Hike #464 1/15/10
1/15/10 Califon to Whitehouse Station with Kyle Zalinsky
Another Kyle/M'ke mirror shot.
Sadly, the original journal entry for this one was lost to the fire...
For this hike, it was another crazy day off that I believe was still because of my was injured, and I didn't want to stay home.Kyle and I had been talking about how we both loved the little hamlet of Mountainville in Hunterdon County, and how we should hike through it one of these days. I decided that I should include it on one of the little adventures Kyle and I had on our own.
We started in Califon and decided to walk to Whitehouse where we'd left my car in the early morning hours.
We started walking up Academy Street to Califon-Cokesbury Road, and I gave Kyle a hankerchief to use. Along that stretch he'd lost it. I ran back to find it for him, and I think I did, but he lost it again.
We turned onto the road and checked out a little structure in the woods, maybe a spring house?
We then continued up hill and turned onto Sutton Road I think because we'd missed the original turn I wanted to make. We then turned right on I guess Philhower Road. We saw a sign that said "Glennon Farms" and we wondered if that was our friend Shep's house it referred to.
Kyle and I in the mirror
We walked the nice back road down hill into Mountainvile, sipping some ocean spray juice mixed with lots of booze the entire way. We were already really loopy by the time we got to Mountainville. We turned right on the main street and checked out all the nice old buildings. We even overshot our turn onto Rockaway Road to see the sights a bit more, then went back.
Rockaway Road was beautiful; soon there was an old mill converted to a house which was nice. There were interesting mail boxes and beautiful creekside views. We were feeling pretty happy. We found a driveway that I once saw it's weird truss bridge featured on the cover of a Hunterdon Countywide phone book. We checked that out and the abandoned frame of a stone building next to it, then bushwacked along the creek on a narrow strip of public land.
We passed the intersection with Meadow Lane and then talked to a horse in a fence across the street. Glad no one saw because we were clearly acting under the influence.
We turned left on Hill and Dale Road and walked through some beautiful farm lands, then eventually we came to the northwest entrance to the Cold Brook Reserve, a Hunterdon County park that I'd just done some trail blazing in. This was technically only a local access to the park, and there was a little horse sign.
Strange sign at the northwest entrance to Cold Brook Reserve
We followed my yellow blazed trail through some nice woods. Only a small swath of woods, it loops around parallel with fields and then took us out to one of the north fields. We then followed the perimeter and cut through another tiny swath of woods to the main fields of Cold Brook. The farm land from here took us out to Rt 523 at the north end of Oldwick.
We turned right, and the first thing we came across was a little store that read "Magic Shop". Overly curious and enthusiastic as we were on this hike due to our consumption, we went in and looked around. Kyle found a pair of goofy glasses and a few maps. He almost bought the maps, but opted only for the glasses at this time. The two elderly ladies running the place didn't seem to think twice about how silly we were. I guess Kyle and I just came off as charming the way we talked to them. He even crawled into a little kid's toy house. It was hilarious.
Kyle and I in the Oldwick Magic Shop
Next, we walked to the old cemetary from when the place was known as "New Germantown" and looked at stones. The church was under construction, and in our daze we wandered on in. There were doughnuts sitting out and no one apparently working (must have been lunch break) so we ate all but two of them! We then went to the front and proceeded to play on the piano. Then we went up into the upper balconies and Kyle played the giant organ. We were getting sillier all the time and started going through the closets and found some old robes back in a seemingly unused area. I'll refrain from commenting any further on this one.
We stumbled back through the church door, but on the way out we consumed the last two donuts that when we went in thought would be a good idea to leave. We then stumbled right across the street and into the Oldwick Deli for lunch. I had some sort of Chicken Parm sandwich and I don't remember what Kyle had. I just remember it's always been a good place and there were lots of boots hanging from the ceiling. I asked the lady at the front if I could take a picture to put in Weird NJ.
From here, we walked Rt 523 south. We soon came to an entrance road to an old federal style building and a trail along the road and field. We continued on this trail which turned right along the field and then connected with the "Christi Trail" in the Whittemore Sanctuary. I'd long wanted to include this place on a hike, so this time we did. Kyle and I laughed that it looked like it said "Christ Trail". We followed the perimeter of the place on the north and west sides.
We're so bad.
We then continued around the south end along the Rockaway Creek I guess it was, and then back north a little bit. When we saw the opportunity we cut over to Rt 523 again and headed south, soon passing under Rt 78.
After walking for a bit, there was a small picnic type area on the left along the creek. We cut in here and then bushwacked through the woods in hopes of getting to the old Rockaway Valley Railroad right of way. It was really tough getting through, but we managed somehow. Along the way, we ended up having to wade through the creek and maybe a tributary twice in the freezing cold!
We found our way to a field, and my GPS showed that the rail bed would be on the other side. Sure enough it was there and in clear good shape. We followed it southbound and I was excited to be on part of this line I hadn't seen yet.
There were a few old bridge sites along the way made of concrete, and the trail we used deviated from the rail bed to the left of these structures.
Soon, we came to yet another missing bridge site, but this one was more significant. It went right across into someone's back yard, so we weren't about to go on through anyway. We bushwhacked to the east a little bit, and amazingly found a pedestrain bridge (private) attatched to a chord in case of flooding. We crossed on this, skirted the yard, then bushwhacked a bit on the other side. We came out on the rail bed along Rt 22 next to the 523 intersection in a spot I did not think was the rail bed. We crossed 22 directly and then followed it on the other side, somewhat clear and now the route of a fiber optic line shortly ahead. The clearing went straight but I could see where the rail line then deviated to the left. We followed it to the former trestle site over Rockaway Creek just north of Whitehouse Station. The creek was stony and shallow here, and gave us no trouble crossing. On the other side it was obviously used, and I'd walked it before. We followed it to the ball fields and then out to Whitehouse Station where my car was parked.
I don't remember what it was, but driving back to Kyle's car I had some car trouble, it stalling or something. We figured that was my payback for the sinning I did during this trip...but as always, Kyle and I had a blast.
I just felt bad that again he had to go to work that night!
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