Hike #1554; Lake Mohawk to Waterloo

 Hike #1554; 6/4/23 Lake Mohawk to Waterloo with Violet Chen, Sam Chen, Justin Gurbisz, Bobbi Landrock, Brittany Weider, Evan "Joe Millionaire" Van Rossum, Craig Craig Fredon, Rick Alejandro Furnstein, Diane Reider, Anthony Auriemma, Julie ?, Clara Viera, Kenneth Lidman, Raymond Cordts, Chrissi Carney, Mark ?, Carolyn Gockel Gordon, Ken Zaruni, Serious Sean Dougherty, and Everen

This next trip would be a really interesting point to point in Sussex County NJ, featuring historic railroad beds, back roads, and an oddball thing through Lake Mohawk.

I wanted to try to do something that would be quite different, and also feature some of the great stuff we'd done in the past, but with some opportunities for swimming as well.

Some of this hike came about because I realized I'd not walked some of the former Lehigh and Hudson River Railway since it was formalized as a trail, at least not in the daylight. Much more of it had been cleared than ever before, and to see it again would be really cool. It would be almost like doing a totally new hike.

I'd been talking with Bobbi also, and she lives at Lake Mohawk. I had discussed with her that we could piggyback on her rights as a resident, that residents and their guests could use the trail system there, so that would be another really cool thing to add on.

There were also some back roads that I was really interested in, which I thought would be awesome to walk.

I made the meeting point the southern terminus of the Sussex Branch Trail, on Waterloo Road across the intersection of Continental Drive, which is built over the continuation of the right of way.

This lot is actually the Lackawanna Railroad's 1901 cutoff to Stanhope and Netcong, as the original Sussex Railroad went out to Waterloo Village, and the first locomotive line went to Waterloo Junction on the Morris and Essex Railroad.

This was so much closer to home, and I got Ev ready in the morning early like I always do, so I ended up arriving earlier than pretty much everyone else, and used the time to clean my car out a little bit while Ev ran around and had some fun.

People started siphoning in to the parking lot, and then gathering around my car while I was getting stuff together. Eventually, we had everyone that was going to show up, and we started heading north to Lake Mohawk. Bobbi rode with me, and had a different idea of which way to drive than the way the GPS was sending me, but I do think my way was a little bit quicker.

We shuttled the vehicles north to Sparta where we parked at the Dykstra field near the Sparta Public Library. We met up with Bobbi's friends there 

Once we were all together, we walked around the Dykstra Field, past the Mohawk School, and I seem to recall we made our way down a slope from there through a swath of trees, down to the big parking lot by Lake Mohawk Tennis Club.

Directly to the south of here was West Shore Trail, and some restaurants that sit right on the shore of Lake Mohawk, where there is a boardwalk area.

I have never hiked Lake Mohawk before. I'd attended events there, along the waterfront, seen it and been all around it, but I had never done any hikes right to there. 

Lake Mohawk was once a large swamp land known as Brogden Meadow, the headwaters to the Wallkill River. 

In 1926, the Brogden Meadow area was cleared of trees by the Arthur D. Crane Company in partnership with Herbert Closs as a real estate venture. They acquired 6,400 acres of surrounding farmland for the purpose of constructing the community.

The dam was completed in August of 1926, and it took until 1928 for the lake to fill up. I believe it is the largest man made lake on private land in the State of New Jersey. 

The boardwalk section of the lake was having work done on it, so we couldn't get on it right away. However, we did get to get up on it just to the east of the country club building, and the views of the lake were great.

This first part of it was open to general public. After that, there were signs reading that only residents and their guests were welcome beyond. 

The trail took us over a humped foot bridge, right over the dam spillway to the lake. The Wallkill River flowing out of here was only tiny, so it's no wonder it took so long to fill the lake.

When the trail along the lake went from public to private, it changed in character almost constantly. It seems that each private landowner has their own take on what the path should be.

The first property had it as a stony path of white and grey with plantings, and the second with less plantings and more grass. After that, one was almost grassed over, but the route was obvious.

I wondered if we would have some sort of problem because we had more dogs on this hike than we'd had on one in forever. I think there were three or so.

We emerged on Hilltop Road, where there was a little bridge and one house on a tiny island. We turned right on the road, then left on Arrowhead Trail to West Shore Trail. 

