3/5/20 Watchung to Martinsville with Justin Gurbisz, Jennifer Bee, Kirk Rohn, Sue Bennett, Jennifer Tull, Michael Krejsa, Annika Krystyna, and Mike Merunka
Heading out of the Walmart
I spent a good amount of time trying to put this hike together, because I was itching to do something that was just plain weird, like so many I’ve done in the past.
Apartment wandering. HELLO?
As usual, when I do a hike like this, I have one main highlight that I want to see. It’s always either a trail or park, or maybe the whole hike is some historic route I’ve been wanting to trace, but there is always some sort of incentive that spurs me to put the hike together.
In this case, it was Washington Rock State Park.
I had never led a hike through this park yet. There really is not much to it. It’s very small and doesn’t have much in the way of trails. But then I was remembering working on phone systems with my old buddy Vance Calvin, and we would pass through there between clients in either Warrenville or Stirling and other stuff down by Rt 22 like Tri-County CMO.
We could see down the view from his high Mercedes Sprinter when we would go through, and I remember telling Vance each time we went by that I was going to have to incorporate that as well as all of the weird paved pedestrian paths around Warrenville into a hike one day. It looked like a good venue for a suburban hike.
Buried utility route
Years have gone by and other things took precedent. I just never got around to it. For some reason, I started thinking about it more lately, and I decided that before the leaves returned to the trees, I want to put a hike together to visit that spot.
In doing so, it was easy to start putting together a hike that would feature other things around the area. There were some nice back roads I’d used to some degree on past hikes, and then lots of little pedestrian paths around the Warrenville area. Additionally, there are golf courses through there which after dark make very nice routes that don’t encroach on people’s privacy after dark.
Pipeline fun
I came up with a pretty good route that would take us between Martinsville and Washington Rock, and found another abandoned road section that descended to the apartments below there.
In fact, there were tons of apartment areas parallel with Rt 22 out through the Watching area, at the southeastern tip of Somerset County. I needed to find a good place to park, and I needed to add just enough miles to it to make it work. I carefully scaled off the hike in three segments using Google Earth, and came up with a 14.6 mile route that looked perfect. I would add the addition miles to the start of it and use the Walmart of Watchung, which had a pedestrian access to nearby communities, as the connection between the two. This concept hike got me rather excited.
We met in Martinsville at 4 pm, and then shuttled with as few cars as possible to the start and parked in the back lot to the Walmart.
Partridge Lane
There was a lot of security at this place. I was surprised to hear a trailer machine with a light on it speak automatically when someone must have been screwing with it.
We headed directly from the lot into the pedestrian path to the west side, slightly up hill and through some high grasses.
The path came out on the ends of Summit Way and East Drive. In the middle of it, we found a can of beans that someone had dropped. I figure people must carry their groceries home from the Walmart or whatever on this route, so Justin took then and brought them home. Hooray dinner!
We continued along East Drive.
I had wanted to get down into apartment complexes below to the right, but there were high fences to the right of us. East Drive had no way for a vehicle to get through, so we didn’t really need to leave this road. It was pleasant enough.
Partridge Lane
Some of the homes on the tops of these slopes were very new, but others had been there for many years, part of older developments.
We crossed North Drive, and continued on West Drive on the other side. There were signs for vehicles that read parking for tenants and potential tenants only. It didn’t say anything about pedestrians, so we just walked on through.
As we were walking by the rental office, I didn’t notice anything, but Justin made eye contact with a woman working there. She tilted her head, and Justin said he knew right away that she was going to be a problem. I briefly looked back but didn’t see anything, while a voice repeated a couple of times “Hello? Hello?”.
“Just keep walking” Justin said.
The voice continued like a broken record: “Hello? Helloooooo? Helloooooo?” It continued, and apparently she came out into the road and was directing the less than cordial greetings more assertively as we gained distance. I picked up the pace slightly as we moved toward the west end of this development. We continued straight on a concrete sidewalk path going straight between buildings as the voice echoed strongly behind us.
Potato salad for Jeffrey
There was a fence at the other side of the buildings, and a parking and driving lane; my plan was to try to cut through from this development to the next one. When there was no good way straight, and we were obviously being watched, we turned hard right, which was where I wanted to be anyway.
We continued to the right until the access road turned back to the east, and we followed a somewhat worn path up slope and around a wooden fence to bring us to the dead end of Jennings Lane in the next development.
