Hike #1046; New Village to Phillipsburg/Lopatcong

Hike #1046; New Village to Phillipsburg/Lopatcong

6/10/17 New Village/Bread Lock, Phillipsburg, and Lopatcong with John Kosar, Jim “Uncle Soup” Campbell, David “Captain Soup” Campbell, Rob Gearhardt, Sean Patrick O'Riordan TheRed Reardon, Janet Lynn McCourt-Finsen, Chris Kroschinski (Cupcake), Darlene Perez, and Ariel.

Our next hike would be one that I put together specifically so I could show up at Warren County Parkfest. It was my weekend to work, and so I would miss spending the full day at the first Parkfest, which is hosted by the Friends of the Parks group that had recently been started. I decided that since we had stalled my Morris Canal series, this would sort of make up the final leg of that. We’d skip only the section that was all road walking from Brass Castle to New Village, and the rest had recently been incorporated into my hikes.

At Parkfest

I hurried from work to the Target in Lopatcong, which didn’t take me too long. With most everyone there, we hurried over to Bread Lock Park where the festivities were going on.
When we arrived, we were immediately greeted by the Lidmans, Ken, Sarah, and Alyssa as they were headed out. For a moment we thought they might be joining us for the hike, but not this time. We walked further on and saw Matt Davis, and Gregg Hudis, all enjoying the fest and wandering around.

Will Bullivant gives us an historic talk

It was like the most Metrotrails affiliated people we ever came across on one hike that were not actually doing the hike!
We stopped by one of the displays about old steamer cars or something, and Wilson Bullivant. He gave us a bit of a history talk as well, and we discussed doing future trips where he could give us tours. We then went through the rest of the area with different displays. I talked to Dave Dech for a bit, and Gina from the community college. The other commissioners were around, canal society people. I talked to Jim Lee Jr. and Jim Lee III a bit.

Morris Canal at Bread Lock Park

We walked into the canal museum at the park, and chatted with more of the folks there too. I wanted to take the time to enjoy the fest as much as possible, but I also wanted to try to get some significant miles in without going all too late.

Bread Lock Park on the canal

We got on the canal towpath and started following it out of Bread Lock Park to the west. It weaved around and past the old lock, then turned to the left where there is a parcourse circuit loop trail that joins. We continued past that where the trail is clear to a dead end. The rest of it is a planned route for the trail that hasn’t come to fruition yet.
At the end of the trail, we continued along the edge of the cultivated fields parallel with the canal route. It was a nice enough walk, and pretty easy to trace the route west for a bit.

The canal became less obvious beyond. I had never walked this section before, so for me this was a little bit of new stuff. When I had done the canal series in the past, we always had to walk Route 57 through this section because it was private fields. We now had new plans in place, as well as a solar farm being built over the canal that offered a right of way around the outside for the trail route. Some of that had already been cleared off of Richline Road. I figured we’d have a really easy time walking through, and parallel with the solar farm.

Old underpass

It wasn’t quite that easy. We had to go to the south, then the north, and make our way through the field lines to get to next field sections as closely parallel with the canal as we could. When we got to the actual solar farm, we had to go to the south. The trail is supposed to go that way too, but we couldn’t get around it. The weeds on the edge of the fence were so thick, we’d have been miserable if we’d tried to bushwhack through the expanse ahead of us. Instead, we kept to the field edge and quickly headed toward the railroad tracks. I figured if we could get to those we’d have an easy passage to the west.
When we got to the tree line on the south sides of the fields, I was rather surprised to find an old stone underpass for farm use. This was authentic to the original construction of the Morris and Essex Railroad in the area. The top of the bridge was concrete, but the abutments were all old.
We took a break under this for a bit, then made our way to the top, and followed the tracks to the west.

We crossed Richline Road at grade, and could see where the trail would have brought us out, and continued ahead. It wasn’t long before we got to where the Morris Canal used to pass beneath the railroad tracks. The tops of the bridge abutments were still exposed. Just on the north side of the tracks was Inclined Plane #8 West, one of 23 Scotch turbine driven portage railroads that made the Morris Canal the greatest climber of the world’s canals. I have never explored the ruins at plane 8 because it’s on private land, but we can see the line of trees where it used to be from afar.

