Monday, February 28, 2022

Hike #462; Crystal Springs to Hampton

 Hike #462 1/8/10

1/8/10 Crystal Springs to Hampton with Kyle Zalinsky

A couple of hoodlums

Unfortunately the original journal for this hike was lost in the fire...if anyone has a copy let me know!

Just before this hike, I had injured my right eye badly while doing trail work for my job. I was blazing trails at Point Mountain and a thorn from multiflora rose punctured my eye. Initially thought to be a scratch, it was found that I was nearly blinded, the thorn had penetrated my eye; it went all the way through and scratched my retina. I was now out of work for over two weeks. It burned terribly, and I couldn't see well.

I wanted to make the best of my situation by getting some hiking in, and so Kyle, ever ready great friend he was, met me at about 5 am to do another crazy hike before he had to be to work that night!

Kyle even let me use his camera because mine was either not working or I'd forgotten it. We figured we'd find a ride if we ran late, and so just took Kyle's car to Crystal Springs in Hunterdon. We began walking from here. We followed the driveway out to the connector trail to Mountain Farm, first through the fields and then across the crazy wooden log bridge into the woods. We walked from here across the group camp sites and I think down the Geology Trail into Teetertown Ravine in the same name nature preserve. We crossed the beautiful stone arch bridge, and then turned left onto Ravine Road. This cul de sac became flat and straight at the end because it was built on part of the right of way of the former Middle Valley Railroad. I'd only ever followed little bits of what might have been narrow gauge quarry railroads when walking back in this area before, and it was proposed to be turned into a connector trail, so I wanted to walk it.

We went through, at first right along a back yard, but then through some nice woods. The right of way was very clear and easily walkeable. Everything was fine on it until we reached the site of a missing bridge over a tributary.

Old bridge site on Middle Valley Railroad

We descended to the right side and then came out at the end of a driveway that was built on the right of way. No one saw us come out to give us a hard time, and we hurried through. There was a house there with a sign reading the "Weidmans" and I wondered if they were related to my Uncle George Weidman.

Kyle at a yard area we went through

We reached the old junction site at Middle Valley and turned right onto the Columbia Trail. We followed it across the South Branch, then followed the new section that had just been opened across the Jenkinson Tree Nursery. This section up until recently required going around the fields, but Morris County completed the trail right on through.

We continued on out into Hunterdon County and then came into Vernoy. Kyle and I went into the abandoned stone building on the left side of the trail for a bit, then continued on out toward Califon. Just before reaching Califon, we turned of of the trail onto an abandoned and ruined frame of a bridge going out onto the Island Park of Califon. We then continued to the left and out along a nice wooden walkway over a wet area and out onto Mill Road at the site of an old mill with the gears still visible.

Kyle...being himself...in Califon NJ

From here, we reached the main street and I was really hungry. We both walked up the road to the Rite Aid near Rt 513 at Lower Valley. I guess we got some candy and then decided we'd done Columbia Trail so we'd walk Rt 513 and take a turn into the State WMA property parallel with the road. We hiked through some of that property which was pretty, and we stopped by my doctor's office to say "hi" to Lois "Korky" Adams, my nurse whom I'd invited out on a hike and she first joined us during the previous Summer. She was happy to see we thought to visit her along the way.

We turned back down Hoffman's Crossing Road to get back toward the rail bed, and I think we followed the old road through the gorge instead of the rail bed; we might have gone back up at some point but I don't remember really. We didn't stay on it beyond Readingsburg I'm sure though, because we decided to follow River Road along the south side of Lake Solitude. Once we reached the parking area along the lake we made our way to the dam, and then by the Solitude House. We then walked the new Taylor Steelworker's Historic Greenway Trail from here through the Komline Property, formerly Taylor Wharton, past the TISCO building and up to the Columbia Trail.

It's so strange to think that Kyle and I walked together past the spot that would become his memorial and in part his final resting place.

Once at the Columbia Trail, we turned left out into town. We might have actually come out by the Huskies Field and not finished the upper end of the trail this time. Either way, we wandered into High Bridge for a bit.

Kyle loving the Nutcracker, much to the dismay of a woman crossing the street. High Bridge

We walked down the street to the liquor store in town and got into a nice conversation with the guy running the establishment. I don't remember what it was we got to drink; it might have been one of the first times we'd tried Four Loco, but I really can't remember. While we were in there, we were surpised to see our good friend Bill Honachefsky stop by! We again chatted with him for a while before heading on our way.

Bill H and I in High Bridge liquors

Our next move was to follow the former Jersey Central tracks north toward Glen Gardner and High Bridge. This seemed to go by pretty quick. Kyle and I had talked about always wanting to go up to the top of that quarry where there was supposed to be a viewpoint we were told of, but we never did it. We'd always said we were going to do that together, and I'm sort of sad we didn't get to it on this occasion, but we were running short on time and Kyle would have to be to work.

When we got to Hampton where the old DL&W tracks used to break off, we climbed up to the left and we checked out the old building that used to be "Rockafella's". There was some work going on in there, and we wanted to see it. We were all kinds of loopy at the time, so we weren't too worried, so we just climbed in through a window!

Kyle and I in the abandoned Rockafellas place

We checked out every corner of this entire place, and it had been gutted for use as something, but I don't remember what it was being turned into. I was just glad it was going to be used for something.

BOOOO! This one's for you Amanda!

We took lots of stupid pictures into the mirrors and such before heading out.

Our next stop would be an old Catholic Church where Kyle used to attend. He wanted to show me around, and so we went in talking about the architecture, and then probably some more inappropriate things, and probably much too loudly.

It didn't take long for a woman in the church to shush us and say "This is adoration!". We looked at her puzzled. "Do you know what adoration is?", and we of course did not. She told us it meant to be totally quiet. She was there reading the paper, and Kyle made a comment as we left that she didn't seem to be adoring the lord reading the paper.

Next, we walked through the huge cemetary and Kyle showed me some of his family's grave stones. We both jumped over a stone wall at the far side of the cemetary, and I missed the jump pretty badly, slamming my knee hard into the wall. I rolled on the ground in agony for a while as Kyle, very amused, took multiple photos of me on the ground cradling my knee.

We continued out of the cemetary and down the main street. I'd called my friend Paige to come and pick us up since we were running so far behind. At the old CNJ railroad overpass, I climbed up into one of the abutments in a spot my grandfather told he he used to hide when he didn't want to go to church with his dad. Paige drove us back to Kyle's car to finish our fun time. Poor Kyle had to go to work, his night had only begun!

No comments:

Post a Comment