By this point, the lady’s voice had stopped. I felt for sure she had jumped into a vehicle to intercept us, or had called the police, because this was probably the most exciting thing that’s happened all day or all month. Not willing to be anyone’s pitiful entertainment, we continued on along Jennings Lane, and laughed more heartily about it the further we got from earshot.
We continued on Jennings Lane until we reached Somerset Street. There, we turned right briefly, and I wanted to go to the left into an abandoned complex.
Along Partridge Lane
Justin said that this was some sort of an old asylum, and that he had already seen it. Although there was a road going directly through it, it was blocked and had a no trespassing sign. We could have climbed around the fence on the bridge spanning the Stony Brook next to Somerset Street, but it was just too visible. Since there might already be police looking for suspicious characters matching out description, I decided it prudent to avoid the place.
We turned back the way we came on Somserset Street and then turned right on a road called Stony Brook Place, a dead end.
Seasonal view
At the end of the road, a path went to the creek, and a wider access went next to a sort of utility access. We followed the path on the creek to the left to the Rt 22 bridge over the creek. We all turned right there, and then walked through the VIP Honda dealership on the right.
We passed through another strip mall and bank lot, then crossed over Wilson Avenue to the Wawa.
Annika ran into Wawa really quick, but no one else went in.
I was in a big hurry for the first part of this. My main goal was to get to Washington Rock State Park before the sun went down, to get the best views, and I knew it would be cutting it close. It was still a week before daylight savings time, but I figured we could do it.
Washington Rock
Timing was a big deal for this hike, because I wanted to get to that point before dark, but we had to get to the golf course after it, after dark.
We made our way behind Dunkin Donuts, and then passed a camping place at Jefferson Ave. We had to turn to the left here and go back out to Rt 22 to get through.
In a very atypical move, I passed right by a Goodwill Store and continued uphill behind it across Maple Avenue and into the southernmost parking area for an apartment complex. We then walked directly along that end to a playground on the west side.
We walked through the playground and slightly up to the right to another lot. A group of children commented loudly about us going by and asked us if we were camping out. I said no, we were just hiking. They continued to holler more indiscernible stuff as well as asking if we needed help. I just ignored them at that point and continued walking on.
We passed along a section of sidewalk and went down a slope off trail to another set of apartments beyond. There were a lot of Spanish speaking people around that looked on at us.
Washington Rock view
I must have looked like a cross between an inspector and a hobo. I had sweat pants on, my park shirt underneath, which occasionally swung open slightly to see the emblem, although I tried to keep it shut, and a brown plaid blazer that was bore all sorts of fold marks from being in the back hatch of my van for months on end.
We turned right between apartment buildings, and then left between more, followed by right between even more of them.
We skirted the end of this development, but there was a high fence separating it from the next development. There was not really a good way through, so we went up hill even more, up and around the fence that went around it. We had to step over some fallen logs, and then took a very indistinct deer path through the woods parallel with that development up hill. There was a high wall between us and the parking area, so we just stayed up high for a bit.
Washington Rock view
Eventually, the deer run started to look like a more formal path, though unmaintained. It certainly was closer to the end, because it became stone lined and led out to a little community garden where it was well kept. We stepped out to the access road from the community garden, and then crossed West End Avenue onto another parking access lane.
This little road came to an end at what might have been a maintenance area, with an older house that clearly predated all of the surrounding apartments, with a high wooden stockade fence around it. Before we reached that, we cut to the left down through the apartment grounds, crisscrossing the concrete pathways, and then following one on the north side of the buildings heading west.
We followed the paths behind the older house, then along the slope until this section of buildings ended at a fence. There was some sort of park or common area above us to the right where two guys cautiously stared at us.
Washington Rock
We passed them along a slope to the west, off of any formal path, then cut up hill between buildings to reach Tallwood Lane. We crossed over this as well, and went a little further up to reach a very nice grade of a buried utility. We turned left to follow this west a bit further.
This route took us behind buildings, and then up over a section of cinder blocks set up like steps, before coming out on Cardinal Lane, exactly where we needed to be.
NYC skyline in view
The road went downhill ever so slightly, and then back up again to the west, where it gained more elevation.
The road got much narrower as it climbed. This was not one of the new development roads. This one was developed way back, probably in the early 1800s, as a stage road to bring tourists from the nearest railroad station up to the top of Washington Rock. Some of the houses on this road were clearly older than the rest around, but none of them looked really that old compared to the oldest of the area.