Historic view of the Morris Canal at the railroad underpass, with Plane #8 West base.

We re-grouped here. Cupcake, Darlene, and Ariel were a bit behind. From there, we continued on to the grade crossing at Warren Street where we turned left toward Stewartsville. We soon reached North Main Street and turned left.

Before the canal bridge at Stewartsville was removed

In the days of the canal, there used to be a bridge across it on North Main. During the dismantling of the canal in 1927, this bridge was removed and the road flattened out.
We couldn’t really walk onto the canal to the right, westbound when we got to it.

1927 after bridge removal

There is a public right of way along the canal heading west, adjacent to the Stewart’s Hunt development, but it was the cause of a lot of problems in the past. The land owners sued the county because they didn’t want the trail going in near their houses, even though it was purchased for that purpose.

Stewartsville farms

Rather than stir up trouble with all of the good developments going on, we instead walked along the road to the south into the middle of the village of Stewartsville, passing through some really lovely farm lands along the way.
We made our way into the towndown of old stewartsville, a very British like little village with a quaint center. Old stone buildings are around, but the traffic just seems busier than it should. Red Sean met up with us there, and parked his car at a small lot off of Main.

Stewartsville

My plan from downtown Stewartsville was to parallel the canal route as best we could. There is a paved pathway parallel with Greenwich Street which we could use for a good while heading to the west, with the canal far across the fields on the north side at a line of trees.
We continued along the road for a bit, slightly up hill, until we got to the intersection with Valerie Place, a small development road that went off to the right. We took a brief break, then headed along this road to a right turn on Gary Road. We then turned right once more on Wyndam Farm Road, then right on Thomas Carling Drive.

Fields near plane 9

The road took us directly to a path into the Morris Canal Greenway near the top of Inclined Plane #9 West, which was the longest inclined plane on the canal.
When we had gotten to this development, it started raining, but not too terribly. We got on through it, and headed to the west along the trail. I was originally planning on exploring the loop trail that goes around the property near plane 9, but then opted against it due to weather, and we already went out of the way through the fields a few times before at the tree lines.

Morris Canal Plane 9W

It wasn’t very long before we were at the top of Inclined Plane #9 West. We checked out the old sleeper stones still in place, as well as the cables that were now sitting on top of them.
We crested the hill and looked down the plane. A garage was built over a part, but for the most part it was in really good shape. We walked over to where the power house used to be, and looked down into the turbine chamber. We used to do tours inside the chamber here, but it’s been closed as per the county for quite a while now. Some sort of repairs have to be made to bring people back into it.

Historic view of Plane 9W

It stopped raining while we were up there, and we started making our way down the plane a bit. The driveway is about where the towpath always was heading down. There’s a good redevelopment plan coming for the area that will move the driveway access.

Historic image of Plane 9W

After the plan is complete, there will be access from the north and what is now the driveway should be just the pedestrian route. This is really one of the best interpretive sites along the entire canal, and it’s great to see it come such a long way.

Plane 9W today

The plane was excavated by Jim Lee Sr. He lived at the top of the plane at the plane tender or brakeman’s house. His wife was actually born on a canal boat between Port Colden and Washington, and her family was tied to this site.

Plane 9W from the top

Now, the house is the Lee Museum, and Jim Lee III is acting as the Curator. Jim Lee Jr. purchased the canal’s Inclined Plane 10 West, and follows closely in his father’s footsteps of interpreting the canal for public.
Not only are the Lees great historians, they are also great characters with senses of humor.
As we headed down the plane, I mentioned to the group that we were going to stop at the spring heading down the hill. We went off to the left, and there was a routed wooden sign reading “Spring”. When the leaves are moved from around the lines of brick, we find an old engine coil spring in there.
Jim Lee Sr. used to have a sign out on the road reading that there was a spring for weary travelers. He would watch as they went looking for it, and find the coil. He’d come out laughing with pitchers of water. My grandfather told me the story about the spring many many years ago, so the first time I walked through the site with Jim Lee Jr., he said “Oh yeah...it’s still there”, and he showed it to the group. Today, it’s clear and visible again.

