3/30/20 Warren Glen to Spruce Run with Brittany Audrey and Galya
This next hike would be a point to point on another of my days off from work because of the COVID19 scare. Being inside would drive me nuts so out I went.
View in Musconetcong Gorge
The virus has been spreading, and the frustration keeps getting worse.
The first days people were out of work, we did have a serious problem in parks. Hacklebarney filled up pretty badly and they tried closing it, but kept the other lots open.
This was insane. Only one of the other lots has a marked trail. The middle ones don’t go anywhere but to a field, and the lower one leads onto private land.
Seasonal view in Musconetcong Gorge
The cars trying to get to the park got so bad that they were backed up as far as the eye could see on both State Park Road and Hacklebarney Road. Park police were forced to reopen the front gates, and the park immediately filled to capacity. Because of the backup, the township in short order had to install no stopping or standing signs along the road at least a half mile in either direction. The “social distancing” problem looked unmanageable for a bit. However, after that couple of days, things started to calm down.
The term “social distancing” doesn’t even make any sense. That’s basically saying no one should even be talking to one another. “Physical distancing” should be the term. Since it was pointed out to me, I get pissed off every time I hear the term.
The first day of fishing, everyone thought Hacklebarney would be a mob scene, but it wasn’t.
I was shocked myself when mid day, there were only seven cars in the parking lot.
Cascades on Scout Run
I was sent out to photograph all of these lots and how full they were, but the truth was they really were not full at all any more, not like they had been.
There were a lot of people at times like weekends, but really no more than there normally would be this time of year. I don’t think people ever realize just how busy it gets in these places.
It would not have been a problem in most of these places if the course of action hadn’t been taken to partially close. In this time, they claim they want distance, and yet they close all but one or two parking lots of an otherwise huge state park.
Pine Run
Liberty State Park was probably the first to do it. Spruce Run did, they tried at Hacklebarney, Round Valley, Ringwood, Worthington...
They all closed down most of their lots which forced all visitors to park tightly together, sometimes double park, in the few spots remaining. Then, I had to go out and take photos of it.
This was all done to justify closure of the parks. I didn’t really think it would happen, but this was what was happening.
Big tree on Schaaf Road section
Work schedules were changed to “work from home” much of the time.
My co workers and I were scheduled to work in rotation, or as needed.
This gave me a bunch of unanticipated time off.
As such, and just in case, I had some of these hikes close to or connecting to Spruce Run lands. I did the one through High Bridge the previous week, and I chose this one to finish right along Spruce Run Reservoir so I could be scooped up if necessary at most any time.
Another big tree
I wanted to get more time in doing some elevation so I chose to do the Highlands Trail between Spruce Run and Musconetcong Gorge. It’s really a great, diverse route.
Possible petroglyph rock
None of these parks were closed yet, and so it was a good one to go about.
We met at Spruce Run and then shuttled to Dennis Road in the gorge where we started off.
The Highlands Trail traverses the upper land through here, and has for a long while. It was an disconnected section for many years, and was completed through about the time I went to work for Hunterdon County Parks Department.
The trail was extended at that time from Pine Run in the gorge out to the east side.
Possible petroglyphs in Sweet Hollow
I consider this preserve to be one of the biggest failures in trail blazing I have ever seen in the twelve or so years I’ve been working in parks.
Sweet Hollow Preserve West
The Highlands Trail through the preserve was co-blazed with a white trail, the Ridge Trail, which made its way down at Pine Run past a beautiful little cascade and to the former right of way of the Musconetcong Branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. A left turn would lead to another trail back to the parking lot to make for maybe a four mile loop.
Around the time that the Highlands Trail was completed through, someone was out there and got lost on the trail. They complained to the parks, and something had to be done.
Turkey Tail Mushrooms
The person had gotten lost on the white blazed trail because it had been removed from the maps. They county had previously found that the railroad bed was not on county land, and could not legally be used. A new “railroad trail” had been built up slope from it.
Sweet Hollow Preserve West
Still, the maps were grossly inaccurate then and no one changed it.
No one in the park system understood the complaint or where they were talking about at all (I still have a copy of the e mail somewhere).
This is where the stupidity ensued. Four full time park employees (I was not one of them) spent a full day going out to re-blaze the entire trail system to be clearer. An orange trail was changed to blue. The one from the base near the rail grade was changed to white. The entire Highlands Trail had yellow tags added to it.
