Hike #1378; Livingston and Verona Loop

 

Hike #1378: 12/10/20 Livingston and Verona Loop with Justin Gurbisz and Kirk Rohn

This was an oddball weekday thing where I was able to get out and wander. I think it was because of the virus partial closures again. As such, Justin was also off of work, so he and Kirk and I set out.

The meeting point was a strip mall off the tracks in Roseland on the Livingston border. I think there used to be a Quick Chek there or something but that it's gone.
There are always things I'm looking to do that I've never done before, and one of them was the old Caldwell Branch of the Erie Railroad, to actually follow it through for its entire length.
For years, I've done the other segments of it various times.

The Caldwell Branch, or then the Caldwell Railroad, first opened in 1891. The Morristown and Erie connected to Morristown to the East, and the tracks are in place on that from Morristown to adjacent to the strip mall in Roseland where we were parked, and still used as an industrial spur. Beyond, the tracks were in, and I'd walked them out further with Jillane once, but I had never walked as best I could the section of the line from beyond the Rt 280 underpass to where it becomes part of the Lenape Trail to the east.

The Lenape Trail, which is part of the Liberty-Water Gap Trail and now 911 National Memorial Trail, closely parallels the line. It was the intent of trail founder Al Kent to utilize the railroad bed as the Lenape Trail when he first devised it, but the middle segment was not available, so the trail only ended up on the segment to the east.
The line broke away from the Greenwood Lake Branch of the Erie right about at The Great Notch, a point in the Watchung formation that was ideal for the railroad to pass through. It then traveled to Roseland, and was funded in part by the Presbyterian Church to help open up the area.

That six miles of track to the east, the last bit of it over there, was ripped up in 1979. 

The stuff in the area of Verona was developed over or inaccessible at the time Lenape Trail was put through, so the trail had to take on a different route. Still, I knew some of that was accessible, and some of the stuff out of Roseland through Essex Fells would still be usable.

We started walking out of the lot onto the tracks heading to the east. The tracks were obviously still used only to a certain point just ahead, and then crossed a power line. This was where the Lenape Trail crosses. It crosses on the power line directly and follows it more or less for several miles. We then pushed ahead and crossed Eagle Rock Avenue on a through girder bridge.

Beyond this point, activity has taken place since the last time I visited. Rails have been removed, probably from industrial sidings, and then laid within the gauge of the main tracks creating an odd multi-gauge effect.

We passed beneath Interstate 280, and just beyond that the tracks had only recently been lifted. Ties were all still in place until we got to a pedestrian crossing that connects Lester Noecker School and the Roseland Department of Public Works. Beyond that point, someone had recently put wood chips down on the railroad bed.

The rail bed got to be a little more beat looking after another access point, but no rails were in place. We then skirted apartments, and then saw an industrial site on the left that looked vacated, at the approach to Harrison Ave.

We decided to have a look at the place. We were going to have to turn away from the railroad bed at Harrison Avenue anyway because the Eastern Concrete Materials industrial site has overtaken the right of way and made it inaccessible. My plan here was to try to cut into the woods to the north and get into Grover Cleveland Park.

So, we went in back of this industrial site and found doors wide open. 

We walked in, and the place was still salvageable, but in a real shambles. The restrooms were all busted open and it looks like all of the copper piping was getting taken our or something. One side of one of the rooms was completely full of piles of metal. 

We wandered through most everything in the one side of the building, but there was a lot of noise coming from the other half. They were apparently working inside the building.

No one came over to us, but we decided we'd better make our way out of there. We headed out of the place and back onto the railroad bed for some reason rather than walk through the lot, and followed it back to Harrison Ave.

We turned left on the road, and then there were businesses and such on the right. We cut into the back of some of them and then into the lot of a large distribution center or corporate office or something. They were probably still working remotely because there was hardly anyone around. We just went on through the lot to the back, and there was a secondary lot on the northwest end of the big main lot. 

There was a small retention pond and mowed path around it off the back of that lot. We moved on to that, and then cut off trail into the woods on the right. I think we had to get past a fence.

