Hike #1034; New Village to Phillipsburg

Hike #1034; New Village to Phillipsburg

5/3/17 New Village to Phillipsburg with John Kosar, Kralc Leahcim (Lerch), Justin Gurbisz, Chris Kroschinski (Cupckake), Richard Kowal, Amanda Mae Howey, and Ellie Zabeth.

Our next hike would be another point to point night hike, this time between New Village and Phillipsburg. I had wanted to do this hike previously when only James showed up, but opted to postpone it until more people were available.
We met at the end point in Phillipsburg, then shuttled back to New Village to park near the fire department.
The hike began with following the back streets to Rt 57, then went up the road across the former Morris Canal toward Merrill Creek where there was a woods road into the preserve.
I hadn’t followed a lot of this for a while, and the last time I went up through there we ended up on a really rough route. This time, since John was there, he could show us some other cool stuff I didn’t know of.

Old spring house

Where I had gone right on the previous hike, this time we went steeply to the left and headed up hill through less sparse woods. The layer of undergrowth was less and so we could see more. John pointed out where there used to be a house, we suspect, based on it’s foundation, and he showed us an old spring house I had not been aware of.
We continued on the old woods road up hill until it intersected with the perimeter trail in the regular preserve area. It was a far better route than the one I had followed the last time.

The woods road

We turned left on the perimeter trail, because I figured we’d add some other stuff elsewhere. I was originally considering going all the way around the reservoir the opposite way, but we wanted to get to a point where people joining late could leave their cars. Cupcake was the first one planning to come, and I arranged for him to meet us at the Fox Farm tract. John, Lerch, Rich K, Justin, Amanda, and I headed across the main dam with some nice views down into Low’s Hollow and toward Stewartsville. We then cut to the right on the other side into the deep woods. We could tell John knew it intimately because he pointed out lots of little nuances that I’d forgotten, including yet another former house site.

View from the main dam

We eventually got out to the intersection trail, which is the future route of the Warren Highlands Trail. We turned left there and followed it out to the next parking area and met up with Cupcake, who had walked the Fox Farm Road to where we were. We all then continued back on Fox Farm Road, and would pass by his car again.

Wrecked gate site

When we got to the acces to this land, I was upset to see that the new leasing farmer had taken it upon himself to wreck the gate access to the property and knock out the trail marker posts altogether.
Bill Cortese, who lives at the adjacent house, has always been cool to us, and headed out to say hike when we went by. He told me that the farmer had done this, and he was trying to just be peaceful with everyone, but that he wasn’t happy with it either. Whoever takes over anything in that area just acts like they can do whatever they want, and the state doesn’t have the time or resources to try to do anything about it. A meeting was set to talk about some of the trail problems, and when we had the first one it was addressed, but it was like a peace party. Everyone there was fully supportive, but we had no way of dealing with our issues.

Water Gap view

I took some photos, and left it at that for this time. One of the reasons for having this trip was to deal with the land owner issues and see where the problems were so that I could report them as needed.
The corn crop was low, but planted out over where people were expected to park, which was also disheartening. Mr. Cortese chatted with us for a while, and we continued on along the trail route to the west. At the hawk building, we stopped and enjoyed the awesome view of the Delaware Water Gap for a few moments.

Springtime on the Shandor tract

We then went into the woods at the end of the fields and started descending toward the Harkers Hollow Golf Course.
We’re going to need to put in better trail marker posts for this section because heading west it’s pretty easy to miss where the blazes turn.
The site of the memorial we hope to erect for former land owner and Commissioner Bob Shandor was staked out, but Mr. Shandor’s chair, which had been sitting there, was now missing. I’m hoping his son Bob Shandor Jr. or someone else in the family had taken it and it wasn’t destroyed by some vandal like so many other places on this trail.
We continued on down out of the golf course, and emerged on Fairway Road near the intersection of another. The guy who lives on the corner who has given us a problem in the past was there, and he hurried into the house when he saw us walk out. I’m not sure if it was because I was there or not this time, as he has talked to me in the past about the property. He or someone in his family had been harassing hikers going on that section of the trail constantly, even though I told him that it was public land and he couldn’t be doing that. He didn’t give us a problem this time, but it was certainly not the end of hearing from this guy.

Unplanted

We walked down Fairway Road to Rt 519, and some of the blazes I had put back were in place, but those on Fairway Road had all been painted out again with a good brown cover up. I tried not to let it bother me too much, but then where the new bridge on Rt 519 was built, I saw one of the new trees had never been planted at all. The level of mediocrity coming from the government by that point had me rather infuriated. Because of how work and everything has been going, I’m feeling more and more dismissed and like no one really cares that much about any of these issues. I’m struggling with how I can be the champion to this and other projects when everyone just gives up and ignores the abundantly clear issues.
Amanda got a ride from the end of Fairway and had someone pick her up.

The trail marker post that had been run down

We turned left on Strykers Road for a time, to where the trail turns right into the Farmers Fairgrounds property. The section had been pretty good compared to others, with the farmer allowing for space for the trail, but once again I was disappointed.
Whoever has the farm lease now left not a single bit of space for the trail on the sides. His crop was planted right up to the edge, and all of the carsonite trail marking posts were run into the ground. I pulled the first one I found out of a mud cover up beneath which it was barely visible. This was a section I thought we’d only see improvement in, and here was another issue.
We continued along the trail, through a wooded section to the Warren County owned Geiger Tract. At least the trail cam over the trail had been removed this time.