Spring

When we got to the bottom of the plane, we crossed over the road by the Stein Farm, and then got on the trail by stepping over the galvanized guard rail.
This section of trail had been cleared and opened when I ran a hike through on it in 2003. By 2007, when I did the first hike in the series to do the entire canal, it was no longer passable, completely overgrown again.
Now, Youth Corps have been opening it up and maintaining it, and it looks great. Not only that, Dave Detrich and the Highlands Partnership have worked to build bridges over the missing gaps and such, and at the weir site just beyond, there are now wooden steps to go up and down either side. This is an excellent section of trail now.
We continued along the canal, which is one with the Lopatcong Creek at this point. It is thought that the creek was originally out in the fields to the north of the canal, but that it was first moved for farming, then for the canal as the supplemental water source.
There were talks of moving the stream and doing a wetland restoration project in the area, which would keep the canal from being further undermined by erosion, but nothing has happened much with it lately.

Library of Congress image of the canal parallel with the road

We made our way across a few of the little bridges to the weir steps and took a brief break. The area was looking really good, and interpretive signs had been put in place.

On the trail

We climbed up the other side and started following the canal out toward Strykers Road. Red Sean was starting to feel a little sick, but he soon got much better.

Weir site

There were beautiful flowers growing on the thistles in this area.
When we reached Strykers Road, it was the first time I’d seen it since the new parking area was put in place. It looked pretty good to me!

Historic image crossing Strykers Road

We crossed over and continued on the towpath on the other side. In the canal days, there would have been a major bump in the road for the canal bridge that is now gone.

The canal today

We followed the trail very clearly to the west. This used to be a sort of a bushwhack when we started doing the hikes on the section. Then, even the prism of the canal was either silted or filled in. It has since been restored to the original shape by the county.

Strykers Road bridge in canal days

We followed the towpath past a giant tree, and then out to the fill for US Rt 22. At this point, we used to come up or down from the right, but that was looking too overgrown. We crossed the prism to the left and ascended from the other side of the canal this time.

Strykers Road bridge site in 1927

Once we got up to 22, we turned right briefly, then cut to the left onto the access road into the new development that had just been completed. It was barely a bushwhack and we were down.

Pollinating a thistle

The canal in this area had sort of been rebuilt, now as a part of the retention pond to the new development. There was supposed to be a deal worked out where they’d provide a pedestrian bridge over Rt 22 for the development, but that unfortunately never happened.

Morris Canal near Strykers Road

The canal trail, as planned, is going to go parallel with eastbound Rt 22, climb up, cross at the traffic light at Phillipsburg Mall, then make it’s way back down along th ehighway to pick up the canal again at the newly restored section.

Morris Canal at the new development

We walked this new section, which took us soon out to Lock Street, which heads toward Phillipsburg. The canal is to the left of Lock Street, but not all of it is public yet.

The original plane 10 west

As we got closer to Phillipsburg and former Inclined Plane 10 West, we reached our first historic site: the ORIGINAL Inclined Plane #10 West.
When the Morris Canal was built, it was not designed with the Scotch Turbines that it really became famous with. It originally employed deathly slow overshop water wheels to carry the boats with the pulley system. It could already take fifteen minutes or more to navigate an inclined plane, but then it was even tougher. When the final upgrade to the canal happened in 1842, the planes were all rebuilt with scotch turbines.

Historic image of plane 10 west

The second inclined plane was installed during that 1842 upgrade with a new power house and such. We checked out the site, and I looked down along the creek to see if I could get a good shot of the former plane for a then and now photo.

One of my previous photos of the plane

I couldn’t get a good photo of it this time, but I had had some good ones from the past that work well with the historic photos I’d recently discovered through the county as well as the Library of Congress.

Historic inclined plane 10W

We headed back onto Lock Street to start heading further into Phillipsburg, and stopped on a bench for a break at Lock Street Park. Unfortunately, Darlene was pooped out, and so she, Ariel, and Cupcake had to cut out at this point.

Entering Phillipsburg

The rest of us continued on, and Lock Street started turning to the right a bit further into Phillipsburg. There’s some sort of town line right in this area as well.
Coming up on the left of us was a house that used to be the tender’s house for Lock #8 W.