Possible petroglyphs
No effort was made to cover over the old white paint blazes and the trail down into the gorge, so at this point much of the Highlands Trail had three colors on it.
The new white trail which also went up and down the ridge could be confused with the old one easily.
The old orange metal blazes placed by Peter Buell in the 1990s were also all left up, so many of the trails were blazed in two different colors. Many of the volunteers who constructed the Highlands Trail felt that Hunterdon was trying to take credit for all of their work, when they did nothing.
Japanese Garden House in 2009
With two white trails, two blue trails, two orange trails, and now one yellow trail, the system was more confusing than ever. To make matters worse, those in charge in Hunterdon were still stuck on “two blazes mean end of trail” rather than three like everywhere else.
Collapsed Japanese Garden House today
One spot had six different trail markers on it where only two came together. The guy who did it said “I am NOT going to try to removed Pete Buell’s old metal blazes”. This attitude and affirming they were right despite any argument to the contrary was just more enraging.
People continue to get lost out there, and not one bit of effort has been made to fix the situation.
One of the biggest issues in all of this was the elitist attitude by people in the parks that they could do whatever they wanted despite the existence of past publications, maps and guides, that are now incorrect.
Spring is here...and a house is gone....
Nevermind the fact that thousands of copies of the map had been downloaded or picked up at the headquarters or even the actual site, there are books published by New York/New Jersey Trail Conference, Appalachian Mountain Club, Sierra Club, and who knows who else that had their own maps and guides to the trails there which were now completely inaccurate. Many of these books are still available for purchase even now, with all of that wrong information. I brought this up, and it was shrugged off, and I was told “It’s our park, we can do what we want, those books are their responsibility”.
Abandoned house, now gone I think, in 2009
I love Musconetcong Gorge, but every time I go there, I think about how absolutely terrible this situation was and is.
We started walking the Highlands Trail, over a little foundation and then out to the Scout Run. The stream was flowing strong with a pretty little cascade just below the crossing. There is a little dam there that looks like it was made by just laying down bags of cement and letting them harden in place. Beyond the crossing, the trail climbs steeply up some steps and to the height of the ridge, where there were good seasonal views.
Spring house at Deerpath Sanctuary
It was pretty cloudy, and I figured we wouldn’t have any kind of views at all, but it was quite nice. I had originally planned to do a loop or something that had a lot more views, but I’m glad I didn’t go for that and did something closer and that was a little less reliant on that feature.
We continued along the ridge and past some lovely rock outcrops, and passed the white trail that switchbacks down the ridge. This was another bad point for me in the parks. The trail was built wonderfully by Student Conservation Association, but the guy in charge flagged off two different routes parallel with one another.
Deerpath Sanctuary
SCA ended up wasting days worth of work because they were constructing parallel trails that made no sense because he changed his mind and didn’t tear down the tape. The crew leaders at the time communicated their frustration to me.
We continued from this point down hill and across Pine Run on lovely mossy rocks.
On the other side, we climbed steeply out of the gorge of Pine Run and to another seasonal outlook. We then made our way through a former meadow that is now young growth forest of birch and such. When I first hiked this, much of it was sparse and grassy with trees so small that foot long sections of them had to be painted teal to show the way.
View into the gap in Jugtown Mountain for Rt 78
We continued through a rocky woods and soon emerged at Staats Road. The trail emerges in an area behind mail boxes and turns right on the road.
We headed up the road, to where it becomes Hawks Schoolhouse Road, and turned left on Schaaf Road. The trail follows the road which has nice sidewalks that go way back away from the edge of the pavement. Along the way, there are some nice giant trees in peoples yards. Most of the houses are very new except for one old stone farm house to the left that dates back probably to the very early 1800s or maybe late 1700s, with a late 1800s addition.
The two Musconetcong Tunnels for lehigh Valley Railroad
After going around a couple of bends, the trail turns right into the western portion of the Sweet Hollow Preserve, owned by the NJ Natural Lands Trust.
yea that's me
We followed along the edges of the fields here on the west side. A farm machine was out in the field doing some tilling or something as we went by.
It was incredibly foggy, so the good view going straight in was unfortunately not possible.
We continued between fields, through swaths of woods, and along stone rows.
It was in this area that I found what I believe might be some native American petroglyphs back in 2009.
Every time I try to find these things I can’t do it. If I could prove it, it would be the first case of such petroglyphs ever found in Hunterdon County.
