Hike #968; Byram Area Loop

Hike #968; Byram Area Loop

9/8/16 Byram Loop with Jim "Uncle Soup" Campbell, Dan Asnis, Anthony Auriemma, Steve Levy, and ?

Our next hike would be a point to point as planned, but turned into a loop rather unexpectedly. I had a route planned between Mt. Olive and Cranberry Lake, but the way we did it, we covered fifteen miles and probably more looping back.

Sussex Branch Trail

After meeting at Mount Olive Station, we shuttled to Cranberry Lake bus commuter lot, which is directly along the former Sussex Railroad, now Sussex Branch Trail. The first bit of it was to follow the Sussex Branch to the north.
It was pretty easy, just the simplicity of the rail trail headed to the north. I pointed out some historic tidbits including where the original Sussex Mine Railroad deviated from the later route of the railroad. We continued on the Sussex Branch until we got to the Lackawanna Cutoff underpass. There, we turned to the right after climbing the high embankment.

Lackawanna Cutoff

The Lackawanna Cutoff is still scheduled to be rebuilt. It’s an interesting story that goes a long ways back.
First of all, the line should never have been abandoned. There are even stories that say that it was abandoned illegally. The workers didn’t want to see it go, and so after the machines lifted the spikes out for the removal of the track the next day, workers went out and hammered them all back in. I’ve since seen photos to prove that these events actually took place. The line was torn up in 1982, and I started hiking it with my grandfather in the late eighties.
We met some guys who told us there was a tunnel on it, so we hiked different sections every week in search of the Roseville Tunnel. It seemed to take forever to get to it.
When we arrived at Roseville Tunnel, there were two state surveyors there who said they were going to rebuild the line. This all seemed exciting way back then, and that was the 1980s.

Bridge replacement (stalled)

Since that time, it keeps getting stalled, but track has been laid in different parts of Byram Township to the east. It’s not finished, but there’s something there.
Sierra Club and all sorts of environmentalists were grasping for straws on why the line shouldn’t be rebuilt, which I never understood. It’s already engineered to perfection, it pretty much just needs track. One complaint was something to do with the railroad now being wetlands, another was that Roseville Tunnel is a bat hibernaculum. The latest is that a small bridge on the Hudson Farm property owned by Peter Kellogg needs replacement and Kellogg will not pay for it. It’s kind of sad to hear he’s against the railroad, because he was a staunch advocate of the Highlands Trail, another big work of passion.

Roseville Tunnel

We followed the Lackawanna Cutoff west, which has a good canopy of trees over it now. For many years, there was nothing at all to block the sun from beating on us in these sections. I have literally watched the right of way grow over to somewhat mature forest. It looks like a totally different place from what I remember walking years ago. Even on my own early Metrotrails hikes, there is not nearly the amount of vegetation growing as there is now.
We continued out toward Roseville, and passed through the cut approaching Roseville Tunnel. There was a bridge over the road missing, that was in the process of being replaced, but Steve said that was halted when Chris Christy put the hold on transportation funding. Just beyond there is the mouth of the tunnel.

Roseville Tunnel

The tunnel is only about a thousand feet long, and it’s always an interesting spot. It’s not nearly as interesting as the Manunka Chunk or Oxford Tunnels, because you can see clear to the other side and it’s just an easy stroll through with no cave ins, but it’s still pretty cool.
We made our way through, and once we got to the other side, Steve and his girlfriend left us to head back home (they live very close to this area).
The tunnel opens up from the cut pretty quickly on the other side, and there are immediately ponds that were likely “borrow pits” for the fill needed for the railroad ahead.

Roseville Tunnel

We continued on the right of way ahead with no problems, and could see down to the water bodies both to the left and the right. When up on the fill, the canopy of trees was not as dense, bringing in more light.

Lackawanna Cutoff

The right of way was originally double tracked, even when built, and so there is a clear path to the left, with the ties still in place from the last days of the railroad to the right. It’s annoying to walk on though, because it’s covered in ballast rock.

Lackawanna Cutoff

We passed soon through another cut, with a steep hill off to the left. A path off to the left was the way we used to hike through when doing the Highlands Trail. We could never find a name for this section of mountain, so we sort of designated it “South Sparta Mountain”. The land is all part of Peter Kellogg’s Hudson Farm. The Highlands Trail no longer traverses the section, which is sad because there’s an outstanding overlook of Lake Lackawanna and the Lackawanna Cutoff from the top. The trail through this section has since been moved to the Hopatcong Nature Preserve, but we’d soon find even more changes.