Covered over stream

More posts were knocked down in the county owned fields, which also were now planted all the way over to the edge with no room for the trail. This is not yet written into the county’s farm lease, but it will be at the close of three years.
We headed along the edge, and then I was alarmed yet again.
Te section has always had a small stream wash going across it. It often is dry, and it peters out in the middle of the field. It always had a line of plants and such over it, but this time the farmer had completely plowed in the stream ditch. With a coming storm, I knew there was going to be an insanely muddy mess at the site. On one hand, we thought we’d need to build a bridge over a gap there, but now there was none at all.

Covered over stream at Geiger Tract

We cut the corner a bit to better inspect what had been done so that I could report it to Land Preservation. Just as we walked out to the edge of Belvidere Road, a car stopped and a guy got out. I couldn’t see who it was because I didn’t have my contact lenses in, and had only my prescription shades.
It turned out to be Warren County Information Officer Art Charlton! He paused pulled over to get a few photos of us for his newletter for the county when he just happened to see us walking while on his way home. He said “that can only be one group” as we walked out through there.
Unfortunately, Art had technical problems with his gadget and the photos he took were all lost.

Tea Biscuit meeting

One funny chance meeting led to another, as Art pulled out, my brother Tea Biscuit was on his way home in his work truck! We stopped and chatted with him a bit, but he couldn’t join us because of the work truck thing.
We got out to Belvidere Road and started following it west, the blazed Warren Highlands Trail route. At least this section hadn’t been painted out by hateful adjacent land owners..
It was here we met up with Elizabeth, who parked nearby on street. Her and her dog joined to complete the rest of the hike with all of us.

Where the trail goes in from Belvidere Road

The next problem came when we approached the next off trail section, going up onto Marble Hill.
The trail goes right between two private homes on a narrow piece of fully owned state land. First, it seems like constantly one of the residents parks their yellow VW bug directly over where the trail goes in. I really don’t have a problem with that, but then the post was down when we got to where the trail goes. It’s a rough section because it’s not really well delineated until back in the wood line. Even then, someone keeps tearing out the first post with the turn blaze and throwing it into the weeds. I’d been propping it up with stones I found nearby in a little cairn. We need to get some sort of permanent structure in there to take care of the issue once and for all.
We went up into the woods, and weaved around a bit to the fields. There is a problem with painted out blazes, and what I believe is a moved property corner. Where I initially found the marker, it seems to have moved up hill, possibly twice. This would put the property line well out into the crop area of a field that now seemed to have soy in it. It makes for a major problem. It’s the first really major problem I want to address because it means the Warren Highlands Trail now no longer connects with any road.
We got to the abandoned former route of Kelly Lane, and headed up hill on the well blazed portion of the trail. We then made our way left and into the woods. There are some trees down that I’ll be needing to cut up, but not sure when I’ll ever get to it. They don’t want me out there using a chainsaw by myself on state land.
We continued through the woods on the trail I cut myself, and continued out to where it crosses into county land. We took a little break at the power line crossing, then went through the longest swath of woods I’d had to cut new trail on. Every time I walk it even I can’t believe I’d cut such a long distance of foot path myself.
We emerged at the intersection with the red on yellow blazed connector trail, then continued to the red trail which goes to Lopatcong Park. We continued through gently rolling woods, and to the former Fulmer iron mining areas. I showed everyone the overlook of the Delaware River, then we took to the Iron Mine Trail to the horizontal mine that was open.
We took a break there and then descended down toward the Delaware River.

Pipe

The entire county section of the trail was so wonderfully cut, I was very surprised to see. I had assumed at the time that it must have been Mike Muckle and the Youth Corps doing work out that far, but Corey from land preservation soon told me that it was in fact new volunteer David Mashburn doing the good clearing.
It was nice to see that someone else had taken the lead on a section, because I figured I would have my work cut out for me with this mess of a job.
We headed to River Road, turned right, and then crossed the former Bel Del tracks to descend to the river side area. We then started walking down stream.

Pipe

This is the area that’s owned by Phillipsburg Riverview Association. We continued to the giant pipe that goes under the industrial site and then out to River Road again. We turned and headed through it out to the road.
Once on the other side, we continued on the trail route back into Phillipsburg.
My plan was to go over to Easton and loop back to give me the mileage I wanted, but no one really wanted to go. When we got toward the cars, everyone said they were done hiking. Yet another disappointment, I wasn’t going to quit yet.

Historic image of the Free Bridge and the Lee Building

My phone was almost dead, and I could make it all the way back to my car if I needed to. I headed out to Northampton Street and crossed the Delaware on the Free Bridge. I headed down the steps and walked along the Delaware on the Pennsylvania side north until I got to the Bushkill Street/Rt 22 bridge. I climbed up the berm and onto the narrow walkway, which widens once out on the bridge.
I meandered across the bridge to the New Jersey side once more, and continued out along the edge of the highway for a bit. I descended to the lower level, the original Rt 22 from before the flood of 1955, and walked a good sidewalk along that for a while. I soon came to the foot bridge near the Morris Street turnaround where the old and new route come back together, and continued along the side of Rt 22. My phone was about to die, and apparently the others were trying to get a hold of me.

Historic postcard of Northampton Street Free Bridge

John texted me, and I responded that I was walking back to my car. As I walked along Rt 22 a little ways past the old high school, he came to a cross street and offered me a ride. I really didn’t want to get in just yet, so I told him to come back and he could pick me up over by Hillcrest Shopping Center, and I’d be satisfied with the mileage I did.

Rt 22, Bushkill Street Bridge when new

I continued on across several crossings and sure enough John was there just past the first sections of Hillcrest to give me a ride back to my car in New Village.
It seemed like the underlying theme of everything was people all losing interest in just about anything I’m trying to accomplish. Although there have been high points, it seemed like this was really the start of a lull that it would be hard to keep afloat through. Still, there would be no giving up. I’ll take control and things will improve.