Hike #967; Morris Canal; Hopatcong to Hackettstown

Hike #967; Morris Canal: Hopatcong to Hackettstown

9/4/16 Morris Canal; Hopatcong to Hackettstown with Dan Asnis, Larry Ashley, Gregg Hudis, Kralc Leahcim (Lerch), Jennifer Berndt, James Quinn, Justin Gurbisz, Christian Alexander, Alex Ivey, Kevin Gondek, Rich Kowal, CJ, John Spiridon, and ?.

Our next hike would be a point to point, the seventh in the Morris Canal series, this time between Hopatcong and Hackettstown. It would be another very hot day, and so it was a good thing this one had plenty of water along the way. It probably goes down in history as being the craziest Morris Canal hike we've done. We didn't get to do the Hackettstown sections as well as I'd wanted to, so I'd have to tack some of it onto the end of the next one.

Group mirror

We met in the morning in Hackettstown, at the parking area Warren County had just installed off of the Wildlife Management Area at the west end of Florence Kuipers Park. We then shuttled with as few cars as we could east to the grocery store where the Morris Canal used to pass through, at the former junction with the feeder canal from Lake Hopatcong.

Feeder canal and towpath

We started walking from the grocery store north. The canal would have gone almost right across the front sidewalk and awning to the grocery store had it been there today. We crossed the parking lot tracing the former route of the feeder canal.
The Morris Canal didn't have it's main line right to the lake, but rather a short feeder canal brought water to the main route, and it too was used for navigation. Boats for both goods or tourism could be taken to an unnumbered outlet lock into the lake, and some would cross over to Nolan's Point, which was the original southern terminus of the Ogden Mile Railroad, which brought iron ore down to the canal.
We turned off of the Lakeside Drive and down to the towpath as soon as it came to sight, then followed it to where it goes under the road. There is now a walkway beneath the highway beside the Musconetcong River, which we used to get into Hopatcong State Park.

Scotch Turbine at Hopatcong

We made our way out from beneath the bridge, the up to where the canal once wet. At the top, there is a building that houses the Scotch Turbine from former Inclined Plane #3 West in Ledgewood. It's one of only two turbines I know to still exist from the canal days, although there is the possibility of one being in place at Plane 10 West and possibly 8 west.
I tried not to keep everyone there for too long; it being Labor Day Weekend, the park promised to be pretty hectic and I didn't want to get us in trouble. I had already been given a rash of shit for not working myself for the holidays. I didn't want any problems anywhere else.

Past and present view of the Morris Canal feeder looking into Lake Hopatcong

I'd already gotten pretty good then and now photos of the place on my previous Morris Canal series, so we started heading back the way we came.
Just then, two guys came riding up to us on a Polaris Ranger ATV. I figured it might be a problem soon, but it turned out to be Mike O'Brien, park maintenance Supervisor who had recently transferred to Hopatcong from Waterloo Village. I was friends with his brother Tommy when I worked at A&P many years back, so we chatted a little bit before moving on.
We followed the canal towpath route back the way we had come, and when we got to where we climbed down from the road, we opted to try to keep going straight instead. I thought it might be cool if there were some other remnants to be seen off of the road. We didn't really find anything, but it was better than the road I think anyway.
We had to walk Center Street to the west for a bit and pass beneath the east and westbound connections of the Lackawanna Cutoff, the famous rail line. The canal would have been south of Center Street, but I could never find any sign of where it would have passed beneath the Cutoff. It must have been filled in early on.
We eventually turned left on Davis Street to Canal Street.

Canal Street, former Morris Canal

We turned right on Canal Street, which was actually the route of the canal. The canal must have been completely filled over to make the road. We followed it out to it's end at Palmer Street, and found that there was a path going off into the woods at the end, slightly to the left. The canal would have gone more straight, but this was more than I'd found clear on previous trips, so we were going to give it a shot.
We continued through the woods on an ATV route. It took us toward the active railroad yard, and then turned to the right through an overgrown old field. I didn't want to end up in the rail yard, so we took the turn back toward the field, which was closer to the canal.

Catalpa Climbing

We really didn't find any good way of getting through to the former canal, and the path became somewhat overgrown, but was heading back in the direction that we'd come from. I was trying to figure out using the aerials on my phone if there would be a good way through, meanwhile Lerch climbed a giant Catalpa Tree we passed.
When I could find no other better way, we took the more overgrown path back the way we came to Canal and Palmer Street, and took Palmer back to Center Street. Somewhere in this vicinity, we were near the top of former Inclined Plane #1 West. The canal plane is now people's back yards, but the approaches for the landing at the base of the plane are still clearly visible from the road looking down.

