Hike #975; Morris Canal, Saxton Falls to Port Colden
10/9/16 Morris Canal; Saxton Falls to Port Colden with Don Mayberry, Gregg Hudis, James Quinn,
Our next hike would be a point to point tracing the Morris Canal between Saxton Falls and Port Colden, the seventh in the series to cover it across the state, and sadly the last one for a while due to negative effect it might have on land owners in the Lopatcong area.
Trail route before
There are a few positive developments in this section despite some negative developments in the western section, in that Warren County has acquired right of way of the canal in Hackettstown and the greenway is almost complete between Route 46 and Route 519. The area of the canal is county, and the hillside is all now an addition to Mount Rascal Preserve of NJ Natural Lands Trust. I had done a walk through of this property soon after acquisition with Director of Land Preservation Corey Tierney who is doing great work to preserve our greenways, and he told me it’d be alright to start clearing the trail route.
Mt. Rascal section after I cleared it
The trail would have to skirt the berm side of the canal rather than the towpath itself, because the towpath went right along people’s back yards.
We agreed that the trail needed to stay a little further back to avoid an old bottle dump area, and then come closer to the canal prism further along. I went up with Jillane, and she checked out the old bottles and such around the area while I began work on clearing the new trail. I got a very long way on the route, and moved some very substantial branches and such with only a hand saw. Even I impressed myself with this one. I got about one third of the route for the new trail cleared, and Corey planned to have a group together to do more on the thirtieth of the month.
Hacked
I did a nice job of hacking my legs up, but overall it would be a good section to get through. Even in the Summer when we closed on the property, Corey and I were able to walk on through without too much problem, so this would be easy for us while doing this hike.
This is among the better sections of the Morris Canal Greenway to do today, and we were very fortunately to have Don Mayberry, one of the founding members of the Warren County Morris Canal Committee involved with the hike.
Warren County was the first county in the state to start a Morris Canal committee back in 1984, and Mr. Mayberry cleared some of the first sections of the Morris Canal Greenway at that time. He’s a wealth of information, and like we had in other eastern NJ counties with experts such as Rich Rockwell, we were fortunate to have him out to give valuable historic notation where no one else could.
Morris Canal at Saxton Falls today
We met in the morning at the Port Colden Mall, and then shuttled with as few cars as possible to our beginning point of Saxton Falls.
I decided on this starting point because on the previous hike we had done the last leg of it in nearly the dark, and the section from Bilby Road on was not passable due to limited light. I simply added a section onto this hike which I feel made it much better, and then had the hike conveniently end at Port Colden. We could do another overlap with the next section of it looked like we’d be able to do it any time soon.
Lock 5W, historic view, almost same view as above
When we were all together at the Saxton Falls Guard Lock, former Lock #5 West, I went over a little bit of the history of the canal. By this point, most in the group already had a good knowledge about the canal and for the most part it was reiteration to people, but for those who didn’t know I suppose it was of some value.
We didn’t take a lot of time at the old filled in lock, and continued ahead along the empty canal prism heading west. This was the section where shortly after the abandonment of the canal, the canal was used as a public swimming pool.
There are still some ladders and such down into it that can be seen.
We continued shortly out to Waterloo Road, where the co-aligned Morris Canal Greenway and Highlands Trail are both together. It’s a bit rough at first on the other side, but soon opens up to a very nice section of towpath high above the roadway.
Morris Canal used as a public pool at Saxton Falls
Not much had changed in the section ahead. It was good and clear. The group immediately got segmented a bit with some going farther ahead. I tried to hold them up by going farther ahead, and the next bit of interpretation was the Vermuele era drainage structures. I explained that they were named after the engineer in charge of the abandonment and dismantling of the Morris Canal, as he had them put in place to drain the canal.
We continued on from here out to the abandoned house to the left of the canal. The back portion of the house is an addition that came after the canal was closed, but the rest of it is an historic canal era dwelling.
Newly cleared canal towpath parallel with Waterloo Road
A few of us went in to have a look around. The back door was wide open, so it was pretty inviting looking. We didn’t look around for too long as not to cause problems, and continued on the canal towpath heading to the west.
