Hike #1351; Madison Park to Keanesburg

Hike #1351; Madison Park to Keansburg

8/30/20 to Keansburg with Diane Reider, Justin Gurbisz, Sarah Jones, Jack Lowry, Professor John DiFiore, James De Lotto, Pat ?, Tom Vorrius, Robin Deitz, Jillane Becker, and Serious Sean Dougherty

This next hike would be a point to point between a section of Old Bridge Township known as Madison Park and the town of Keanesburg.

Sewer steps?

This was a rather fun one for me to put together because it would include Cheesequake State Park, which I’d never really incorporated enough into any of my hikes. I’d done so much through the area including all of the railroad beds, and the shore line perimeter of the state, but I skipped most of Cheesequake.
The reason for putting this one together was my friends Jack and Sarah were involved in drum circles on the beach in Keanesburg, and I’d been invited to attend, but just hadn’t made it to any yet.

A nice pond in a sandy area of Madison Park

I pieced together a route that would involve a little of what I’d done on the former Central Railroad of New Jersey grades, some back road walking, little pieces of open space, and a lot of trails in Cheesequake. It looked like a great route.

Garter snake

We met at the beach parking area in Keanesburg, but then shuttled the cars from that point to the nearest on street parking areas we could find just to the east.

Sand quarry area or something

The beach parking had big fees for the day, and we weren’t going to do that.
From there, we shuttled with as few cars as possible to our starting point at Madison Park. There are all sorts of stores there as well as a commuter lot. Delotto met up with us there, just after we arrived.
My plan was to start walking from there across the lots, and then into an apartment complex. Behind that, I could see there was a system of ATV trails that went through what appeared to be old sand quarries.

Playground in Old Bridge area

We skirted the right side of the first apartment complex, and I was looking for a way through to the next one to the right, but there seemed to be this crazy fence blocking the way. There were even spots that were intended as connections, but they had been chain linked shut.
We ended up walking all the way around the first development to the point where we were on the north side of it, not where I wanted to be.
There was a chain link fence blocking even the wooded around it.

Steamboat Landing Rd

I found one spot in the chain link fence that was flimsy enough that we could get underneath it and then make our way down a steep slope into the pine woods below.
We all made our way down, and then there were sort of steps of manholes leading into an area with a lot of washed out sand and such.
I’m not sure if this is a regular sewer or a storm sewer, or what the purpose would be to have steps of the going into this area, but I’d never seen anything like it before or since. There were also several old bottles down in the lower land there, and Jillane found a couple old ones.

Yummo

She went off another way when the rest of us headed off trail for a ways to the south, and eventually found our way to a sandy ATV path. She came from the other way, having hit the same ATV path to the east a bit.
We all walked the path to the south, and pretty soon we came upon an old sand quarry area. This was quite a pretty spot.
We continued south from here, and eventually came to another chain link fence that blocked us from getting out to a cul de sac called Joseph Court.

Steamboat Landing Rd

We had to backtrack a bit, and go around a large knoll. We then took a less distinct trail into a wide open area of sand. I watched my phone GPS and almost went the wrong way again, but soon found a route that took us right to where we needed to be.
I had actually looked at the google street views before planning this one to be sure I could come out of the woods there without a fence. Where we had initially emerged was a fenced spot off to the right of the road rather than at the end of the cul de sac.
We walked out this short road to Washington Avenue and then turned to the left.

Steamboat Landing Rd

There were people out doing yard work, some of them wanting to know what we were up to. Some impressed that we were going so far.
Washington Ave continued through the development, and we came to a small park on the corner of Euclid Ave. We stopped here to goof off on the equipment a bit.
I did some swinging there for a bit, and Jack played guitar and carried on jokingly yelling at how selfish we all were for going out and having fun in a group during the crazy pandemic.

An old pier near the end of Steamboat Landing

We headed back onto Euclid, and watched the woods to the left to see if there might be any way to cut into more of the park land earlier but there was nothing.

A view toward Garden State Parkway

Euclid took us out to Dock Road where we made a left turn. This led to a dead end, but the now abandoned road continud down, also shown on maps as “Steamboat Landing”. I don’t know much about any steamboat history out there, but the Cheesequake Creek is off to the left as we headed gradually down.
I was very happy to be heading into some deeper woods. We were going to be on trails or woods roads for a long while from this point, and in sections I had never explored in the least bit before.

