Hike #1312; Lafayette/Paulins Kill Loop

Hike #1312; Lafayette/Paulins Kill Loop

3/28/20 Lafayette/Paulins Kill Loop with Justin Gurbisz, Brittany Audrey, Professor John DiFiore, Neil George, and Diane Reider

This next hike would be the one that I’d planned to substitute the anniversary hike for.
The anniversary hike is usually such a huge deal, but now with the COVID19 crap shutting down everything, we were forced to be safer and more low key.

First bridge on PKV Trail

Rather than hike the old Warren Railroad, I figured I would come up with a similar rail trail loop that everyone would enjoy, but it would be something that could be done as a loop, thus eliminating any need to shuttle cars along the way.
Because the previous Sunday had so many people out, I was anticipating a pretty huge crowd for this one. I felt like I really needed to be prepared. I did hike the old Warren Railroad the day before, because I couldn’t just skip a year from doing that.

Paulins Kill crossing

Management of all of this was getting to be a real royal pain. I couldn’t keep track of who wanted to go, and I was not going to be posting this stuff on the group forums or anything.

NYS&W rail bed

There was already an event posted for this one, but I changed the name to “Metrotrails 23 Year Anniversary COVID19 Let Down”, and made the cover photo into a picture of the virus thing.
I went through the list and figured who would want to be in no matter what. I talked to several people in person during the course of the previous week about what we might do, and when I had the plan for it. Rather than have everyone meet in a parking lot and mill about, we would park at a lot and then walk to the woods.

COVID19 Let Down

I did not want everyone all congregating in a place where it would draw a lot of attention to us.
I chose The Shoppes At Lafayette Village just a little north of the town of Newton for our meeting spot. It was not a trail head parking, but it was only a quick walk across the road bridge in front of it over to the Sussex Branch Trail, and we could immediately disappear into the woods. I felt alright about the event going in with this plan.

Cut on PKV Trail

As the time neared, the forecast was looking a little more bleak. There was a lot more rain expected than there had been a couple of days earlier. That certainly scared people off a lot more.
Still, we were out to have a really good day, and it’s really a pretty easy hike. I needed a relaxing one myself.
We started off from the parking area, and pretty much everyone going was already there except for Neil. He texted me that he was on Skyline Drive in Ringwood.

Cut on PKV Trail

I realized I had texted him earlier in the week when I was up in Ramapo Mountain State Forest hiking. I meant for him to meet up with us then, but he mistook it for the alternate anniversary hike plan. I let him know where we were, and he got there in like a half hour!

Halloween crap?

He ended up meeting us out on Rt 94 crossing a little ways in to the hike.
We hiked south on the Sussex Branch Trail.
This was originally the Sussex Railroad, built in this area in 1853. The Sussex Mine Railroad went from Waterloo to Andover area in the 1840s and was mule drawn. It was replaced by the Sussex Railroad which continued north from there through Andover, then through Newton, Lafayette, and then on to Branchville. There were plans to extend it further than there, up through Culvers Gap at one time, but that never came to fruition.

Halsey Station site

Like most rail lines, traffic dwindled on it, and the branch from the Warbasse area to Franklin was abandoned in the 1930s.
The main Sussex Branch, which had become the Sussex Branch of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western was abandoned and torn up in 1966, the rare instance of passenger and freight both discontinued in the same year. It was later turned into the Sussex Branch Trail, which is a state park, and the first part of the triangle we would be walking.

Abandoned house

There was no one else on the trail. We had a light drizzle for a bit, but the weather wasn’t really bad.
The trail took us along a wetland to the left with rock outcrops to the right. The wetlands in this area are much of the head waters to the Paulinskill.
We continued south and crossed over a Paulinskill tributary, which is trenched out from being part of a sod farm in the past. It flows out of the Hyper-Humus Swamp, which was named I believe for some kind of sod that they grew there.

Cut on the old NYS&W

Just after the bridge we reached Warbasse Junction site, which was also in later years known as Hyper-Humus Junction I understand, after the swamp and sod farm.

The big rock cut

Warbasse was where the Sussex Branch crossed over at grade the former New York, Susquehanna, and Western Railroad, which travels east to Jersey City and west to Stroudsburg. Some of it in Warren County utilized the 1876 right of way of the Blairstown Railroad, built by John I. Blair.

Spring mosses

The NYS&W Railroad was the longest lived of the three we would be walking this time, as it gave up in 1963, a year after the Lehigh and New England.

