Morris Canal in Brass Castle
11/30/8 Morris Canal; Brass Castle to Hackettstown with Al MacLennan, Jillane Becker, Ron Lozowski, Shelly Janes, and Kyle Zalinsky.
Morris Canal in Meadow Breeze Park
Morris Canal in Meadow Breeze Park
Morris Canal aqueduct site in Brass Castle
Morris Canal, Brass Castle
Morris Canal in Brass Castle
Morris Canal near JCP&L in Washington
Abandoned industry near old lumber co in Washington
Abandoned
Abandoned
Abandoned
Former bridge site where the Warren Railroad crossed Morris Canal
Abandoned
Morris Canal at Port Washington
Jumping off a bridge near Port Colden
Abandoned house at Port Murray brick yard
Abandoned house in Port Murray
Abandoned house in Port Murray
Abandoned house in Port Murray
Brick yard, Port Murray
Steps from the abandoned house in Port Murray
Abandoned brick yard house, Port Murray
Turbine chamber for Morris Canal Inclined Plane #5 West
Plane 5W Turbine Chamber
Turbine Chamber for Inclined Plane 5W
Kyle tore out his pants crawling through the tail race tunnel!
Abandoned building at the brick yard
Port Murray NJ
Port Murray
Port Murray
Port Murray
Port Murray
Port Murray
Port Murray
Kyle found a bucket on the hill above the Morris Canal near Rockport
Morris Canal near Rockport
Former Morris Canal near Rockport
Morris Canal near Rockport
Old farm in Rockport
On the hillside above the former Morris Canal near Rockport
Power line view above the old canal in Mansfield.
After hike dinner, Hackettstown
After hike dinner, Hackettstown
After hike dinner, Hackettstown
This was another important day for me because it marked the beginning of the relationship between Jillane and I. When I wrote this journal entry, and many of them before and following it I tried to keep my emotions out of it. I was obviously having a tough time with everything life was throwing at me and was too uncomfortable to express it all. For some reason I felt a strong enough connection with Jillane right from the start that I could open up to her.
Jillane was so sweet to me, and was pretty obviously pursuing me. She brought me candy in the morning, and I asked "Are you trying to win my love with chocolate" to which she promptly answered "Yes!". Still, during the entire course of the day I never thought anything would happen, though I'd been secretly attracted to her.
My next hike would be part two in my Morris Canal series, repeating the hike from Brass Castle to Hackettstown I had led a year prior. Joining me this time from the beginning would be Jillane Becker, Al MacLennan, and Ron Lozowski. Shelly Janes and Kyle Zalinsky would join us late. We began walking in Meadow Breeze Park in Washington on the beautifully restored section of the towpath (1,2). It became impossible to follow the canal towpath on the opposite side of Meadow Breeze Lane, so we had to turn right on the road and follow the paved path along the tree line behind Brass Castle School, then to the Roaring Rock Creek and the site of a former Acqueduct the canal once used (3). We were able to regain the towpath here and follow it through a strip of woods where it used a deep cut (4,5) before emerging on Brass Castle Road through a back yard. We crossed Brass Castle Road and turned onto Bowerstown Road, which first paralleled the canal, then was on it. There was one bridge abutment in place along the road from where the original Bowerstown Road route once crossed the canal. We turned right up Plane Hill Road on former Inclined Plane #5 West, then reached Kinnamine Ave. We crossed following the former canal into the JCP&L property along their fence line (6), then across a grassy field.
The canal was now a wet marshy area as we approached Belvidere Avenue across from the Warren Lumber Company. Here, Shelly joined us, and we took a break waiting for her to catch up. Jillane gave me some chocolate, and Shelly brought some cinnibuns. We continued on Belvidere Ave and turned left on East Warren Street and then turned left on Taylor Street. This led to a dead end and a fence to the abandoned buildings by Warren Lumber. We of course had to go into them and look around as we did last time (7-7b). We then continued to where we could see the abutments of where the canal once passed under the former Warren Railroad (7d). We climbed to the railroad tracks (7e) where the tops of the abutments were visible, then descended the other side into the canal prism, the site of former Port Washington. We walked through the canal (7f) until we reached the dirt loop road which passed by the former canal and railroad offices. We crossed Rt 31 and followed Myrtle Ave which followed the canal route to the end. From the dead end, we followed a path along the towpath leading to Flower Ave. Kyle Z showed up here and joined us. We turned left and then right onto Harding Drive to the end of the road, then followed a path back down to the canal. We ended up having to bushwhack along much of the canal for a long ways, and got completely covered in mud and mess. I had been out the night before trying to clear off some of the towpath, but it was still quite a distance of bad stuff. Once we got beyond a former acqueduct site, we were able to walk a bit easier, as that's as far as I had gotten with my clearing. Soon, we reached some old foundations and the concrete bridge that had been installed following the abandonement of the canal. I jumped off the top of the bridge as I often have done in the past, and Kyle followed me which was certainly fun. We walked the former towpath out to Lock Street, and I pointed out the site of Lock 6 to everyone. We followed Lock Street parallel with the canal, then into the Morris Canal basin which the current Port Colden School sits in.