Here is pee pee tree

The road descended through woods, then came to a rather open area for a bit with very tall phragmites and such. It then went back into more woods, and Museum Road appeared to the right at an intersection.
I was ready to just turn right there, as that was the planned route, but the Dock Road continued ahead, so I figured we could just walk out to the end of it. Jack had told me there was some kind of former ammunition pier out there that had exploded way back, and that we could see stuff.

Cheesequake

We got to the end of the road, and it disappeared into the phragmites. However, there was a sort of clear enough path going up to the left, onto a high sandy knoll.

Cheesequake

We climbed up there, and there was a pretty good view through the trees toward the Garden State Parkway where it crossed over the Cheesequake Creek.
I wondered at this time if the knoll we were on could be the reason Cheesequake had its name. It’s a native American word that means something like “settlement on a hill”. It could have meant this point, or maybe more of the higher ground within the park where all the trails are and it rises somewhat dramatically from the level of the bay.

Cheesequake

To the west, there was an old dock that could be seen on the Cheesequake Creek.
The story Jack had referred to was that of the Morgan Munitions depot, which exploded in 1918 killing over 100 workers. I’m pretty sure the main building complex was further out and closer to the Raritan Bay, but I’m not sure exactly where. It’s not too much to believe that the dock remnants we saw were once part of that operation in some way.
We made our way from the top of the slope and down another path to the Dock Road.

Cheesequake

We followed Dock Road right back to the Museum Road, and then turned to the east to follow that. There was still no one around where we were walking.

Cheesequake

Cheesequake is quite an old park. Money was allocated for its purchase in 1937, and the land including a Civil War era mansion was purchased by the Favier brothers in 1938. The Civilian Conservation Corps worked at the site, and the park opened to public in 1940.
There are a lot of aspects of the park I still know very little about. I don’t know what became of the Civil War era mansion, and I don’t know much detailed history of what went on inside the park property other than little tidbits.

Cheesequake

We eventually came to the intersection with the Green Trail. None of the trails in Cheesequake have names, which I hate, but it is what it is.

No poison ivy here though...

I realized at this point that Jillane wasn’t there, so we hung out for a bit and we sang “Maybe I’m Amazed”.
There were a lot of other hikers coming by at this point, just crossing over the Museum Road from one end of the Green Trail to the other.
I went back to make sure Jillane was alright, and then we all made our way back onto the Green Trail to the left, which took us further into the north section.

Oddly growing old tree

The terrain was surprisingly undulating through this section. We went up and down over knolls, and there were even steps in places going up or down steeper sections of sand mounds. There were also nice long sections of boardwalks all through the park.
We soon came to a point where the blue, red, and green trails all came together. The blue trail at this point was basically just an old road, which we followed to the left. There were tons of people following it. Some of them were wearing masks, most were not.

Oddball Chestnut Oak

The blue trail turned downhill to the left a bit while the woods road continued straight ahead.
We followed this down slope a bit, and then came to an amazing old tree growing into a slope in a very precarious position.
It appeared to be a Chestnut Oak with its root system growing far back behind it, which helped to suspend it at an odd level.
Justin climbed on it of course while we allowed everyone else to catch up.
From there, we walked downhill a bit more and made our way to the edge of Perrine Pond.

Big Chestnut Oak

This area was historic for the clay making industry. Perrine Pond was used for this purpose.
Clay works, potteries, and brick works operated throughout the area.

Big Chestnut Oak

Clay for these items was provided for use in South Amboy among other places.
The blue trail turned right along the east side of the pond, but there was an informal route that continued out to the west side of the pond along the waterfront.

Perrine Pond

We started heading around, and it was nice enough at first. The map showed that the informal path went all the way around Perrine Pond, but then we found a missing section.

Histori sign at Perrine Pond

Part of the berm closer to the waterfront had been purged out, and to get through would require climbing down and walking through the water. I got my group shot there, and some of the group turned back to walk around the east side of the pond while I waded.
I got in completely really quick, because the water was pretty refreshing, but Delotto and Professor John got in completely and had a good swim.
We eventually made our way out the other side and out to the shade on the north side.

Missing section of trail at Perrine Pond

We all gathered at the point on the other side, and enjoyed a bit of the view. We then continued out from the pond and along the blue trail to the east.

