Hike #384 11/9/8
The group along a closed trail along the Raritan River
11/9/8 Somerville/Finderne/Martinsville with Jim "Mr. Buckett" Mathews, Kyle Zalinsky, Shelly Janes, "Commando Tom" Petrucci, Larry Butler, Joe Tag, and ?
Here's a link to all of the pictures from this hike:
http://s393.photobucket.com/albums/pp19/sneezehorse3/hike384%2011-9-8/
Be sure to check the sub folder for all of Shelly's pics!
Here's a link to the promo video Commando Tom made for the hikes! Excellent! Much of it was filmed on this hike:
Starting off
Bridge at Bridgewater Mall
Footbridge by Bridgewater Mall
Footbridge by Bridgewater Mall
Somerville NJ
Somerville NJ
Peter's Brook Greenway
Downtown Somerville
Downtown Somerville
Somerville court houe
Somerville, Somerset County Courthoue
Somerville NJ
Somerville NJ
Somerville NJ
Somerville NJ
Somerville NJ
Somerville NJ
Somerville NJ
Somerville NJ
Peter's Brook Somerville
Peter's Brook CNJ culvert, Somerville
Peter's Brook Bridge, Somerville
Peter's Brook Bridge, Somerville
Swinging along Peter's Brook
Peter's Brook culvert
Park along the Peter's Brook
Along Peter's Brook
Mr. Buckett
Heading through the meadows to the Raritan
Raritan River, Somerville
Raritan River, Somerville
Along the Raritan, we found a trail
Tree climbing along the Raritan
Tree climbing along the Raritan
Tree climbing along the Raritan
Tree climbing along the Raritan
Tree climbing along the Raritan
Tree climbing along the Raritan
Tree climbing along the Raritan
Tree climbing along the Raritan near Somerville
Tree climbing along the Raritan
Inverted sit ups along the Raritan
Trail along the Raritan
Climbing a mound
Climbing a mound
Getting there
Almost up
Over
Success
Tree
Weird tree in Finderne
Awaiting on us all
Ball tree
Historic home near Somerville
Greenway along the Raritan near Finderne
Old cemetery near Finderne
Cemetery near Finderne
Cemetery near Finderne
Cemetery near Finderne
Osage Orange
Osage Orange grave
Old cemetery near Finderne
Osage Orange
Grave yard near Finderne
Old cemetery near Finderne
The gate of an old cemetery near Finderne
Osage Orange. They didn't taste good.
Osage Oranges taste terrible...and they're poison as I understand.
Trestle near Finderne
Trestle near Finderne
Trestle near Finderne
Trestle near Finderne
Trestle near Finderne
Raritan from the trestle
Raritan from the trestle
Trestle near Finderne
Trestle near Finderne
Trestle near Finderne
Rail bed
Trestle near Finderne
Another old trestle
Another old trestle
Raritan River from a trestle
Raritan River from a trestle
Trestle
Chimney Rock rail spur
Chimney Rock rail spur
Easy Street!
Chimney Rock rail spur
Being hoodlums
Stop on an angle
Closed for business
Chimney Rock area
View of Chimney Rock from below
Middle Brook
Dam on the East Branch of the Middle Brook
East Branch of the Middle Brook
East Branch Dam and Buttermilk Falls
Dam on the East Branch of the Middle Brook
Dam on the East Branch of the Middle Brook
Buttermilk Falls and East Branch dam
East Branch dam
Buttermilk Falls on East Branch of the Middle Brook
Buttermilk Falls and East Branch dam
east Branch dam
Doorway on East Branch dam
East Branch of the Middle Brook
East Branch dam
East Branch dam
Looking down from the East Branch dam
Dam on the East Branch of the Middle Brook
Dam on the East Branch of the Middle Brook
View near Chimney Rock
View from Chimney Rock
View from Chimney Rock
View from Chimney Rock
View from Chimney Rock
View from Chimney Rock
View from Chimney Rock
View from Chimney Rock
View from Chimney Rock
View from Chimney Rock
Interesting museum near Martinsville
Bad Ass
Bad Asses
Interesting museum near Martinsville
Seasonal view along Middlebrook Heights
Along the East Branch of Middle Brook
Rest stop in Washington Valley Park, on the East Branch
Break along Middle Brook East Branch
Break along Middle Brook East Branch
Amish Paul along East Branch
Kyle resting along the East Branch Middle Brook
Mr. Buckett along the East Branch
East Branch of the Middle Brook
Middle Brook Trail did not have a good bridge, so we had to walk across.