An old spring house below the rail bed

The history on this line becoming a park is tied directly to the Tocks Island Dam project, which people don’t realize. Apparently some of the right of way was eyed as a route for a power conduit or something to the city, and it was purchased for that.
When that plan was deauthorized, it was purchased for a state park. It along with Sussex Branch were always among my favorite rail trails in the state because they didn’t go all out and do some sort of new crushed stone surface on it. It’s most all original cinder dirt.

Falls along the trail

This trail was also one of my arguments against the state trying to cap all of the rail trails with crushed stone. This one is so narrow, countless trees would have to be removed in order to apply such a surfacing. It would cost ten million dollars at least.
We turned right to follow the Paulinskill Valley Trail on the NYS&W to the west. Almost immediately, we crossed Warbasse Junction Road and passed through a state parking area.
There were a few cars here. We continued on along the rail bed and then crossed a decked bridge over the Paulinskill tributary.
We passed some rock outcroppings, and then came out to Rt 94 where we met up with Neil. Together, we crossed and continued through woods and a rock cut to reach Rt 206 crossing at grade at the intersection with Sid Taylor Road. Just after that, there was a new side trail to a brewery I should have checked into, because we could have gotten something.

Swartswood Junction

Although the inside of these places is closed, I found out later that they are still open to taking things out.
It was probably too early anyway.
We continued west, paralleled Halsey Road, and then crossed Rt 519 where Halsey Station used to be. The foundation of the station is back in the weeds to the right of the trail, and there is a little white sign denoting that it was there. I think it was volunteer Len Frank that made most of those signs years ago. A lot are gone or in bad shape, but a lot of them are still around.

Historic image at Swartswood Junction

We crossed Old Halsey-Myrtle Grove Road next, past a farm where there used to be a mean ass pony that would try to bite you as you walked by in a fence along the path.

Swartswood Junction today

Just ahead, there was an old abandoned house along the left side of the trail, on a hill. I’ve been watching the place deteriorate for years, and it’s looking worse than ever now. The old slate roof on it is succumbing to years of neglect, and it’ll soon collapse.

Historic Swartswood Junction photo

We soon approached the deepest cuts on the entire trail. A path goes up around on the right, and Neil went up to follow that over the top rather than go straight.

Swartswood Junction today

We soon emerged onto a high shelf above the valley. Here, the moss was just starting to green up for the spring, and it was a beautiful bright thing to see.

Swartswood Junction

As we walked ahead, down below us the Lehigh and New England Railroad bed started coming into view in the distance. Directly below us, Spirol Road, a closed off former public road appeared below us to the right. It is graded as such that it looks like a railraod bed at times, but pretty sure none of it was.
There was a long pleasant stretch ahead as we made our way to Plotts Road. We crossed that at grade, and then passed high over a stream where there is a pretty little waterfall to the left below us.

Warbasse Junction shed ruins on our 2003 hike

Down below us here, parallel Junction Road continues to the west, and Parsons Road passes beneath the Lehigh and New England grade by way of a concrete arch bridge.

Junction house site today

We continued ahead from here, and the Lehigh and New England grade came closer and closer. It crossed over Junction Road just ahead, and then the trail intersected.

Old bridge remnants

The Lehigh and New England started out as different lines as well, and by the time it got to this area I think it was already just the L&NE. It was completed here in 1886 north toward Maybrook NY area.
The line intersected with the NYS&W at Hainesburg Junction, and had about twenty miles of trackage rights on it from there to Swartswood. It was the intention of the railroad to build its own line between these two points, parallel with the NYS&W, and some of the route was graded, but then never finished.

Some restored track...

At the height of traffic, with both railroads fully in service with both freight and passengers, it is estimated that this single track line saw up to seventy trains in a day.

A restored bit a track...

The railroads started to decline in the middle of the twentieth century, and despite the fact that L&NE was still making money, they decided to quite while they were ahead.
On October 31st, 1962, they became the second major railroad in America to abandon its entire system in a single day, after the New York, Ontario and Western in 1957. Without that freight, which I understand made up the majority of the use on the line, that’s why the NYS&W called it quits less than a year later.

Some restored track

The Lehigh and New England had been informally used as a trail for may years, because it makes a 13.5 mile loop using the other two rail trails. I had done variations of it several times in the past, and it’s always a great one to do.

