Hike #1343; Flemington to Clinton

Hike #1343; Flemington to Clinton

8/1/20 Flemington to Clinton with Professort John DiFiore, Kirk Rohn, Red Sean Reardon, Thomas C. Huber, Craig Craig, Daniel Trump, Carolyn Gockel Gordon, Valerie Wall Thorpe, and Serious Sean Dougherty

This next hike would be a point to point between Flemington and Clinton NJ. I had done many variations of this one in the past and I typically do one every Summer.

The group at Hunterdon Arboretum

This time, I looked at the route and had a couple of points I’d never seen within the parks, so I figured I would try to incorporate some of it into the longer trip.

Crossing the South Branch at Assiscong Marsh

We met in Clinton where the A&P Supermarket used to be. The building is still there, but it is closed now. The parking lot was a good meet point, and I could run into Shop Rite liquors for a drink.
Here, I met up with, Craig, Kirk, and Red Sean, to start off. Tom met up with us at our start point, which was over near the Diamond Nation place and the stop and shop. We waited a little bit there for Tom to arrive, and then started our hike by walking through the lot to the south, out across Assiscong Creek on the access road.

The same crossing in 2003

Dan was planning to meet up with us, and I directed him over near Deer Path Park. We soon came out on Bartles Corner Road. Pretty much the crappiest part of the hike was walking this road to the east from there. Not really a lot of room for walking, and it was really bright and hot out.
We pushed on through it to the intersection with River Road, and turned to the left. This took us over Assiscong Creek again on an old stone arch bridge, and to the parking lot for the section of the South Branch Reservation that bears the same name.

River vegetation

The first time I did a variation of this was back in 2003, when we crossed the creek at the exact same spot. Then, the trail was more pronounced and it was easier to figure out exactly where we were supposed to go through.
The unmarked path took us through the woods, and then across the railroad tracks, former main line of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. We continued on the other side out to the South Branch of the Raritan River, which we waded across. It’s a nice shallow section with pretty green colored vegetation beneath.

Once on the other side, we were in the Wings Section of the South Branch Reservation. I always loved this trail because it was my job to mow it when I worked for Hunterdon County Parks. I would have to take a zero turn mower all the way out on this dead end trail, which was very pleasant.
When everyone had come across and changed their shoes, we continued to the left, north, along the trail a short distance. Then, we came to a connector trail into the Readington Township trail system.

Num nums

When I worked for Hunterdon, this was not yet the trail. It originally went along the backs of private back yards further to the north, but Readington had acquired more land more recently. So, the trail follows a more attractive and natural route further away from the houses.
I had never been on this path before, but it was pretty well marked out there. We followed it around a sort of retention pond, and then joined with the trail I was more familiar with, which took us off into the woods south of Deer Path Park.

Heading up Round Mountain

We meandered along this bit, which had some boardwalks installed in recent years. We followed the trail in nice shade and across a little brook.

Red Sean and I comnpare paleness

Pretty soon, we arrived at the south side of Deer Path Park. We walked across by the Overlook Pavilion area, and then toward the restrooms where we met up with Dan.
Together, we all continued across the open field sections of trail to West Woodschurch Road. I noted that they seemed to have added even more new exercise stations along the trail.
We crossed W. Woodschurch Road, and then entered the Round Mountain trail system. There were always two loops going up. The first one is just a grassy field area. We kept to the left here, and then entered some woods. The second loop heads up through more overgrown woods, so we stayed on the main orange blazed trail, known as the Peter Buelle Trail, which was named for a former park employee that laid it out.
We got to the near top of the hill where we turned left on a white trail, and a yellow trail, to a red trail. These were newer ones that followed a rather new acquisition on Round Mountain. Readington Township added several trails to the system while I still worked there, but more were added in more recent years, and I’d yet to see all of them yet.
The red trail was the longest new one, which leveled off and weaved pleasantly along the west end of Round Mountain, then gradually descended a bit to a blue trail. We just kept to the left at every turn until we came to the orange Peter Buelle Trail again.

Wetland Study area

We followed the orange out to the dirt parking area on Foothill Road, back a driveway. We walked this road out to the right to Stanton Road, and continued to the north.

Wetland study area

Carolyn and Valerie joined us by parking at one of the development cul de sacs on the left of this, and we all continued north until we reached the back of the Hunterdon County Arboretum. We then cut off trail into the woods until we reached the farthest loop.
The arboretum used to be a tree nursery, and is quite a pleasant place to walk. We kept to the left, south side of the arboretum, and wandered on to the Vincent Aubruites Wetland Study Area. It’s a very nice boardwalk section that has always been among my favorite places in the arboretum.

Arboretum gardens

We continued at a right fork in the boardwalk, and meandered along the trails to the east side without getting out to the service road. We passed the pond and fountain, and then decided to head over into the gardens.
It was nice to see that they were keeping the gardens in good shape. Hunterdon had done a lot of cut backs, but this was still looking quite good. The main thing I wanted to show everyone was the historic pavilion in the middle of the gardens, which was moved to this site. Built in 1893, it is one of the oldest garden gazebos in the state of New Jersey.

1893 garden gazebo

We climbed the gazebo tower, and from there headed back out through the front gate, then around the building to the right toward the tunnel that carries the connector trail under Rt 31. The trail continues to Echo Hill Environmental Education Center.
It was looking to be in good shape as well. For a long while, the trail markers had been removed from the route because it wasn’t considered to be “official”. We had plans back then of moving an old truss bridge from the county golf course to Echo Hill to span the Prescott Brook, but it kept on falling through. Eventually, a rock hop was used for the trail there.