The land turns green of open space just a little beyond where we got into these woods, and I assume is part of adjacent Grover Cleveland Park. If not, it does appear to be preserved somehow.
There were some trails back there I wasn't expecting to find.
This area was now part of Essex Fells. I don't know the name of the brook that went through it because it doesn't seem to come up on maps, but it was quite nice. We followed the wide paths uphill and adjacent to ball fields.

There were some very nicely made old foot bridges and such along the way, which I understand were projects of the CCC in the 1930s.

The trails continued along the brook but we made our way uphill more and skirted the edge of a baseball field. We could see where the old Caldwell Branch used to skirt the south side of the park property and for this hike, I wanted to focus on trying to stay at least close to it.

We did get back on it toward the end of the park, and it was rather overgrown. The slope of the right of way butted right up against houses at first, and then was accessible after the ball fields, so we bushwhacked through some of it.

Another house overtook more of it shortly, so we had to push back out to Manheim Road on the south side. We followed that to Roseland Ave where it used to cross. The right of way there was barely recognizable, and there was construction going on right across the street on it. I figured we might walk through, but that wasn't going to be possible this time.

The railroad bed goes through a sports field called Kiwanis Oval, and then through Calandra's Italian Village, sort of an upscale strip mall, but getting onto it wasn't looking too promising. We instead walked Roseland Avenue ahead, then turned right on Bloomfield Ave where there was a good view of the First Presbyterian Church of Caldwell.

The congregation began meeting in Caldwell during the American Revolution, at which time they use a smaller meeting house that was located at the present site of the Saint Aloysius Roman Catholic Church. 

The original Chapel was erected on about this site in the end of the 1780s, and remained in service until it burned in November of 1872.
The handsome stone structure we see today was completed in 1876 and remains prominent landmark in the middle of Caldwell.

One of the few state historic sites I had never visited before was just up ahead on Bloomfield Ave: the Grover Cleveland Birthplace, built in 1832.
The house once served as the Presbyterian parsonage when Richard Falley Cleveland served as pastor at the church. His son, Stephen Grover Cleveland, was born here in 1837, and went on to become 22nd and 24th President of the United States (he dropped the first name Stephen in adult life).

The house, which is sometimes open for tours, was of course not at this time due to pandemic crap. Maybe one of these days I 'll do a group trip and everyone can visit.

Soon, the railroad bed moved in closer to Bloomfield Ave. It was directly to the right of us, but no one would ever have known there used to be a railroad there.

We only continued ahead a short bit, and then opted to turn to the left onto Mountain Avenue. We continued north to Mountain Avenue Field, and from there got on the trail that heads into Hilltop Reservation. This was part of the Overbrook Asylum properties, and for some reason I had never hiked any of it before. There used to be more buildings, and I believe Justin said this was his first time through since the buildings has been torn down as well.

We had all been through and had some fun memories at Overbrook, and many of our friends were much more enamoured by it than we were. It was an amazing place, but it was getting to be a little nutty. Lerch had gotten arrested for being in there, and others had had close calls, myself included.

My last time inside, we went in and I heard a car running. I was being laughed at and told I was being paranoid, and then Justin spotted the cop car only one thin wall away. We ended up having to crawl through asbestos on our hands and knees through the breezeway bridge that connected the administration building to the rest of the hospital in order not to be seen. It was amazing we got away with it really.

Now, it was all gone. I didn't have the familiarity with what was on the hills, but Justin had explored it all very extensively. It must have been particularly amazing for him.

We followed an old access road from the end of the fields into the woods, and turned right from that more uphill. The trail system is pretty extensive at Hilltop Reservation now, and most of it seems to follow the old roadways.

We got further up the hill, went near a water tower, and then reached the new rerouted section of the Lenape Trail. 

I had not done this bit of that trail yet. It used to just follow the old Caldwell Branch through to Verona, and then passed through town, but it was now routed to go up through the reservation, with some nice trail signs along the way. So, my next goal was to follow that trail the remainder of the way through.

