Hike #1359; Raritan/Manville Loop

Hike #1359; Raritan/Manville Loop

9/26/20 Raritan/Somerville/Manville with Jack Lowry, Sarah Jones, Jennifer Bee, Serious Sean Dougherty, Brittany Audrey, Kirk Rohn, Justin Gurbisz, Professor John DiFiore, Dani ?, and Anthony C

Raritan River

This next one would be one of my favorite night hikes in a very long while.
I put together a route that involved a lot of new stuff I’d been wanting to do for a long time, and it was the perfect time of year for it.
There are several good trail connections through the areas of Somerville, Raritan, and Manville, and at the epicenter of these is the Raritan River and the former Duke Estate.
I had been hiking much of this area for years, but I had never done much in Duke Farms.

Along the Raritan

Some of the other trails I had already done through this, but a big bulk of this trip was stuff I really wanted to see for a very long time.
Doris Duke was quite an amazing person; a socialite, a tobacco heiress, a competitive surfer, a philanthropist, an environmentalist, a reporter, an historic preservationist, an ambassador, and so much more than can even be named. At Duke Farms in Hillsborough Township, the property she inherited from her father, she created one of America’s largest indoor botanical gardens, which remained open to the public through the 2000s.

Historic Raritan view

Doris’s father, James Buchanan “Buck” Duke, first purchased the property on the Raritan River in 1893, and collected adjacent lands until he eventually had a farm of over 2,700 acres.

The same view today

The plan was to have an estate like that of the North Carolina plantation he grew up on.
When Buck Duke died in 1825, Doris sued her mother for control of the property.

Raritan from Nevius Street bridge

She moved in at the age of 15, and engaged with landscape architects to create an amazing landscape.
Doris Duke died in 1993 and left an endowment for the management of this and her other land holdings.
Much to the dismay of many, Duke’s “Gardens of the World” inside botanical displays were demolished in favor of native displays. Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, which had overseen the property, had an interpretation of her will that in some ways was agreeable, and in some ways questionable.

Duke Farms

I’m not particularly happy with the demolition of the indoor displays, although I’d never gotten the chance to see them. They didn’t have a chance of spreading anywhere if they were kept indoors.
I do agree with the removal of some invasive species that were on the property in favor of more natives. Aming them were of course Ailanthus Altissima, or Tree of Heaven, as well as Norway Maple, which are also very prolific and push out native species such as Sugar, Red, and Silver Maples.

Trail in Duke Farms

Perhaps the worst of all of the decisions that were made with regard to the management of the property was the demolition of the Duke Mansion, which was Doris Duke’s residence built by her father. The building was in fine shape, though claims were made that it was horrible.
Some of the claims about some of the facilities at Duke Farms were that it was not all ADA accessible, but I hardly believe that is any good reason to demolish an entire mansion either.
I had done hikes through some of the Duke properties starting in 2007 or so.

Wood Duck Lake

Duke Island Park is situated on the north side of the river, and I’d extensively explored some of that land, now part of the Somerset County Park Commission lands.

Duke Farms

Then, in Spring of 2008, I attempted to hike the former South Branch of the Central Railroad of New Jersey all in one shot which passed directly through Duke Farms.

Duke Farms scene

I was unable at the time to get in to see it, as it was toward the end of the Gardens of the World displays, and despite our efforts to bribe with cash, we needed a reservation to walk in, so we couldn’t see it.
I’d done a night hike covering some of the west section of the property, and then I’d been in other times since, for meetings or training things. I’d attended a deer propagation course there a while back, and I’d been there for a regional outing as part of my current job, but still hadn’t hiked much more inside.

A big Oak

Somewhat recently, a new connector trail had been developed that branched from the Nevius Street Bridge in Raritan, and connected right into Duke Farms. This was perfect.

Great Falls Lake

I started to seriously think about this hike when that connection was made.
I had last hiked through a bit of Duke Farms back in December of 2019, and hadn’t been back since.
I came up with a great loop route, where we would meet at the Quick Chek in Raritan, and then head across the Nevius Street bridge to that new connection.
We would then loop east toward Manville, and then back on the other side of the Raritan using mostly trails I had used on some of the past hikes.

