Hike #226 7/10/6
In Oxford
Hike 226
7/10/6
My next hike would be another crazy after work jaunt with my good friend, Skyler Jermyn. When I got off work at 5:30 pm, I drove to Skyler's house and we began walking from there. We walked to the end of his street, Flower Avenue, and headed out to Rt 57, then climbed up to the former Warren Railroad.
In Oxford Tunnel
Skyler in Oxford Tunnel
In Oxford NJ after passing through the tunnel
In the middle of Jonestown Road
In an Oxford cemetary
Crazy night hike
We followed this to the spurs into Warren Lumber and the former American Can, and continued on the abandoned right of way north near Warren Hills, out across Jackson Valley Road and toward the Oxford Tunnel. I had wanted to walk through the tunnel for a long time, but I had not done it since I discovered that it had collapsed mid way through. Skyler and I headed in, and when we reached the cave-in, were surprised to see that it was still easily navigable. The rocks were not piled all that high, and we got over them alright. What was far worse was the fact that the silt on the other side had gotten worse than it was in the past. Still, we made it through. We then headed out through the swampy right of way to Axford Ave. We walked with dirty muddy shoes out to the liquor store in town where we stopped for a break. We had the clerk recommend some different wines to us, and we bought one of them to drink along the way. Our next stop was the Furnace Creek at the playground of Oxford Central School where we cleaned our feet off. We then continued on the roads out toward Oxford Lake, then turned off on the right of way of the Oxford Iron Mines Railroad. We checked out some foundations and sat down for a bit to drink some wine before moving on. We hurried by a spot where we were in plain view of a house, then continued on the right of way ahead. As we walked through the woods, I started getting very very dark. We thought about it for a bit, and then decided to cut over from the right of way toward Jonestown Road early, which proved to be a big mistake. We fought blindly through all sorts of sticker bushes and other weeds making our way out into a mowed grassy area which was like an annex to someone's lawn. We hurried through it and made our way through a narrow line of trees separating two lawns and homes. We crossed one more grassy area and were coming closer to the road when someone yelled and a porch light went on. Skyler and I dropped to the ground and sat perfectly still as the residents of the house to our right walked up and down their driveway flashing flashlights into the weeds just feet away from us. I was wearing all Earthy toned clothing while Skyler was in all black, fortunitely. They walked up and down, then headed back a bit, and just when we thought it might be safe, they started throwing rocks into the woods at us. We were scared shitless as these rocks hit only inches from our heads. We tried covering ourselves with our hands, and fortunitely they gave up throwing them shortly. Skyler was ready to stand up and explain what we were up to, but I insisted we sit still because we were both very drunk from the red wine we'd bought. We laid there for a bit longer until I decided it might be a good idea to get up and move, but then another voice came about saying they heard us again. We again laid back down and sat completely still, and a car pulled out the driveway alongside us. We kept perfectly still and stayed put for a while longer. It was a good thing I had the sense to turn my cell phone off when we were laying there, as I did end up recieving a call while we laid there. After what seemed to be an eternity of laying in the weeds, we slowly began to crawl out. When we could see the road plainly, we took off running, but Skyler got his shoe stuck in the rocks! We took off running as quickly as we could down Jonestown Road toward Oxford, and when we were a good distance away Skyler told me he'd lost his shoe just along the road! We headed back, now not looking so suspicious, to look for the shoe. We thought we'd use the cover story that he's stopped to take a pee and lost it. No one stopped to question us, but we also could not find the shoe. Skyler decided to leave the other shoe as well, and we headed down Jonestown Road. We were so drunk, and had an adrenaline high from our close call that we had no worries about walking down the center of the street passing off an open bottle of red wine! We passed it back and forth, and even laid in the road with it, as well as against tomb stones in the cemetary closer to Oxford. When we got back to town, Skyler chucked the bottle on the grass, as there were no receptacles and neither of us had anywhere to carry it. We are both completely against littering, but put it where it was obvious in hopes that someone would grab it. We really could'nt risk getting in any trouble after all we'd been through already. We turned from Jonestown onto Mine Hill Road and began to ascend over the hill. Skyler surprisingly did'nt have problems finishing the hike in only socks! We walked over the mountain and down past the Fairway Greens Golf Course. As we went by my friend, Kyle Duryea's house, by now probably about midnight, we kept yelling "Fairway Greens!" in high girlie voices. Someone was talking in the driveway, but I don't know who, and Kyle told me the next day he did'nt hear us. We continued through Fairway Estates on a road parallel to Mine Hill Rd, then out across Kinnamine Ave/Jackson Valley Road onto Belvidere Ave. We continued down to the Quick Check store where we got some kind of food, I don't remember what. It was quite funny that two cute young girls came up to us saying they recognized Skyler; as it turned out, Skyler had been their substitute teacher at one time! He cited on the way out that it was really weird that his students see him in the wee hours of the morning, drunk off his ass hiking around. "I don't want my students seeing me like this and saying, "Hey, that's Mr. Jermyn!". We had quite a laugh about it though! We continued walking through town onto East Washington Ave/Rt 57 back to Flower Ave, then back up to Skyler's house. What an eventful trip, but so much fun!
PICS!!! Here's a link to all of them from this hike followed by descriptions!
Crazy night hike
My cut up legs
My legs, all cut up from our ordeal in the woods.
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