Crossing the East Branch of the Middle Brook because a bridge hadn't been built
Along the Middle Brook Trail, Washington Valley Park
Washington Valley Reservoir
Middle Brook
Old Tullo Road
Back roads near Martinsville
Back road walking back to Somerville
Rest stop along the back roads south of Martinsville
Cutting through some lightly wooded school property nearing Bridgewater
Yoga near Bridgewater
Yoga near Bridgewater
Hawt
Bridgewater Mall
In Bridgewater Mall
This hike would be yet another loop beginning at the Bridgewater Commons Mall, where I'd started a couple times in the past. We'd retrace a bit of past hikes, in addition to covering a bunch of new stuff. Joining me this time were Jim "Mr. Buckett" Mathews, Kyle Zalinsky, Shelly Janes, "Amish Paul" Hassler, Joe Tag, We began walking across the foot bridge from the mall parking area over an exit, then under Rt 22 along Mountain Ave (0a-1b). We walked into a bit of town and followed the Peter's Brook Greenway trail through Somerville, and we took a side trip to the Somerset County Court House and buildings in the vicinity (1c-9). We then walked down the main street passing by the historic Hotel Somerset (10,10b) back to Peter's Brook, stopping along the way at a Krauszers Food Store. We then headed through a piece of park land along Peter's Brook (11,12) leading to the Jersey Central Railroad underpass (12a-13) where some of us went underneath across the creek (Kyle and I got our feet wet walking across the little dam there) and others went over the top to reach the other side. We swung on some vines to get across a dip, then walked through some more developed park land south (13a-13c). We crossed South Side Avenue and then bushwhacked through the woods along Peters Brook to where it joined the Raritan River, then turned left to follow the Raritan River heading east down stream. It was rather easy walking along the Raritan (13d) and after a wee bit of bushwhacking through low undergrowth it opened up a lot (13e-15). We skirted a field close to the Raritan, then soon came to an official trail, which read as being closed (15a,15b) which of course did not stop us. The trail whipped us around and we came to an awesome enourmous tree which we of course had to climb on (15c-k) and I did some inverted sit ups (15l). We then continued on along the trail (16) and came to a giant pile of dirt which we stopped to try to run up (17). I tried it and was the only one able to pull myself over (17a-17e). We made our way out behind a large industry (17f) and turned left onto a road which I think was Van Vehten Drive, passing weird fruit trees, maybe a Yew or something (17g,h). We soon reached an old historic farm house (18) which Joe pointed out, then headed back crossing Finderne Ave and following along the Raritan on a grassy mowed area which was shortly joined by a small trail skirting the property (19). We followed the trail which led us out near an old grave yard fenced in on the banks of the Raritan, which was really cool. The stones were very old and the ground was strewn with Osage Oranges (20-22i). We found that the inhabitants of the cemetary were probably the occupants of the old farm house we passed earlier. We continued on the trail from here until it came to a fence. It entered the fenced off area by a building and turned left, so we went around the fence to the right which led us to an old abandoned railroad trestle over the Raritan I had last visited in the dark with Skyler Jermyn in 2005 I think it was (23). I climbed up and walked across and back to take in the views (24-29). The south side was fenced off, and the north side was badly overgrown (30). We continued along the river east (31), soon reaching a second active trestle (32,32a), which is the one Skyler and I used on our previous visit to cross. There were some nice views of the Raritan (33-35). We had to climb to get onto this bridge, up onto the piers and then onto the deck girder structure which made up all but the center truss section. Once we were all there we walked the tracks north. We passed through an area strewn with junk and obviously still often used. We came to some sort of a municipal dump area and some access roads which we walked away from the tracks as not to get in trouble. We then reached where this branch joined the former Jersey Central Railroad. Directly across (and it probably once had a track that went straight across) was a branch that went to Chimney Rock, and so we followed it next to the north passing over Main Street and paralleling Chimney Rock Road closely (36). We went over Rt 287 on a bridge (37) and passed Easy Street (38) followed by crossing over Rt 22, which we had to be careful with.
