Hike #466 1/24/10
1/24/10 Sussex/Plumbstock/Lusscroft Farm to Deckertown Turnpike with "Amish Paul" Hassler, Eric Pace, Wayne Meiner, and Shelly Janes
Inside the abandoned lodge
Sadly, the original journal for this one was lost to the fire so if anyone has a copy please let me know...
For this hike, I decided to put together a route from the town of Sussex to the Appalachian Trail at Deckertown Turnpike to utilize areas between and mainly showcase the new Lusscroft Farm area with it's new trails connecting with High Point and Stokes State Forest. I had seen the trail head to one of the new trails way back while doing a car shuttle for a hike in the area, and hadn't gotten back to explore it. When DJ Ray did his campout trip the previous Summer I'd asked him to go up and scout the trail system since I didn't have the time, but he never got to it. While driving around on one of our little exploritory day trips Jillane and I decided to stop off and explore around the trailhead where we found an abandoned house right along the road. We saw the Amaricorps Valley Trail, and then the ones going up hill. She and I explored two routes up the hill and came across a beautiful abandoned cabin we later found was called Outlook Lodge. It was reportedly made from historic timbers taken from buildings around the area. Sadly, it was now abandoned but still incredible. Here are some of the pictures we got on that day:
Outlook Lodge
Outlook Lodge
Outlook Lodge
WTF? This was just too hilarious, just up the road from Lusscroft Farm.
High Point along out little day trip which led me to lead a long hike in the area.
I planned on meeting the group at the AT parking area on Deckertown Turnpike, but amazingly only Wayne and Eric showed up. It was a somewhat dreary day, but I thought the description of the hike was more than enough of a draw. Also in this lot, there was a sign with my name on it tacked to the sign board. It was a note saying there was a prize if I could figure out who left the note. My best guesses were DJ Ray, Delotto, or Dave Finton. I wouldn't put it past any of those three to play a little prank on me.
So...who was it that left me this note at the beginning of this hike? I think it was either Dave Finton, DJ Ray, or DeLotto...so...fess up!!! I'm still dying to know!
As we were driving down to Sussex we passed Amish Paul who was driving to meet us so we had him turn around.
We reached Sussex and headed south from the A&P to the former Lehigh and New England Railroad near the Papackating Brook. We followed it right to an old girder bridge where a spur line broke off to the right and went back into Sussex. I'd always wanted to follow this route, so this was our chance.
On an abandones spur of the LNE Railroad in Sussex NJ
Once back in town, we followed streets to the center and then turned right to the south side of Clove Lake I think it is. We tried going under the road bridge and up the other side for a more interesting route but it didn't work and we had to turn back. We followed Elizebeth Ave I think it was up along the west side of the lake, and when the road alongside got close I walked out onto it a bit. At the end of the road closest to the lake was a little inlet, and fortunitely for us it was frozen solid so we walked right over into the woods. I was still happy with my new blackberry (I still am) and trying to do hikes where I needed it's GPS, but this time I went too far with it. We bushwhacked through private land first along a woods road and then onto a rocky outcropping little ridge westbound. We had to climb steeply down from the outcropping on a little treacherous section but we did ok.
Climbing down over rock outcroppings north of Sussex NJ
We then found a dirt road leading near some fields, but uncomfortably close to a house even though it was barely in sight. The road became a driveway and we'd have to walk right by a house in order to get back out to the road. I was going to go through the woods but Wayne and Paul went right by so Eric and I swiftly followed. This took us to New York Ave in a lake community. We turned left and left again on North SHore Road which came to a dead end. At the dead end a pedestrian path took us across a "private bridge" over the outlet of the lake and onto South Shore Road. We followed this to Locust I think, then turned left on Old Clove Road and went left again.
This road was a dead end, although my phone showed it as through. It was obviously once a through road, and it was hard to understand why it still wasn't because it looked convenient. We followed the abandonment of the road briefly and then headed north through woods down hill to a field and to some Wantage Recreation Fields where Paul made use of the portajohns while Eric laughed.
There were paved paths in this park so we followed them to the north to Berry Road and turned right heading sort of west. This took us to a county road that soon joined with Rt 519 where we turned right. A bit up 519 an abandoned road called University Road was on the right next to a giant tree. We opted to follow this which took us out to Coykendall Road. The road was dirt and not gated so I suppose it was still public but not maintained. We turned right and crossed Rt 519 onto Lusscroft Road, then immediately right up hill on Rutgers Road. Eric hated this section. We headed up the road to the entrance to Lusscroft Farms, with a big gate. We read about some of the history there and then walked up the entrance road which then led us to the first section of the trail system there where it crossed. I was impressed that it was blazed with turn blazes and that it made use of tin can lids and such rather than other costly methods. We turned right and followed it through woods. Much of the trail system was on old woods road and such, but it was still nice. We stayed with the perimeter pretty much to the west side and then headed north. When we got almost out to the next road we turned right again and paralleled a pond. It was raining pretty bad and we were freezing so we took a break on the porch of an abandoned house in the actual farm area. There were lots of barns and other buildings all around but none of them appeared to be occupied. After our break we continued to the east side, then headed north on the Americorps Valley Trail to Neilsen Road. It was here we were joined by our good friend Shelly Janes.
Together, we headed north along the trail directly to Outlook Lodge, the spot I'd wanted to show everyone. We walked all around it, and this time there was a hole in the south facing side through plywood. We crawled in to check it out. The inside was amazing with hand cut beams and such. We went all through it and I climbed into the highest section. A balcony wrapped around to form the second floor.
After checking the place out we continued and passed some ruin, then took to the trail heading steeply up the ridge. This one led us to the top of the Kittatinny Ridge, and once it was almost to the top was a woods road between two tiny ponds on some sort of causeway. We soon joined with the AT and turned right. It was still raining but it was starting to freeze. I fell several times on the rocky surface of the trail through this section. Wayne also did I think, and the uneven walking was taking it's toll on him as well.
It was a relief when we saw the Mashipatcong Shelter, just before Deckertown Turnpike where we finished. It was a tough day, but an interesting one...and who was it who left that note for me???
ALso, I think Eric cut out early on this one but I don't remember how or where...maybe he stayed in Shelly's car? I remember him driving us back down hill and Amish Paul insisted on drinking gin in his car LOL!
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