4/25/9 Morris Canal; Paterson to Belleville with Shelly Janes, Jim "Mr. Buckett" Mathews, Mark "Bobo" Godfrey, Joe Tag, Al MacLennan, and Ron Rice.
This one would be the seventh in the Morris Canal series we'd been working on. Original journal entry had been lost by facebook and I can't recover it, so it must be rewritten.
For this one, we met in Bellville Park and shuttled with as few vehicles as possible to park on street on McBride Avenue near Libby's Lunch. We then walked over to the Great Falls to have a look around. We couldn't just go there and not see that.
We came back up and crossed the Passaic River, then followed McBride to the Upper Raceway that powered Paterson's industries, mainly the silk mills.
Paterson was America's first planned industrial city. Alexander Hamilton first proposed harnessing the water of the Great Falls for this purpose and it became known as "Silk City".
The raceways have wonderful walkways along them, and the upper one is probably the nicest. It's kind of like walking a canal actually.
We followed the raceway up on an old road that used to be the original road to Rockaway or something Craig told us, out to Grand Avenue. At that point, the Morris Canal used to come close to the road, out from under Rt 80, but then goes back again. The interstate construction covered over both the canal and the Boonton Branch of the Lackawanna Railroad at this point.
We walked Grand Street and I think a bit of Spruce Street looking around for remnants but didn't see anything.
A little bit of the on ramps to 80 and part of Rt 19 out o Paterson is built on it, and Marshall Street leads south under 80 to where we could search some more.
The former Morris Canal emerges from under 19 as Canal Street a few blocks to the south, and there was a set of steps we were able to take up to the right to access the road.
Apparently the steps we saw were once associated with a station stop on the Boonton Branch before that was ripped up as well.
We followed the former canal route past some industrial sites, and we saw more wooden pallets than I'd ever seen up until that time in one place (I since saw more on an Amish farm in Juniata Valley PA).
At Valley Road, Marshall Street, and Barclay Street, the canal continued straight across into another parking lot, and a finger of canal street continues. From there, Rt 19 is built over some of it.
We went south on Marshall Street which became Broad Street, and that crossed Rt 19. After that, the canal was just to the left of Broad.
This was a rather shocking area. Most everyone believes both Rt 19 and the Garden State Parkway a little further south are built right on top of the canal.
Not so.
The canal is almost completely intact in a swath of trees right next to Rt 19, and we were even able to get into that brush and walk some of it!
After a little bit, there were some buildings and service stations and such built over it in the narrow swath between us and 19. We went full on dedicated and walked right on it, and then scaled fences in order to be in the right place.
We crossed Rt 46 and stayed on Broad Street to the south, and the canal mostly remained directly to the left, except one spot where it widened into a basin at one time. I think that was at around Van Houten Ave, and we stopped at a little deli there for some food and talked about what we were doing. At this point, 19 was gone and we were parallel with the Garden State Parkway.
It must not have seemed as powerful as any of the previous hikes. On those, we had larger groups, and this time, at this point, we were down to only six of us.
After a little ways further on Broad, we were able to descend to the left and get on the former canal route again, which was a grassy wide path. Then, in a short while further, we entered the Clifton Canal Park.
Here, a segment of the canal had been dug back out and watered again. The towpath was nice and clear, and there were geese swimming in it. Some of the park was done up with picnic benches and such, and a labyrinth was made of rocks near the north side.
We took a little break at the picnic benches, and I did running jumps over the entire picnic tables.
I'd been doing that for years, and always would try to jump the picnic tables at King Cole Grove on Rt 46. I got good enough that I could jump the entire table longways.
At the end of the canal park, it becomes filled in again and goes through a medical facility lot. We walked across its access road and then into the woods, determined to stay closely on the canal, but we'd missed it.
The canal crosses to the other side of a ramp at a point that is now a power line. There's no dashing across those lanes and scaling the fences. We bushwhacked through to the exit ramp, then through a commuter lot out to Allwood Lane. We passed beneath the Parkway, then turned left on Clifton Ave along Jubilee Park.