I was checking the rocks as we were going over them, and I found what might be some of it on one close to the edge of the last field, but it was not as clear as what I’d found in 2009. I took photos of it, and there are markings of some sort, but they could be from any number of things. I don’t know that I was able to find the same rock as I did over a decade ago.
A seasonal view in Jugtown Mountain Nature Preserve
We entered the wooded section, passed a very old foundation, and I pointed out the ruins of the Japanese Garden House. We had first found this on a hike in Spring of 2009.
The place was full of stuff at the time, totally abandoned. I’d gotten a wooden piece from it for Jillane as a present back that year, and others found cool stuff there as well.
It deteriorated more and more over the years to where now there is barely anything left. I think it might have been associated with another house down on Sweet Hollow Road, but I’m not sure.
We headed down hill and crossed a small stream to reach Sweet Hollow Road.
Seasonal view from Jugtown Mountain
It was surprising to see someone walking on the road when we came out. Usually, these areas are pretty secluded. A guy was walking a dog. He greeted us warmly as we went by, which was really quite refreshing.
The trail follows the road a bit to the east. We passed another old stone house to the left, which looks to be lived in now. It was questionably abandoned before. There were actually several abandoned houses on the road back in 2009. I noticed this time that possibly two of the old houses are now gone.
Mine on Jugtown Mountain
Another lady was walking down the road toward us from the other direction who also greeted us warmly.
The guy walking form the other way was actually her husband.
We stopped and chatted with them, and they were surprised to know that the Highlands Trail continues as far as it does. They said we had quite a walk cut out for us going all the way to Spruce Run. This was the first they ever heard that it went all the way to Storm King Mountain in New York.
It was nice to see people that were friendly and not looking at us like we were nuts for being out. We said goodbye and headed up the trail into Sweet Hollow Preserve east section.
Nearing Tower Hill
Some of the east section used to be a hunting camp or something. At the top of the rise, there is an old fireplace ruin.
We continued through woods at first on old woods roads, and then on foot path that was through some really messy mud.
The entire remainder of the trail through Sweet Hollow Preserve was incredibly mucky.
I wore these new Merrell shoes that Dan Trump had just given me, and they actually kept my feet pretty dry. It was rather warm to have them on, because they’re better for Winter, but they did the job they needed to do this time.
Giant arborvitae or something
The trail emerged on Rt 579 and turned right briefly, then left onto Turkey Hill Road. We headed down hill on that pleasant route to a curve where the trail turns right into the Audobon Society’s Deerpath Sanctuary past a lovely old two story stone springhouse.
We headed up through former fields and across a power line, and the trail headed directly toward the gap in Jugtown Mountain created for the construction of Rt 78. I never really noticed how pronounced it was in this area until this time. After cresting the hill, we descended to Tunnel Road and turned to the left.
Clinton WMA
The trail follows Tunnel Road under Rt 78 and around a corner where at a power line cut, we can see down to the Musconetcong Tunnels of the former Lehigh Valley Railroad.
The original tunnel was built in 1874, opened in 1875 and is the longest railroad tunnel in NJ.
This tunnel remained in service until the new one, which is still active today, was completed in 1927 and opened in 1929. Both tunnels remained active simultaneously for a short time. It’s a really cool one to explore, and I’ve walked through it several times. It’s just harder now because there’s an active quarry on the other side.
The old tunnel
The settlement we entered on this side of the tunnel was named for it; West Portal. There are buildings there that date back to before the railroad was in operation however.
the old tunnel
I think before it was probably just known as Jugtown Mountain. The name of that comes from the fact that “Jersey Lightning”, a kind of Apple Jack, was made here during prohibition.
The 1927 tunnel
We continued into the little settlement, and passed one guy outside his house, otherwise the area was pretty quiet. We came out to and crossed Rt 173 just ahead.
The 1927 tunnel
The trail goes across 173 onto the little side road toward Asbury, but then turns sharply to the right up onto Jugtown Mountain, in Jugtown Mounain Nature Preserve.
Rt 173 was once the steepest climb that truckers would have to make traveling across the country east of the Mississippi until Rt 78 was completed through there.
The highway was also the first in the country to have a “Jersey Barrier” as they came to be known, but with Interstate 78 taking up the brunt of the traffic, it was no longer needed.
Old hotel in West Portal
The trail took us rather steeply up hill for a bit, on what actually might have been an old mine tramway of sorts. When we got to the top of the incline, it levels out for a good long while.
