Hike #150; Tranquility to Oxford

 Hike #150

Hike 150

The group at the end point in Oxford

10/17/4

 

For this next hike, I decided to post the hike from Tranquility through the AMC. This time,

I would once again end in Oxford, on Lower Denmark Road where the new parking area

was for the recently paved piece of the railroad bed.

Old mile marker along the LHR line in Allamuchy Twp

Mile marker along the LHR line, Allamuchy Twp

Old Allamuchy frieght station before the remodeling

Along former LHR railroad bed near Long Bridge

Joining me this time were Rich Wells, who was last on the Black River hike the previous

August, and two newcomers, Sue Bickford-Martin and Ellen Pasquale. They were all

surprised, I’m sure, to see I showed up in a suit! Sue was an arial photographer from

Allamuchy, and Ellen had never done a 15 mile hike before, having just recently started

hiking and lost a lot of weight in the process. Both would turn out to be great strong hikers.

The first section of the hike, as it had been the last few visits, was a bit weedy until we

reached the farm road crossing, with an old railroad crossing sign still in place. We

continued easily from here to the old Allamuchy Frieght station, which now had a sign

stating what it was in front of it, the tarp still on the roof.

Old signal tower along LHR line in Allamuchy Twp

LHR railroad bed at Alphano

Truck on the rail bed in Great Meadows

Old house in Great Meadows

Along the LHR rail bed in Townsbury area

We continued south pretty clearly, passing through Long Bridge and Alphano. The section

that had previously been somewhat bad through Aphano was now quite easy to handle. We

had no problems getting from here to Great Meadows, save for some junk including a

derelect dump truck parked on the railbed.

In Great Meadows, we took a side trip to get food and drink down Rt 46. After returning,

we followed along the tracks, which were still very overgrown, by walking Rt 46. The

rails were still in until reaching near a lumber yard where they were removed. The

weediest section of the hike was just west of Great Meadows, where we had to weave

back and forth to get around weeds, and make our way under a canopy of cedars and other

small trees. It opened up after a farm road crossing, where we walked through fields

briefly, then made our way back onto the right of way. The telltale used for clearance was

still in place, though almost unnoticeable.

Old LHR railroad bed at Townsbury

Snake along the LHR railroad bed in Townsbury area

Old railroad bridge between Townsbury and Great Meadows

LHR railroad bed in Pequest WMA

Old LHR railroad bed at the Pequest Furnace site

By the time we came out of Pequest Wildlife Management Area our feet were hurting quite

a lot from all of the ballast rock. The DL&W Warren line is always such a relief after

walking this route. We followed the Warren Railroad back to Oxford where we finished.

My feet always gave me problems while I had the soccar cleats I had bought for 49 cents at

the K Mart closeouts. I was by this time getting pretty interested in how long it would take

each of my many pairs of cleats I had bought to wear down. I had 41 pairs of shoes after all

of the closeouts!