These were of course the names of roads, now actual trails. I expected fully that from here we would be doing nothing but road walking for a good while.

What I didn't realize was that this trail we had been following soon continued a substantial long way farther.

The local ladies led us ahead to a driveway on the left, with a sign that read "Fort Zero". The white gravel driveway led us to an opening in the back, the continuation of the trail. 

We were back on trail, and it was even more beautiful and unique than before. 

The pathway continued through front yards, and at times it was just a level disturbance in their grass. It was quite an interesting route. 

Because it was all yards that backed right up to the water, there was always something different, and a manicured property to admire. We went through holes specifically cut through hedges for the trail, and tightly along walls at personalized properties.

Sometimes it was mowed, sometimes it was a worn footpath. All of it was still easy to push Ev through in his stroller. One property even had a waterfall surrounded by lovely purple flowers.

There was one undeveloped looking piece, where we walked into a swath of woods and there was even a rope swing. I really wanted to go off of it, but I also didn't want there to be a problem with anyone.

Soon, the trail emerged on Rocky Terrace, a dead end road. We walked this to the intersection with West Shore Trail and turned right. This took us rather steeply uphill. From the trail just before, as well as from the slopes on the road between homes, we could see the Manitou Island, which has a neighborhood on it, as well as the bridge that leads out to it.

As we continued up, we came to an entrance gate we were able to walk out of. Apparently, the private part is the section we had just been on, while the general public could drive the roads further up.

We continued to the peak of the hill, and by this point several in the group were ready to cut out. 

The dog walking girls from Lake Mohawk opted to leave at this point, as did Anthony because he was a bit tuckered out. He'd had an accident and only had just recovered enough to be able to hike with his new dog, I think he named Capone (his old one was Gotti).

From the peak, we turned to the left on South Shore Trail, another road. This was a rather busy lined road, which wasn't the best for walking, but there wasn't really any other good option at this point.

We followed this until it leveled off a bit, and then Alpine Trail straight ahead. This took us rather steeply uphill yet again. During this time, Ken Lidman was calling me to meet up. 

He had gone to the meeting point of the hike but ran very late, and so I told him he could catch up with us along the way. 

We continued up to where Alpine Road leveled off, which was quite a relief. I was about ready to be done with these roads, but we had a lot more road walking to come.

After a bit, we turned right on Summit Trail and continued a bit to the northwest.

We continued on the road until we got to a trail that went off to the right, which used to be an old road at one time. Bobbi commented that she'd lived there her entire life and never knew there was a trail there!

We took a break at this turn because so many were behind us on the road. It was a good shady spot for it.

When everyone was caught up, we headed north on the trail through pleasant woods, around an old galvanized road gate. 

Soon, the trail emerged at Alpine Elementary School. We walked to the right around the front of the school where we found Ken waiting for us in the parking lot. I gave him a big hug and we all continued on around the school parking lot to the west and then south.

I wanted to see if I could find a trail going through the woods from the school to Faith Ann Way, a dead end street parallel with the school property.

We walked around and south on the other side of the school, then all the way to the east side of the school fields, and there was nothing that I could see.

We turned around and started walking west again, and looked to see if there was a path, and I did find one. It was pretty obscure, which is why I missed it the first time we went by. It was very close to the school building itself.

The path took us right through to the road, where we turned right and began following it west, downhill past Kathleen Court and to Andover Road, Rt 517.

We turned left here, and had to travel on the road just a little over a half a mile to get to our next turn on Current Drive, which was the one road walk I thought would be great to do.

The 517 section was probably the worst section of the entire hike, because there was nearly no shoulder on the road, and it didn't have anything particularly interesting except a religious statue barred into a wall.

Soon, we reached Current Drive, across from Perona Farms, which is an event venue where I attended one of the many high school proms many years ago. 

The road was really very pleasant, with no line in the center. I usually judge the walkability of a road by the fact that there is no painted lines. When there is no lines, it means there's typically not enough traffic to warrant them, which means it'll be narrower and more pleasant.

We headed gradually downhill a bit, reached an intersection with a side road that leads to some homes, and turned ninety degrees to the right. We entered woods, went over a slight grade increase, and then it was gradual downhill for a long while.

I had a Burger King crown I wore for the first bit of the hike when Ev didn't want to wear it, and when I got sick of wearing it, I put it on Bobbi, and she had it on for a long while.