Historic view of Plane 1 West

The Morris Canal used to cross over Lake Musconetcong with it's towpath on a causeway. Today, the level of the lake has been made higher than it used to be, and so the towpath lies just below the surface. In extreme drought conditions, parts of it emerge. We could see some birds out sitting on a piece of it sticking up.
Originally, Lake Musconetcong was a big marsh area and the canal was dug out across it as it's own trench. It was turned into a lake to supplement the water supply of Lake Hopatcong for the canal.

Lake Musconetcong and the former canal route

The towpath can still be seen in the water looking at aerial images, and Lerch was immediately suggesting we try to walk it out across the lake. I knew that wouldn't work, for one because there used to be a bridge or two on the towpath for water to pass beneath, and for two because sections of it were purged out so that boats and the weed harvesters could make it past the obstacle.
We would have to walk around the outside of the lake. I let everyone know that the worst part of the hike easily was the first part, walking the roads around the outside of the lake. Somehow, we made the best of this and still managed to have a good time.

Up On The Roof

We continued on Center Street, which came closer to the edge of the lake after we passed the spot where we could see the former inclined plane base in the back yard. The crest of the plane is just off of Center Street and is denoted with a sign at the top.
We cut to the right into a little park area with a view to the lake, then took a path and a footbridge into a small park called Dominick Arbolino Memorial Park. It had an open restroom, so it was a good place to let everyone stop and take a little break. Lerch kept himself entertained by getting up on the roof of the building. The really odd thing was that someone put a security camera on the roof of all places.

Former causeway on the lake

From this park, we walked the grass out to Koclas Ave, which becomes Dell Avenue as we get closer to Netcong.
The road goes to a spot where the canal used to come to touch the main land again, then continued on the causeway. We walked along this little bit, then continued on Dell Avenue out to the east, to a small start park property under management of Hopatcong.
It's technically a boat launch, but we took advantage of the hog weather and the fact that there was a dock by running and jumping off of it. Lerch and I went first, followed by Jen and Natalie. I forget who else went otherwise, but it was definitely a good little break spot. Lerch then had an idea to have everyone stand at the Sussex sign and block some of the letters for a photo. Or maybe it was Natalie. She's certainly sick enough in the head to fit in with the rest of us.

Old filled in lock at Lake Musconetcong

We soon reached the former outlet lock from the lake on the west side. The tops of the lock walls are clearly evident out on the grass, but now flush with the ground.

Historic view of the Musconetcong Lock

From this point, I declared that the hike would get much better as there would be less road walking and more right on the canal itself. Just below the lock the canal was watered for a short bit and the towpath clear.

Sex?

Before moving on, there of course had to be a little bit more craziness.
Lerch told me to wait a minute, as he ran over to the main dam of Lake Musconetcong. There was a power house type stone building and and I Beam over it, and he went down to check the water for depth first. He then climbed up onto the beam and jumped off into the lake, just above the dam. I managed to get a photo of him just as he was going off of the top of it. I was anxious to be moving out of that area around this time, because certainly by now we had made enough of a scene, someone had to have noticed.
We walked the former canal route to the west, along the watered part, then through parking lots that were built over it.

Musconetcong jump

We passed by the historic mill site that is now just a masonry ruin, then continued just a bit further ahead. There was a "spur canal" there, complete with a towpath which goes out to a turn lagoon. I've always thought this was an oddity for the canal.
Before going too far, I brought up that this would be the only opportunity on the entire hike where we'll pass any places for food and drinks. Pretty much everyone was game for lunch, and the Stanhope House was pretty close by. We agreed to go over there and have ourselves some lunch.

Morris Canal in Stanhope

Unfortunately, the Stanhope House was closed. I was just getting to looking forward to having a burger or something, and it was looking like we wouldn't find anything.
Lerch didn't want to give up just then, and he ended up finding something that was better in this particular occasion anyway: Bell's Mansion.
Bell's Mansion was the home of renowned local business man and once President of the Morris Canal and Banking Company, Robert P. Bell. He built the house between 1835 and 1840, very shortly after the development of the canal through the area.

Bell's Mansion

At first, it looked as though this was going to be far too fancy for our rowdy bunch, but then we found out they had outdoor seating.
We all went outside and had a really nice long break at the mansion. Lerch and I went for the grand tour of all of the open rooms we could walk through and have a look around. Lerch right away spotted a rare set of Presidential Spoons, and noted that he'd never seen so complete a collection of them in one spot before this. We then of course had to find the James K. Polk spoon. We also went and checked out the very impressive bar room with amazing lighting and very historic bar itself.