Washington Rock view
We made our way further uphill to where the now abandoned section of the road is blocked off and enters Washington Rock State Park. There was a sign reading that the road/trail had been re-established by a boy scout troop.
At washington Rock
The road split in two, and one section went to the left to a little bench, while the original main through road to the right got more steep and continued to climb. I powered very quickly toward the top.
As I gained a lot of elevation, I looked back and already there was a seasonal view out toward New York City. This was quite a nice route.
The route is not shown on any official trail maps. I had found it on the alltrails website.
I could soon see Washington Rock, but the Cardinal Lane turned to the right to make its way out to Rock Road East. I turned a hard left on this, and then entered the grassy area of Washington Rock State Park.
I made my way to the overlook, where there was a tall flag and huge stone work, as well as pay viewers to take in all of the sights magnified.
Washington Rock view
Washington Rock State Park is officially under the jurisdiction of Round Valley Recreation Area as I understand, but it is managed by Somerset County Park Commission. In fact, there were all Somerset County park signs around it, and no state park signs that I could see at all.
The area has been a popular park type of place for a very long time, but it was purchased for use as a park apparently in 1913.
The significance of the park is that it was where General George Washington, commanding the Continental Army during the American Revolution, surveyed the land to watch activities of the British army below under the command of General William Howe in 1777.
At Washington Rock
The area was of great importance as the most major encampment for the Continental Army during the Revolution, used on two different occasions, known as the Middlebrook encampment.
Through use of this overlook, Washington was able to instruct his men to intercept Howe’s army to cut off their retreat.
The view was probably more vast during the 1700s, but there is still a great unobscured view of the New York City skyline, as well as well to the south through the entire Raritan River valley.
The stone work around the site bears the date “1912” in the lower walkway.
1912 date marker at Washington Rock
The others soon caught up with me. We actually had some time to spare for the view because we had made such good time. It was actually the perfect time of day to get this view, because the lights were just going on in the city, but the skyline was still so prominent. Such was the case everywhere actually, and it made for a particularly beautiful view.
We all took a break and enjoyed the time here for a while. Justin, Kirk, and myself climbed up onto the flag pole base with the plaque on it.
After the break and getting group shots, we made our way across Rock Road and into the parking lot where there was a trail known as Grange Mountain Trail, marked with orange plastic markers, going off into the woods.
The mountain of course is the basalt formation known as The First Watchung, one of three such ridges of igneous extrusions that lie consecutively in the Piedmont geological province. I’m not sure where they got “grange mountain from”. Still, we followed the trail through the woods, which came out to what appeared to be a paved driveway. It turns out that this is another trail, which weaves around through the woods and doubles back parallel with Rock Road.
The group
There were drinking fountains along this route, and then I noticed pull offs with some crushed stone aggregate. This must have once been a camp site, since there were all of the fountains and obviously cleared sites. I’m not sure when it closed and this was made into a simple walking path. Maybe they let scout groups still use it or something.
Grange Mountain Trail
I decided on this hike to give my Immort Ale from Dogfishhead brewery another try.
Bill Jentz had given me a four pack of these hard to find ales, aged in oak and with maple, and aged since January 2016, when we met the week prior. I had tried one on the last hike on the Juniata Division Canal in Pennsylvania, but it wasn’t as impressive.
I realize that it was because it was too carbonated, which might come with aging, similar to the issue I’d had with Weyerbacher’s Quad a couple of years ago, and the fact that it was just too cold to enjoy the flavor.
A brew like this is meant to be enjoyed at room temperature. The pack had been sitting in my car, and so it was warmed up a lot during the day. Drinking it only cool instead of cold really brought out the flavors to make it quite excellent, better than I’d anticipated!
Yummy!
We cut off of the trail and out to Rock Road East briefly, but I realized after walking it for a short distance that we were going the wrong way. We turned back the way we came, and then cut back into the woods to the paved pathway, and then returned to the parking area where we got on the Grange Mountain Trail. From there, we cut through a picnic area, and then headed along the edge of Rock Road West.
We continued on the road just a bit, and made the third right turn on Swanson Lane. After a short distance, a foot path went into the woods to the right and entered the Warrenbrook Golf Course, one of the county owned golf courses. We went straight on through the course in the middle, and descended the First Watchung Ridge through sand traps and such toward a soda machine.