The road was everything I'd hoped it would be. Pleasant, with very few cars that passed us for the entire mile and a half we were on this segment.

At the bottom of the hill, we crossed over Limecrest Road and continued on Current Drive on the other side near a lovely old farmstead.

As we walked by the pretty farmstead, I was in the front and the others were farther behind. I heard Brittany's voice calling myself and the others walking ahead with me back. Apparently there was something of interest we needed to see.

Those of us who were ahead had to backtrack to the driveway up to the small farm property. We went up a bit and there was a fenced pool and pool house where a guy had come out.

It turns out, he had seen our group at Lake Mohawk earlier, and asked if we were that group. Of course we were, and he was just taken by us and thought we looked like a cool group.

When he saw us walking down his road, he decided to invite us up to his place for drinks and a little tour.

As we headed up to his property, he wanted us to come and pet his goats. I was shocked to find that among the goats he had on the property were Nigerian Dwarf.

My first experiences with Nigerian Dwarf goats were on a hike in December of 2008 when a huge group of them came from a property and began following our group up the road. 

We ended up having to stop and herd them back, and then try to get them back to their homes. The owners ended up coming out, and we helped get them back where they belonged.

These goats are about as friendly as can be, and absolutely soft and adorable. A little black one came running right over to me, and so I just bent over and scooped it up. Diane was shocked and asked "How did M'ke know he could just pick up that goat?".

I actually had one other experience helping to rally some of the same species together on Changewater Road driving home from my grandfather's house one day, where I had to pick them up, so I was also more recently familiar with their kind.

This little black goat that I picked up was super friendly, and just sort of leaned its head into my while I was holding it. It was certainly just eating up the attention. 

We hung around with the goats for a bit and chatted with the land owner, and sadly I can't remember his name off the top of my head.

He had moved out to California and went to school there, after having grown up in this Sussex County area. He met his wife out there, and then moved her back to New Jersey with him when he bought this small farm property.

We walked together back down the drive, said hello to his wife who was sunbathing by his pool, and then he came out with a pack of these fruity carbonated drinks. I forget the brand; I had a sip of one, but those weak things aren't really my style, so I let everyone else have those.

I tried to get them to join us for the remainder of the hike, and although it was indicated to be tempting, the owner decided against it. 

We said our goodbyes and continued on down Current Drive to Newton-Sparta Road. Current Drive used to continue on the other side of Newton-Sparta Road, and was apparently the predecessor to that road way back in time.

We turned right briefly on Newton-Sparta Road, just to stop for lunch at a strip mall a short distance away to the right. I went in with Ev to Pezzo Pizza Uno. I think it might be related to Pezzo Pizza in Long Valley, which is a good local place I sometimes stop for lunch during work at. 

We had some good slices, and I seem to recall they also had some sort of empanadas or something inside too, and I think I also got some of that. Quite a good stop.

Some of the group ate inside the pizza place, and others went to the outdoor seating just to the right of the building outside. I pushed Ev over there and we hung out for a little while.

I also went into the Liquor Factory that was there, and decided to see if they had any good strong beers. I was almost ready to give up when it looked like they had nothing good. A clerk came out and even tried to help me find something, but failed. Just before I was ready to leave, I spotted a four pack of Dragon's Milk by New Holland. That stuff is pretty great, so I grabbed it for the rest of the trip.

I rallied everyone together, and the plan was to go west just to the crossing of the Lehigh and Hudson River Railway and begin heading south.

We followed Newton-Sparta Road, but then I realized the road crossed the railroad bed by way of a bridge. I had forgotten it wasn't a grade crossing. We went to the other side to see if there was any kind of reasonable way down, and there was not, not without climbing.

With Ev's stroller, I really didn't want to take any chances. I wasn't counting on there being anything at all dangerous.

I looked over the aerial images and decided we might try for something different. Since Current Drive used to continue on through, if we headed out to that, we could follow it to the former grade crossing.

As soon as it was possible, we cut to the left around galvanized guide rails to the left, and headed north skirting a tree line until we got to the old pavement on Current Drive. 

We turned left to follow the road rather quickly, just in case some of this wasn't officially public land, and soon reached the railroad bed. I got there first, turned slightly to the left, and waited for the rest of the group to catch up.