The group at Perrine Pond

We weaved around through the woods on a nice trail that headed in a meandering route back to the east. There was apparently another blue trail that went more direct to the beach too.

Outflow from Perrine Pond

We went across the previous woods road section that goes along the back of Perrine Pond and onto foot path.
This section of trail was even more undulating, and went up and own through a very nice section of board walks and steps. It eventually led us to join with both the green and the red trails.
We continued to the nature center, which was at this point closed due to the covid19 crap.
We hung out outside of it for a short bit I think so some of the group could use restrooms.

Outflow at Perrine Pond

From there, we went along another little boardwalk section to the start of the yellow trail.
These trail heads are pretty well done with elaborate wooden archway signs with “yellow trail” or whatever color it is on top of them.
One of the things that did bother me about this section was the fact that there were identification signs for plants and trees along the way that were totally off. On two different occasions, I found signs denoting Poison Ivy along the trail, and neither time was any to be found.

Perrine Pond Delotto

We followed the yellow trail along more board walk stuff and along some wetlands heading to the west for a bit.
Eventually, we came out to a grassy area near the southern side of Hooks Creek Lake. This is where the swimming area is for the park.
Before we were even close to the lake, we could hear the loud speakers with the life guards calling everyone out of the water to do a “buddy check”.
We walked around the left side of the lake and then emerged onto the beach.

Perrine Pond

I told everyone to take a break at this point, and we could take a dip in the lake for a break here. It was pretty hot out, and so a swim was going to feel really good. Definitely a bit better than the messy Perrine Pond from earlier.
We sat our stuff down together on the beach, and a lot of us headed out.
Like most of the wussy NJ swimming beaches, it wasn’t very deep. I could get just about out to the rope at the end of the thing and still stand with no problem, so I had to dip down to cover my shoulders.

Perrine Pond

As I put my shoulders down and exposed only my head from the water. I heard a whistle. Then I heard it again. I thought it would be really a joke if it were directed at me.

Mossy trail

I waited a moment, standing up straight, and then dipped my body down to cool off in the water yet again, only to hear the life guard whistle once more.
I still wasn’t totally certain, so I waited a bit of time once more, put my body in the water, and the guy started blowing his whistle again.
I was beyond annoyed at this pompous little piece of shit on the life guard that clearly could tell I was in no danger of drowning, and though the water wasn’t even over my head, he had to be an ass.

Mushrooms on the trail

He felt the need to assert his authority with his whistle every time I tried to get myself deeper in the water than my rib cage. They seriously must just be bored.

On the trail

I was discouraged from even staying in for very long. I swam slightly close to the rope, never quite near it, and also not quite as close to it as other people, but the guy was singling me out.
I headed back in and got my stuff, and then walked to try to find where the rest of the group had gone.
I found them all on a grassy hill in the shade, just above the beach complex. This was by the entrance to the Lakeside Picnic Area. We had a nice rest there, and Delotto came back from concession with a hot dog for me.

Trail at Cheesequake

Some park police drove back and forth a couple of times into the picnic area. We only hung out for a little while longer and then made our way down through woods.

Trail in Cheesequake

There is no formal trail that connects to the next bit of the trail system to the east, the white trail, so we followed along the access road that went into the lakeside picnic areas. We passed several picnickers, and then reached the turn around spot at the back portion.
From there, there was an informal sandy trail that went up a slope to a knoll on the right. We followed this for a bit, but it seemed to abruptly end. We then cut to the left into a sort of cove area surrounded by trees, and then climbed up again.

Trail in Cheesequake

This took us out to the main entrance road to the beach area. We headed out to the road, crossed over it, and then followed a bit of a paved trail that follows the north side of it.
We walked east on that for a little bit and passed the intersection with Gordon Road.
The paved trail crossed the road here and followed the Gordon Road downhill for a bit. We continued to the left and skirted the tree line along the other road which leads out beneath the Garden State Parkway to the camping area and more.

Hiking Cheesequake

We went from the wide open area to another nice wooded area, and Booth Road turned off to the right. The road was closed off to all traffic and used as a trail.

Cheesequake

To the left of this, the white trail went off into the woods. It was closed off with caution tape, although I don’t know for what reason.
The trail can actually be accessed from the other end without coming to any caution tape or closed signs. The Booth Road is open, and if hikers were to walk that to where the trail crosses, they get on it and can come back out where the caution tape is, and in theory not even realize they were ever in the closed area. This is just another ridiculous thing in the park.