We continued to follow it to the north side, and along several of the old roads. We then made our way into somewhat deeper woods. The Lenape Trail turned to the right, but there were some abandoned water tanks down another way, and we decided to take a side trip to check them out.

Justin and Kirk went to the top of one of the tanks, and I was not feeling tough enough to do it at the time. My hands had been sore from work and I don't trust myself to be able to pull myself up so well. 

It kind of sucks because I feel like I'm missing out on things, and I also feel really kind of embarrassed to complain about it, so I hold off on doing some of that stuff.

We moved on downhill from that point to Cedar Grove Park where there are several paved paths and such in open areas that the Lenape Trail has been superimposed on. There were some of those oddball pieces of exercise equipment on the trail we stopped and screwed around on.

We followed the trail and then came out to Fairview Ave where it crosses. It turns into a foot path again around Robert J. O'Toole Community Center.

There is a big problem with this part of Lenape Trail, because it is considered to be part of the 911 National Memorial Trail, but there are signs on this bit that read that bicycles are not allowed.

The 911 Trail was first devised as a kind of hiking route, but I feel like the cycling groups have sort of hijacked the trail and gotten ahead of themselves creating a crappy route that is just too much on street. I'm rather certain they're unaware of this development barring bicycles from the route.

They did have wooden ramps and puncheons and such on this, which look to have been made more for cycling than for walking because it was otherwise so easy. 

The trail soon emerges on the old Caldwell Branch, which is independently named the West Essex Greenway. We turned right to follow that at this point.

The entire wooded swath we had just come through was once the old asylum lands. There were now all sorts of town houses and such on it. When we turned right on the railroad bed, it was like a completely different world. The rail bed was still pretty much the same, but instead of looking over a field to the vacant hospital buildings, it was new Mcmansions and cookie cutter housing.

Keeney Street used to access the hospital grounds, but that looks nothing like it used to. 

Keeney was also the former site of the Overbrook Station (seen in the historic photo in 1910). The station existed specifically for the hospital.

In the historic photo, we get a glimpse of The Star Building, which was the first building constructed for the Overbrook Hospital in 1896.

The Erie Railroad was important to the hospital in the early days not only for patient and visitor transportation, but to provide coal to the power plant that served the sprawling campus.

The historic photo is the same year and quality as other J. E. Bailey photos taken along Erie lines, but we are not certain who the photographer was.

Overbrook Hospital closed in the early 2000s and stood abandoned until it was demolished and replaced with new condos starting in 2019.

Just a little east of this spot was where we used to sneak into the building, by way of the old power plant which had a rail spur out to it. This section was basically just woods back then, and in just a few short years everything was developed to the point that it was basically unrecognizable. Justin and I were shocked at what we were seeing. And a little mortified.

We continued across Durrell Street, and then made our way out to cross Fairview Avenue.

This area was a bit disappointing for me as well, because the trail used to be well maintained from Fairview Avenue to where the rail bed is developed over, but no one takes care of it now. This is because the Lenape Trail was moved up into Hilltop Reservation and now skips this part of the rail bed.

Immediately on the other side of Fairview it was just getting overgrown.

We had to go around one segment of it and then get back on when it moved on into the woods a bit. There was still a mile marker denoting twenty miles to Jersey City on the stretch.

The Lenape Trail used to turn off of the rail bed at Arnold Way and head along streets a bit, but no longer does. We turned on Arnold Way also because the rail bed is developed over, but this time we then turned right on Fairview Ave and then right again on Personette Ave. This took us back to where the railroad crossed, and the former Verona Station.

A freight station building is still standing at the site (seen in 1969 in the Frank Florianz Jr. photo.

It's not been used for a long time, but nice to see it still there. I understand that there are some efforts to try to preserve it, but nothing has happened yet.

We went left just up the road into an apartment parking lot and paralleled the old line, and then were able to get down into the woods to walk on some of it. Eventually, we came out on Linn Drive because it got too difficult to get through.

We saw Lenape Trail where it came back out of Hilltop Reservation, and I was curious where they'd routed the trail from there, so we'd follow some of that for a bit into Verona.