We had no problems, and were ready to continue to the southwest on the railroad grade.

The Lehigh and Hudson River Railway first appeared under a charter for the Pequest and Wallkill Railroad, which was a slightly different planned route. What eventually came to fruition was several different rail companies covering the same area of the original proposal.

The first sections of the line were built in the 1860s out of New York State, and were absorbed into what would become the Lehigh and Hudson River Railway, which by the 1880s connected Belvidere New Jersey to Maybrook New York.

Along the way, we'd often find the old mile markers, which were double sided, BD for Belvidere, and MB for Maybrook.

The line continued in service as a through route until the 1980s, and was ripped up in 1986. To the north, it is still active under the modern New York, Susquehanna, and Western Railroad north of Sparta Junction into New York.

I had hiked this entire line at this point from the southern terminus all the way to Lake Station near Sugarloaf NY. 

I was well on my way to finishing the entire line until Ev was born, and then I had to make all of the hikes stroller friendly, so I'll get back to it in another year or two.

Ever since the Lehigh and Hudson was abandoned, very little was made into a trail. Pequest Wildlife Management Area was the earliest bit, and State Park Service purchased a good amount of it, but next to nothing was ever developed beyond the decking of a couple of bridges over the Pequest.

It was somewhat recently that this section near Sparta first became a trail, but most of it I did in the dark because it was part of a night hike. Since the last time I night hiked it, even more of it had been converted, so I really needed to see it again.

This area where we first got on the right of way was known as Mulford Station at one time. I think the station might have been at the next road crossing to the north, known as Mulford Road.

I've never seen a photo of the station yet, but I think one exists. I have to check the digital book Paul Miller gave me on it.

We continued to the south and soon passed beneath Newton-Sparta Road, and there was soon one of the old concrete mile posts that read I think Belvidere 27 and Maybrook 45.

There was a lot of pretty swamp land visible from the trail as we continued to the south, and pretty soon after that we had some nice views of Lake Iliff to the left of us.

Lake Iliff was a controversial place back in the day. It was part of a German-American Bund camp, which was notorious for being Nazi sympathizers. Camp Nordland, as it was known, was established here in 1937.

There was famously a meeting at this site between the Nazis and the KKK, and soon after that, the camp was raided and closed down in 1941.

Today, the lake is quite a beautiful spot along the trail, and Sheridan's Lodge on the south side had some really great food when I ate there a few years ago with Jillane. They also had a good beer selection. I had hoped to make that our lunch stop, but we took so long up to this point that we made that earlier stop.

At this point, DJ Ray Cordts showed up and parked to walk with us for a while. He used to be on all the hikes, all the time, and we hadn't seen him in quite a while, so it was nice to have him back out.

We all continued together to the south along the trail, and I spent some time talking to Ray about some of these charity hikes he's trying to put together. 

He wants to do them, but he doesn't have the time, and I could promote them, but there's no way I could lead them working every Saturday.

We continued through more woods, and the trail came pretty closely parallel with Limecrest Road just ahead. After a little while, the trail sort of ended, and we had to cut out to Limecrest Road to walk parallel with it. I had thought that maybe they finally cleared the rail bed, but that was not the case.

It was only a 0.2 mile stretch that was not completed as a trail, so it wasn't so bad. DJ Ray had to turn around and head back when we got to the road, and I had a little difficulty pushing Ev through the grass in his stroller over the ruts and such that happen when people pull over.

Ev had been out walking much of the previous section until he got tired, and I put him back in the stroller for a while. 

After the short jog on the road, near the next driveway, the improved trail started back up again. We cut into the woods on the nice crushed stone path, and I let Ev back out of the stroller to walk again.

This section was soon closely parallel with beautiful Lake Aeroflex, and we were now in Kittatinny Valley State Park.

I fell behind a lot of the group in this area waiting back with Ev, and I also stopped at a good slope access and took a dip in the lake. There was no one around, and it was a great spot to just cool off.

Ev enjoyed throwing some rocks to the water while I took the dip. 

The section of trail was really nice, and so much different than any of the previous times I'd been on it. It was always something I could sort of bushwhack, but now it was just pleasant.

It was in this section that late at night, my brother Tea Biscuit, and friend Skyler Jermyn and I got bluff charged by a bear. We were trying to jog the right of way in the dark on ballast rock back in 2004, and we scared one up to the right. 

