Hike #322 12/23/7
12/23/7 North Hunterdon; Teetertown Nature Preserve-Woodglen with "Amish Paul" and Wyatt Hassler, David Noble, Eldon Allen
Wattles fields, Point Mountain
This hike I decided to do similar to last year, north Hunterdon County in parks near my grandfather's house. I would change the route slightly compared to the previous years route to change things up, but it would still include a stop by my grandfather's house for lunch and such. We met in the morning at the Lebanon Township Park at the World Trade Center memorial, the end point. Joining me here were "Amish Paul" and Wyatt Hassler, and David Noble.
Crystal Springs
Wyatt threw this doll up into a tree
Old spring house that used to near Karrs Morgan's house on Mt. Lebanon Road.
Along Turkey Top Road, Lebanon Twp
Highest point on Point Mountain
Point Mountain
Point Mountain
My grandfather and I on Point Mountain
Descending Point Mountain
Point Mountain
Wattles fields at Point Mountain
Point Mountain south
Lunch break at my grandfather's house
Lunch break at my grandfather's house
Lunch break at my grandfather's house
Lunch break at my grandfather's
Old spring house in Miquin Woods
Old lean tos at Miquin Woods
Busted bridge in Miquin Woods
Busted bridge in Miquin Woods
Busted bridge in Miquin Woods
Busted foot bridge in Miquin Woods
Old stone house in Miquin Woods
The rainy forecast scared many potential participants off. We all got in my car and shuttled to Teetertown Nature Preserve at Mountain Farm. We began walking from near park director John Trontis' house around a bit of a loop to the Pond Trail, an old road, and made our way through to a connecting trail near the new camp grounds and out to Pleasant Grove Road, which we crossed into the Crystal Springs tract with a new trail. We followed the trail, which ended abruptly at a field as it had done our previous visit. We followed the field as we had done last time and came to the old Crystal Springs camp area. An old dam site was overflowing due to the rain and snow meltoff, and we had to take extreme care to cross. David and Amish Paul were argueing about past events which had led them to not get along, and I felt like we had a great breakthrough and they were actually having snipits of reasonable conversation. David said "Okay, fine Paul, you win..." about to go on with something, but Paul interrupted and said "okay, I'll take that, I win!" and he laughed. That seemed to be the end of the argument and all was well. The old house that was in this location on our previous visit was now gone, and the area where the earth movers were sitting was all well leveled out. One building remained on the shore of one of the small lakes, though we did not try to go in. It was quite foggy and we had some drizzle from time to time, but still sort of pleasant. We began walking off trail into the fields to the north following along the perimeter of the Hunterdon County Parks land with yellow diamond shaped signs. We kept with this border to the north end of the park land and continued into the woods paralleling a private field that was to the left of us. There was a lot of wet areas, large puddles holding somewhat frozen water back in the woods. We walked around them as we headed to the north. Amish Paul found a woods road but I opted not to follow it, which was dumb because I soon ended up on it anyway. The woods road made a turn down to a small creek, and then followed the creek to the right. We crossed the creek following some orange tape blazes which led us along what must have been a property line or something. We were soon within sit eof some sort of road with a sharp bend in it. I was worried that it was a driveway, but it was not. It ended up being part of the eastern end of Mt Lebanon Road at the Morris County border. There was a sign signifying this was the entrance to Washington Township of Morris County, and we turned left heading back into Hunterdon County, Lebanon Township. We walked along the road for a ways, passing an old spring house or some sort of building made of stone on the right, then turned right onto Turkey Top Road. We walked down this road to Penwell Road and the entrance to the Point Mountain Preserve. We hung around in the parking lot and it began raining. Soon, we were joined by my grandfather, Eldon Allen, and we began walking the trail alongside the fields. We cut across one field and continued along the trail out of the fields and up onto the ridge line. We were in heavy clouds and it was raining steadily until we reached the peak of Point Mountain, 973 feet above sea level, and we seemed to walk right out of the cloud! By the time we reached the main viewpoint it was clear enough to see the view very well. We admired this spot for a bit and then headed down the trail to Point Mountain Road and then across to the south section of the preserve. We continued onto the white blazed trail which led us out to the farm off Mountain Top Road. The fields had been plowed since my last visit here, and it made it tougher to see where exactly the trail was supposed to go. Still, we made it out to the road, and it