View of Lake Lackawanna

A view of Lake Lackawanna opened up to the right of the right of way. We noticed here that Anthony and his dog were getting much further behind. Anthony was keeping a good enough pace, but the dog started slowing down quite a lot. It was surprisingly hot out, so we figured he might just be getting dehydrated, so we waited up.

Poor guy stepped on glass :(

Usually, we find that pitbulls are excellent and energetic hiking dogs, but he was really slowing down pretty bad. He would stop and lay down quite a lot. Despite giving him water, he was having a really hard time. I figured it might just be the ballast rock that was hard on his feet, but now in retrospect I remembered the dogs that came with Steve did fine with it.
I picked the dog up and carried him beyond where the ballast rock ended, but he was still having trouble. Anthony decided it best to get an Uber out of there and to let the dog rest up. It turned out that he must have taken one wrong step on a piece of glass, that must have been what the main problem was. It was a good thing we stopped at the point we did, because there was a very easy way out and a road to get the dog to safety most quickly right there at the end of the fill, and everything worked out alright.

Lackawanna Cutoff

Uncle Soup, Dan, and I continued on the right of way through another slight cut. The path Anthony used to get down was the former route of the Highlands Trail before the reroute, and the painted out blazes could still be seen descending to Lake Drive. Just beyond the cut, we came to the rebuilt section of the Lackawanna Cutoff, although now it was somewhat overgrown, disjointed, and left stagnating for some time. I wish they would just open the damn thing, as we could use this for hikes to shuttle from point to point if it were in place.
We continued on the right of way to the south. I thought all of the tracks were all together, but apparently there are disjointed sections just sitting there. They can’t even get a train up to the terminus of trackage yet. We continued through Byram, and we over shot where I thought we needed to turn by a bit. We had to turn back after going too far south, then climb the slope up to the Highlands Trail route, here a paved pathway that leads to the area schools.
I think there were changes in this route from what I remember. I thought that it crossed much earlier on, but apparently it didn’t. The pathway itself took a more circuitous route than I remembered, and had a different surfacing. It looked like it was rebuilt for a gentler grade, and the old trail was now used for runoff. It was getting dark, but the easy surface was good for us to just wander on down hill on.
We eventually came out on Mansfield Drive near the Byram Central School. From there, the Highlands Trail simply follows the road out to Lackawanna Drive, then heads to the Byram Shop Rite area. I haven’t talked to my friend Glenn yet, who manages the trail, so it might have actually been rerouted through this area, but I’m not sure.

Shop Rite selfie

We made a stop at the Shop Rite and got some food. I went over to the pizza place and into the Shop Rite, and we got some snacks and drinks. We sat outside of the store probably looking like vagrants, eating and relaxing for a little bit. I had black railroad dirt on me from carrying the dog for a bit, which made it funnier.
We continued from here across Rt 206 to the cul de sacs from which the Highlands Trail enters the woods again. Rather than follow the Highlands Trail, which is rugged through eastern Allamuchy Mountain State Park, we got on the Byram Trail, which is a multi use trail, easily surfaced for it’s entire route. This took us on a longer route around the hills and such, but much more amenable to the night hiking. We followed it all the way through to Jefferson Lake Road, while the Highlands Trail cuts off to the north to connect with the Sussex Branch Trail along the inlet to Jefferson Lake. The trail follows the road to the left for a short bit.
There was a boat launch off to the right, and we decided to stop and take a break. It was pretty hot out, even though it was dark, so I wanted to see if this would be a good spot to take a dip.
It turned out to be great. The boat launch kept the vegetation at the approach from growing heavily, and it was very easy to just walk in and lay down. Uncle Soup came in too, and we just laid in the lake for a bit. I spotted a shooting star soon after getting in, and the meteor showers were supposed to be taking place.
From here we simply continued on the Byram Trail, which followed a driveway access road briefly, then went through another section of woods south of Jefferson Lake before reaching Sussex Branch Trail.
My original plan was to hike the Sussex Branch south, then head to the cars at ITC, but it turned out from the distance we went, it would come out to be exactly fifteen miles if we were to continue on the Sussex Branch north to where we started off, making it a loop. We did just that.
We followed the Sussex Branch through nice woods, along Jefferson Lake, then out along the wetlands before reaching Cranberry Lake. We then walked the shore of Cranberry for a bit, with all of the pretty lights of the homes on the other side showing the way pretty clearly. Just before the end, we reached the Cranberry Lake footbridge and walked across and back.
This was one of those hikes that felt like one of those “End of Summer” hikes. Even though so few of us were out for it, it would be likely the last time we’d have a hot and humid evening swim in any body of water. Overall it was a relatively stress free and relaxing hike, which was exactly what I wanted at the moment. Soon, I’d be going backpacking in Connecticut, and it felt like the rest of the stress would fall away.