Tiger Lilies

We used just that route, and then headed out by the pond. We walked up to the education center building, and used the restrooms for a bit.
There is a pretty cool history behind the Echo Hill land.
It was first established as a farm in 1836. A stone house which is still standing along the pond, a barn, chicken coops, and a peach orchard (Hunterdon was the Peach capital of the world) were all built.
The property was purchased one hundred years later in 1936 by Robert and Hermia Lechner to establish a Summer camp for boys.

Tiger Lilies

65 boys attended camp the first year, and it was expanded on to include girls the next year. In 1943, the Lechners purchased the disused Stanton Railroad Station from the Lehigh Valley Railroad for a mere $75.00. They hauled it up the hill and turned it into the girls activity hall. Camp Echo Hill remained in service until 1959 when the Lechners retired and sold the operation to a local church. Echo Hill was purchased by Hunterdon County in 1974, and soon opened as the county park we know today. The old railroad station is now known as the South Activity Center and is still used in activities.

In the arboretum

We walked through the education center building this time, and then up steps to the camping area on the south side of the preserve. I was originally planning to head over to the old railroad station this time, but then decided we’d do that another time.

In the arboretum

The orange blazed loop trail took us to a shelter building that used to be a cabin, which I had helped Bryan Manning and Keith Monahan rebuild back in 2008.
We continued on the loop trail across a field area, and then into some woods where it had been devastated by Super Storm Sandy a few years back. This took us directly down to the access road into Echo Hill. We turned right there, and then reached Lilac Drive. We crossed directly to the railroad tracks there, and then followed them to the north a bit.

yummy

I seem to recall that a train came by while we were walking that section, but we didn’t have any problem.
After a small stream crossing on the tracks, the trail turned left into the woods to head to Sunnyside Picnic Area. This is a really great section of trail that goes directly beside the South Branch for a while.
We followed the trail through a very nice area and then crossed over Old Clinton Road. The trail continued through the woods directly on the other side, and we paused for a bit there where we could go and lay in the river. It’s another of my favorite spots to hit in the area.

YUM!

We passed through Awossagame Grove, which is the county’s 911 memorial, where a trail has been planted in memory of every Hunterdon resident that died on 9/11/1. We then came out to the parking area on Kiceniuk Road.
Serious Sean met up with us there; it was the first time we’d seen him out with us since the last hike in the Atlantic Division series back in March. He brought out two cold bottles of Harvest Ale to share, which was amazing. It had been bottled in 2011, and had I realized that, I might have saved it a year!

Da group

Whatever this stuff was, it was thick and strong, and I loved it.
We passed it around, and actually no one liked it but me! Sean opened a second bottle to pas around, of a slightly different variety, and I found it to be just as great! With that, no one seemed to like it but me either!
I ended up double fisting with these and carried them both.
We turned left and crossed the South Branch on the Kiceniuk Road bridge. We then turned right on River Road and headed north. This is among the most beautiful road stretches in the state. If you see a car on it, it would be a surprise.

OMG YUM

Well, the surprise came. We might have seen one regular car, but the second one was a cop car.
I fortunately was able to jam both beer bottles between my backpack and my back. The officer asked what we were doing, and seemed surprised to see so many people out at night I suppose.
We were soon on our way again, heading north woard the next old pony truss bridge over the South Branch, where the name of the road changes to Hamden Road.
We crossed over, and the road is unpaved on the other side. We paralleled Camp Carr, and continued to the next intersection where we turned left on Pine Hill Road.

The group!

We didn’t go all the way to the next pony truss bridge on this road. We turned to the right on a mowed trail that passes through the woods on the east side of the river, through camp property. My plan here was to head toward the railroad bridge over the river. There is an outstanding swimming spot there I always try to get to.
The trail was good for a while, but then sort of just ended. It was too dark to see where I was going, and I was trying to get through the weeds to get up to the tracks, but it was just too bad.
Instead, we backtracked a bit, and then came to the edge of the river. I figured the only good way was to wade across at this point. It wasn’t that deep, and the drag was just that we’d have to take our shoes off. Some of us anyway.
I went across and took my pack off under the rail bridge, where the trail goes. I then swam around a bit.
While we waited for everyone to catch up, I climbed to the rail bridge deck, and jumped off a couple of times. I hadn’t jumped off the bridge in a while, and definitely not at night yet.

Moonlight over the South Branch

Feeling refreshed, we all continued along the trail, which is a little tough to find at times, out to the now abandoned section of Hamden Road. The road is still paved, but a pedestrian bridge replaced where it used to cross the South Branch. We followed the road to the north a bit, to where it became accessible again, then turned left on Landsdown Road.
We continued on Landsdown Road to the west, past a church, and then reached the southern end of the Landsdown Trail, which follows the old Clinton Branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad.
It was a pretty easy walk from here to the north under moonlight. We crossed an access road, and then beneath Rt 78 before reaching the town area.
When we did get to town, I had everyone follow me across the old truss bridge next to the Old Red Mill, a far superior way of walking than the main road. We then walked the side road and went down Dickens Alley before heading back to the lot.
Red Sean offered to take us back to our cars at the south side, and someone else got the others that were parked slightly to the north.
The beers Sean had given me were a bit more than I was used to, and I was pretty knocked out. The combination of that and being tired were a bit much. Red Sean wouldn’t let me drive my car, and so he had Tom do it. I ended up falling asleep in Sean’s car thinking we were going to Wawa, and I woke up across the street from my house!
So thank you guys for helping me out! I had a great time as always!

HAM