Bridge at Great Falls Lake

This one was a night hike again because I was scheduled to work the morning at the state parks again, so meeting time would be 4:00 pm.

Pet Cemetery

This would actually be my last weekend night hike of the year, because I was not scheduled to work any more of them the following month, although I originally thought I was.
So I wanted to make this a particularly good one.
I parked on a side street from the main street in Raritan, and then walked over to the Quick Chek. I don’t think the rest of the group got the memo that it was better to park on street than at the Quick Chek, because most everyone parked in the lot and then had to move.

Great Falls Lake

I went into the liquor store next to the Quick Chek to see if I could find anything good but they didn’t have much of a good beer selection at all.

What they did have was MD 20/20 in several flavors, so I got the bling bling blue and the orange jubilee. Usually we find that crap in the rougher neighborhoods, so we we were somewhat surprised to see it in Raritan.
Once everyone had arrived and parked, we were ready to go.
We walked directly from the Quick Chek a couple of blocks to the south onto the Nevius Street Bridge. The new bridge was built about a block upstream on the Raritan, and the old one was made a pedestrian bridge.

Great Falls Lake

We crossed this, and then on the other side headed onto the path to the left.
We walked north for a bit along the edges of some fields, and then reached the north gate to Duke Farms.
I was afraid we might get there and the gate would be locked. I didn’t know what time they were closing the property off but fortunately it was not locked when we arrived. We went through, and then regrouped on the other side. There was a pretty scene with a pond right there immediately.

Great Falls Lake

We turned right on paved West Way, past the vehicle gate, and skirted around the west side of the property for a bit until we came to the first side trail, which goes out and around the edge of Wood D uck Lake.
The trail isn’t shown going through, but it looked like some stuff was mowed on the way out there, so we could go off the official trail. My goal was to see as much of this place as we could before dark, not to just go in and get out, so we walked this one to the end.

Great Falls Lake

The day was musical from the start. Both Jack and Serious Sean brought their guitars. Jack brought his carbon fiber acoustic and Sean brought his electric with portable amp.

Great Falls

We weaved around the end of Duck Pond, and the trail sort of ended, but there was a secondary mowed path that made its way through meadows and then to what looked to be a utility clearing, which we walked back out to West Way.
On the way here, we sang Paul McCartney’s “Maybe I’m Amazed” which sounded really great with both of the guitars going on it. They were going through so many songs during this time, I can’t even keep track of all of them, but everyone was having a blast.

Great Falls Lake

We followed West Way to the south for a bit, and then turned right down a lawn to reach a gravel road along the edge of Great Falls Lake, where there was a nice view of the bridge over a finger of it. I think this road or trail was known as Fox Hollow Lane.

Great Falls

The waterfront here was gorgeous, and the trail undulated through pleasant hills, first along the shore, and then uphill to the right. It then led to a pet cemetery on he hill to the left, and weaved around it in a bit of a loop. I can only assume this must have been where Doris Duke buried her lost pets.
The trail weaved around above Great Falls Lake, and close to Duck Pond, sometimes with some really outstanding scenery. Along the way, we came to the “Great Falls” for which the lake takes its name.

Mermaid Pool and Vista Lake

It actually wasn’t any kind of great falls, it was a man made waterfall that could be turned on or off, and at this time it was not turned on. So, of course some of the group had to go and climb onto it!
We stood back at this point, and we started singing Paul Simon’s Kodachrome from “There Goes Rhymin’ Simon”. They then went into parts “Me and Hulio Down By the Schoolyard”, “She Loves Me Like a Rock”, and I think I heard a bit of “Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover”. I think somehow that segued into some stuff by the Eagles.

Vista Lake

We returned to the road, and continued to weave around until eventually we came back out to West Way. Duke Reservoir, another lake, had been to the right of us, and Vista Lake was across West Way from there. There were some beautiful big trees, displays, and something called Mermaid Pool where there was another fake waterfall spilling into Vista Lake. This waterfall was actually turned on though. We continued south on West Way to a nice little area to the left, where there was a set of steps and a view of the water.