The section of trail, recently cleared by Jacob Franke and his crew, was looking quite excellent. We were able to follow it out and across the next driveway, then beyond past a collection of abandoned homes to the left. We couldn’t hang around there with such a big group, because it would certainly have looked suspicious, so we continued on along the trail heading to the west into the woods.
Morris Canal Towpath near Waterloo Road
The area certainly needs some further improvements, but it is now more easily walkable. Warren County had approved the construction of a bridge on the state land ahead so that utility vehicles could get through for maintenance, but there are two other spots that would inhibit something like a zero turn mower from passing through.
First, there is another driveway access that bisects the old towpath. It’d need to be filled in or at least made at a more gentle grade to get a vehicle through. Second, there is another washout or former weir site near a basin that is also quite low, which would have to be leveled off a bit to get any equipment through.
Old lime kiln
The trail remains really nice for a while. There was a small turn lagoon of some sort off to the right, then there was a side trail to the right that Jacob Franke and his group had put in. The side trail led down across the dry canal prism, then back up the other side to an old access road leading to a lime kiln. The kiln was built right on the edge of the canal, and it would be likely the canal was used for transporting the material I would think.
It’s not in great shape any more, but it’s still pretty cool. I think it was Doug who went around to check out the top of it. We continued from here to the west.
Along the canal with Don Mayberry
The trail was in nice shape all the way to Bilby Road. We had to cross over the big washout site, where someone, presumably the mountain bikers, had come through and build a rough wooden bridge out of sticks found on site. The bridge sort of just magically appeared around 2011. I know in early 2009 that there was no way to get across this spot, we had to bushwhack down and around. The bridge is still holding up, but not as sturdy as it once was. Hopefully we’ll get a good pedestrian bridge in there sometime soon.
The canal passed through a nice cut, then the trail turned off to the left to get out to Bilby Road where we all regrouped a bit.
The canal near M&M
The next section was some of the toughest. There was no trail, no deer path, no nothing. In the past, we had to get onto the former westbound grade of the Morris and Essex/Lackawanna Railroad, now NJ Transit. The westbound has been abandoned for a long time and is somewhat clear. This time I wanted to actually stay on the canal the entire time.
We descended from Bilby Road, after I let everyone know that this was likely to be the worst part of the entire hike. Fortunately, since it had been so dry, the canal prism was soft but not mucky, so we could just walk in it. Typically, this section holds a good amount of water to this day.
We passed through one section that apparently used to be another turn or passing lagoon, then continued around a rather sharp bend. Warren County owns the first bit of land, and beyond it is owned by M&M Mars Snack foods. Matt Davis and I had gotten a sort of verbal agreement to go through this section with the trail, but we need to get something on paper to really start developing it.
Don Mayberry told us some pretty cool information I had never heard about this section before. He mentioned that there was a Mammoth or Mastadon found here when they were digging the canal, and that it’s on display somewhere to the north. I had never known about that before, so it was pretty interesting.
He also told us that there was a large dump that utilized the former canal, and that it was constantly burning; something else I did not know about.
Tim and DeLotto went off away from the canal to the left and ended up on the railroad tracks, while the rest of us only went off of the canal briefly, then got through to where we could walk it more easily. We didn’t catch back up with them until we got to Rt 46, which unfortunately skipped a very long section of wooded canal including the new trail section I just installed.
We continued on this section and eventually came out at the back to Towpath Apartments. After regrouping, we continued across Rt 517 and onto the property of a funeral home. The towpath section was well cleared enough that we could get through.
A guy came out from the funeral home and asked what we were doing. It must have looked odd, because I took the lead, wearing my beige suit and tie.
Hiking the canal
I told the guy at the funeral home that we were just hiking the canal, and he seemed really happy, and told us that was great. It’s nice to have such positive feedback to hikers coming through.
We soon crossed the next street and entered the woods on the towpath. This is the section that was owned by The Hills at Independence. The township line between Hackettstown and Independence is the canal, and so we were just over the Independence side ahead.