Palmerton Hotel's bar in Bell's Mansion

The bar was originally built in the 1880s for the Palmerton Hotel in Palmerton PA. I believe I ate there after a hike one time. It made it extra cool that this bar was not only preserved, but in this place.

Lunch!

After having a good look around, we sat down and decided on our lunches.
I'd already had a good amount of Lerch's "Complicated Orange" as well as some Weyerbacher. I didn't need much more, but Lerch insisted on something called a Four Horsemen Shot. I don't remember what the thing was, but I do recall it's four guy names like Jamison, or something or other, and one of them was Jose Cuervo. Lerch looked with great satisfaction as I was about to take the shot, as if knowing that it was going to burn or something, but it went down actually very smooth. He looked almost in disbelief for a moment. He said most places screw that shot up, because they put more Jose in than anything else, since it's cheapest. He ordered another one for me, which also did not burn and I had no problem with. At that point, he ordered two more, one for himself.
I believe I ordered a big burger thing, or maybe it was nachos. I honestly don't remember what I had at this point. All I know is that by the end of the lunch break, I had had six Four Horsemen shots, after Lerch told me the first one would "knock me on my ass".

After lunch

After lunch, we continued on our way back to the canal, and Lerch was hanging all over Dan. This continued for a little while, and Dan was a pretty good sport about the silliness.
We reached the historic canal route, and had to walk a few blocks of streets where it was filled in. We then reached the former Inclined Plane #2 East. Some of this is developed over, but near the bottom of it, there is still a section with sleeper stones in place. We continued down the former plane route to the Musconetcong River, where the canal used to cross over. There is now a crumbling old concrete bridge used to get hikers across to the next bit of the old canal.

Remnants of Plane #2 East

At the bridge, Lerch went to do another jump off of it into the Musconetcong. I told him not to do it; I'd swam in that spot before and it's definitely not deep enough. He was definitely feeling too happy, and although he usually always checks everything before jumping, this time he jumped and landed in about two feet of water. He broke his ankle and got a fracture where there is a chip of the bone off, although I now hear that may have been some pre-existing situation. Whatever the case, he was now out for the rest of the hike. He managed to get back up to the towpath and sat down.

Plane #2 West

He knew right away that it had been a bad move. He gave me the rest of his complicated orange and stuff, and said he was going to call an Uber to get back. Christian and Natalie were going to go with him, but he told me to tell them not to.

Morris Canal

The rest of us went ahead a little bit, and I turned back just to check on Lerch and make sure he was going to be able to get out alright.
When it seemed things would be good, we moved on along the towpath on what I feel to be some of the best preserved section of the entire canal.
The section I recall had the posts along the way on the water side the last time I was there, but now they were on the river side, away from the towpath. This scenario makes it so that it does not detract from the historic integrity of the canal so much as it does the other way.
We followed the good and clear canal route all the way to Rt 206 where the ruins of the lock tender's house are still standing fenced in. Here, we climbed away where the canal was obliterated and crossed 206 on the Sussex Branch Railroad bridge. This bridge was never used for rail, but as a formality it had to be built by the highway.

Morris Canal at ITC

We had to walk a swath of the International Trade Center roads briefly, but there is a good section of the old canal, with prism and towpath in pretty good shape, between them. We walked this section through some weeds, which was nice, then continued onto the better trail system through more of ITC. This was developed with footbridges and such, but just not maintained for quite some time.
John and his girlfriend had to cut out early at this point, and they’d spotted a car along the way nearby. The rest of us continued onward along the canal route until it turned left and went under Interstate 80.
That’s always been a spot I sort of hated; the canal goes to the other side of 80, skirts Mount Olive Station, and then heads onto a bit of state land and down former Inclined Plane #3 West. I’ve walked it, and it’s easy enough, but the problem is there is no way to get across 80 without a crazy dash. I wasn’t going to have the group dash across TWICE. We just skip plane 5 basically, which is sad because it still has sleeper stones in place and some masonry ruins of the plane tender’s house can be found.

Cables from Inclined Plane #4 West

We headed up hill away from the canal a bit, and there was a sort of trail that paralleled an industrial complex to the right. We walked on that as best we could, as well as along their parking area, then cut back into the woods parallel with Rt 80 from the end of the lot.
We could see that the walking trail used to continue around the lot through the woods, but that no one had been keeping up with it. We continued off trail until eventually the former canal came back out from under 80. From that point, we had a pretty good walk along the towpath heading west.
We soon reached the top of Inclined Plane #4 West. This is a great one that remains pretty untouched, but it is also one of the most inaccessible due to Rt 80, Waterloo Lake, and just general seclusion.