Lock 8W tender's house historic view

Most people who drive by the old house would never know it was a lock tender’s house today, but it does retain a little bit of it’s historic character. One of the Morris Canal signs stands along the road to remind that this was the site of Lock 8.

Lock 8 tender's house

We walked a little further down the road and reached the lock tender’s house for Lock #9 west, also still standing, although much altered over the years.

Lock 9 tender's house

We continued a little further and turned left to cross the Lopatcong Creek on a bridge, then to the right on South Main Street. The canal continued behind the buildings to the right, along the creek at this point. There’s no good way through at this point.

Erroneously labeled lock 10, actually lock 9 W

We continued on to Green’s Bridge, which was the site of Lock #10 on the canal. It was starting to get darker, but I showed everyone down to beneath the bridges where some of the walkway for the towpath is still visible.

Green's Bridge

This was the site where the canal had passed beneath the Central Railroad of NJ on the stone bridge, and the Lehigh Valley Railroad on the deck girder bridge, which was the second one used by that line.
Beyond, we continued on the canal route, which is a new trail route through the town along the creek now. We passed by Nortons Cork and Bottle, but I didn’t really want anything so we continued on. We then made our way past the sewer plant and onto Morris Canal Way which was built over the old canal heading toward the Andover Morris School. This was very close to the site of Andover Furnace.

Historic postcard image of Green's Bridge and the LV bridge

We skirted the school and headed on into town along South Main Street. I had originally planned to go off to the left toward the Kent Yard, but when we got over that way, I said there was no way we were going into the woods with all the hoodlums running around.

Historic image of the canal and furnace near present Andover Morris School

We continued all the way through town to around where the railroad tracks cross on South Main. We didn’t continue to walk the back streets very much. It started raining a bit again, and it wasn’t looking like this was going to be very fun.

Library of Congress Archives

We were getting rather hungry as I recall, and so we headed into town a little further, and at some point backtracked. We ended up findng a pizza place that was open, and so we went in to have a nice little break.
I was deathly tired by the time we got to this one. It was a Saturday, and it was my sixth day in a row working, and the very start of me having to work every other weekend. I was already running ragged. I laid my head down and fell asleep on the table.

Library of Congress Archives

I didn’t eat anything that I can recall, and when everyone was ready to go, we headed out.
Rather than trying to wander around any further, I decided we’d simply backtrack following the South Main Street to where the Lehigh Valley Railroad used to cross, on a deck girder bridge.
We climbed up to the east side of it, and had to bushwhack a little bit. This was the roughest part of the entire hike, because it was wet and thick. Just overall unpleasant. Still, we managed to push through, and the rail bed got much clearer.
We continued through woods, and then through the deep cut. A bit beyond, the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the Central Railroad of NJ switch places (a Conrail deal), where the eastbound CNJ becomes abandoned, but the LV is still active. We skirted that for a time, crossed at Green’s, and then turned left soon onto the abandoned CNJ grade.

Greens Bridge postcard view

I really didn’t want to be around the bridge on this one because there was a death on the bridge a couple of nights before. A man named Michael Jacob Beaman was riding some sort of ATV on the tracks, and was struck by a freight train, thrown off, and killed.
Looking at the bridge, it’s literally mind boggling how someone could possibly have been hit by a train. There is actually tons of room beside the tracks that it shoudln’t be a problem. Some articles say he was riding directly on the tracks.
Whatever the case, I wanted to be out of there.
We followed the abandoned CNJ tracks, which are overgrown with a path beside them, all the way out to Crestwood Park in Alpha. We skirted the park briefly, then turned left on a path that led back across the tracks and into an open field on the other side. Here, we turned to the right.
The field section led to a bit of a road past two houses, and came out to Rt 519 right next to the Quick Chek. We turned left to head to the Quick Check for snacks and such.
It was a simple walk from the Quick Chek on New Brunswick Ave to the east through Alpha and out to Rt 22 and 173. Just across 22 is where we parked at the Target.
It was overall a nice night to be out, and the rain pretty much stopped before we finished.
I’d had to be to work again at 7 the next morning, and then three more days before I’d have off. I could handle it. As long as people keep showing up for the hikes, I’m still winning.