Hike #344 5/16/8
5/16/8 Hunterdon Highlands Trail; Musconetcong Gorge-Spruce Run Recreation area with Tom Petrucci and Warren Cooper.
Warren and Tom on the Highlands Trail in Tower Hill Reserve
This next hike was originally intended to be a weekend campout, but it did'nt work out, so it ended up being two separate hikes. This first one would be a hike on the Highlands Trail route between Musconetcong Gorge and Spruce Run Recreation area. It was a terrible rainy day, but we still pulled it off. Joining me this time were Tom Petrucci and Warren Cooper, a newcomer and prominent respected writer for the Hunterdon County Democrat who was writing a story about hiking across Hunterdon County. We shuttled my car from Spruce Run to Musconetcong Gorge. I let Tom and Warren out at Dennis Road parking area, and I left my car at my stepmom Donna's parent's house in Warren Glen. We began walking the Highlands Trail, coaligned with the Ridge Trail, heading east. It was difficult walking in the rain over slippery rocks, but we did it. We crossed Scout Run and then ascended on nice trail steps heading up onto the ridge line. We kept thinking the rain was going to stop, but it rarely did for any significant amount of time. When we reached Pine Run, where the trail led down hill to a rail grade, the Highlands Trail was to continue northeast. Unfortunitely, it was not completed yet, but we opted to bushwhack in, and fortunitely found the new trail. We were able to follow it for a while, then ended up bushwhacking through fields and woods out to Staats Road. From here, the route led down Schaaf Road to Bloomsbury Road. We turned right here to Turkey Hill Road, and followed it for a ways. We were supposed to turn off Turkey Hill Road into Audobon Society Land, but we went too early and bushwhacked out to Tunnel Road. We bushwhacked up hill and came out to a field, then headed down someone's driveway to the road. Not exactly the best way to do it, but oh well. We followed Tunnel Hill Road to the underpass below Rt 78 where we had our lunch break.
Taking a nice dry break under Rt 78 on the Highlands Trail
We continued on this out to Rt 173 in West Portal and picked up the next unblazed piece of the Highlands Trail. I had run this section once before, a few years prior when it was first cleared. I could'nt remember all of it, but I thought we'd figure it out. As soon as we entered the woods, Warren tripped on a big piece of metal bar over the trail. Fortunitely he was okay. Warren is amazing in that he can get hurt and/or be in excruciating pain and still laugh. We continued on, and made a wrong turn to the right. We soon had to turn back and make our way up what appeared to have been an old woods road. We followed this as it skirted the side of Jugtown Mountain, and I had thought we must be going the wrong way, but it son switched back and went the other way so I figured maybe it was the correct way after all. We ascended the ridge and soon we came to a white blaze. We headed up hill to a junction with white blazed trails going left and right. We went left, which proved to be a mistake. While it was a beautiful trail with nice Mayapples all over, it really was the farther of the two routes and it had a lot of elevation, so we went back to take the other route.
Highlands Trail in the Jugtown Mountain Nature Preserve
We soon came to the parking area for Jugtown Mountain. We crossed and took the blue blazed trail on the opposite side passing mine ruins as well as an old mine itself looping around to the new Highlands Trail section. I had run this section with Glenn Oleksak and one of his volunteers the previous week so I would know what to do. We followed this nice unblazed but flagged trail which led us to Mine Road. It jogged to the left on Mine Road, then back to the right off the road through a meadow and into the woods. It was well built and easy to follow along the way through here, following an elbow of county park land. We came to a nice rock outcropping and looped around it, passing a nice little purple flower one of Glenn's volunteers had placed in a stone ring for it's safety. We continued on, crossed a tributary and continued following the orange tapes through the woods passing a deer stand. We soon came to a power line cut. It was here that I got a bit lost. We turned left down the cut, and at the bottom we crossed a stream, then a really wet area where we just had to wade through.
Walking the power line through messy water. This section of the HT was later relocated
Warren trudging through the muck...but look at him, he's happy!!!
By this time we just were'nt happy any more...except Warren, he somehow seemed happy. We turned right off the power line and scoured the woods for about an hour looking for the trail, but found nothing. I still don't understand it as of this writing, but somehow the HT turned off the power line in the direction we joined it originally, not crossing it. When I realized this, we were fine, following the tapes on the trees out to Tower Hill Reserve's nicely mowed trails. Just when we thought we were done with the messy stuff, some of the trail had sitting water on it so we got wet again. We continued out of Tower Hill on Mountainview Road, passing the old house on the reserve which was scheduled to be demolished.
Abandoned house in the Tower Hill Reserve.
We headed down hill and turned left on Norton Church Road I think it was, then right on I think it was Charlestown Road to Van Syckles Road. We followed Van Syckles Road directly to Spruce Run, opting to skip the new HT sections in the recreation area and Clinton Wildlife Management Area. We figured we'd gotten lost enough already. Tom and I decided to forge on as fast as we could to the cars and let Warren take a slower pace down the road to the park entrance. We got there in time for Tom to take Warren's car and pick him up. Tom decided he did'nt want to camp that night, and so neither did I. Still, I set up camp, ran to the shower house and took a much needed hot shower, and then layed in the tent freezing cold. After laying there for quite a while, I called Cathy up and she offered to come pick me up, which I was reluctant to accept at first, but soon realized it was the thing to do. She came and picked me up and I broke down camp and went home. This was one of the most miserable hikes I'd ever led, though it somehow still ended up being fun.
1.) Tom and Warren taking a food break under Rt 78 on Tunnel Road.2.) On the trail in Jugtown Mountain Nature Preserve3.) Tom wading through deep water on the power line section between Tower Hill and Jugtown4.) Warren wading through the shitty section.5.) Warren and Tom, somehow still happy, on the trail at Tower Hill6.) Old house at Tower Hill
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