The trail took us right down Bloomfield Ave, and then we were pretty hungry. I think it must have been Borino Pizza we stopped at in town. Either way, we had pizza, and it was great. I had some sort of sloppy wet chicken and cheese thing and another sloppy wet sauce thing.

We then followed the trail route to where it re-joins its original route through Verona Park, which is quite lovely. The sun as starting to go down, and we had a ways to go, but there was only one more tract of land that was part of my plan that we would need daylight for.

The westbound Lenape Trail makes its way south into Eagle Rock Reservation and then turns west, but we went all the way down to the south side of Verona Park which I'd never done before, and then headed out to Pleasant Valley Way.

We walked south on the street as far as Cunningham Drive and then turned right. My plan had been to go to the back of the Green Hill Senior Living property, and then cut into woods that looked pretty much undeveloped, but there was a fence around that. We had to bushwhack and I forget if we went in by way of Howell Drive or if we went to the next access from a street to the east. I think we probably scaled the fence at the end of Howell but I'm not sure.

I'm pretty sure we scaled the fence.

In these woods, we came upon an informal trail where there were fallen trees and stumps and such used as sort of bike jumps and such. I recall there was one other guy out there walking. I'm not sure what this land is called, but it appears to be public. Our route took us along the slope of this mountain area, and then gradually made its way up toward the top. This swath of land lays between West Orange and Essex Fells, and doesn't have anything marked, but it's a pretty nice tract.

We made our way toward the top of the slope, and came out to an old road route. This was probably once a road over this part of the Watchung formation, now long abandoned. They might also have built it with the idea that it would be part of a future development which never came to fruition.
Whatever the case, it was going where we needed it to go, and we followed it to the left.
The route led us out to the abandoned and never completed continuation of Warner Road.

We simply continued southwest on Warner Road through West Orange for a bit. The right side of the road was a wide one with a grassy swath, so it was pleasant enough walking.

When we got to the end of Warner Road, there was a splendid little pond on the right.
The intersection was with Oval Road, where we turned right.
Oval didn't go through for traffic, but it was a walking route. A small stream  known as the Canoe Brook flowed beneath the road, and on the other side it was vehicle accessible again to a different development. To the left was the wide open golf course, Essex Fells Country Club. We turned left to cut through here.

We basically heaed due west across the golf course from there. It was dark enough by this time, with the sun almost set, that no one would even see us walking across. After hours, I look at golf courses all as open hiking lands.
We made our way far enough from the club house, and then got closer to the northwest side of the property near the tennis courts. We emerged from the property at Old Eagle Rock Ave, which is pleasant and much smaller than its replacement, and followed it to Eagle Rock Ave.

We went only a short distance on Eagle Rock Ave and then made our way to Pru Drive. This quiet road leads into a very large corporate center for Prudential and other large insurance firms or affiliates.

The road had maybe one car go by the entire time walking it out to the centers.
When we got to the first intersection in the parking lot areas, Lowenstein Drive, we turned slightly right and then left into the parking lot.
There is soon a paved path that parallels Pru Drive and then skirts a pond approaching the first building. We walked along this through a swath of woods, and then left the path past the pond out to the next parking area on the opposite side of the next connecting road. We crossed the parking lot and then continued straight to another paved path.

We came out in a parking lot that was full of solar panels. We walked under some, and then continued to another paved path that led us back out to Pru Drive. We then continued on that road down to and across Livingston Ave. The road on the other side continued as Becker Farm Road, and we followed the sidewalk along that just ahead.
We continued to Eagle Rock Ave and crossed to the Roseland Fire Department land.

A paved path broke away from the right side of that parking area and we followed it straight back behind the facility and into a swath of woods. It was here that we reached the old Caldwell Branch of the Erie again, where we had been in the morning.
It was easy from here to just head directly back to where we'd parked to finish out the day.
It was really a pretty good exploration of so many different things I wouldn't have bothered posting for a while had I not had this random week day off, and I had the perfect company for it. It was very much an eye opening look at places we thought we knew, or that we knew we knew, and had to accept that they're not what we thought we knew.