It was decided that the canal trail would follow the berm side of the canal at first, which through here was a woods road, then after would have to be a footpath.
Mt. Rascal section
The section of land on the hill is now annexed to NJ Natural Land Trust’s Mount Rascal Preserve, while Warren County retained just the Morris Canal portion.
The route is really nice, even though it’s only along the berm. We had to do a little bit of bushwhacking through here, but overall it was really easy.
When we got to where the hill on the berm side got smaller, we reached where I had cleared new trail. I was actually kind of disappointed that it came across as really not all that big a deal. Everyone just easily followed through on the trail section. It was in fact so easy that it was one could just overlook all of the work I did. I showed a couple in the group my before and after photos, and I stopped everyone to admire where the biggest mess of trees I cut were.
Play
We continued easily along the canal, and then the trail turns away to the right, as Corey from Warren Co had requested, to steer to the north of the bottle dump site. We continued from here out to The Hills At Independence for a break to let everyone catch up.
Of course, everyone ended up on the swings having fun until we were ready to go.
The next section was really nice; The Hills at Independence had incorporated the former canal into their retention pond system, which looks quite authentic. Don Mayberry chimed in here again with some more historic information.
Hills at Independence section of canal
It turns out when this section was purchased for the development, the canal here had long been used as a dump, and it would need to be completely cleaned out again if they wanted to develop the property. Don told us that they dug the stuff down all the way to the clay base of the canal.
We walked the canal out to the canal lane that goes to Rt 46. This takes us over an authentic old aqueduct over a creek, but it’s not visible from the former canal or nearby roads. At Route 46, Delotto and Tim joined back up with us. The plan from here was to head down into Hackettstown for a lunch break.
Da group!
We headed down hill to the left along Rt 46 to where there was Frank’s Pizza, Quick Check, Shop Rite Liquors, and more. I picked up some Weyerbacher’s Blithering Idiot, my go to favorite. I was quite happy to see that Lowell had chosen the same beverage earlier, clearly my influence from previous outings!
I enjoyed a couple of terrific slices of pizza, and really had probably too much because I felt totally stuffed. I’d continued to have stomach problems since returning from Connecticut, and I can’t be sure if it’s something from untreated water or simply bad stress from work.
Don Mayberry’s daughter and her boyfriend cut out early at this point, and called to get a ride (I think they were still waiting there for a ride something like two hours later too!).
Benevolent business owner let us walk the canal through his yard
We had some laughs about that, and I’m sure Mister Mayberry didn’t let them live it down later either, after he indicated to me that he was a Phys Ed teacher!
We made our way back up to the former canal crossing, now a parking area with miniature statures of the Statue of Liberty at the entrance. A guy came out and asked what we were doing just as we were heading down the street to hike parallel and back to Florence Kuipers Park. “No, no no...” the guy said. I expected to get a long list of complaints about “you people”, but such was not the case.
The man, still in his white work apron, pointed us to the end of his lot, and said “Come! Come, follow me!” in a slight accent. He guided us across the back of his lot and then through the grass and around some bushes. He pointed out where the canal used to be to the right, with the rip rap rock on the slope to the right. He brought us across an apartment complex lawn, pointed to where he lived, and then to the road where we’d soon reach Florence Kuipers Park.
Positive graffiti
I was blown away that someone in Hackettstown would be so friendly and welcoming to those hiking the old canal. It’s far different than the responses we’d gotten in many other places toward the west side of the county.
We continued to Florence Kuipers Park, and began following the towpath to the west. There’s a good mile long section here which has a nice view of the Centenary College dome high on a slope.
We also crossed a footbridge at a washed out area to find it covered in graffiti. However, this was not your average graffiti. Absent was any vulgar word or phallic symbol. The bridge was adorned with colorful uplifting statements such as “Expand your mind”, “Live by the sun”, and the like, with nice penmanship and little flowers and such.