When I first started working for the state, talks were made to turn it officially into a rail trail. The owner of Eastern Propane was actually going out and doing mowing on it himself with his own equipment.
This time, I was rather surprised to see the trail named dubbed with a suggestion I made several years ago: “Great Valley Trail”. I wrote it on a state trails meeting item I attended some fifteen years ago, and said they should have a Great Valley Trail or at least a regional Kittatinny Valley Trail.

Swartswood

I described that the Lehigh and New England pretty much parallels the Appalachian Trail all the way from the NY border to around Andreas Station, north of Eckville PA. It the land coule be secured, it could almost be a handicapped accessible Appalachian Valley Trail.
The problem was, most of that line was long gone before “railbanking” even existed (1982), and so many lands were probably restored to abutting property owners. Still, some sections like the northern NJ bit were used as a gas line.

Swartswood Station historic image

The trail joins the Paulinskill Valley Trail a little bit to the east of where the actual junction site was. We continued ahead a bit more and reached the actual junction site.

Swartswood Station site today

Just up ahead from there, the ruins of the “JU Shed” are on the left, with a sign reading that this was Swartswood Junction, and a small beat up park bench.

Old bottles at Swatswood Junction

There was still somewhat of a building when I first started hiking this section.
The first time I ever hiked this piece I was actually a teenager, and my grandfather hiked with my cousin Tanner and I a bit, then drove up to Washingtonville. He walked back toward us on the grade, and usually we’d try to catch him and we’d all walk together. Tanner and I were goofing off too much, and so he ended up turning around at some point and walking back toward the truck, but he left us notes along the way.

Swartswood Station historic image

I had ones that said “you boys are too slow” and stuff like that.
Although the Lehigh and New England was part of our loop, my plan was to continue ahead a bit and visit the site of Swartswood Station, then head back.

Swartswood Station site today

I had several historic photos of the JU shed at the site, from back in its days of operation, and some from shortly after the rails were removed, then another from my 2003 hike.

Swartswood Station site

Even in 2003, some semblage of the building was still there, although tipped over and a mess. Now, it was basically just a lump of rot sitting in dead leaves. I had Neil stand on it in the modern photo, because I had my brother and Joe Millionaire on it in the old one.
After I got my photos, we continued on the right of way along the shelf to the west. We were closely parallel with Junction Road, and then headed down when we got to the former bridge site where the line crossed Swartswood Road.

JU Shed at Swartswood Junction

The path went down to the road; we crossed and then climbed immediately back up the steep slope on the other side. The trail actually goes more gently up the former Station Road.

Site of JU Shed and Swartswood Junction today

By going up earlier, we could see clearly a restored section of railroad tracks adjacent to an old concrete water tower base. The trail kind of bypsses that a bit.

L&NE grade

We passed by the tower and joined back with the trail. Station road continued to ascend parallel with us as we headed west until we got to the old station site.
The foundations there don’t seem to match my historic photos of the site, but the landscape does. I suppose the photos I got was before there were other buildings added there. There were some later concrete ones for sure. Maybe a creamery or something of that sort might have been there. It was hard trying to figure out where the station was exactly for the photos.

Swartswood Junction

I spent a bit of time climbing around through the weeds, onto the old approach of Station Road, and then trying to get the right angles based on where I could see masonry.

Looking back to the NYS&W grade from the L&NE

I think I pretty well figured it out, and then we turned around to start heading back to Swartswood Junction. This time, we just walked down the easier grade trail on the old road, crossed at the small parking area, and then went back up to the grade on the other side.
We continued back to Swartswood Junction, and I set up the then and now photo I had gotten before to try to improve on it a bit.
In this area, a cop car drove up along us, parallel on Junction Road.

Amazing there's no guard rail at Parson...

We had just had cops show up the day before on our last hike, and I wanted to avoid a situation like that again. There really weren’t that many of us, but still, he went by.
We just moved on, turned onto the Lehigh and New England Grade, crossed Junction Road, and continued through the woods. The car went by and it didn’t come back, but I was a little nervous until we got a bit further away from the road. We paralleled Junction Road for a little bit of time before it ended at Plotts and Parson Roads.

An old foundation on the LNE grade

We paused briefly on the bridge over Parsons Road. I was surprised that no guide rail had been installed over this bridge. There was stile some of the framework where a walkway would have been while the railroad was in service, but if someone got to close, or if a bike crashed, they’d go right over the side.
We continued across, and then we were closely parallel with the abandoned Spirol Road we had paralleled earlier on. The trail was much less used here than the other spots.