We were talking about getting ice cream, if they happened to have an ice cream machine, but they did not.
We went down slope a bit until we were about in the middle, and then turned to the west to keep in the middle of the course.
Warrenbrook
Once we got to where we could see more houses ahead, and the paved pathways we were somewhat following turned to the right, north, we turned with them. The club house building is up in this direction off of Warrenville Road, which was far parallel to the left of us. We continued down hill through the course, passed a maintenance building, and then passed two small ponds and a big tree toward the north end of the course. We passed a lady walking her dog on the course along the way, so it’s not uncommon to find people afterhours here for sure.
At the end of the course, there was another foot path out into the lot of a gas station. We continued on through here into Warrenville.
The town of Warrenville was settled in the 1720s by European farmers. It is the original settlement around which Warren Township is now located. Most of the historic structures around the area are gone today, and it’s a horrible mix of strip malls and high end establishments. It is among the richest towns in the state of New Jersey.
Big tree at Warrenbrook
We walked ahead and passed a Massage Envy place, which I recalled I wired up a phone system with Vance at back in 2007.
We continued through a strip mall, and then saw Panatieri’s Pizza and Italian Restaurant.
I had been wanting to try one of these places for a while, because the owner, Joey, runs the food concession at Spruce Run, and it’s really great stuff.
While walking the golf course, I started talking about how good those little circle pasta things in Alfredo sauce are. I forget at the moment what the hell they’re called, but I like it a lot.
The rest of the group opted to go into this Greek restaurant, which I did not find nearly as tempting, and so I went back to go into the pizza place.
I spotted a white slice with just those round thingies on it, and knew it was a sign. I had to get it. Annika bought it for me. I should have gotten a drink because I was thirsty but oh well.
We headed out and hung out outside the Greek place for a while as the others got their food. I got to have some fries that Kirk couldn’t finish from his meal, and we hung out for a little bit.
We had made a lot of fast time just before this, so we could have a bit of a break.
This is an interesting way for developments to make their conduit boxes look more attractive: with some art!
Once everyone was done, we headed out through the parking lot and to the north.
We crossed over Mountain Blvd and continued along Mt. Bethel Road. We skirted one of the few remaining very old houses, now some sort of business, on the left, and then turned left into an open grassy area on the property associated with a senior living facility.
We went too far on this from where I wanted to be, and then had to turn back and go down slope to come out at Town Center Drive in a townhouse community. My plan was to cut through woods to the west to get to a dead end known as Jessica Lane.
This didn’t work out quite the way I wanted it to. There was no good cut through.
We skirted the right side of the yard of a town house, and had to cut through some weeds to come out at the desired cul-de-sac. We then continued to the west on that.
We soon turned left on N Road, continued south, and then turned right on unpaved Mimi Lane. This road took us out to a couple of houses, and a point where it used to go into the next development. It was blocked off by a chain over it and a pile of dirt and such. We went around that and emerged into the development on Lara Place. We continued west on that to its end.
At the end, a paved trail went up stairs straight, with a ramp to the left, and passed toward more town houses.
The path turned to the left and then split in two. We took the left side. It went over a nice long foot bridge made of wood over a little brook, continued behind more town houses on our right, and then crossed the brook again with the town houses on our left.
Springdale Methodist Church
It was an odd space. We could see right into some of the homes, but most had curtains and such. We crossed over Lara Place, and then skirted a pond to the left. There were side paths with lattices and little archways that were really quite nice. Mike M. nailed it when he said that it was actually a really nice walking route, but that it would not be as good in the day time.
We skirted the next set of town houses more closely, and then came out to another pond near the entrance to the place. We paused in the trees as not to be seen coming out. There was a gate on the entrance road, known as Promenade Blvd, and in case there was a guard, I didn’t want to be seen.
We waited for a car to pull in, and we headed out from there and onto parallel Washington Valley Road to head west.
There were sidewalks at times, but this all too busy road was not all that great.
We moved on, and passed the eerily lit Springdale United Methodist Church on a hill to the right.
The church was built probably in 1840 or 1841, after the land for it was acquired in 1839. It was originally called Washington Valley Church, but was changed in 1874.
Weeoo happy boy
The building was enlarged in 1894, and the front steeple section was added in 1904. It’s won some kinds of awards for historic ambiance preservation I understand. There is a long wide cemetery out behind it I would like to visit one of these days.
