4/4/9 Morris Canal; Pompton to Paterson with Fred Hafale, ShellyJanes, Jean Fletcher, Jim "Mr. Buckett" Mathews, "Connecticut Joe" Bukowski, and Ron Rice. Craig Nunn?
My next hike would be the next section of the Morris Canal including the Pompton Feeder Canal between Pompton and Mountainview, and the main canal from Mountainview to Paterson. We met in the morning in Paterson and shuttled as few cars as possible to Pompton. Joining me this time were Shelly Janes, Fred Hafale, Craig Nunn, Al MacLennan, "Connecticut Joe" Bukowski, Jim "Mr. Buckett" Mathews, Jean Fletcher, and for a while Ron Rice, who had'nt hiked with me in a few years!
We started at a grocery store, and I ran to the nearby McDonalds and got a couple of pies. We walked down what I think was Pompton Cross Road to the former Morris Canal's Pompton Feeder Canal. There was'nt a whole lot left on the north side where te outlet lock was (1,1a) but the other side of the road appeared to be clear towpath trail and so we followed it south (2-8). We soon passed under Rt 23 with lots of graffitti (9-9c) and continued south on the canal (9d-9f). We soon came to the old Pompton Aqueduct which carried drinking water to the city. This was an old truss bridge built I think in the 1880s, and still in good shape. Shelly and I of course had to get on top (10-12d). Beyond the aqueduct, the canal was impassable, so we took to the roads.
From the Newark Pompton Turnpike we got on Morris Avenue and were soon able to pick up the canal once again, now with the buried water line beneath it, and headed south (13-14). We soon came to the old Greenwood Lake Railroad, now abandoned (15-17) where we had to turn off the canal yet again. We could see where it crossed the next road, but we had to leave it (17-17a). Somewhere along the way I stopped at a store and got some chocolate milk, but I don't remember exactly where on the feeder it was (18-19). We continued south to Mountainview where we last left off on the main canal, but there was no sign of where the feeder joined the main canal, and we could still see no sign of the aqueduct over the Pompton River (20). We turned and began following the main canal through Mountainview heading east (21).
The canal remained very nice and easily walkeable for a long way, sometimes simple trail, sometimes through ball fields and such (22-25). The trail remained good for a long time, but a section of it dead ended at a bus terminal place, so even though it was nice leading up to it (26), we had to take a detour around on the railroad tracks parallel (26a). We passed through some sort of developed industrial place and headed across Rt 80, then headed toward the canal, stopping at a Dunkin Donuts for a break (27-27a). Here, we were joined by Ron Rice, who had not hiked with me in years. Ron is one of the biggest fans of the Morris Canal I'd ever met, and so it was great to have him on the hike. We continued along the canal heading easbound on a very nice path (27aaa-29a). We soon passed an old stone structure which was some sort of power house or something (29b-29bab), then continued out to the Union Blvd bridge where an aqueduct for the canal still existed over a water body that was for power or something (29c-30daa). A stone wall along the road was built with stone taken from the demolished Passaic River Aqueduct which was shamefully destroyed after the abandonment of the canal (30e). We came up to Union Blvd next to a garden center (30f-30kab) and then followed the road across the Passaic River on a bridge (30kac-31aab). The former aqueduct site now had a water supply pipe on the same site (32-32aab). We turned off the road on the other side and followed along an apartment complex heading toward the Aqueduct (33-34cab).
A trail started on the former canal on the east end of the aqueduct, and we took a break here, looking around and reading historic markers (34cb-36d). We then moved on down the trail and Ron pointed out to us an old indian petroglyph on a rock where you would hardly notice it if you did'nt know what it was. It was the outline of an eagle or hawk (37-37e). We then continued along the trail east, which soon became a small road and parking area (38-39aad). We left the parking area and bushwhacked along the canal, while the rest of the group opted to follow underground pipe line (40-40aab).
We crossed East Main Street in Little Falls and paralleled Wilmore Road along the former canal, which had a nice park for us to walk through here. Old stone markers from the original aqueduct were sat in the park as well as other historic stuff (41-44caa). An old aqueduct site had really nothing remaining of it (44cab-44cad), and we had to walk to Lindsley Road, go left, then left again on Cedar Grove Road until we reached the next walkeable section of the canal, which was awesome and continued all the way to near the Shop Rite in Little Falls (45-49aac). I had walked this piece once before a year prior.
From Steward Ave, we continued on the non trail portion to an old aqueduct site, which took a little bit for everyone to cross over and out to Browertown Road where a lot of it had been obliterated (50-55dad). We walked by a "Pork Store" and a few went in to look around (56-56daa), but we continued on Browertown Road to an apartment complex where we could pick up the next section of the canal for a while (56dab-59cab). Ron cut out when we reached a playground section of the canal when he got a ride, and we all continued on along another very nice section of the canal (60-67).
Soon, the canal was pretty much obliterated by developement and Rt 80, so we had to walk some roads (67a-67b) to a pedestrian bridge over the highway (67c-68c). On the other side, some of the former canal was visible, though not really walkeable (69). We had to pretty much parallel Rt 80 on nearby roads on the north side for quite a while, sometimes with bits of canal coming into view (69a-71). When we reached Paterson, we turned away from the canal and followed through a park an old road route that was once the road to Little Falls I think. There were nice views walking through, and it led us down hill to the old raceways that were once the power source for the city's mills. It was quite incredible to see and walk along them (72-85a). We walked along a few more streets, and Shelly, Mr. Buckett, Ct Joe, and I went into the ruins of some old factories which were incredible. The gates were wide open, so we could'nt resist (86-106). We looked around for the rest of the group, because they'd gone ahead, but they were nowhere to be found, so we had to catch up, walking through a park that had a statue of Lou Costello in it (107-107b). We wandered the streets (107c-107d) heading toward the Great Falls (108-109ab) and met up with the rest of the group. We took the path out to the falls, passing the old dam along the way. The falls were running hard, and it was incredible to see. We spent a good while here taking in all the sight (110-122). We then walked to McBride Ave and ate some dinner at a famous hot dog place before heading back to the cars to finish another great day (122a-123).
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