Messages
I don’t know quite what to say to graffiti like this. I hesitate to even call it graffiti; it’s unlawful to paint all over the bridge, but it’s been done in such a way that doesn’t hurt anything, and as long as it doesn’t turn into something negative, I suppose there is no harm in it at all. I actually rather liked it after a few moments.
We continued on the nice trail out to the former site of the Cuff House. It’s really sad that this house is gone, burned down by vandals sometime after 2011. The place was vacant by 2008, and I remember hiking through on this section back in 2002 I think it was, and having a nice discussion with Mrs. Cuff. She was a very friendly lady who would greet hikes passing through.
I was still able to get my car up to the house, which was still standing, when I was out of work on disability after the fire in 2010, and I checked out the place.
It had been broken into time after time, and was a sad mess. It’s even worse that it was an historic home. It was still full of stuff like pictures, vaccuum cleaners, etc, as if Mrs. Cuff hadn’t been gone that long. It burned sometime soon after that.
The Cuff House, 2007
Somewhere I have some better photos of the out and inside of it, but they’re buried in my archives in such a way that I’ can’t easily find them. The only one I can find at the moment is one from a hike through the site in 2007, and the house might even have been occupied then.
I took our group photo here, while Michele was on the phone with Lerch (Kralc Leahcim), who was still enfeebled from his incident on the previous Morris Canal hike.
We continued from here down the old driveway, known as Buck Hill Road, which led us to the new Warren County Morris Canal Greenway parking area off of Rockport Road (which changes names going into Hackettstown). Don gave us more historic facts from the time including that the railroad had been graded but not finished for a little while.
This was the Morris and Essex Railroad, originally a competitor to the Lackawanna, but then was absorbed into that system. There’s still a very nice underpass, one lane, with masonry walls. We had to walk Rockport Road to the east for a bit because the canal is inaccessible, in people’s back yards and such.
Morris Canal at Rockport Game Farm
We remained don the road for a bit, and Red Sean ran through an adjacent corn field some. We ended up having to walk a good amount of road, but it was pleasant enough. We had some breaks from it, the first of which was the section of canal towpath in Rockport Game Farm. We climbed up the slope when we could get to it to walk the nicely cleared section.
I had always through that this section had silted in; a good pond, an authentic looking watered section of the canal used to be here, but sometime around 2002 it was let go, drained by Fish and Wildlife Don told us, because people were complaining about the geese. It would be nice to see this section opened back up again, re-watered.
One of the oldest homes in Warren County
We followed the towpath out of the game farm, then to the west through Rockport. The canal went right over the island of grass at an intersection from there. We continued out along Rockport Road heading to the west. There are a couple of sections in here Warren County has looked at purchasing, but nothing new on that now.
The road walk section was particularly interesting for me this time thanks to Don Mayberry. I’d walked it many many times, but he knew the history better than I do. He soon pointed out an old wooden house he identified as one of the oldest homes in Warren County. It stands abandoned now, in sad shape. He cited that it was in Dennis Bertland’s Historic Architecture of Warren County book.
Where the canal passed through Rockport
I’d passed the place countless times but never considered the history of it.
There was another old stone house on the right which also sits vacant currently. I never think about it driving by, but it’s much more sad knowing that some homes date back before the American Revolution and absolutely nothing is going into saving them.
We also passed by the old Rockport School House. I must have looked at this home countless times too, but I never until this hike looked at it like it might have been a school. These are things on a farther away hike that I’d certainly notice.
Old Rockport School
Because we were so close to home, I sort of skim over the historic places I’ve been used to seeing my entire life.
We finally turned away from the road again when we reached Borealis, the plastic place. There was a mowed section to the left, which isn’t marked as a trail or anything, but is totally open. We turned left on that and skirted the facility heading west. We eventually reached Thomas Road, near where the famous Rockport Train Wreck took place (one of the worst train wrecks in US history). Everyone regrouped here except Lyz and Ric who I think at this pointed decided to run ahead due to previous engagements.