started raining pretty well here. We followed Mountaintop Road out to my grandfather's place where we stopped for an extended lunch break. David stripped down to his boxers and cooked up Celeste Pizzas my grandfather had bought for us, and we all chatted a bit. David endtertained on the piano for a bit and my Aunt Bonnie came and took Amish Paul and David back to their cars. Only Wyatt and I contiued along Mountaintop Road to Hollow Road. We followed Hollow Road out past my Aunt Bonnie's to Newport Road and turned right. When we saw the first signs for the new Miquin Woods Preserve (the old Camp Watchung, the word "Michin" means "Feather" in a Lenape language) and began bushwhacking into the trees. We continued on heading through the woods along the top of some sort of a berm around a wet area. We fought through some various weeds all over the area, and had to cross some tributaries which was tough jumping back and forth across with my recently broken shoulder. Still, we made it around and soon after crossing a dirt road came to a yellow blazed Hunterdon Parks trail. We started by following it to the right which led us to the new parking area for Michin Woods. While the park was not officially opened yet, there was now a kiosk and the trail was well blazed. We read the history of the camp Watchung and then followed the yellow blazes back in the direction we'd come from. We soon came to a creek crossing, which we managed, and then an abandoned building which must have been a spring house. We checked it out and continued on the trail which led to an old camp road. Many camp roads came in from other directions, but the blazes followed only one, so we followed that route. The old road took us through the woods to where a few lean to's were still standing to our left. The old road was very icy and thus very slippery. Wyatt was slipping all over the place and I shuddered to think of how it would feel if I fell on my broken shoulder again, in the way I broke it in the first place while at work. Soon, we reached where the yellow trail diverged in two directions. We opted to go left on a footpath passing the lean tos along the bank above the Spruce Run Creek which was flowing very strong. The path slowly descended to the side of the creek and a beat up old footbridge. This bridge was practically destroyed. We were barely able cross, and with my broken shoulder holding onto the railings was really tough. The boards were missing on most of the bridge and we had to hold the railings and step on the I beams. There was sort of an island in the middle we could stand on, a lot of branches that had bunched up on the bridge. We soon got to the other side and passed a little pond, which I think was the one they called Lake Arrowhead, because it was costructed to look like one. We soon reached a camp road and there was an old abandoned stone building at a sort of corner. It was all boarded up, and looked really cool, but it was getting dark so we did'nt try to go in. We followed the road to the right and came to another road intersection which went either straight or right across Spruce Run. We turned right and soon found the other branch of the yellow blazed trail. We continued up the road, which was difficult on the ice. We kept sliding back down the hill while trying to walk, but we finally made it out to Newport Road. We walked Newport Road to Red Mill Road in the rain, which took us to Woodglen in what seemed to be an eternity in the cold rain. Once in Woodglen, we turned right briefly on Hill Road, then left past the municipal building of Lebanon Township and into the township park where the piece of the WTC stood in the memorial park. Amish Paul was there, and was having trouble because his car would not start. I called my grandfather to come, but just after getting off the phone with him we got Paul's car started. It still worked out because my grandfather drove me back to my car at Teetertown.
Crystal Springs
Photos
1.) Me, Amish Paul, and David in Crystal Springs section of the Teetertown Preserve. David has the beheaded doll body we found.2.) Heading north from Crystal Springs through the fields3.) Wyatt threw the doll body up into this tree4.) This old building, probably a spring house was on Mount Lebanon road5.) Heading down Turkey Top Road on this foggy day6.) Amish Paul on the very top of Point Mountain, 973 ft.7.) David, Wyatt, my grandfather Eldon Allen, and Amish Paul on top of Point Mountain8.) View from Point Mountain9.) My grandfather and I on Point Mountain10.) Heading down the newly relocated trail down to Point Mountain Road11.) Heading down the yellow trail relocation from Point Mountain12.) On the Point Mountain Trail in the south section13.) David and Wyatt in the Point Mountain Preserve14-17.) Having lunch at my grandfather's house18.) Old building at former Camp Watchung, Miquin Woods Nature Preserve19.) Wyatt with some of the old lean tos in Miquin Woods20-23.) Wyatt crossing ruined bridge over the Spruce Run Creek24.) Old stone home in Miquin Woods25.) And as a bonus for you lucky people, my cat Turkey!
No comments:
Post a Comment