Vista Lake

The steps, I thought, would be a perfect spot for us to have our group shot. I had everyone sit together on the steps, and then there were two girls that offered to take the photo for us.

Nice big tree

So for once, the entire group got to be in the group photo.
The girls asked us which way to get out of the preserve and back to the entrance. We invited them to join us, but they didn’t go with us any further than just a short distance down the West Lane to what is known as the Blue Boy Statue.
Indeed, the statue is a blue boy, and we make stupid jokes about touching him inappropriately or something. Justin climbed up on the Blue Boy’s shoulders.

Da group

We made our way from the Blue Boy statue to a building directly behind him on a slope, made of odd shaped stones, with an archway facing toward the Blue Boy.

Blue Boy

More songs came about when we were inside this structure, because of course there was a bit of acoustics I suppose. I don’t remember what song it was at this point though!

Blue Boy

Outside of this, we did go into Elton John’s “Crocodile Rock” however, which is another one that sounds really cool with both the acoustic and the electric going.
We followed Habitat Lane for a little bit to the east of the Blue Boy, and then turned to the left on Old Foundation Lane. Both of these were pretty wide roads, but then we turned to the right after a brief bit on Old Foundation Lane to Eagle Gate Path, which was a very nice mowed path through a swath of woods and along some fields heading to the east.

Castle thingy gy blue boy

We came back to Habitat Lane, and then continued on it as far as Hay Barn Meadow Path where we turned right again.
I must not have realized it at the time, but we crossed over the former Central Railroad of NJ right of way passing through there. I must have been singing something to have forgotten what it was.
The trail was very nice also, and took us through more beautiful meadows out to Central Way, another more prominent and well used road section. I was surprised with just how many were around this area.

At the Blue Boy

Directly across from us was the “Hay Barn”.
The hay barn was built in 1905 and was center for farming activity with a hay press, which was the predecessor to the bailer.
The hay barn burned in 1915, and Doris Duke used the remaining stone shell of the structure to delineate a sculpture garden, for which it is still used today.
We walked into the barn, and there were several sculptures of scantily clad ladies among a few ornamental plants. One of them had been beheaded.

Hay Barn Meadow

After checking out the Hay Barn, we turned back onto the Central Way, lined beautifully either with Sycamores or London Plain Trees, I’m not sure which they were there.

Central Way

A lot of people were following Central Way, and I was rather surprised to see that there were still people coming in despite it being much later and getting a little darker.

Hay Barn

I spotted a path into a tree that had a drooping bunch of leaves much like a Weeping Willow, that went down toward Duke’s Brook, which was slightly dammed and made a nice little pond area. I thought we might be able to go through that way, but it was a dead end.
We turned back out to Central Way yet again, passed the little dam with cascade, and made our way to the main entrance, the south gate. There was a guard at a shack at the entrance, and he stepped out onto Dukes Parkway West so we could cross.

Historic view of the Hay Barn

We got across Dukes Parkway West, and there was a cut over from the trail that goes to the parking areas near the newly rehabilitated Farm Barn Orientation Center.

Hay Barn today

We took that left, onto what looked more like a maintenance road, but was also open as some of the trail system. This took us to a left turn, which went through a line of trees.

Central Lane

Farm Barn Lane goes along the front of the orientation center, but we went the opposite way, and then reached an intersection at the start of Conservation Lane. This is an area of NRCS plantation or bird habitat or something. This stuff was less fenced in, whereas the stuff north of Dukes Parkway West has to be accessed within open hours only from where we entered or exited. This section we were in now was fine to just stay on because there’s always a good way out, and I’d done a good night hike on that before.

Hay Barn marker

I was able to relax more knowing that we were out of that area before dark.
We all sat down at that next intersection spot and had a good rest. It was really comfortable, and Jack and Sean played some nice guitar. It took someone else telling me we should move on, because I was just enjoying it there so much.
The right fork was the longer way through the property, but I wasn’t trying to go totally direct. The Conservation Lane is a really nice one, and it took us south through the property.

