Hike #162; Hackettstown Area

 Hike #162

This was a time when I had so many newcomers I could'nt quite keep track of them, and so unfortunitely I did'nt get the name of all of the participants all the time. If anyone knows who some of them are in any of these, please let me know!

Entering Cataract Park

2/6/5

 

 For my next hike, I decided to once again post my Hackettstown loop hike for the AMC. We met this time at the Mansfield Clearview Cinima movie theatre parking lot on the corners of Rt 57, Allen, and Newburg Roads. Joining me this time were past participants Terry Berntsen, Susyn Mihalasky, and Delotto, and newcomers Victoria ?, {name unknown}, and {name unknown}. I decided to wear full camoflauge and one of my army helmets for this one. We walked past Moo Moo’s old house up Newburg Road to Schooley’s Mountain Road, then into Cataract Park. We climbed to the old mine, and went inside, then headed down to Cataract Falls where {the two unknown names} and Delotto decided to cut out and turn back already.

View from Schooley's Mountain and Newburg Road

View from the corner of Schooley's Mountain and Newburg Roads

Inside an old iron mine, Cataract Park

At the Cataract Falls

The falls were beautifully frozen over, and they were happy to see it, but the snow was too much for them. The four of us continued on without them on the route we used last visit. We walked to the top of Cataract Falls out into Heath Village property, then up to the Knoll and beyond on the tape blazed trail. It was here that I opted to try something different. There was another taped blazed path heading downhill I had not yet followed, and decided to this time.

Cataract Falls

View of Hackettstown from Nature Trail

View of Centenary College Dome from the Morris Canal in Forence Kuipers Park

The trail unfortunitely petered out and we found ourselves walking off trail and back up the ridge. We came uncomfortably close to some homes before finally reaching what appeared to be another tape path crossing a woods road. This too soon disappeared. We finally made our way down to the former Mission Road out to Patriot’s Path. {name unknown} as it turned out was the maintainer for this section! I was quite surprised and we had an interesting conversation on how she brought co workers out to help clear the way. We soon came out to the interesection with Mission, Resevoir, and Spring Roads and turned left heading downhill. We soon turned left and began following another tape trail, still in all likelihood the future route of Patriot’s Path. This time, for some reason I was unable to find the hollowed out log. We continued dowhill when the tapes ended into a developement, then made our way to the road. I called my grandfather up using Terry’s cell phone to see if he would join us, but he was too busy. We continued downhill and across the abandoend bridge in to the developement behind the former A&P that had been changed to a Food Basic Store. To my surprise, Terry told me that even the Food Basic had long since closed! We walked into the developement and visited Terry’s beautiful house briefly before moving on. Only Susyn and I decided to go on, as Terry and ? decided to cut out. We walked out to Rt 46 and onto East Avenue, which one of my maps showed as being part of Patriot’s Path, probably in error. We walked to the cemetary, and crossed it, passing over a hill and a nice little truss bridge before reaching Mountain Ave. We took Mountain Ave to Rt 46 and walked through Hackettstown, then up the hill to the Morris Canal towpath. We continued on the towpath with a nice view of the Centenary College Dome, and soon reached the end of the trail section, following a driveway downhill toward Rockport Road.

Morris Canal Towpath at Florence Kuipers Park, Hackettstown

Snow Shrek at Centenary College

We turned left and walked to Centenary College, with the idea that walking across the campus would be more scenic than other roads. We were right, and we walked by a giant snow sculpture of Shrek made beautifully. We continued out to downtown Hackettstown and out Mountain Avenue to Rt 57. We walked through the bit of the wildlife management land parallel to the highway before returning to the movie theatre parking lot and the end.

Old bridge over a tributary of the Musconetcong in Mansfield Twp.