We continued down the road to the west, and the traffic died down a bit after we passed Morning Glory Road by the church. Traffic died down a bit after that turn, and we made the next left turn on King George Road, which was even less busy.
We followed this downhill over the East Branch of the Middle Brook, and then turned right on Brookside Drive, which was the nicest of all of the road walks we did.
Potato knishes
The road was just totally pleasant, narrow, and barely any cars passed by when we were on it. The one time that someone was coming at us that I remember, it was turning into the driveway to the houses closed to where we stepped off of the road!
I would imagine that’s got to freak someone out; they get home and a huge group of strangers is basically standing in your driveway.
While walking, we discussed the Warren Highlands Trail project, which Mike M was helping me with, and he told me he knew who the guy was that was destroying the trail blazes and structures. He said he wasn’t shy about it, was actually proud of it, and that he wasn’t going to stop. The guy basically thinks he has rights to the property and doesn’t want anyone else in there. Mike is in a rough position because this guy’s son is his son’s best friend.
ham
We also talked about the sicknesses we’d had; I started coughing uncontrollably a few times, a sort of remnant of my flu or whatever it was I’d had, and Justin said he had the same thing. We of course shared the orange juice specialty drink in Connecticut which is how he got it I think. He said he’s been coughing quite a lot too, and that it occasionally comes back.
Justin said he was convinced that we have Corona Virus, and that we just fought it off because we’re not old or too young or something.
We continued on down the road until we reached the end at Vosseller Ave. We turned right briefly, and then went left on a trail along the East Branch of the Middle Brook, with a small gate across it.
This section was really rather muddy, but I’ve always liked it. It splits in two, and one section follows a buried utility, while the other is a foot path that remains closer to the stream. We followed the latter to the west, which was quite nice.
Thirsty
The moon was out, and it shone on us very well so that flashlights were not at all needed.
We moved on along the brook, which was gently rolling and only one really steep spot. When we finally started to approach Gilbride Road, a car pulled up and parked.
I thought for sure this was some ranger and I hollered for Annika to turn her light off. She was the only one with a light on. Those of us in the back stood still for a bit, and we could see the lights shifting. Someone was getting out of the car and heading for the trail. I wanted nothing to do with any of that mess, and so some of us went to the right and got to the slope above the creek where we sat in the leaves to wait for it to pass. Some of the others went off the other side of the creek.
It was a little bit we waited there, and eventually the car appeared to move off down Gilbride. I then saw a flash light coming toward us and a couple of whistles. I figured that was our group.
Mike M related the story that when he was closer to the front, people got out of the car and started heading down the trail toward him. One was definitely a female voice. He whistled and they stopped. He whistled louder and they took off running back to the car, then flashed lights toward the woods. This was rather funny in retrospect.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/IFfLCuHSZ-U
!!!
I spotted another car off across the East Branch of Middle Brook turn around, probably up in the Chimney Rock Park. We continued onto Gilbride Ave, and waited for Jenny and Annika to catch up from their hiding spot, and then turned right across the East Branch on the road. We turned right on the other side on another trail that leads down along the brook, then inland toward Chimney Rock Park.
East Branch of the Middle Brook when we forded it in 2008, same place where the car pulled up to the lot this time
We crossed over a wooden foot bridge, and then headed uphill on a set of steps into the park land.
It had been a really long time since I’d been in this park, and it looked different than I’d remembered it. I remember there being a very open field at the top of the hill, but now there was a mowed path and a lot of scrubby vegetation, as well as some young trees. I don’t for sure remember the last time I went through the exact spot, but I am thinking back on a time I went through in 2008 I believe.
We skirted the edge and cut through a mowed gap in a tree line to reach the parking lot for Chimney Rock Park.
I had wanted to try to cut through the development directly to the north of there, which looks like it should have a connection over near a retention pond, but we didn’t find it. Instead, we walked the edge of the park along crazily high fences of the development to Chimney Rock Road.
We just walked the road back to the Squire’s Corner mini mall where we had met in Martinsville.
The mileage the guys came up with seemed to be lower than what I had scaled off on Google Earth and with Alltrails app. In fact, a more direct route without all of the turns using it again after came up at 13.5 for me, so I’m not really trusting GPS at this point.
Anyway, it turned out to be a really beautiful hike, and another real oddity among things that other people and groups plan.
There is certainly a lot more stuff to do around the area, so I’ll have to plan on some more. They’re actually really fun to try to plan these ones out.
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