Yellow trail start

We went down onto the white trail and weaved through the woods for a bit.
The trail certainly didn’t appear to be at all closed because tons of people were out on it.
We kept to the left, and I figured we would follow the northern edge of the white blazed loop.
There were a couple of trees laying over the trail, but nothing to be too concerned about. This trail is very circuitous, and it is open to mountain bikers, so I figure the reason for closing it might be for some safety issue, but not sure.

Yellow Trail

The trail stayed along a very nice slope just a bit away from the Garden State Parkway, and the woods seemed like quite a large expanse. I really liked this bit.

Another mislabeled poison ivy sign pointing at phragmites

The trail eventually skirted a bit of a meadow, and then weaved around through more woods before coming back out to Booth Road, which had itself meandered around through this woodland. We passed by a few other people in this area, and Jack and I sang a couple of songs while we were waiting for everyone to catch up.
Once everyone was back together again, We turned left, east, on the Booth Road. This wasn’t considered part of the official trail system, and it leaves the map at that point.

Wetland view

The woods road emerged at the park and ride lot off of Matawan Road next to the Garden State Parkway exit. We walked out around the gate, but there were signs saying “restricted area” if we had been walking from the other direction.

Hooks Creek Lake

We made our way across the lot and then out across Matawan Road into the larger parking lots for some sort of businesses and such. We continued following the road south.

Mushroom on the trail

We soon made our way over to the Quick Chek on the corner of Cliffwood Avenue to grab something for lunch. I think I got empanadas or something, I forget.
While we were sitting there having a break, Serious Sean appeared out of nowhere and said he was just driving by and said “Oh hey! There’s Metrotrails!”
He had finished doing another hike and decided to just park his car and finish the rest of the hike with us. Delotto went in and got permission for him to leave his car at the Quick Chek for the rest of the day.

Together, we all started walking from the intersection south on Morristown Road.
We continued on this as far as route 6A, which is Ravine Drive, and turned to the right there.
We were laughing and carrying on as usual, and Delotto picked up a big orange road cone, and used it as a sort of amplifier for his phone speaker as we walked along.
We moved on along the road, and eventually came to where we were parallel with scenic Lake Lefferts.
The Lake Lefferts Lakefront Park was soon on the right, and there was a little trail that went down and a bit closer along the waterfront from there.
We followed along this, and then returned to Ravine Road again just beyond. This took us across the Matawan Creek, where Lake Lefferts is dammed. We then headed gradually uphill into the main center of the town of Matawan, which I’d not hiked through since 2008.

Ghetto amplifier

The town is taken from the native American word "Mechananienk" which the Dutch changed to “Matovancos” or something like that, which in a Lenape language meant probably “where two rivers come together”. It could also be taken from the Unami language and their word “Matawonge” which meant “bad river bank”. Prior to the construction of sea walls and such, the high bluffs along the creeks in the area were prone to collapse during bad weather and surges from the ocean, so either of these names could be accurate.

Lake Lefferts

The area was first settled in the seventeenth century by the Dutch, and Scotch-Irish came a bit later and dubbed the location “New Aberdeen”. When the neighboring township was created, they re-used the old name to make Aberdeen Township.
We headed uphill to the intersection, and then weaved back and forth on the streets a bit.
We soon came to Stillwell Street, where the Henry Hudson Trail currently ends.
The paved rail trail follows the former Freehold Branch of the Central Railroad of NJ.

Lake Lefferts

The line was chartered as the Monmouth County Agricultural Railroad in the 1850s but failed to complete construction of the line due to money issues.

The line reformed as the Freehold & Keyport Railroad later on, followed by the Freehold & New York which completed the construction and ran the first train in July 1877. Another reformation into the Freehold & Atlantic Highlands Railroad took place before CNJ acquisition in the 1890s. The CNJ subsequently began operating the line as their Freehold Branch. Freight was mostly agricultural products: milk, cattle, grain, apples, peaches, tomatoes as well as marl, a soil used in fertilizer.