Historic West Portal scene
I’ve never really tried to map out where the tramway used togo, but people have told me that was it.
The trail eventually turns on a switchback to the right and continues up the hill, and there are some pretty good seasonal views from this section. The clouds had dissipated enough by this time to be able to look around a bit more.
Before reaching the top of the incline on the woods road, the Highlands Trail turned off to the left on some steps, and then continued to level off through the woods of the preserve.
Swayze Mines
The other trail continued up hill and rejoins with the Highlands Trail as a loop a little further up, when it gets to the former mining area.
The Swayze Mine (which yes, is the same family as Patrick Swayze) was the main mine I understand in the preserve.
William Swayze started mining the Swayze Mines in 1868, and employed over 300 men, mostly immigrants.
The deepest mine shaft here was 75 feet, and could be reached with a tramway. I think that is the main one that is now the parking area for the nature preserve.
The Swayze Mines closed in 1889, and the area was quiet save for a ski area that was active on Jugtown Mountain for a while.
Mines opened back up at the onset of World War II in 1939 and weilded high quality iron used for iron plating during that war. They closed again permanently in 1943.
Pond on the trail in Clinton WMA
The parks department acquired the land in 2001 and put in the trail system. There are a lot of concrete foundations and such that date back to the World War II operation, which was called the West Portal Mines, Inc.
The trail emerged into the parking area and crossed to the other side where it goes right over the area where the truck scales were. It then went by a mine hole filled with water and a tailings pile.
There used to be a loop trail on this side, which the county stupidly closed. It was only a very short one, popular with walkers doing just a little, but the county closed it so there would be “less trails to maintain”. Another totally dumb thing, they co blazed the Highlands Trail with their marker through here, and where they abandoned their loop and the Highlands Trail turned off, their blazes just end. It was literally only several hundred feet of trail to maintain, and they let it go as a formality to show they were downsizing.
Treasure carrying on the trail
The trail came out to Jugtown Mountain Road, turned briefly left, and then right back into the woods. I built the section of trail approaching the road back in 2008.
We meandered through the woods, and we could hear a family was up there on the trail ahead of us. I got way ahead of the others, and was just walking, not trying ot be quiet or anything, and came up upon the dad who turned, and bellowed out “AH YOU SCARED THE FUCK OUT OF ME!”. His wife laughed her ass off and the kids just kept walking like nothing was going on. I was wearing bright blue gym pants and a red shirt, so I stood out a bit, and the guy said something about seeing this big blue thing.
They were nice people, and it didn’t bother them fortunately.
We wandered through the woods, and it got somewhat muddy again. It was about the worst where we crossed the power line clearing. We crossed that power line on this hike several times.
When the trail first went through here, Hunterdon insisted on he location, and it was built on private land, despite argument by volunteers saying this. The county tried blaming me for the mistake while I was working for them, but it was actually the guy in charge.
The trail eventually emerged in the corner of Tower Hill Reserve, another county park. It followed mowed trails along the edge of what used to be fields until the county let them go to grow over with invasive species.
The parks department was basically disassembled, starting when I got laid off in 2011.
Tower Hill House
The trail came out on Tower Hill Road, where it turned right. There was a girl riding a skate board back and forth on the section here, which seemed odd, and an old guy walking.
Just ahead on the left was the former site of the Tower Hill House.
While we’re on this Hunterdon kick again, here was another moron move by them.
The Tower Hill House was built in 1841 by Thomas Wene, along with out buildings and a two story stone spring house. In the late 1800s, he added a kitchen and other rooms to the house.
In 1932, the house was purchased by siblings Margaret and Ira Devonald, for their father Frederick Devonald, an immigrant from Walkes who was serving as none other than Thomas Edison’s bookeeper in West Orange.
I think Devonald might have been a client of my great grandfather, who was a barber in Nearby Hampton, because someone who worked closely with Edison used to go into his shop, as my grandfather tells me, an said that Edison would all asleep face down on his desk regularly.
Devonald married Julia Miller, who became the voice of the world’s first talking doll, and was the only woman employed by Edison.
Devonald died in 1933, and his daughters used the farmstead as a country retreat.
Margaret Devonald sold the farm house and 271 acres to Hunterdon County in 1983, and the house was well renovated while I worked there.
Sadly, they put the historic home on the demolition list. Their argument was that the house had an addition put on it, as well as new windows, and it meant it was no longer historic.