Dukes Brook

During this time, and a little earlier, some of the group had begun hashing out a rendition of a song known as “The Way” by a band called Fastball.

Droopy happy path

The song came out when I was in high school, and I liked it then, but it wasn’t the highest on my list of stuff that I loved.
Now that I hear the lyrics again, it really is kind of an appropriate tune...
They made up their minds
And they started packing
They left before the sun came up that day
An exit to eternal summer slacking
But where were they going without ever
Knowing the way?

Duke Brook

They drank up the wine And they got to talking They now had more important things to say And when the car broke down they started walking Where were they going without ever Knowing the way? [Chorus:]Anyone can see the road that they walk on Is paved in gold And it's always summer They'll never get cold They'll never get hungry They'll never get old and grey You can see their shadows wandering off somewhere They won't make it home But they really don't care They wanted the highway They're happier there today, today Their children woke up And they couldn't find them They left before the sun came up that day They just drove off and left it all behind 'em But where were they going without ever Knowing the way?

Enjoying some moonlight fun

We weaved to the south and then the east a bit, and then reached Conservation Gate which took us out to Rt 206.
We turned right on 206, which has a paved path along it for a bit, and then crossed over at the intersection on the other side with Brooks Blvd. Once across, there is a bit of park land known as Village Green Park parallel with Brooks as well as Nottingham Way and a couple of other roads. We turned right into this grassy swath and headed south slightly, then turned east along a tree line.
I had come through this way before, the last time we went through any of the former Duke Estate, so I figured out the way through.
The route took us to a more open ball field type of area, far enough back behind the houses, and we followed along the tree line until an unmarked path led into the woods south.

Jack playing by moonlight

The path headed out almost to the former Lehigh Valley Railroad tracks, which are still active in this area. It turned hard left to continue east parallel with them for a bit, and then we had to take a washed out side path down to the tracks when we got closer to a private house ahead.
We then got on the tracks and followed them further east through Manville. Some of the way was parallel with some good roads, so it was easy to just walk along those for a bit.

A peaceful moment of fellowship at the junction

We crossed 13th Ave, and went over Main Street on a bridge, and the entire way there was a good clear path parallel with the tracks so we wouldn’t have to worry about any trains.
In this stretch, the great guitar music continued on, and Jack and Sean had a great jam going with bluesy riffs and singing. I don’t usually do improvised blues type singing, but this time I got into it while everyone else contributed stuff as well. I remember Kirk started doing his throat singing thing, which is usually just hilarious, but somehow it worked with this!

Chimney Rock spur bridge

We eventually got to what I refer to as the “pinch point” near Bound Brook.
This was an important area because the Central Railroad of New Jersey, the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and the Reading Railroad all came right up together into Bound Brook. This junction was the point where the Reading line arrived from the southwest. There was a grassy swath between the junctions where we took another break and some moonlight guitar and singing took place. It was a rather magical spot.
I stepped back from the group and went across the tracks, at first to ascertain whether or not we could continue on the northbound track, which becomes the Chimney Rock spur further up, and connects with the Central Railroad of NJ, now NJ Transit, along the way.
I turned back to see the group all relaxing under the moonlight to beautiful live music, and it was just an awesome thing to see from a distance.
The track to the Chimney Rock spur was fine. We all crossed the former Lehigh Valley and got on that spur to the north, which took us soon across the Raritan River on a through style truss bridge. It was originally two tracks, but now it is one with the east side of it decked in wood for other maintenance vehicles purposes.

