Hike #985; Holland Brook to Flemington

Hike #985; Holland Brook to Flemington

11/12/16 Holland Brook to Flemington with Justin Gurbisz, Sue Bennett, John M. Kosar, Kralc Leahcim (Lerch), and Sean TheRed Reardon

This next hike would be a point to point in part revisiting some of the places we had recently explored in Readington Township, but also several other parks I had never used on my hikes in the past for a very interesting new route.

Connecting trail to Holland Brook School

Aside from it being a good list of new stuff, it was an incredibly light and silly hike at times, and at others quite thought inducing.
It had been a weird couple of days since Donald Trump won the election. Mixed feelings were all around, and everywhere we went seemed like a state of unrest. In fact, for me personally, everything has seemed to be a mess of unrest.
I’d been assigned to Washington’s Crossing State Park, which is a huge drive in traffic every morning. My first week alone, three accidents happened within my sight. I figured this is either going to kill me or help me out in the long run, and it’s uncertain which.
I’ve been trying to make everything positive. From helping people deal with whatever they’re feeling regarding the election, to my own situation with driving and such, and beyond.
I took the transfer as an opportunity to do more southern night hikes than I’d normally do, and for this one I decided to revisit the Readington Township trail system we so enjoyed on a recent night hike. I could really do this from Spruce Run, but it was on my way home and I also didn’t want to be out that late.

Sunset on Heath

I met the group at the Taco Bell in Flemington. I’m starting to get a reputation for meeting for hikes at Taco Bells! I do love their stuff, and we’d recently started one at the Taco Bell in Ewing, and we’d done others at the ones in Phillipsburg and Hackettstown. This was just another to add to the list.
Lerch and Red Sean would meet us late, and the rest of us shuttled from Flemington to Holland Brook School area. We parked on street on a road called Barkelew Road. We had gone this way the last time we did the Readington trails, and I figured if we went from the other way, we’d get to see a lot of it that we’d only seen in the dark. Such was really not the case though, because the sun was setting by the time we arrived.

Sunset in Holland Brook area

We walked the connecting trail from Barkelew to the back yard of Holland Brook School. This took us to the running track, which we skirted the right side of, then headed along the grass to the south. We took the entrance road from Holland Brook School past the middle school, then continued across Readington Road onto Roosevelt Road. We then turned left on Heath Road. The trail goes in between houses at the end of Heath. There were kids playing in a yard adjacent to the trail, which had no markings and really no way of delineating where we should go, so that was a bit weird. They said hi as we went by, but it might have looked creepy, these people walking through their back yards, even though it was an official trail.

Sunset near Holland Brook

We entered fields very soon, and the sun was setting beautifully. It was a golden color when we were on Heath, and then by the time we reached the fields, the Cirrus clouds had begin to look a shade of pink.
We crossed the field and continued to the left, the way we had gone previously. We then headed down a slope and across some rather dry branch of the Holland Brook.

We emerged in a large field where the trail skirts it’s right side. We could see the houses across to the left of us. There were some lights around, but no one called out to us. The trail continued along the edge of the field heading south. This section is called the Lachenmayr Farm tract. We continued past a few homes, which the trail went pretty much right in back of, and didn’t have any trouble. It was already pretty dark at this point, and it seems weird to be going right in back of the people’s houses.
Our route was the same we used the previous time through here. We continued out to Pine Bank Road and then turned to the right.

Sunset on Lachenmayr Farm

I posted this hike at this time in part to get it out of the way before major hunting season started. It was archery only, and most of this skirted safety zones for the start, so we’d be okay.
We followed Pine Bank Road past a single farm house, then at the intersection with Roosevelt Road again, we turned left into the woods in what is part of the greenway to Cole Road, although we would not get to that road ourselves. We crossed over the Holland Brook’s main stream and continued through woods.
The trails aren’t marked really great, but for the most part we could follow them pretty easily.

