of near White Castle

We walked down in the canal prism for a while, because there were not as many weeds growing there. The towpath is pretty inaccessible at first because there is so much multi flora rose and Japanese Barberry. Still, it’s quite a nice section. It got better when we neared the Ronetco headquarters near White Castle on 46.

We were able to stay on the towpath for a bit farther, and then emerged in the back parking lot of a business along Rt 10. I think it’s Loving Hut.
Dan tried going out and around to go an easier way, but it took him right to someone’s back yard where a guy was out with kids playing. I told him not to try to go that way, it would not go over well.
We took a break in the shade behind the place, because were were messy and sweaty after that section with bushwhacking.
We then crossed over Rt 10 and closely paralleled the former canal through Ledgewood on Canal Street.

Plane 3 East

Along the road, there were two little tracks of preserved land, one of which was a sort of swampy watered section of the canal. Just ahead, the entrance road up to the Ledgewood Canal Park is the former Inclined Plane #3 East.

Canal basin in Ledgewood

Plane 3 is reportedly the one that the Scotch Turbine on display at Hopatcong State Park was taken from.
We continued up hill and through the parking lot of Ledgewood Canal Park, which led us to the pond. The pond was another canal basin directly between Planes #2 and 3. Plane 3 was just ahead.
Plane 2 East is probably one of the most historically accurate looking plane remnants on the entire canal because it can be compared so much more easily than the others. The power house foundation and turbine chamber are still in place, and the tail race flume is in great shape.

Historic view of Plane 2E

We walked to the top of the plane and briefly checked out the turbine chamber. It was looking like it might actually rain, and it had been a long, hot day.
The trail at the top goes into the canal prism rather than on the towpath, then ascends to the towpath after a short bit.

Morris Canal west of Plane 2E

We continued on the canal trail for a bit, with the other trails in the preserve ending on the left. The canal abruptly turns when we got to Rt 46. The predecessor road used to have an aqueduct to take the canal across, known locally as the “Hole in the Wall”. We had a very steep descent down to 46 from this spot because it was so abruptly cut off. It’s almost like a cliff.
The structure was considered a very unsafe traffic debacle. There was a hard turn in what is now Rt 46, and I understand it was the site of many accidents. I believe it was torn out very shortly after the abandonment of the canal.

"Hole In The Wall" aqueduct

From here, if you don’t know where the canal went, it’s another spot where it would be tough to find it. We carefully crossed Rt 46, and then turned on Landing Road to get beneath Interstate 80.

Hole in the Wall historic view with trolley

The canal would have been just parallel with that road to the east bit a bit. There is really no shoulder on the road to protect us, so we had to be really careful.
Also, it started raining as soon as we climbed down where the culvert used to be. It wasn’t too terrible because we’d been so hot, but it just felt like a drag so close to the end of the hike.
We remained on Landing Road, then turned right on Shippenport Road, which took us beneath the railroad tracks, originally the Morris and Essex line. The canal would have passed beneath the tracks just to the east.

Then and Now: Plane 1 east historic shot compared with one taken on my hike in 2009.

This area, known as Shippenport, was the site of former Inclined Plane #1 East. Today, the plane is now just the road, which has been leveled off to such a degree that one would never know it used to be the plane. I got a pretty good “then and now” photo of it when I did the Morris Canal series before.
We continued along the road from here, and I headed down to check out the old trail race tunnel, really one of the only signs that there was ever a plane at this spot. I was concerned to find that the stone work on the tunnel was rather undermined, and that the entrance to it might collapse in the near future if nothing were done to stabilize it. We continued from here on along Shippenport Road.
The canal turned off to the left from Shippenport Road parallel with a pond. I’d found part of it here once before, but never tried following it through.

Morris Canal nearing Landing

This time, we turned onto it and followed it almost all the way out to where it becomes the parking area for the NJ Transit Landing Station, but we couldn’t get through easily that way. We ended up going to the right and coming out behind some businesses on Shippenport Road, then continued back to the route at the Landing Station.
It was cool to see that the old Landing Railroad station built in the early 1900s was in the process of being restored or at least repaired.
We turned down into the parking area, then looked off to the right to see if there would be a way through tracing the old canal. It went off into some private industrial yard.

Landing Station, former canal at the parking lot

The canal basically went along the right side of that yard, then continued and was basically the fronts of the stores at the supermarket where we parked. We had to go off to the left, walk the tracks briefly, then cut into the woods where we could get on the ATV paths. The paths lead back out ot the backs of the stores.
By the time we got there, everyone was pretty well burnt out and didn’t want to continue up to Lake Hopatcong, but I absolutely didn’t want to go home. When no one else wanted to go, I headed off on my own across the road, then up Lakeside Blvd a short bit to where I could see the old Feeder Canal to the Morris Canal on the left. I walked it on up to Hopatcong State Park, but didn’t bother going in.
I headed back to the canal towpath and walked it until I saw a nice spot farther down below on the Musconetcong River. It was a nice, private, quiet spot that was obviously seldom used. There was a little makeshift stone dam on the river there, and I went and laid in the water.
Feeling cooled off, and with the weather looking good. I laid down on the shore and closed my eyes to try to relax. I could only hope that life’s stress would lessen up soon.