Hike #1353; Mt. Inlet to Mt. Olive
9/6-9/7/20 Lake Hopatcong/Mt. Inlet to Mt. Olive with Red Sean Reardon, Veronica DiVirgilio, Kenny Zaruni, Justin Gurbisz, Kirk Rohn, Lowell Perkins, Professor John DiFiore, Brittany Audrey, Emily ?, and Galya
Bear Pond
This next hike would be another point to point this time on trails all around the Lake Hopatcong to Mount Olive area.
I had done some stuff last year out this way, and we ended up having to do a road walk after dark for a lot of it, so this time I sort of felt like I was making amends for that time.
Highlands Trail at Bear Pond
I had been wanting to hike the Highlands Trail out around Bear Pond for quite some time, because it had been years since I’d done the section, and we used to hang out there with our friend Benjamin Tharp quite a lot when he lived there. I knew there had been some changes made on the trail through the area, as well as to the lake, on the Hudson Farm property owned by Peter Kellogg.
The section was also special to me because it was one of the places I hiked when I first started getting involved in official trail development. I wanted to do the entire Highlands Trail as a series, and in 2003, the Supervisor of the trail through the Trail Conference was Bob Moss.
Bear Pond
At that time, the trail builders to me were sort of like celebrities. I knew Bob only in that I knew he wrote the paper guide book to the Highlands Trail.
When I discovered the trail one day a bit earlier, I went into the Stephens State Park office to ask what the deal was with that teal diamond trail that just keeps going and wasn’t on the park map.
The old lady behind the desk told me it was the Highlands Trail, and that it was very long. She gave me the paperback book to take, and I immediately started plotting hikes.
When I wanted to do the section north from Allamuchy Mountain, the trail was not yet finished.
Inside that guide book was a little paper insert with updates, and on it was Bob Moss’s phone number. I figured “what the hell, I’ll call him” when I wanted more info.
Highlands Trail along Bear Pond
Bob and I hit it off talking, and he was a wealth of knowledge on the trail route. I’d laid it out and done so much work, I was totally impressed.
Bob was interested that I wanted to do group hikes to promote he new trail system, and he tried describing to me where we needed to go to get through the uncompleted sections, but after a while of trying to explain, he said “Well, why don’t I just go with you?”.
I was beside myself.
This “celebrity” in my mind was coming out on my hike. He explained there was still some stuff he wanted to see along the route to tweak the trail, and it would be good for him to get out too.
We ended up having a really great hike and I saw some amazing sections along South Sparta Mountain, and up to Bear Pond, before any of that was even blazed yet. I literally got to be a part of the scouting hike, hopping over rock and looking at what the best approach would be.
Scouting for the Highlands Trail at Bear Pond in 2003
Bob and I became friends and he joined me on several of my Highlands Trail hikes over the next couple of years, helping me to understand the route. I then got to be personally involved in working on the trail when I was hired by Hunterdon County Parks, when we saw the trail to completion, and then again when I got hired at Spruce Run Recreation Area. I help to maintain sections of the trail to this day, and it all started with wandering around 17 years prior.
Since the early days of the trail, the entire South Sparta Mountain section had been abandoned, and the trail was rerouted by Glenn Oleksak, Bob’s successor, around to the Hopatcong Nature Preserve. More work had been done on that recently as well.
Highlands Trail scouting on Bear Pond in 2003 with Bob Moss, Rich Pace, Tea Biscuit, and Jim DeLotto
My first hike up there was also the first one where our friend Jim DeLotto joined us.
This time, I wanted to go to where we got off of the trail the previous time we were up there, and then make our way along it as far as the Lackawanna Cutoff. From there, we could make our way back to where we had met earlier at the Mt Olive train station.
Meeting at Mt Olive was at 4 pm. I ran slightly late.
Lowell had invited one friend to come that was too concerned to get in a car with anyone to shuttle to the starting point, so he drove all the way home after a long drive out without hiking.
The rest of us managed to get up to the starting point, Roland May Eve’s Mountain Inlet Sanctuary on the north shore of Lake Hopatcong.
There were good views of the lake there. We walked out to a driveway which has a trail going off the end of it. The trail follows a woods road designated Eve’s Mountain Road. We had listened to some Paul McCartney on the way up, and I didn’t realize that Ronnie was such a big fan of the Beatles, so we had lots of music to talk about for the start of this one.
The group at Bear Pond
We meandered a lot through the woods, and there were several ups and downs and such. The Hopatcong Nature Trail which eventually is planned to completely encircle Lake Hopatcong, is now co aligned with the trail in this area.
There is a side trail out to Mt. Inlet Sanctuary, marked with teal diamonds and black dots in the middle. We followed this to the main Highlands Trail intersection.
Along the way, Ronnie got behind at some point.
We continued along, and I recognized we were getting close to Bear Pond when we came to a large old metal water pump in the trail.
Ronnie called us when we got to the pump, and we hung out there to wait while some of the others went back to look for her. Fortunately they found her with no problem and we moved on.
The pump works, but it has to be primed beforehand, and I wasn’t about to waste water trying to make it work this time.
Bear Pond
We soon reached the edge of Bear Pond where an informal trail comes in from the left. We then weaved around several coves and such along the shore of the lake.
It was absolutely stunning to be out there at these moments.
As we headed around the east side of the lake, there was a new little dock with a building and launching area right along Peter Kellog’s property, with a road going off to the right. We remained on the waterfront, and the trail remained easy enough to follow along.