Borealis section
We continued through the state Wildlife Management Area lands heading to the east along the edge of corn fields, immediately parallel to the canal which was just to the right. We stayed on this route to the end of the first field at a tree line with a creek running below. Here, we cut right into the brush onto the former canal to find a concrete vermuele era drainage structure. During the operation of the canal, there must have been a culvert, aqueduct, or weir in the canal to accommodate the flow of the creek beyond the canal. I’m not sure what it was. We hopped over the brook, then made our way to the next field where we continued west parallel with the canal.
Along former Morris Canal west of Rockport
We came out soon to Washburn Road. Rather than try to bushwhack a bit further, we turned right, then left on Rockport Road, which is immediately parallel with the canal at this point.
We passed the old church to the right, and stayed along the road.
There was a house to the right which had a stone wall in front of it. This was yet another amazing historic tidbit.
Don Mayberry told us to look closely at the wall and see several very old mill stones built into it. He explained that these were the original millstones from Penwell Mill nearby. This is some of the awesome information that needs to be shared, because who would know today?
Old Penwell mill wheel
We continued on Rockport Road to a left turn on Cherry Tree Bend Road. The old canal was clearly visible along Rockport and the start of Cherry Tree Bend, but then we were high above it. We continued on the road toward Port Murray, and eventually a footpath with steps breaks off to the left, into what is called Dennis Bertland Heritage Area. The section of the canal is developed as a greenway, and the trail connects to that. We followed it onward, then turned right on the canal into Port Murray. There is a very nice old lagoon on the canal that still has water in it. Beyond that, it is filled in, and part of a yard. We continue on the driveway along the towpath out to Port Murray Road.
Historic view of Port Murray Store
We re-grouped again at the Port Murray Road crossing, because I wanted to tell everyone about the old Port Murray Canal Store. I pointed out the doorway where goods could be loaded direction from boat into the lower store level.
Port Murray Store today
This time, because Don was with us, we could walk the Pool Property ahead. He had been walking hit his entire life and knows every one of the neighbors. We walked right on through the nicely kept towpath heading to the east from here.
Morris Canal on Pool Property
It wasn’t nearly as nice as it had been in the past. It was much more kept up on past times I’d been on it. Since Harry Pool had passed away, the land has passed to his estranged wife followed by the bank. I don’t know what’s going on with it now, but the county is trying to acquire the section.
Harry Pool was apparently a very bad business man, but he was a really nice guy in my experience. In the past, I was told he wanted everyone to stay off of the canal section he owned, but when I asked him myself if he minded me passing through, he said it was absolutely no problem. He was a good friend to my grandfather, as well as a client.
The new Port Murray Preserve sign
We eventually reached where we’d have to cut across a yard in order to reach Hoffman Road and our next section of trail. Don said hello to one neighbor out working in his garden, who greeted him warmly. As a co owner of Mayberry’s (which is where state parks deal with Stihl chainsaw and other products), he’s well known and liked all over the area.
The last time we walked through this section, there was nothing to stop us from walking through to Hoffman Road. Now, a large white fence had been erected around the garage building along Hoffman Road. The guy in the garden said we should just cut down through his driveway, but Don’s knew someone else and took us straight on through.
Historic view at Pool property
The new park sign had been installed on Hoffman Road at the entrance to the Port Murray Preserve. We’d put a vegetative buffer in along the south side, and neighbors are continuously not happy with what the county is doing to try to respect their privacy, but truthfully this preserve is a good thing for them. The land won’t be developed, and most patrons will all be good ones.
We headed along the marked trail from the Hoffman Road parking lot to the west. The canal was actually to the south of there but passes through private land, so the trail follows an old brick yard access road known as Terra Cotta Lane. We followed it for a bit, then turned left off of it through scrubby undergrowth to the top of former Inclined Plane #5 West.
Historic view down the plane
The plane is much gone today; a victim of the quarrying for material for the Pyronics place that used to be back there. The turbine chamber and tail race tunnel are thankfully pretty intact. Don told us about how he once met the guy who scrapped the scotch turbine that had been there many years ago, and how he got basically nothing for it, and that it was a big ordeal to even get it out of there. It was cool at least that when they were quarrying and came across the chamber, that they recognized this as being something pretty cool and to leave it there.