Andover Junction; Lowenthal and Greenberg Lackawanna RR in NW NJ

It started ramming right for us in the weeds, and we all took off running back the other way. I turned around on my way through and looked back to see the black blob step onto the clearing. 

On that hike, we bushwhacked up and out to Limecrest Road and mostly followed that for the remainder of the hike.

This time, we saw probably more than I'd ever seen on the section before. There were more old concrete mile markers, there was an old pole signal stand, and there was also a spare rail holder, where rails would be sat in order to replace broken ones should they be needed.

Kenny Z and his dog Scout joined us in this area, having walked all the way from Waterloo to here, only to head back! Quite a walk and making good time!

We also came upon a Painted Turtle, which was likely laying its eggs in the softer side of the trail as we went by, which is pretty cool.

Lake Aeroflex is quite lovely, and it is actually the deepest natural lake in the state, at 110 feet.
The lake was originally known as Andover Long Pond, and at one time Struble's Pond. 

It was also for a time known as New Wawayanda Lake I understand because a YMCA camp that had been located up in Wawayanda State Park relocated down to this site. Lake Aeroflex is now the name because of the Andover Aeroflex Airport which operates at the south side.

We crossed Lake Aeroflex Road, where my first state office was located in the historic Slater House, which was visible to the right. When I started working for the state, this was the Northern Region Office of State Park Service.

The house was the home of Charles K. Slater, built in 1874. Slater died in 1876, and the home later became administration offices for the YMCA camp in 1919. 

It was at that time renamed Ayer Hall for NJ State YMCA Executive Committeeman F. Wayland Ayer.

The house was purchased by Frederick Hussey in 1954, and it became the headquarters of the Aeroflex Corporation. 

The building was purchased by State Park Service in 1994 when it became the office in Kittatinny Valley State Park.

When I arrived there, both regular state park service and State Park Police occupied the office. At some point, a decision was made and the building was to be entirely taken over by State Park Police. 

The entire Northern Region Office was ordered to be moved to the regular park office of Kittatinny Valley State Park. 

One of my first jobs with the parks was to clean out the Slater House and get all of the stuff we needed to the Kittatinny Valley office. The head of the police at the time caused a lot of problems, and stole all of the chairs from the conference room, and stored it in a building somewhere to the north. They were fortunately uncovered, and that chief is no longer with the organization. Things are now much better and more good people are coming in. It was definitely an interesting time to be working there.

We continued on along the trail to the south, which then parallels the pretty Gardner's Pond. 

1919, Watson Bunnell, Steamtown NHS Archives

When we got to the far side of Gardner's Pond, the trail turns to the right, but the railroad bed continues straight. That bed is so badly overgrown that we were not going to try to walk it. I had done it before, and it is definitely not easy anymore. 

There's stuff dumped in it from the houses above, and then it comes out to a random spot on Rt 206. Because of that, we'll probably never see that bit of it developed as trail. The trail took us to the right along the edge of the pond, then weaved through the woods close to the Forest Fire Service headquarters, and then down to reach the Sussex Branch Trail.

This line was built at this point in the 1850s, and then abandoned in 1966. We turned to the left on the railroad bed, and then continued to the south across Rt 206 toward Andover.

I was rather shocked to see that the entire section on the other side of 206 was redone with crushed stone aggregate.

It became obvious soon that this was because the Lehigh and Hudson River Railway at Andover Junction had just been surfaced to the south, and they figured they might as well do the Sussex Branch on the way to that spot too.

We soon reached the junction site, and it was pretty crazy to see this spot, which we had a really hard time bushwhacking through in the past, was now developed.

I wonder if I had anything to do with the acceleration of it being turned into a trail, because I reported to DEP when I saw an illegal dumping operation off of the section several years ago. They had blocked off the right of way, which was at the time state park land, and I got photos of the dumping actually happening.

It seems that soon after that, the entire right of way was cleared from here to Brighton to the south.

We didn't follow the LHR line any further; the remainder of the hike as planned was to continue south on the Sussex Branch to Waterloo.

We continued on a shelf above Rt 206 and the buildings below, and pretty soon my old friend Chrissi Carney and her friend Mark showed up to do some of the hike with us. They'd parked in Andover and backtracked a bit.