Lake Lefferts

The nearby Marlboro Psychiatric Asylum was also a customer. Passenger service ended in April 1953 (a big year for passenger service termination on the little used CNJ branch lines).
By the late 1950s, freight was declining on the line. The line was placed out of service below Morganville to Freehold in 1974. Imperial Oil was the last customer on the line at Morganville; service ended in 1983, resulting in the rest of the line south of Matawan being placed out of service. Most of the track remained in place well into the 1990s.

Lake Lefferts

After abandonment, the right of way was re-purposed as the Henry Hudson Trail extension, which had already used the Seashore Branch to the north as the first segment.
There are missing sections in Marlboro, Freehold, and in Matawan.

Lake Lefferts

I had first hiked this branch line in 2008, starting in Freehold. We bullied on through the incompleted sections, and it was a really great trip, but Matawan was the highlight.

Matawan Brook

The big deal item in Matawan is the trestle over the wide wetland of Gravelly Brook. The entirely wooden structure is surprisingly large for this part of New Jersey.
When we had visited here in 2008, only DJ Ray Cordts and I went across the structure because it was so difficult. I wanted to get out and do it again.
When we reached the end of the trail, the right of way was more overgrown with all sorts of weeds than ever before to the north. The entire group mostly decided to skip this section and head to nearby roads.

Rail crossing and Henry Hudson Trail

Only Justin, Serious Sean, and I went to cross the thing.
We bullied on through the weeds a bit, and then came to the edge of the trestle.
There was a chain link fence erected over each end of it, which would require climbing under or around to cross.
When I had done this with DJ Ray, we climbed all the way down, and then used some plank walkway beneath in order to make our way some of the way over. This time, those planks were looking far worse than they had twelve years ago.

Historic March 14 1953 view of Matawan trestle

We stepped out onto the bridge, and there was no way to really easily get around the chain link fence. Going over it was also looking to be out of the question.

Matawan trestle

A few had at first followed us out there, but they turned back when they saw what fresh new hell awaited us.
I managed to climb down beteen a couple of the ties on the near side of the chain link, and swing beneath the bridge. There was another opening on the other side, and I was able to climb back up through the deck on the other side. Justin was probably already through to the other side and crossing by this point.
We got onto the main bridge deck and started walking across.

Matawan trestle

There were a lot more weeds growing through this bridge than the last time I was there. I was surprised that more had not been installed to make this structure more accessible.

Matawan trestle

After all, the Matawan High School is literally only a few blocks away. If I had gone to school there, we would have been hanging out on and climbing on this bridge every day. I suppose it goes to show how little kids are getting out compared to how it used to be.
We made our way to the north side of the trestle, and yet another chain link fence. It was looking pretty bag for trying to get over this side of it. There wasn’t a hole between the ties to climb down through and back up the other side like before.

Matawan trestle

I was almost ready to call it quits and go all the way back and along the road like the others. I had tried to sit on one of the boards along the edge to see about swinging under.

Matawan trestle

Just before turning back, Serious Sean went down to have a look, and he found a spot to put a foot that I had not seen before. It was actually a very easy thing to swing under once he found the hand and foot holds that were just out of sight.
We pulled ourselves under and then back up onto the deck of the bridge, then out to the other side. It was really badly overgrown over there, but we could see a few knocked down weeds where people make their way to and from it. It took us to the corner of 1st Street and Lake Blvd.

Matawan trestle

We headed out to Atlantic Avenue and turned to the left. The rest of the group was waiting for us by where the tracks went under the highway, adjacent to high school ball fields. I had wanted originally to go that way and continue on the railroad bed, but it was looking really weedy, and there appears to be a missing bridge over the Mohingsun Creek just ahead.
We all headed along Atlantic Ave to the north, and then turned right when we got to the Matawan-Aberden NJ Transit Station, which is along the former New York and Long Branch railroad, which ws controlled by Central Railroad of New Jersey.

Gravelly Brook wetland from the trestle

We turned through parking lot 4, and then through the larger one, out toward the station platform on the railroad line. We regrouped at that point to go over plans.

Seashore Branch

From here, we would have to follow the active tracks for just a little bit to a side track that led to the left. It lined up perfectly with the former Freehold Branch, but this northeast bound one was the former Seashore Branch of the Central Railroad of NJ.
The New York and Long Branch line came about in 1875, and this one was developed soon after. It remained in service until 1983 and was removed. The line was purchased by Monmouth County for the rail trail in 1992, but this first bit was not used.