We climbed down carefully at the slope by where the plane used to be, then made our way around to the turbine chamber. It’s hard to try to explain what was, compared to what is there now. We will eventually need a kiosk with a map and photos at the site. It’s going to have to be well thought out.
Plane 5 west historic view
We made our way from the turbine chamber west to Brickhard Road, now also private driveway, and followed it right to the canal greenway once more, which is at the very base of former plane #5 west.
The same view of plane 5 west today
The canal greenway trail on old Terra Cotta Road comes in on the right, and we continued along the trail route which is on the driveway. One car went by us while we were walking it, but didn’t stop to say “hi”. If it had been Brian Hannesak, he would have said hello, as we have a very nice working relationship with him.
Trolley right of way
The trail turned off onto the section I had cleared out with Matt Davis a couple of years back. A bit of this was growing back in, but it wasn’t really in bad shape. We took the steps and then a couple of steep switch backs down to the little creek crossing, where it got a bit more weedy, then came to the little grove after another crossing where I’d wanted to place a picnic bench.
Some trees had been cut from the power line and had blocked the view of the old trolley culvert ahead, but it was still a nice area. We followed the trail through the woods and up to where it joins the old trolley right of way.
Morris Canal at Hart's Lane
The trail turns right on the old trolley, part of the Easton Washington Traction Company. Don had some more historic tidbits here; the line terminated at Port Murray, and he said it was to continue on, but that there were some landowner holdouts that kept it from being finished on to Hackettstown, where it was supposed to connect with other trolley lines.
We followed the trolley bed, now also doubling as a driveway, west until we got back to the accessible canal towpath. We turned left along the canal through woods, then out to Hart’s Lane. The section is incredibly nice, on the towpath the entire time, and some of the canal is watered. Unfortunately, at Hart’s Lane, the greenway does not continue on.
Tail race tunnel at Plane 6W
From Hart’s Lane, we turned left to cross the bridge over the tracks, then descended to the tracks to follow the right of way of the former westbound track. This provided for a nice easy route to follow for a time, but also got us right up to the tail race tunnel of former Morris Canal #6 West.
Most were not interested in going into this one. Many in the group had already done it before, but I never get sick of it. Lowell and I both went in and had look around.
We went all the way back in to where the turbine chamber was filled in, then made our way back. We continued on the tracks over a high fill soon, and we could see down on the former trolley barns.
Old trolley barns
The trolley barns were the shops where they worked on the trolley engines. It’s been there my entire life, and saw a new life as a Seven Up bottling pant. Growing up, we all just thought it was the 7UP plant, but such was not the case.
In the old trolley shops
The barns even still have a trestle for the trolley just off to the south side of it. I pointed out the historic building to the group, which is now being used by Jeff Hackett and his employees for trucking.
We continued along the railroad to a cut over into Port Colden at an ATV access.
I walked everyone briefly on some of the ATV paths we used to use, then continued to the former canal briefly, then continued out the trolley line to Port Colden Road. I called up Mark Godfrey when we went by to see if he was around to come out and meet anyone, but he wasn’t home. We then simply walked Rt 57 back to Port Colden Mall.
There is still plenty more of the canal to do, but I foresee it being a rather wasted hike until we have a better access to the sections to the west. We’d had a pretty good day with a lot more information than ever before hiking this section.
I hope that the Morris Canal Greenway continues to move along at a good rate of speed, and that the public rights of way in the western portion of the county are soon opened up, and I hope to be a big part of it. It’s an extremely rewarding feeling for me to know I’ve played a hand in the development of the canal greenway, despite push back from some who have been involved for years. These hikes have truly showcased how worthwhile it is to hike the former Morris Canal, even today in it’s incomplete form.
Metrotrails will return to take on the last two segments of the Morris Canal as soon as we have the county’s blessing to pass through the Stewart’s Hunt property to the west. Until then, we’ll fill our schedule in with plenty of other worthwhile sites as we approach the close of the year.
No comments:
Post a Comment