Moon rise over Lachenmyr

There are several trails in this section, so it’s easy to get off track a bit. We made one wrong turn, and we went up hill a bit where we shouldn’t have, but soon got back on track. The section goes by a really weird house that is all about six foot high panel windows, where we’re looking right into the entire house the whole time. That’s really odd on the trail. We could see the people inside clear as day standing around, near counters and such. It’s actually pretty close to other houses as well, so it comes across as a real exhibitionist type of place. Otherwise, it’s a pretty cool design.
I was in touch with both Red Sean and Lerch, who were both very close and ready to meet up. It was seeming like Red Sean would get there first, but then Lerch did. I had Lerch park near the power line section on Hillcrest Road.
We hiked the greenway trail in the narrow swath between Morning Star Road and another cul de sac, and we got to figure out what went wrong the last time we were out there: there is a trail not shown on any of the maps, which makes a cutoff route over to the trail on the power lines heading to Cole Road. We had to continue simply straight to stay on our through route, which this time was very easy.

Power line moon

We reached the power lines and turned left. It’s a really cool section to be in with the moon shining bright, and the starts all visible. We followed the trail out to Hillcrest, but before we got there the tall figure of Lerch appeared coming up from a dip in the land.
This was Lerch’s first time back out with us since breaking his ankle on his jump from the Morris Canal Greenway bridge in Stanhope. He’d been out since September 4th, and was still a bit gimpy. He had to wear a brace (or should anyway) and boots as not to roll it again. This hike was a very good one for him to make his way back out on, because the terrain is overall pretty easy without so many trip hazards.
We turned right when we got to Hillcrest, and as we drove, Red Sean pulled up in his big, oddly named SUV. We had him turn back and park nearby on our planned route, on a dead end road called Apple Tree Road. We met back up with him as we turned left from Hillcrest onto Pleasant Run Road.
Sean showed up wearing form fitting, laced undergarment used for chain mail (a chain armor used in the dark ages), red in color, and a very heavy warrior’s helmet.
The next leg of the hike was the Pleasant Run Greenway. A trail cut off the road to the right, headed down and over the Pleasant Run itself, and then through sections of woods and along fields. This was mowed down and kept groomed more so than any of the other trails we had been on previously, so it was even easier to follow. The only questionable spot was when we crossed Pleasant Run itself, because we had to search a bit for the trail on the other side.
I did some different stuff on this hike than the previous one, though I don’t think anyone really noticed much. We followed a slightly different route near Holland Brook, and when we got to the mid section of Pleasant Run, we took a left where previously we had come from the right. This took us out and around a very lovely field. We made one wrong turn down into a private farm via an access road, then had to come back up, but otherwise the turns were all clear to us.
We went left at the correct trail, which put us back on the route we had followed the previous time. We skirted another branch of Pleasant Run from above, and stopped for a nice break at a little bench in an open area.
We laughed and carried on a lot, and when Lerch offered us some of his trail mix (M&Ms with obstacles), Justin usually throws the raisins he despises out. This time he was feeding them to Sean.
The next difference in route came when we got to the edge of a meadow. We had come from the area straight ahead, but this time we turned left on another mowed path heading to the south. Most of the remainder of the hike from here would be stuff I’d never done.

chem trails

We emerged from the trail at the intersection of Summer Road and Hixon Road. We continued straight for only a short distance on Summer Road, then turned left into the mowed fields of Summer Road Park. We just followed along the north side, heading to the east.
The sky was a crazy shade, with clouds looking like dim lamp shades, and the chem trails left by jets lit up like crazy. I started making all sorts of chem trail jokes. We continued along the north side until we reached the end of the park, then turned right to followed the east side of the park to the south. We passed through a gate to an access road, then reached Summer Road again, which had turned ninety degrees around the park.

Lunatics at Wawa

We crossed Rt 202 at the light at Summer Road. This was our only spot to get snacks and such along the way. I went to the right to stop in a CVS for an Arizona drink and a candy bar or something, and the others went to the left to Wawa. I commented that I couldn’t believe Dan Asnis missed this hike, because he loves Wawa more than anyone I know, and it’s one of the only times I can think of where we actually all stopped in one. We really must have looked like a bunch of nuts. There was one guy in the store in line with the rest of the group, sort of pretending like none of us were even there, as we talked craziness about diarrhea, and who knows what else. I had to get a photo of the crazy scene.