Seashore Branch

The first time I hiked this one was back in 2006.
Not a whole lot of it has changed since that first time there, except the bridge area is quite a bit more overgrown than it was back then.
We turned off from the active tracks to reach double tracks leading onto the former Seashore Branch with catenary poles still in place.
We followed the tracks out to where it hit a wall of weeds. It had been pretty clear all the way through the previous time I went, but this was pretty bad this time.

Seashore Branch bridge

We went by the somewhat newish apartment buildings, which were there in 2006, and then came to a sort of wall of weeds.
I thought we would have an easy time just walking to the edge of the old rail bridge, which is still spanning the Garden State Parkway, but it was really tough getting through. I had to bully through a lot of it, and eventually made it to the other side, but some of the others didn’t do so well. Amazingly, I still heard Jack’s guitar going through the mess from beyond!

CNJ Seashore Branch Parkway bridge

Eventually, some of the others opted not to try to cross this one either. They had made their way out into the development and then went to the nearest road over the Parkway.

Old parkway bridge

In order to get on the bridge, we had to go around the outside of a fence to the left, and then out to swing onto the bridge from beside it.
The bridge itself still has ties across most of it, and looks much like it did in 2006, except with a few more weeds growing through.
We had a nice view of the next road bridge to the west, on Maple Place. We went across, and then entered some weedy area on the other side. It wasn’t hard to get off this side of the bridge. No path followed the rail bed straight ahead from here.

Parkway view from the bridge

We headed to the left on a path, which took us out behind a business or something, then through the parking lot out to Gerard Avenue. We met up with the others at that point.

Parkway bridge

When the others showed up, several decided they were not going to go on. Jack and Sarah worked out an uber ride because they had to get to the Keanesburg Beach area.

Henry Hudson Trail

Jillane was going to have me pick her up there, but she ended up getting a ride with the others as well.
While we were waiting, Serious Sean was doing some breakdancing or something, and somehow he lost his car keys in the grass. We didn’t realize until later, and he had thought maybe he’d dropped them below the Matawan trestle. Fortunately, Jillane saw the keys and picked them up, and in discussion later, we realized they were Sean’s, and he would be able to get them back.

Old rails

We crossed Gerard along a ballfield park and then crossed Broadway. There was a section of railroad rail parallel with the trail in this section from old industries.

Some old rail along the right o fway

We continued parallel with a cemetery and then crossed over Route 35 on a longer bridge. The trail made its way through residential area, and crossed Beers Street, followed by Main Street, followed by Broad Street, and then Maple where it turned a bit oddly to allow for safer crossing.
We then got back on the more straight trail at Atlantic Ave, then crossed over Green Grove, followed by Manchester, and then Fulton heading to the northeast. The trail then went out onto a wetland.

Crossing at Atlantic and Church St

The trail then crossed over the Chingarora Creek via a nice wooden footbridge.
We continued out to cross Stone Road, skirted some more wetlands, then entered the Union Beach area. We crossed Florence Ave, and then Poole Ave. Tom pointed out to us where he lived somewhere along the way, only a couple of blocks off, but he didn’t need to head home for anything. We continued parallel with Jersey Ave, and then continued out across Spruce Street. We then entered a wooded swath and crossed Flat Creek.

The pleasant wooden bridges on these creeks were nice.

We went back into more development next to Jersey Avenue, which didn’t continue across Flat Creek. It probably did at one time.

Chingarora Creek

We crossed Union Avenue and Shore Road access.
We next crossed East Creek, in another little estuary area with some very nice views.
We skirted some more wetlands and crossed Rose Lane, and then continued a bit before crossing Thornes Creek.
Some of these estuary lands offered some of the best scenery of the entire hike. We were looking off to the north to the Raritan Bay and could see the New York City skyline as well as the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.

Chingarora Creek

The sky had a purple hue to it that made it quite exceptional to see.
Thornes Creek joins with the Waackaack Creek just before hitting the bay.

NYC skyline

When I tried to hike the perimeter through this area, we couldn’t get around that spot and had to walk back out to the rail bed crossing, because there’s some sort of a government installation out there. I we had passed by it along Rose Lane, but I’m not sure exactly what it was.
I had stopped to swim at the Thornes Creek Bridge when we got there back in 2006, and was entirely too drunk on some sort of vodka or something I’d had left over from a previous party we’d had, the annual hikers’ hootenanny.