Some of us followed the tracks into the quarried area while others walked the parallel Chimney Rock Road to the right (39). Those of us who opted to stay with the tracks had to climb under the fence to get out later (39a). Outside the fence, we found a bit stop sign which we goofed off with to catapault rocks into the air. We accidently made the sign fall off, and I think it was Larry who put it back on...sideways (39b). We continued on along Chimney Rock Road (39c) along the quarry (39d) and Chimney Rock, completely painted white, came into view on the Watchung Mountain directly above us (40). We continued up the road and when we reached the creek crossing we cut into the woods into Washington Valley Park, a Somerset County Park. We waded or stone hopped across the creek (41) and bushwhacked up along the creek to the dam at the base of East Branch Resevoir and Buttermilk Falls (42-44c). We made our way up to the top, which had some stairs and a doorway the stairs apparently once went through, so we climbed on through, then made our way onto the dam (44d-52). Once on top, we found our way to the official trail leading us to the southeast wrapping around the side of the Watching Mountain (53) until we reached the overlook at Chimney Rock (53a-59) which had a lot of views of the quarry and industry to the south. We continued on the trail, which was more open, but badly marked with weird shapes rather than standard blazes. We eventually came out to some roads, but there were markers along them. We found some sort of privately owned museum which did'nt appear to be open, but had a great view (59a-59d). We goofed off a bit here and then found the trail again, heading to the east end of the park with some obscured seasonal views (60). The trail was on a nice hillside, then headed to the north and split in a couple directions. It was difficult to say which way we were supposed to go, so we just took the path to the right and the blazes disappeared. We eventually ended up at what was probably Vosseller Ave. We simply turned left on the road, then left again onto a cul de sac with an access to another part of Washington Valley Park. We reached the trails system and then headed west along the northern perimeter of the park reaching the brook again north of the resevoir we were at earlier. From here, Joe and ? cut out early to turn back while the rest of us continued north along the East Branch up stream to Gillbride Road after a break (60a-60g). We crossed the road and entered some sort of municipal park on a weird dot blazed trail. The trail crossed over the East Branch without a bridge, and so after we realized we lost the marked trail we went back to find a way of crossing (61-61b). Once we were all across, the trail took us across a large bridge over another brook, along a frisbee golf course, then through an active recreation park called Chimney Rock Park in Martinsville. We followed the dot marked trail on posts which led us to Chimney Rock Road again, and across through some sort of an easement along the backs of houses to Washington Valley Resevoir and it's perimeter on puncheons (62-64). We walked along the north side for a while, then when we reached Newman's Lane crossed the end of the lake on the bridge, then entered the woods on the south side of the creek on the trail. We continued on and eventually took a fork to the left which took us up hill to Old Tullo Road, a dirt road (65). We followed the road southeast to it's intersection where we headed onto Steele Gap Road down hill (66). As we were walking down Steele Gap Road, there was a realtor sign in front of a flag lot, and so Kyle Z took the balloon off of it, but the realtor was within sight on the hill getting back into his car. We continued down hill, Kyle with the balloon stuck to his backpack (67,67a). When we reached the intersection of Steele Gap and Foothill Road, the realtor pulled up behind us, and our thoughts were "oh great, we're going to get it now". To our great surprise the man opened his trunk to reveal a lot of balloons and gave us each one to stick on our packs, except for Mr. Buckett because there was'nt enough. We turned right on Foothill and Mr. Buckett was trying to pop everyone's balloons, but he only got Commando Tom's. We turned left off Foothill onto the access road to a local school, following it to the school yards and a path on them. We cut through the school property at an angle to the southwest to Somerville Road. We followed Somerville Road to a 90 degree angle where it became Vogt Road, but we cut straight behind a building through the woods parallel with Rt 287. We crossed a small stream and then came to another school property in a wet area (68). We headed across the school yard, and came to a large grassy hill which I had to try to roll down. When I did, I accidently popped my balloon! We walked around the school onto more grassy land eventually coming out on Vogt Road, North Bridge Street, and Prince Rodgers Ave. We followed the latter across Rt 287 passing some businesses (69,70). We then headed along a small trail through a small covered bridge leading back to the Bridgewater Mall parking lot. We decided to wander into the mall to look for a place to eat, but after wandering all floors of the place and finding the food court closed, we opted instead to go to a diner nearby. We still had fun wandering through the mall dancing and acting like idiots (71). The diner ended up being a good choice though (72,73).
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