Red Sean

Outside the Wawa, Justin and I pulled the sleeves off of the vehicle barrier things and started sparring with them. It would have been funny to run off with them
We continued from here on Summer Road heading to the east a bit more. We soon crossed over the Old York Road. This was the predecessor to Route 202, but also one of the most historic travel routes in the state.
The road was built in the 18th century to connect Philadelphia with Elizabethport NJ. It was built on the Native American trail known as the “Naraticong Trail”, also known as the “Tuckamaring Trail”. The tribe reportedly allowed for the road to be built on their trail, something probably no one believes.
Most of the old road deviates from present Rt 202, but is rather closely parallel. In some places, like where we were crossing it, it still holds the name “Old York Road”.
We continued just a little bit down Summer Road from here, to a right hand turn on Higginsville Road. I’d been wanting to walk this pleasant back road for some time. After crossing Old York Road, most of the traffic disappeared.

In Wawa

We continued down the road and crossed over the former Lehigh Valley Railroad tracks, which are still very active and used by Norfolk Southern. I hiked that line back in December of 2005. We continued on down hill from here, and soon crossed the old right of way of the South Branch of the Central Railroad of NJ. To the right, it is private land, but to the left it’s Hunterdon County park land. I’d like to do another hike on this line, and I’d considered doing it as a night hike, but it will most certainly have to be in the Summer time. There are way too many weeds and such to try to bully through.
We soon reached and crossed the Higginsville Bridges over the South Branch of the Raritan River. These beautiful through truss bridges span the river in two segmented sections with an island in the middle. They’re quite unique, and painted yellowish, which is abnormal of the Hunterdon bridges. I couldn’t believe Justin didn’t want to climb the thing, or perhaps he did and was feeling tired.

Bamboo

Red Sean found a very long piece of bamboo, which he carried with him for a long time on Higginsville Road. We urged him not to hit overhead electrical wires with it while he walked.
We turned right after the bridge crossing on Three Bridges Road. There were a few houses in the area, and Sean left his bamboo as a gift for someone.
One of the houses was a well restored old mill building. We continued past all of the houses, then turned to the right through the open fields of Clover Hill Park.
Clover Hill is an interesting park, because it’s actually state land managed by the county. It was South Branch Wildlife Management Area, and the Somerset County side of it still is, but the other part is Hunterdon’s Clover Hill Park.
We skirted the edge of the fields after a bee line across, then found some of the access roads through. We turned right on one paved access road, then at an intersection turned to the south.
We passed by two locked up buildings on the right, and continued on the paved roads. The paved road ended, and we continued across the fields. My phone was giving me a hard time showing my location with GPS, so I had Lerch use his.
Lerch’s phone showed us that we were aiming for a spot just to the south of where I wanted to go. There is an opening in the wood line across from the last building I knew about, and that I wanted to be part of the hike. The paved road does not connect, but this paved access road nearly does.
It’s rather amazing that I’d never put a hike together to incorporate this park until this. Clover Hill was one of the parks I used to work in when I worked for Hunterdon County Parks. I built the gates at the entrances, worked on the signs, and cleared out an historic cemetery that is on the south side of it (though I can’t remember exactly where that is now).
It was cool to finally have a hike going through it, though I really do need to return to it during daylight hours.
Thanks to Lerch, we were able to get directly to the roadway. We entered the woods and descended through a notch in the land with trees, then ascended up through more lovely fields.

The group in the fields with a dog thing

As we headed through the fields, with ambient light coming from developments to the south, someone spotted a creepy figure out in the middle of the opening. We at first thought it must be a bear. After looking for a bit, we realized it was not a bear at all but rather a large black decoy of a dog, looking to be a St. Bernard.
We continued back to the access road, and soon followed it parallel with a development road known as William Penn Road. Someone in there saw us and cautiously looked out as we walked by. Fortunately we had no problems.
We turned right on Clover Hill Road when we emerged from the access road for a short bit, then turned right into a municipal park with a paved trail going around the outside. We cut across and found that the main trail had a mowed trail cutting through to an open field to the right. We followed this, then went across this field to come out on Old York Road. We had to cut through a swath of trees that came out right near the intersection with Voorhees Corner Road.