I argued “so the building had a new addition put on 120 years ago...and so it’s no longer historic”, but nonetheless it was part of their argument to justify it, and they tore the old house down, which really had nothing wrong with it at all. It was a crime.
They were going to put offices in it, but the stairs were not ADA accessible.
Historic image of Norton Church
The spring house was left in place, but that was it. Everything else is gone, and the land has pretty much gone to shit because they stopped brush hogging it.
We headed into a piece of Tower Hill Reserve parallel with the road for a bit, then came back out to it to walk Tower Hill Road to the south.
I have one final garbage story about the Hunterdon Parks in this area, regarding the trail and why this is the longest road walk on its entire length.
The trailw as supposed to go up from Spruce Run through woods, do a brief road walk and go into Tower Hill Reserve. From there, it would go through Dove’s Landing and come out at the north side of Tower Hill. The greenway was almost complete.
Then, someone placed a trampoline on the trail easement. Rather than fight that, or even ask them to move it, and regardless of the fact that it was a public easement purchased with taxpayer dollars, it was decided instead to abandon the easement. And so, the trail had to be rerouted to Van Syckles, and then take a long road walk all the way to Tower Hill, perhaps the longest on the entire trail to this point.
The trail turns left on Norton Church Road at the bottom of the hill after passing by a lovely building with a wind mill that was designed in part by my friend Carla to look historic.
We headed down Norton Church Road to the church and cemetery, and cut through the back of the cemetery.
The church, online, says it was started in 1968, which is completely false. This church was built in 1828, rebuilt in 1855, and remodeled in 1908. The settlement of Norton dates far back, and had a store, a school, and a tannery.
There is a thrift store at the church, when all of this craziness is not going on, and we found a table outside full of all sorts of free stuff. Of course, we had to go through it and see if there was anything we couldn’t live without.
There were big gift bags, which themselves are of value, so Brittany took a big pink one. I grabbed some bracelets and a weird bottle opener hammer thing. Brittany got a nice set of chop sticks and I think a couple of plates and glasses. I’d have grabbed more if I had the room.
We continued down the road from here, which is lined by some lovely large trees, and passed the old Van Syckles Tavern, which was built by David Reynolds in 1763 to serve the employees of the Union Ironworks. Reynolds was reportedly hanged in 1765 by the British for counterfeiting.
From this point, we crossed the road at Van Syckles Corner. The Van Syckles were the next owners of the tavern, for which it later took its name, and it is apparently still in the same family. Doug Martin, a local historian, had it well preseved in more recent years, but it remains in private hands currently.
The trail goes across the road and through the fields of Clinton Wildlife Management Area from here. We passed through the fields, and Brittany was completely annoyed because the bag she was carrying kept banging up against her back. She ended up having to take it off and carry it, but it was too big to have her arm extended, so it dragged on the ground. The last bit of the hike was a frustration for her with the annoying bag.
Highlands Trail on old Van Syckles Corner Road
We took the trail across a private driveway, through woods and fields, and then around a scenic pond behind the historic 1760 Joseph Turner House, who was one of the founders of the Union Ironworks in 1742. It’s now the museum of the Union Forge Heritage Association.
We headed east until the trail came to the abandoned original route of Van Syckles Corner Road, abandoned in he early 1960s when Spruce Run Reservoir was built. The trail follows the road out to current Van Syckles Road, but we turned right on a power line to come out a bit earlier.
We followed the gas line right of way for a bit, came out to the road, and reached the end point.
We were pretty hungry, so I recommended we stop at local pizza shop, where I often stop on my lunch breaks at work because the pizza is so good, and people are so nice.
PIZZA!
Going into the place makes me feel normal again, like there’s not a crazy pandemic and people panicking all around.
The owner has gotten awards in the past for making some of the best pizza in America.
Even though restaurants are supposed to be closed, one of the owners, who is from Sicily, said to us in her very thick accent “Sit-a-down! Eat! Eat!” showing us to chairs. I told her we couldn’t, dining in wasn’t allowed as per state rule right now. She said “If-a-we get in-a trouble, we get in-a trouble!”.
On one hand, I know the rules, and I’m not always fond of them, but I very seriously appreciated the gesture of just a few moments of normalcy here. People are forgetting the human element far too fast in these crazy times, and are far too quick to judge.
Right or wrong, I was happy with the situation, and it was a good way to end our day.
HAM
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