I would have loved to bring everyone by my house for a break, but Cathy didn't want anyone inside. I didn't even want to walk near the house because I knew she'd just be watching TV on the couch and I was far too annoyed at that to get near there.
We walked across the school yard, then out to the canal once again, heading near the town garage hill. We crossed the canal itself to Morris Canal Trail, a road built on the towpath. We were able to follow this easily as it became dirt back to another canal basin still full of water, and the site of Inclined Plane #6W. We walked up the old plane, then into the woods at the top. We were able to follow the old canal for a while, but it got far too overgrown to continue on, so we headed down to the railroad tracks again. It had been quite a rainy day, so we were happy to take the detour. When the old brick yard came into view, we cut away from the tracks and headed to the abandoned brick building just off Brick Yard Road (7h-11).
We explored all the rooms, then continued on out the other side of the building. Jillane and I found a neat set of stairs heading down the hill on the north side, so we of course had to use them (12,13). We wandered from here back to the canal and found our way to Inclined Plane #5W. This was the one that was clear and open for us to crawl into, which is always good (13a-13c).
Jillane almost didn't go into the tail race tunnel or turbine chamber, but I convinced her to. When we both climbed out, I offered my hand to pull her up. After she was up, she looked so happy and laid her head on my shoulder for a second, then pulled away as if it were an accident or something. At that point I thought she was absolutely adorable and my attraction to her grew.
Kyle did'nt realize it until now, but he had fallen at some point and tore the back of his pants wide open (13c)! We walked off and headed past another abandoned building (14) heading up hill near the Inclined Plane site. We turned away from the canal and descended steeply to the former Morris and Essex Railroad tracks in Port Murray (14a). Kyle found a pumpkin under the bridge which he of course had to smash. There were some old cabooses still parked in Port Murray at the station which we checked out as well (15a-15f). We made our way out to Port Murray Road, then headed to where the canal crossed, and was now a driveway. We followed it to the Port Murray church, cut through the church yard, then up the road to the fire house. We cut behind the fire house and up hill to the cemetary, crossing to Cherry Tree Bend Road. There was a nice watered lagoon on the canal below, but we could'nt reach it. We simply followed Cherry Tree Bend Road to the end, where it joined Rockport Road, right along side the canal. Kyle found a bucket and wore it on his head for the rest of the hike (16).
We followed Rockport Road along the canal until we reached Washburn Road. From here, we were able to get on a piece of the canal in property of State Fish, Game and Wildlife. We skirted it on fields, then were able to get into it (17). We soon reached Thomas Road, where the canal was on the property of a plastics company called Borealis. We crossed the road and paralleled closely to the canal then turned northwest out through fields and through pine trees to Rockport Road again (18). We followed Rockport Road parallel to the canal passing old farms (19) until we reached the village of Rockport. Here, we were able to get back on the canal. We had to climb over a snow fence to a section of the canal that was until recently watered, but now a marsh. We followed it heading east parallel with Rockport Road, and when we reached the end of the Rockport Game Farm section, we crossed on a small dam into the State WMA fields. We went up hill at an angle to the northeast and tried to parallel the canal in the woods (20). We bushwhacked through the woods and crossed a power line with some limited views (21). We bushwhacked from here heading along the ridge line and to a second power line (22,23).
We had to cross a stream at one point which was flowing pretty well due to the rain, and I of course walked right through. This section had a few spots with tough bushwhacking, as did the earlier part of the hike, so I was already impressed with Jillane's ability to bully through them, but when she walked right through the cold muddy water behind me I knew she was something extra special.
We continued on from there, finding some old roads and even the ruins of some sort of resevoir before making our way to the abandoned house along the former canal at the end of Florence Kuipers Memorial Park. Once we reached this point, we continued a mile on to Harvey Street. From here, we turned down the road and out to Rt 46. We stopped by Quick Check briefly for some fast nourishment, then walked to the railroad tracks back to the Hackettstown Station where we were parked. We all went to dinner at Mama's Pizza where I ate an entire pie of course. DJ Ray Cordts and my friend Linda Iannocone from high school joined us as well.
Following the hike Jillane wanted to drive me back to my car, though there were enough seats that I could have gone with someone else. I could have brought that to her attention, but I also wanted to spend as much more time with her as I could.
With Jillane, I felt something stronger than with any of the other girls who had shown interest in me in the past. I could see an exciting future with possibilities beyond what I could imagine, and I was afraid of letting this one pass me by. With things going badly with Cathy at home, it was time for me to make a move to live a better, more exciting life with someone who shared more of my passions.
Jillane was young, tough, passionate, and pretty, and she seemed to like me. The feeling was mutual and she was far too good a match for me to let go.
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