Park footbridge

We followed this road a bit to the west. The last segment of this was stuff that I wasn’t sure would work out, but I figured might be interesting to figure out.
We turned left on Barley Sheaf Road, then right on Ewing Drive. After a bit, there was a paved path going through a swath of land out to Redwood Terrace. I wasn’t sure it would be there, but I saw on aerial images that there were crosswalks on both roads at random places across from one another that would have no business being there otherwise if there wasn’t a way of cutting through between these two roads. There are probably several cut throughs in these developments worth using if only I knew about them.
We turned left briefly, then right onto Mulberry Lane. There was a trail and park very quickly to the left, which we turned into. I don’t know the name of the park, and it doesn’t come up on Google as anything. These developments appear to have a lot of developers incentive open spaces I could use on night hikes, and may possibly put another one together, as a different variation of this one. I can probably improve upon it quite a lot.
We turned right off of the paved path when we got to some tennis courts. We then headed between some large apartment buildings through their parking lot to emerge on Case Blvd. A left turn here would take us directly back to where the Shop Rite and Taco Bell is.
Lerch, John, and Sue got a bit ahead, and Justin, Sean, and I were slightly further back being silly and saying ridiculous things.

The inspiration

While we were heading down hill on Case, Sean picked up one of the political signs that read "NJ FOR HILLARY", and held it over his head while we walked. This led to a thought provoking experience I felt the need to make a comment about on facebook, which provoked much engagement.

Being silly at Flemington Taco Bell

A pickup truck drove by and yelled "FAGGOTS" out the window and moved on. Of the three of us, two of us didn’t vote and one voted for Trump. He didn't know that none of us voted for Hillary. It didn't matter. All that mattered was that he got across that he harbors disdain toward homosexuals, Clinton supporters, or both. THIS is the problem. Regardless of how you voted, Trump's candidacy and election showcases what Americans care about, and it forces everyone to recognize that too many Americans are still uneducated, hateful, racist, sexist, homophobic TRASH. I do not hate or really even dislike Trump. I don't agree with things he's said, or his policies. I don't think Trump is any more of a sexist, racist bigot than the average American. He was out to get attention and succeeded. What is abundantly clear is that we have to work together to cultivate a better, less hateful, more accepting, more appreciative world.

Sean and my fanny whacker

I resisted the urge to grab my phone and make a posting about it immediately. Everyone is all riled up. I’ve already had friends delete me on there for either thinking I support Trump, support Clinton, or support neither. I wanted to gather my thoughts a bit more before I made any posting.
We laughed pretty hysterically about the stupidity of our stereotypical pickup truck driving cowpoke heckler. The experience didn’t ruin our fun time at all, but rather served to make it that much funnier. We made our way out toward Rt 31/202 and over to the Taco Bell. Sue took John back to his car, and Lerch, Sean, Justin, and I went to Taco Bell for some food.
A very fun time ensued at Taco Bell involving feasts, weird conversations, Sean whacking Lerch with the fanny whacker I gave him, and lots of gas.
I had found the shot glass server, which I always called my “Industrial Strength Fanny Whacker”, while working at Liberty State Park in 2012. It was under my work bench at Spruce Run for all those years, and I cleaned out everything with the feeling that I may never go back. I’ve really no need for the thing, and it’s much more entertaining in Sean’s hands!
I took Lerch and Sean back to their cars, which were close together from where they met up, and started making my way home through Stanton to Rt 31.
During my drive home, near High Bridge, a black man was slumped over his steering wheel stopped at a green traffic light. Four cars ahead me didn't stop. Something wasn’t right. I'm certain if it was a pretty young blonde girl someone would have stopped. Who knows how many more passed this poor guy before I got there. I pulled a U-turn as soon as the median was gone, came up and parked my car at the jug handle. I ran to his car and hollered out. He didn't say thank you to me, he didn't even roll down his window. He just took off. He was probably just as afraid as the four plus cars that passed him.
That was the lesson. There is too much fear everywhere, and far too much unrest. This election wasn’t about right and wrong, or about immigration, or about anything other than the fact that everyone is trying to provoke unrest, and fear, and disdain. A product cannot be sold to a happy person, and all too often candidates are trying to convince people either that they are not happy with how things are, or that they’ll be sorry if they elect the other candidate. There are too few like us that are not afraid to act like a fool, but it’s those who would look down on us that are the fools. I don’t know if I ever considered the Beatles song “Fool on the Hill” for it’s lyrics so much as until this realization. We are the ones with the foolish grins, our voices talking perfectly loud, but no one ever hears us.
So what should you do? Be the proponent of positive change. Don't be afraid to be the only one to stop and lend a hand. Don't be afraid to be called a name. Be the Usher to positive change. Apathy is a bigger enemy than any crass figurehead.