Plane 4 West

Masonry edges to the plane are still in place and there is a good path that follows the canal route down it. A trail joins the towpath pretty quickly after it comes out from under 80, then turns right at the base of Plane 4 to follow the old Sussex Railroad right of way to a footpath out to Continental Lane.
We had to get across Waterloo Lake or otherwise just walk around out on the other trail route. I had originally planned to have everyone take the longer route out and around, but others had already gone to look at the old towpath bridge remnants.

Plane 4W

The last time I had crossed the remnants of the towpath bridge was in December of 2008. It was rough then, but we could get over it. At this time, there was barely anything holding together the remaining bits of the bridge in the middle. I didn’t think we could do it.
Then, Christian announced that he was the heaviest in the group, and he was going to cross it. Amazingly, he made it with no problem. I figured if he could do it, so could I, so across I went with almost no problem.
Kevin and Dan didn’t want to cross, and neither did Gregg, so they took the roundabout route.

Busted bridge

The bridge remnant was only one large beam with a little bit of the guard rails in place. It didn’t look like it was going to hold anyone, but after Christian was across with no problem, I went for it. Everyone else followed slowly, and they were able to cross with no problems too. If anyone had seen us they’d certainly have thought we were insane.
We took a break on the other side. I wanted to let the other three who took the way around have a chance to meet back up with us. We sat next to the former aqueduct and canal lock site just on the other side of the bridge where the best view of the former plane and the lake can be had.

Gregg, Dan, and Kevin all went the correct way at first. Gregg knows the area pretty well, and so he moved along at a pretty quick pace. One second the other two were behind him, and then the next second they were gone. I’m not sure what they did, but Gregg showed up in Waterloo in pretty good time, but without them. Apparently they made a wrong turn and ended up all the way back at Interstate 80 where the trail connects to the canal.
I got a call from them letting me know where they’d gotten to. I believe Dan was able to catch back up with us, but Kevin got an Uber or something to get back out because he had work with NJ Transit later on that evening and couldn’t be too late. We were going to get finished rather late as it was.

Crossing Waterloo Lake

I went over a little of the history of Waterloo Village while we waited.
It’s known for being a famous canal town, but it existed well before that. There was once an iron furnace reportedly on the shore of the Musconetcong during Colonial days, well before the canals and railroads. The ironmaster’s house still stands in present Waterloo Village as one of the oldest buildings in the collection, though the roof is tarped and it’s not in really great shape. Waterloo was originally “Old Andover”, or probably just “Andover” before the present day Andover, near where the mines are, took on that name.

Waterloo locks

The little town grew when the Morris Canal arrived, and it was the interchange between the old Sussex Mine Railroad, which is now part of the road along the lake just up stream from the mule bridge, and the canal.
Partway up the Inclined Plane, abutments to the later Sussex Railroad, and later than that Sussex Branch of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western had been capped atop the plane rip rap rock. When Interstate 80 was built, it severed the right of way to the Sussex Railroad as well as old Waterloo Valley Road.
In more recent years, Waterloo Village was a privately run history tourist attraction, but it was sold several years ago to the state and annexed to Allamuchy Mountain State Park.

Then and Now Plane 4W

The land has turned over between several different state parks since, and there have been improvements here and there, but there’s still a very long way to go.
We continued on from here along the canal, in a very nicely preserved section that is watered for the length of the village.
When we got close to Rt 80, the canal is covered over and the trail, also the route of the Highlands Trail from this point to Stephens State Park, passes beneath the bridge next to the river. Christian and Natalie decided not to continue on any further from this point. Everyone had pushed pretty hard I suppose early on in this hike. Fortunately, I was still feeling fine. We continued on along the canal past the former site of Starport, a small now vanished settlement with only one bridge abutment from the canal crossing remaining.

Morris Canal near Starport

We continued from Starport and the trail follows Waterloo Road for a short bit. It then cuts back into the woods, past a weir site, and then across Kinney Road. We passed by the concert area outside of Waterloo Village next, all on good towpath, and came back out to Waterloo Road again to get around someone’s house.
The trail crosses Waterloo Road at one point and follows the abandoned former route of Waterloo Road, while the towpath and much of the prism has been overtaken by the present day road. The canal then turns off to the left, and there is one house built over it. Much of it is public land, but the trail hasn’t been well developed on it just yet.

