Hike #284; Washington/Anderson/Point Mountain

 Hike #284 5/18/7

5/18/7 Washington/Anderson/Point Mountain with "Major Tom" Conroy and Jim Delotto

In Anderson NJ

 My next hike would be an off the wall evening hike once again. After getting out of work at Taylor Rental at 5:30 pm, I was'nt too into hiking that much, but still Major Tom was ready and willing, so I figured "Screw it" and went out anyway.

Inside Inclined Plane #6W tail race tunnel near Port Colden, Morris Canal

Inside the tail race tunnel, Morris Canal Plane 6W.

Inside the back of the Morris Canal turbine tunnel. A window was dropped in where I could see through! Port Colden.

Morris Canal tail race tunnel, plane 6W.

Anderson Hotel

Anderson NJ

Point Mountain view

Farms near Point Mountain

Point Mountain Bridge

Along the river trail at Point Mountain, we met my Uncle Mike and his friend.

Point Mountain Rosan fields.

Point Mountain ridge trail

View from Point Mountain at sunset

Delotto on Point Mountain at sunset

Sunset on Point Mountain

Walking in Lebanon Twp at night

Somewhere walking backroads on Changewater Mountain

Stopping at my grandfather's for a snack along our night hike.

We began walking right from my house beginning at about 6 pm. We walked out Port Colden Road to the railroad tracks and headed east. We walked for a bit, and I began to feel more awake and interested when we reached the outlet tunnel of the old Morris Canal's inclinde plane #6 West. We went inside and headed in as far as we could, as I'd done before, but this time with a good flashlight. I was amazed to see that where the old turbine area had been filled in, one of the pieces of debris that had been dropped in was an old window, and amazingly it landed upright without breaking the glass! More amazingly was the fact that I could see through this window out to the other side of the outlet tunnel into the canal prism! Vines were visible creeping over the edge and sunlight and grass was clearly in view! This amazed me, and I was now totally into the hike. We made our way back out carefully and then continued to the east. When we got to the old brick yard and Pyronics, I found an ATV path heading to the south of the tracks that I had never followed. I decided there was no time like the present, so off we went. Jim Delotto called me up and planned on meeting up with us, so we headed on. The path led us to an intersection and we went left. It led us near the junk yard at Port Murray, and we turned right at that point out to some sort of a yard with vehicles parked so we turned back to the first intersection we came to and went in the other direction. This path led us back and forth, and eventually to someone's yard so we had to turn back. We ended up bushwhacking and following small deer trails down hill, then cut across someone's yard out to Rt 57 in Anderson. We were very near the Anderson Hotel and Church, and Delotto was parked in the Church lot, so we went over to greet him. The three of us continued along 57 to Point Mountain Road and turned south across the Point Mountain bridge, then headed into the woods along the Musconetcong River on the blue blazed trail. We headed in a little ways until we found my Uncle Mike Kelleher and one of his fishing buddies there with some fish they'd caught. We chatted a bit and continued on. We made our way out toward Penwell and took the orange blazed ridge trail along to the top. It was getting rather dark, and tough to see where we were going. Major Tom had a flashlight, which helped him a lot. We soon reached the main viewpoint with some nice sunset scenes. We hung around for a bit, the descneded on the yellow trail the short distance down to Point Mountain Road. Delotto decided to turn back to his car at this point while Major Tom and I continued on along the new extension of the Yellow trail out to Mountain Top Road.It was getting very dark and we had to use the flash lights all along the route. The blazes on the trees were hard to see, but we somehow made it out to the field near Mountain Top Road. There trail was still not yet cut across the field, but we were able to cut across directly. The stars shone brightly it was amazing. The weeds were getting high, but we dealt with it and soon reached Mountain Top Road. We turned left out of the little parking area and headed up the road, stopping at my grandfather's house. He gave us some microwave pizza and other foods, and we chatted with him for a bit. He tried to give us a ride back to Washington, but we refused, wanting to walk back the entire way. We headed to the end of Mountain Top, turning right on Hollow Road. We continued to Musconetcong River Road, turned left, then right across the river in Changewater, up to Murderer's Bridge site (where the supposed Changewater muderers were buried), and out McCollough Road to Rt 57 across to Port Colden. I was tired, and it was well after midnight, but we had a good hike!

I found one of Taylor Rental's machines

1.) Looking inside the old outlet tunnel to Morris Canal's inclined plane #6W near Port Colden along the railroad tracks2.) Major Tom in the outlet tunnel3.) Me in the end of the outlet tunnel where it's been filled in (photo by Tom Conroy)4.) Major Tom in front of the outside of the tunnel5.) The Anderson Hotel along Rt 57, Mansfield Twp6.) Major Tom in front of the American flag at Anderson Church. Delotto is by his car behind us.7.) Delotto and Major Tom along Rt 57 near Port Murray8.) Point Mountain as seen from the Port Murray traffic light9.) View across the fields from Point Mountain Road10.) Nearing the Point Mountain Bridge11.) My Uncle Mike Kelleher and one of his friends with the fish they'd caught in the Musconetcong in the Point Mountain preserve. He'd hurt his eye working in his yard recently.12.) The sun setting over the fields at Point Mountain13.) Major Tom navigating the trail at Point Mountain14.) View at night from Point Mountain15.) Delotto on the rock at Point Mountain16.) Another night view from the mountain17.) Major Tom on Point Mountain trail I think.18.) I'm not sure where we are at this point, but somewhere near Mt Top Road.19.) My grandfather chatting with Major Tom while we visited along the way20.) Me with the Taylor Rental bobcat excavator we passed along McCollough Road.