East Creek area bay and skyline

On that hike, we had overshot the turn around point of the loop I’d done. Remembering that it was a good spot for a dip, I decidd to go in the same spot again.

East Creek area view

Everyone else was getting pretty obviously tired. I just needed to cool off again, and was out pretty soon. What I didn’t prepare for was the bad chafing that was to come.

Henry Hudson Trail

Apparently, the shorts I had worn were wearing between my thighs pretty badly, and the Thornes Creek was very brackish at this point. The tide was coming in, and so the water was flowing inland, which probably made it even more so.
My thighs were burning pretty badly for the walk as I pushed ahead, and then they got even worse as the salt water tried on them. I’d had this issue with pain on beach hikes before, but it has been so long since I’ve done one that I’d totally forgotten.

On Henry Hudson Trail

We came to more development as we were nearing Keanesburg, crossed Central Avenue, and then turned left away from the railroad bed onto Laurel Avenue.
Pretty soon, we crossed the Waackaack Creek on a road bridge, and the sn was setting beautifully.
Laurel Avenue became Beachway Avenue at a bend, and then the entrance to the Keanesburg boardwalk was up on the left. We went up the steps to that and walked a lovely section above the beach and watched the sun set some more.

Waackaack Creek sunset

This was where I got totally sick and puked when we did the loop hike between here and Atlantic Highlands back in 2006. My brother Tea Biscuit had to drive my car back.

Keanesburg Boardwalk

We followed the boardwalk east for a bit, but then it had either a beach access or back down to the road. Everyone was more inclined to walk the road than the beach at this point.

Keansburg sunset

I can’t say I much disagreed with that choice at this point. Walking on the sand can be pretty painful, and any awkward movements was going to hurt my thighs even more.

Keanesburg Amusement Park

We stayed on Beachway Avenue past the Keanesburg Amusement Park, where we could see all the lights and people walking around from the road.
It was actually very refreshing to see so many people having a good time. It wasn’t by any means as packed as it might have been if not for the covid crap, but there were clearly people living a good life and not so worried about getting sick.
We continued past the lights and sounds and past Belvedere Beach, to the Keanesburg Beach.

Keanesburg Amusement Park

The others were already out on the beach having arrived much earlier to start Jack’s drum circle event. I had to go and get my van back, so I walked with others to cars.

Keanesburg Amusement Park

Serious Sean’s car was parked on the way to mine, and this was when he realized he didn’t have his keys. Fortunately, his roomate or something had helped him to get back home and get his spare set so he could get in.
I got back to my car, and then headed as quickly as I could back to the beach where we had finished. Jillane wanted me to get Taco Bell, so I tried going out of my way for it, but the lines were absolutely insane. I think I stopped at some small place for snacks or something. I forget where I went.

Beach party

I arrived back at the beach and hurried up over the hump to find the group with a nice camp fire on the beach, and a light up hula hoop.
It was nice sitting by the fire for a bit, but I was told I missed the best part of the entire thing. Jillane and Delotto went swimming just before I got there, so I missed that too.
At this point, I might not have gone in anyway because I was still in pain, though the drive to Madison Park and back gave me a little time to recover.

Drum Circle

I was glad to finally be able to get to one of these things, even if it was only for a short part of it. I have another similar hike ready to go, so if it happens next year, I’m ready.

Raritan Bay at night

Although the official end of Summer isn’t until later in September, this felt like sort of a fitting close to the Summer hikes, as it was the last one in August.

The group in Madison Park

Everyone packed up their stuff, and we were pretty much there to the end.
Jillane and I took Delotto back to his car in Madison Park, which was pretty much on the way anyway, and Serious Sean was actually very close by to intercept and get his keys there. Everything worked out pretty well in the end.
Based on this hike, I’m ready to do another Cheesequake hike only heading to the west more after exiting, and I have another couple of routes that will work to finish in Keanesburg as well. I always love going back to places because of an event like this, because it forces me to take a look at places I’d stopped looking at quite a while ago with new eyes, searching for more interesting things and wondering what might be around the next corners. There is always more to see, no matter what, and sometimes we just need a catalyst to make us recognize it.
The next day I did end up with chiggers again, because that tends to happen in sandy pine soils, though I didn’t get it as bad as previously. We’ll have to do this earlier in the season next time!

HAM