Jubilee Park is built on top of the former Morris Canal. We walked to the power line where it joined it and made an angled turn to the south. We then walked up the center of the park where the canal would have gone to the south.
We crossed Allwood again and then passed by the Social Security Administration building, which had large protruding blocks out the sides. We decided to stop and goof off and try to climb them for a bit.
From here, we bushwhacked a little bit along Rt 3 to the south toward Hepburn Road.
Just below Hepburn Road, we found a backpack which turned out to be loaded with beer! Mr. Buckett and I drank the beers we found there, considering it to be some sort of oddball thing, where maybe someone threw it out because they didn't want to get in trouble. At the time, I didn't know about "hashing" yet, and realized we probably had just drank someone's hasher stash. They hide packs full of beer for others in the group doing the running and drinking thing.
We crossed on Hepburn, and then paralleled the Upper Montclair Country Club for a bit. The Morris Canal used to cross through the club property, and it was early enough in the season that no one was out playing golf yet. We opted to take a chance and try to find the canal through the property.
It turned out to be really nice.
The canal was in good shape, with sand traps and through the course, they manicured the former canal into waterways that stretch from one side to the other.
No one bothered us, and we were soon to the south side of the course, having seen a whole lot of the former canal. The next time I would come through here, I'd obtain permission from the course to bring the entire group.
At the end, where the canal used to go, we scaled and fence and entered the woods where the towpath was obvious, now on the east side of the Garden State Parkway.
It was rather overgrown, but okay to walk until a little access road at West Passaic Ave. In the future, a new state police barracks would be built there, and we'd have to obtain permission to get through from them as well, and it worked out well.
We crossed over the parkway here, and at this point the Third River and the canal were apparently one. Some of the group would decide to take parallel roads, while Bobo, Mr. Buckett, and I all walked right up the stream. I'm not sure if anyone else took that route.
It was going well enough at first, but just a little ways on, a guy came out of a house above the river to the right and started screaming at us.
"GET OUT OF HERE! GET OUT OF HERE!" he kept screaming over and over. I tried to explain to him that we were trying to trace the former route of the canal, and he not only took it very badly, he went back into his house with a baseball bat. He saw Mr. Buckett was holden a Heineken, and he screamed "IS THAT A BEER???" and was just losing it. I got out of the river and stood right in front of him and he looked poised to strike. I held my ground and Mr. Buckett hurried back the way he had come while my brother and I continued on through the river as soon as he was cool enough to let us pass, which isn't saying much.
We got out of the Third River briefly at the next road, where fortunately Ron Rice was waiting to join up with us. He saw what had ensued, and immediately called the police, who responded super fast. I explained to the officer what we were doing, and he seemed to already know exactly who the guy was. The officer told Bobo and I to just stay on the canal, and have a nice day, so we got back in the stream and continued walking.
The others who were on the road had their own parallel adventure meeting neighbors, and hanging out with a guy and his wife who had a classic Mustang and a modern Cobra as well as other collectables.
Bobo and I went through the creek where it turned from the canal and emerged on Watchung Avenue.
On the other side, the canal was recognizable, and would eventually become greenway, but this time I believe we bushwhacked it.
We reached the foot bridge over the Garden State Parkway that is also used by the Lenape Trail and Liberty-Water Gap Trail connecting either end of Pilch Street, and crossed. From there, we turned right on Passaic Ave to the south. The canal was somewhat obliterated by the Parkway at this point.
Passaic Ave crossed the Parkway again ahead, and at that point the road is joined by the historic canal route again.
The road is built right on the canal, which soon passes the Old Canal Inn. The old establishment actually was built in the year after the canal was abandoned as I understand, and it was closed by the time we got there, and for sale. There are a lot of Weird NJ stories featured on the place, including the "death seat" where you apparently die after sitting there.