Rail bridge fun

From the bridge, I checked out the far right side to see if there was a way down and to the paths underneath. I’d done a lot of this before, and only once in the dark. There was one time Skyler and I were stuck out there after having hiked the Lehigh Valley line, and ended up bushwhacking something crazy to the north. I knew way better than that having explored it more since then.
We climbed down from the bridge and got on a good ATV path that passed back under it and had side paths that went out in a few different directions. I knew to follow the more obvious one but to stay somewhat close to the Raritan River. There is a rather wide flood plain through this area, and then there is a spur bridge over the Raritan further up that served a creosote plant from the Central Railraod of NJ out of Finderne.
We walked beneath that bridge, and then headed uphill to the right a bit. Fortunately, I knew where to slow down and had everyone follow me to the left to show the old Van Veghten Cemetery.
The Van Veghten family, starting with Michael Van Veghten in the 1690s, purchased land along the Raritan River in this area, and the homestead of theirs that still stands is the Derrick Van Veghten House built in 1725.
Derrick Van Veghten was a Patriot who allowed for his home to serve as the headquarters of Quartermaster General Nathanael Green during the Second Middlebrook Encampment of 1778-79.
I told the story of how the host was somewhat pissed that General George Washington danced with his wife the entire night at a dance they had hosted.

“a little dance at my quarters a few Evenings past. His Excellency and Mrs [Catharine] Greene danced upwards of three hours without once sitting down. Upon the whole we had a pretty little frisk.” — General Nathanael Greene

Derrick Van Veghten died in 1781, and he and other ancestors are buried in this hidden little fenced cemetery behind a commercial complex along the Raritan.

The great of Patriot Derrick Van Veghten

Hardly anyone knows this place is back there, or of the significance the Van Veghten family had in the area. Middlebrook encampment was important enough that the location was used twice, and it was the first place the stars and stripes ever flew over the Continental Army. A portion of the encampment was outside the house in the flood plains of the Raritan.
While we were in the cemetery, we saw a light come upon us from the river side. I at first thought it might be an ATV or otherwise police or something wondering what we were up to, but it turned out to be a lit boat in the Raritan River, moving along slowly.
I was at first freaked out, but there’s no way anyone would be looking for us in a boat.
We continued walking anyway, out along a narrow path that leads back to the commercial complex, and then to Finderne Ave. We turned right briefly, and then left on teh road to the Van Veghten House, but turned left first to head behind another industrial or commercial complex. Back there, there is a hidden entrance to a trail along the Raritan flood plain that has not been maintained in some time.
Really no one gos back there that I know of, but I first hiked it in 2008, and it was great.
We took to the left turns at each chance we got, and the trail takes us out closer to the Raritan. Eventually, it comes back up into town, and it’s possible to get on the Peter’s Brook Greenway in Somerville, but I knew there was a good way of getting through with only a little bit of high grass walking along the Raritan at the end of the trail.
We did that, and stayed along the river. It was a pain for a bit, but then got much easier. We eventually came out to the Peter’s Brook Greenway near a compressor building, and that trail is paved.
From there, it was a very easy walk along the Raritan out to where the trail used to end, but then turns to the left to pass beneath the Rt 206 bridge. I think I stopped there and took a dip in the river as I recall. There were great acoustics under that bridge, and it was just a perfect spot to be at that time.
The trail continues on nicely from there, still paved and emerges behind a driving range.

Abandoned driving range

This place was still active until recently, but I suppose the covid 19 crap shut it all down. The place was a mess, after only a short while since last I saw it.
The building was busted up and we could walk into it. We sat on the porch for a few moments and looked off at the lights over the now closed range.
From there, we simply walked out to Orlando Drive and followed the edge back to Nevius Street. Some of the buildings that used to stand on the left side of the road have now been demolished, and they’re pushing the greenway on through. It will probably be different by the next time I get back there to hike that stretch.
We turned right on Nevius Street, and found our way back to the Quick Chek. We all decided the best way to finish the night was with another Taco Bell parking lot party, and so we drove over there, although it took me a while at first to figure out where I’d left my car parked. I didn’t recall just how many blocks I’d walked to get to the Quick Chek!
Once again, this wasn’t the end of swimming for the year, but it wasn’t officially Summer any more, but it still felt like a sort of closure for those necessary Saturday night hikes since I didn’t have any more working weekends left for the year. I really could not have asked for a better Saturday night hike than this one. It’s actually one of my favorite night hikes ever.