Lock tender's house at Lock 4W

The next point of interest on the canal was the former Lock #4 west and tender’s house.
Very few realize that this building was ever a lock tender’s house at all. The outside of it retains a lot of it’s historic character, but the inside has been gutted out and altered quite a lot.
For many years, the building served as a residence as well as a restaurant known as Elsie’s Tavern. A lot of people from Hackettstown used to hang out there.
The place had been abandoned for a long time now. When I ran this hike (in the opposite direction) in 2009, I fell through the floor of the lower restaurant section. That non-historic section has since been demolished.

Morris Canal along Saxton Lake

Lock 4 was a guard lock. This means the canal opened up onto the Musconetcong River and utilized it’s slack water through to the next lock, Lock 5, or the Guinie Hollow Guard Lock. There is no way to continue to walk the canal from this point. The lock has been covered over, but even worse, the towpath has been removed where it would have followed a causeway out on the water.

Lock 5W

We had to follow another section of Waterloo Road from this point to the west. It was getting frustrating with people falling behind. First, I didn’t know for a time what had happened to Kevin, and only found out when Dan showed up and told me. Then, others were falling behind or dropping off. Jen was way behind and missed one turn, and James was waiting for her.
I couldn’t keep waiting up for people because it was going to be well after dark before we finished. Further, we’d have to skip an entire section of the canal I had been planning to hike, but it would not be light enough to do so.
We moved on to Colony Road, which has a couple of houses still on it, but most of them have been demolished. The state buys up most of them whenever they become available. In fact, the entire Waterloo Valley is a proposed reservoir site that remains authorized to this day, but it has not faced the controversy like what faced Tocks Island Dam.
We continued on Colony Road until we could get down to the canal towpath again, which leads to Lock #5 West. The lock is in good shape with it’s stone walls, but it has been completely filled over.

Lock 5 after being converted to a pool

In the years after the abandonment of the canal, the canal on the west side of Lock 5 was turned into a public swimming pool. There are still ladders and such down into it to this day, though the base of it is now dry.
We continued from here a short bit along Waterloo Road, where the canal crossed, and up onto the towpath parallel with the road.

House

This section was always in pretty good shape moving ahead, but it was even better lately because volunteer Jacob Franke had been doing extra work on it with his volunteer trail crew.
We continued out to the old house that sat along the canal a bit further up, and the back of it was wide open. Justin and I looked inside.
We then continued along the canal to the east. This section was only very recently cleared out. The trail used to have to go down the Highlands Trail route, via some steps, and then head out and around to an old road that led back to the towpath. Now, Franke’s crew had cleared not only just past the house, but all the way through so no road walk was necessary.

New canal trail section

The section goes by several abandoned houses, which look as though someone left them in a hurry, because there’s kid’s toys and swings and such in the back yards.
The trail was in good shape right on through to Bilby Road in Hackettstown. The previous time we hiked this, even though Franke’s crew had been there somewhat recently, it grew in very fast. We fortunately caught this section just after they had cut it again. We followed it out through some pretty nice woods, and across the little wooden footbridge someone had built over a purge in the towpath.

Morris Canal

The footbridge was getting a little beat, but still did the job.
When we reached Bilby Road, there was no continuing on the canal ahead. I know how to do it, but it’s far too overgrown to easily walk, especially in the dark. We got out of the Bilby Road section just before dark.
We walked to the left, and then started to follow Willow Grove Street into Hackettstown. When we got to town, we turned right and continued out to the railroad tracks. This was formerly the Morris and Essex line which is now the Morris and Essex NJ Transit line. Beyond the station in Hackettstown it’s used only for freight.
I had wanted to walk up to the Florence Kuipers Park section, but that would be way out of the way and harder to see to get back.

Historic Centenary postcard

We just walked the tracks back to Florence Kuipers Park near Centenary College. The new parking area we’d met at was right next to the railroad overpass.
I didn’t want to deal with anything toward the end. Too much frustration in every aspect of life was making me nuts. I slowed down just before we got to the turn off and I pointed out to everyone where exactly they needed to go, but then slipped off on my own down the tracks.
In just one week I’d be heading off for backpacking vacation, and I couldn’t wait. I needed to get away from everything causing pressure. I’m sure I’m not the only one. A lot of my friends have been going through their own messes we have to deal with, and now Lerch would sadly be out of commission for the end of the Summer and at least part of the Fall. I think I called him a dumb ass no more than three times, because missing out on things is more than punishment enough. No one needs any extra pressure, and at this time it seemed to be everywhere.
I found a good, comfortable enough spot, and I laid down and took a long nap.