Great Valley Trail...

We had to go under some fallen trees, and down through a deep washout at one point. We skirted some fields, but mostly remained in the woods. It also started raining a bit more in this section, and I got my umbrella out.
It was much more relaxing being back in the wooded section, probably the most secluded section of the entire hike.
We continued through this stretch out to Halsey Road. This area as I understand was knwon as Washingtonville. I believe it was a station stop on the railroad, or flag stop at one time.

Washingtonville

It was at this point we came back along the edge of the Paulinskill again, and would remain like that most of the way toward Augusta.
The road crossed the river to the left of us, where there is another little settlement known as Baleville. I’m not sure if the next road had a station stop or flag stop for this either.
Washingtonville crossing seemed like it would have been the one for something. there was an old stone foundation built into the hillside to the right of the grade, but no signs or anything of it.

The rail bed

I looked up Washingtonville on the groups for Lehigh and New England, and I couldn’t find anything saying there was ever a station in the area.
The character of the right of way changed dramatically after this crossing. It was here that the gas line began to follow it, and continues on it most of the way up through to Sussex. As such, it was much wider and clearer than what we had been on up to this point. We went through a small rock cut and then approached Kinney Road. There is an old bridge abutment in the river just before the bridge, and another one just after it, but not sure for what.

LNE grade

I started falling behind a bit at this point. We passed through the rock cut, and then came closer to the Paulinskill again on the left. Even though it was raining, I thought it was very pretty.
Brittany and Justin were not happy and talking about ubering out. I told them it would get better, but the mood was low for a bit.
We had a good long and peaceful stretch from here out to Morris Turnpike and crossed to the other side. It was another good stretch from here along fields and woods.

Rock cut on LNE

The rail bed moved away from the Paulinskill again, but came back to it after a bit, just before we reached the former crossing of the Sussex Branch in Augusta.

LNE line

I understand there was once a station at this point, adjacent to the railroad bed and Augusta Hill Road.
We turned right here on the Sussex Branch Trail, and the Lehigh and New England continues as an informal trail on the property of wallkill National Wildlife Refuge, and croses the Paulinskill on an undecked through girder bridge just ahead after crossing over Augusta Hill Road. We also crossed Augusta Hill Road and continued into some woods and through pastoral settings.

Paulinskill

Pretty quickly, we crossed a nicely decked bridge over the Paulinskill ourselves. There were some pretty good views of the river through this section, with wetland restorations.

Umbrella boy

We had a very pleasant walk, and then crossed the Paulinskill yet again on another bridge. Just past this point, we crossed over Rt 206 just past Ross Corner.
Just after that, we crossed the Paulinskill again, an then passed along the right of way through a line of trees from which we could see the traffic of Rt 15 off to the right.
We crossed the Paulinskill yet again, then paralleled Decker Road before crossing it.
We passed along more woods and fields, then crossed Mudcut Road ahead, then came to a lovely spot of wetlands to the right.
This is a particularly scenic area, and the rain had just stopped before we had arrived there. The rain had stopped in this stretch toward the end, and our last couple of miles went by peacefully without the umbrellas open. There was a lot of great scenery along the river and such. We approached the village of Lafayette, and the old freight house is still standing.

Along the Paulinskill on Great Valley

We continued across Morris Farm Road, and a the Paulins Kill, now much smaller since a couple of the tributaries broke off to the north, was still parallel.

Wetlands in Lafayette

To the left was a personalized property filled with all sorts of metal fabricated stuff in it. It was quite interesting to see.

HAM

Just after the mills and the property with the metal, there was a spur of some sort coming off from the right. It was tough to see even with no leaves out yet, but it looks like it went to some white buildings to the right of the trail. I think this might have been the dairy or creamery property I have historic photos of, but it’s hard to pinpoint exactly where they were.
We continued with the Paulins Kill to the right. Most maps today don’t show the name of this being the Paulins Kill, but the old ones dow, and the Hyper Humus Marsh is the Paulinskill Marsh.
It wasn’t long before we came back out to Rt 94, crossed the bridge to the left and got back to our cars. It was only 3:39 PM and we had done over 16 miles.
I actually didn’t want the day to be over yet. The world was getting crazier, and being out there was the only place that was really feeling more normal at the time.
All of us were hopeful that it wouldn’t go on much longer, but it would only get worse from there.

HAM