At about that point, a median appears in the road that used to be the canal, and just ahead, John F. Kennedy Drive curves to the right. It is built on top of the Morris Canal.
When the canal was abandoned in 1924, they gave the towns the first right of refusal on the former canal lands. Many of the eastern NJ towns took the canal for future uses, either for rail or utility. The idea through Bloomfield, which we had now entered, was that the canal could be used as a rapid transit trolley. Of course, in the twenties people were still in "trolley fever".
This never came to pass, and eventually a highway was planned for it, which was called Morris Canal Parkway. It only held that name for a short period of time until it was renamed for the fallen President.
We walked Passaic Ave down to Baldwin Street and turned to the right, across JFK Drive. At that point, we were crossing what used to be Morris Canal inclined plane #11 east. The grade of it is barely recognizable today.
To the right, the abandoned Collins House was pointed out to us by Ron, which was slated for demolition. It sat next to the plane, and I believe they said the Collins family helped to build the plane.
The house would end up being saved, although it went through a lot of time and effort to make it happen.
Ron also pointed out that the Second River Aqueduct used to be on the other side of the bridge, now just a bridge that carries JFK Drive over it. We continued downhill on Broad Street to Maple Street, and then headed over to a foot bridge that spans JFK Drive. There was originally a foot bridge on that same site that spanned the canal.
We walked south along ball fields at that point next to Bloomfield Memorial Field, and then south to where the former Greenwood Lake Branch of the Erie Railroad went over the canal. The girder bridge still there today was built to span the canal
Just a little south of that point the Garden State Parkway obliterates more of the canal again, and turning left on Liberty Street and making the first right keeps one on the canal.
Water Street was the route of the canal heading south briefly, then it cut to the east, and the way to stay on it is to take Walnut Street to the east, which is a dead end. At the end, there is a footbridge that leads across the Second River, very close to where the aqueduct used to be that took the canal over the river.
After the canal was abandoned, in the 1930s, there was a WPA project that lined the edges of the Second River with retaining walls and such, and so what was left of the canal had been removed then.
We turned left on the other side of the bridge, and then the former canal route is a nice trail leading parallel with the river to the east.
On this stretch, the route passes beneath the Berkeley Avenue Bridge. When we were there, it was the last remaining vehicle bridge for the purpose of crossing the Morris Canal. The metal bridge also spanned the Second River.
Ron told us that the bridge was planned to be replaced, and so he took a large series of photos of it.
The next time we walked through, the bridge was completely gone, and now it is a brand new bridge.
The trail led us out to Wright's Field, where we were able to follow the canal route to the south.
We headed out to Mill Street on the historic route, and turned right. Morris Canal apartments were on the right, and then we entered Belleville at the Harrison Street intersection. There was a nice little park there denoting the Morris Canal on its former route, at the intersection.
We turned away from the canal here and followed some side trails and roads, which included visiting a lovely stone arch bridge over the Second River, either built in 1809 or 1869, I couldn't read which. We then got on Lenape Trail and other paths to get back to the lot we used in Belleville Park.
On the way, Bobo was pretty tired and he had already been asking "how many more miles do we gotta go" many times over. That eventually turned into a song that our friend Jack would start up, all because Al was teasing him about it.
During this hike toward the end, Mr. Buckett and Bobo were talking about their names and Bobo was saying something about his meaning "fool", and then Mr. Buckett responded "Naw man, you can put a lot of disgusting shit in a bucket...".
He went on to start naming all of the less than desirable items that one might place in a bucket: "Shit...piss.... fuckin' jizz....chicken bones..." and that was funny enough, but then Bobo came in and started naming other bad things one might place in a bucket. The two of them went back and forth for a while talking about what would be bad to put in a bucket.
By the last mile, Bobo had asked "how many more blocks" a few times and Al thought it was the funniest thing ever. He kept laughing and shouting "HEY BOBO! HOW MANY MORE BLOCKS!??", and it was a hilarous way to end the hike. We were all tired from a lot of pavement, but it was a really great day.
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