Hike #428 7/28/9
7/28/9 Ledgewood-Mount Olive with Kyle Zalinsky, Amanda Rosenblatt, and Skyler Jermyn
Along the Morris Canal in Ledgewood
The high energy continued with the arrival of my old friend Skyler. He'd moved to Texas, but he was back for a while to visit so of course we put together an impromptu hike. Skyler's arrival was almost the pinnacle of the Summer. We were having an awesome time, but Skyler brought something more to the group we'd been missing. Even though there were new core group people whom he'd never met, he was soon right there with them and goofing off like they'd always known him.
The route we took I was somewhat unfamiliar with so I had Amanda help me with directions. It would turn out some of our route was planned as through trails and in just over a year much of what we hiked would become the Turkey Brook Park trail system.
It was all perfect for me until I passed the house where Jillane grew up, and where I'd stayed with her a few times. I still had never met her family and felt strange because it was part of her life I wasn't a part of. That would of course change soon enough for better or worse, and certainly work out in the long run.
This next hike would be a more spur of the moment one on a weeknight. The plan was to hike from Ledgewood toward Mount Olive where we could get a ride back. Joining me this time were Kyle Zalinsky and Amanda Rosenblatt, but also Skyler Jermyn who had moved to Plano, Texas, but was back for a month to visit. He'd tried to join the previous Pocono Rim hike but could'nt find us. We started in Succasunna area near the Shop Rite and all the stores, and headed across the parking lots to the former Morris Canal, and followed it on it's parallel roads through Ledgewood (1). We also found a shopping cart and took turns pushing each other in them (2-4). We went up the former Inclined Plane #3 East and then turned up hill into more of the Ledgewood Canal park where the parking lot was steaming from a recent rain (5,6). We left the cart on the porch of a building overlooking the old canal turning lagoon (7). From here, we followed the trail into the woods (it was orange or yellow, far too big blazes, picture 8) and then headed to the adit of the abandoned High Ledge Mine.
I'd been wanting to go in it for some time, and so on this date we did. It led back into the mountain to a shaft looking up (9-22). We tried climbing up it, but could'nt do it. We hunt out in front of it having a couple beers before moving on (23-27).
We continued on the trail which led us up to the power lines with a great view over the Ledgewood area (28-30). We then followed the power lines for some time (31,32) which took us through the yard of someone's house into a developement. The power line took us out to a developement road where I realized we took the wrong power line, and we had to turn up the road to the left. I don't remember the street names, but it should be easy enough to find them on a map (my internet is currently down as of this writing!). We were able to find the power line intended, but it did not look feasable to walk. There was a disgruntled looking walker wandering the streets of the area and we joked about his humdrum appearance till we were far from his sight. We paralleled the power line on some streets and Skyler commented on the resemblence of the homes to those of the boring Plano town where he lived. He joked that it's called "The Flats at Barren Field". Soon, one of the roads crossing the power line has an official trail branching off it along the power line. We were able to walk this on the right of way, then off of it heading to the north. We followed it for a while, eating rasberries along the way, but turned back when we realized it was taking us too far out of the way. We continued along the power line, and the path petered out after we crossed the next road. It was still walkeable for a while, but by the time we got to the next road crossing as I recall, it was nearly impossible. We bushwhacked around to make our way to the road using the berm of some sort of old farm pond or retention pond. We followed this next road out to a more main east west road heading toward Mt Olive, and crossing over Rt 206 along the way. We passed a pond almost immediately after getting to the road (33), then when we reached 206 we stopped at Dunkin Donuts for some refreshments. Skyler and I each bought a donut, and a cute young girl working the counter liked us enough that she gave us each many free Munchkins! We pigged out before moving on. Next, as we were in the Mt Olive area, we came to a camp property of some sort that had an abandoned raquet ball court (34-36) with some sort of Jewish punk graffitti on it. We joked that Amanda was in the Yiddish Mafia and yelled "Mozzeltawv mothafucka". We continued on roads until we reached the rear entrance to the Mount Olive High School. We walked along the entranceway and Kyle found a bicycle which he rode for some time (37). The sun was setting and it was getting dark fast (38,39) but we still hung around and goofed off on the school property, climbing things and such (40-45). We climbed on the roof of a dugout, on poles, and had ourselves a good time before cutting into the woods heading north (46). We made our way on what seemed like a path at first, but then it became obscure and we were just bushwhacking through the woods in the dark until we came to a creek (47). A cleared path marked only with orange ribbons led along the north side of the creek (48-55). The path led to the edge of a large pond called Meyers Pond (56) which looked incredible in the dark. We walked some of the shore of it till we realized we were headed the wrong way on the berm. We turned back, a little leary because there were other people walking our way that had freaked us out a bit. We followed a gravel road up hill leading into a large open area (57-59) where the road took a roundabout route heading into a local park.
We wandered through the park and came to the paved section, with paved paths, lights, and parking areas. As we exited there was an old house that was supposedly being restored (60). We walked down a road, through a developement, across a school property and onto another connector trail that led into a developement and then beyond to the road Amanda lived on. We cut across someone's yard to Amanda's house where we all took a break and met her mom. After a bit of hanging out, Kyle and Amanda decided to stay put while Skyler and I continued on down the road. We walked to the end of the road and turned left on Mt Olive Road passing by my girlfriend Jillane's house, then make a right heading across Mt Olive Township. We walked a few backroads eventually ending at the Mt Olive A&P Supermarket where Kyle met back up with us to wander the store acting like and idiots (61,62), then we headed home.
Along the Morris Canal in Ledgewood
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