It was really cool because I hadn't seen her in forever, and she hadn't met little Ev yet. Ev liked her right away, as I figured he would.

We all continued south a bit more and soon reached the parking area for the Sussex Branch Trail in Andover. I had a then and now to set up of that spot of the old station from afar, which was where the lot is today.

Strangely, there were no parking signs all over the lot at this point. The entire lot is pretty much the railroad right of way, and as such should be public state park land, so I don't know if that is legit or what.

We continued south through town from here, and the right of way is now the parking for all of the buildings along Rt 206 for the next block or so. I set up another then and now at that location, using a 1919 photo by Watson Bunnell taken from the same spot. Bunnell was a full time Lackawanna Railroad photographer, and his glass plate negatives are in the Steamtown collection. They're all crisp and clear, which make for very good then and now photos.

We crossed Brighton Ave, Maple Street, and High Street, and I got another Bunnell compilation photo from 1912 along present day Rt 206 pretty well lined up.

We continued to the south and veered away from 206, then passed beneath the Lackawanna Cutoff, completed in 1911 as a reroute to the main line between Slateford PA and Lake Hopatcong area NJ.

The cutoff was abandoned in 1979 and ripped up in the early 80s. Now, it is being built at least as far as Andover, hopefully more. The only problem with it is that there is no talk of freight movement on it. Only passenger. This seems to me a foolish way of constructing a line that could relieve truck congestion.

We continued on further from here, and the right of way shifted from being on a shelf to onto a fill. This was at the approach to a small settlement south of Andover known as Whitehall. 

As we approached the highest point on the fill, just before crossing Whitehall Hill Road on a culvert known locally as the Hole in the Wall, we came upon a fledgling Screech Owl to the left of the trail.

This was the closest I'd ever come to such an owl, and it was really very cute. My first thought was that it'd been hit by a car out on 206 and made its way to the railroad fill, but then realized it was just a young one learning to fly. 

We continued ahead over the road, and then out along the parallel old Morris and Sussex Turnpike, now part of Whitehall Hill Road. We crossed over the intersection with Rt 206 where the rail bed gets pretty washed out, and continued south closer to 206, directly below a large wall erected after the railroad was abandoned. It's a tight area, but nice walking.

Around Waving Willie's house was where Chrissi and Mark left us and turned back.

Andover, 1919 by Watson Bunnell, from Steamtown NHS Archives

We continued beyond in a cut, past where the famous Waving Willie used to live, then across North Shore Road as we approached Cranberry Lake. I think it was in this area where Carolyn met up with us for the remainder of the hike.

We continued south along the beach area and past their closed foot bridge over the middle of the upper end of the lake. It's been shut for a while because of some sort of bad instpections. There used to be a rail station adjacent to it in operation days.

We continued along the shore of the lake to the south, then passed through a parking lot and across South Shore Road. We passed through yet another parking lot, and continued into the deep woods of Allamuchy Mountain State Park, parallel with swamp land and the Ghost Pony Brook.

This was a very pleasant end to the hike, meandering through the woods along the brook. I pointed out the remnants of the Sussex Mine Railroad where they became obvious in this area. That right of way was built in 1851, and was mule drawn. It was replaced by the locomotive railroad in 1853, on an almost entirely different route. We could see where that earlier right of way circumnavigated cuts and such on the line, and went over the streams parallel with the later line.

We passed by the Highlands Trail crossing, and then continued further past Jefferson Lake, where there was a spur line to an ice house. Serious Sean joined us for this very last part of it, and oddly walked by us without saying hi to be silly. 

We continued to the south, and after Jefferson Lake, it was only a short while before we got back to the parking lot, just after the original Sussex Railroad turned to the right away from the 1901 route.

We had to pick up my car from the start, but from there the group headed to the Bells Mansion down in Netcong, formerly owned by a President of the Morris Canal and Banking Company, to have dinner with our friend Jenny Tull, who was hiking the entire Appalachian Trail, but was home taking a short break before resuming.

It was a great end to the night; Ev could run around a bit in the outdoor seating area we picked, and we had some delicious food to close out the night.

This had been quite an enjoyable trip with a lot of different stuff to see, and just a lot of friends old and new, coming and going. It was really like a party where people would show their faces for a bit and stay as long as they could. Of course, some went the entire distance. I thought it was wonderful.