We continued along the shore until I recognized the side path that led out to the spot we always stopped to swim, which I thin was called Strawberry Island or something.
Bear Pond
Sure enough, I had found the right spot and immediately jumped in for a swim out to the island. There was one boat paddling around the lake, and no one bothered us about swimming there. I think some of the Peter Kellogg property was to be transferred to NJ DEP but I’m not sure of that transition has been finalized yet or not. Anyway, many got in, and we swam around a bit. I treaded water out on the main part of the lake, and others went onto the island and checked out the old fire pit we used to use when out there.
We couldn’t hang out for too long, so we soon headed out and continued along the Highlands Trail to the end of the road called Aladdin Trail. There have always been signs forbidding anyone from going back there, but the guide books have always said to ignore them.
Bear Pond
The trail leads along Alladin Trail out to Maxim Drive. We turned left for a little bit, and then right again on the Highlands Trail, which for a few moments follows an old woods road. It then turns off sharply to the right up a bit of a slope.
The route we followed from here was gently rolling much of the time, but fortunately pretty easy to follow. It started to get darker while we were in this section, but it was never not manageable.
What did happen was we lost the trail at some point. The Highlands Trail was all over the place more than I’d remembered it being. We followed it from the rock outcroppings not far from Sparta-Stanhope Road, and it went inland quite a lot. We somehow lost the trail when it started getting dark, and cut a corner on it. We were on an old woods road that took us downhill slightly, and then back up on the other side to where the Highlands Trail joined. I mistakenly thought we needed to go straight, which was wrong. We needed to go right.
Bear Pond
Fortunately, Ken caught that mistake, and we were soon back on the right track out of there.
We followed along the trail along mostly woods roads, but it occasionally turned off and had a foot path route to cut a corner.
We soon got closer to Sparta-Stanhope Road, and it followed an ATV path weaving through the woods. We followed this, and soon made it out to the roadway.
Camp site near Bear Pond
Rather than turn left along the regular trail route, I decided we were going to go straight across the highway and onto an ATV path directly across. I had found that this was a shortcut over to the Highlands Trail another way.
We all crossed, and followed this path below a bus depot or something, and then came out to a power line clearing. We followed this briefly to the left, and then cut to the right to head down to the abandoned right of way of the Lackawanna Cutoff.
The Lackawanna Railroad’s New Jersey Cutoff was the line to replace the old main out through Washington, which opened in 1911. It was abandoned in about ‘79, and the tracks were ripped up in 1982. I showed everyone briefly that this was the short section of it where they had laid new track. It had new concrete ties on it. Unfortunately, work halted rather fast on this, and now that track sits abandoned as well.
Highlands Trail near Hopatcong
We crossed the rail bed, and climbed up a drainage ditch on the other side, which was soon lined with some rock.
We followed the drainage up to a foot bridge where the Highlands Trail and Byram Bike Path together cross the water ditch.
We climbed up over the railings, and were soon ready to continue ahead. We left everyone catch up, and then we moved along this very easy trail on out toward the Byram Central School through some nice woods.
When we approached the school, there were headlights pointing directly in to the trail we were on. We held back in the woods and waited for a while for it to go away.
Yummies
When the vehicle moved off a little bit, I went out and looked around a corner. It eventually went away, even though we had to wait for a little while.
We turned right and followed the access road known as Mansfield Drive.
We took this across Lubber’s Run, and then to Lackawanna Drive. We turned left there and followed it out to the Byram Shop Rite plaza. We walked all through that, and I think we stopped at a pizza place there. I recall going in and having one slice before we moved on again.
From there, we made our way out past the McDonalds, and across Rt 206 to Higlen Way. The Highlands Trail follows that for a little bit.
We weaved around a bit on back roads, and then came to where both the Highlands Trail and the Byram Bike Trail went to the right. It was dark, so we didn’t try to follow the footpath any longer. We continued on the Byram Bike Path out to Lake Jefferson Road.
Highlands Trail in Hopatcong Nature Preserve
When we got to the road, we turned left for a bit, then turned right into the boat launch area.
I always like swimming at this spot, and even though the nights were starting to get cooler, this was still great because the water temperature was warmer than the air. The steam coming off of it was all the more evidence of that.
Many of us went in, and it felt great. We hung out in the water for a little while before heading out.
This time, I did something different than I’d done before when we get to this point. Rather than follow the Byram Bike Path, we continued on Lake Jefferson Road, which heads out to Waterloo Road. My plan from there, if we could find our way to it, was to follow the old road that was the predecessor to Continental Drive. I’d done it a few years back, but at the time the bridge was starting to deteriorate into the Musconetcong River. I wasn’t sure what to expect there.
I went into the weeds at about the point where I thought the road should be. I had everyone wait, and I think I found some of it, which became kind of a crummy foot path, but I decided not to try to bring the group through that at this point in the night.
It was dark, and we were all getting tired. The Highlands Trail took us on more of a long routing than I’d expected it too, so we could be done.
The group at Bear Pond
We walked Waterloo Road east to Continental Drive, which is built over the 1901 Stanhpe Cutoff to the Sussex Branch of the Lackawanna. The bridge over the Musconetcong makes use of the original stone abutments, and another bridge over a smaller creek ahead makes use of part of the old stone arch from the same.
My then and now comp
A paved pathway follows along the edge of much of Continental Drive that allows for the old arch to be seen. We followed this into International Trade Center, and then turned to the right on the ITC entrance road to Waterloo Valley Road. A right turn there took us to where we were parked at Mount Olive Station.
HAM
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