Hike #508; Gladstone to Chester

 Hike #508 9/2/10

9/2/10 Gladstone to Chester with "Action Adam" Stevens, Jason Korski, Mary Anne Mastralia, and Chris "Cupcake" Kroschinski

My next hike would be another latter day hike along the convenient Patriot's Path ending in Chester area. I would do some of the route I was planning on doing for the previous hike but didn't get to.

I was happy to be joined by not only my old friends Jason Korski and his girlfriend Mary Ann, but Action Adam who had unfortunately just been badly injured in an accident during one of his fire breathing events. His voice sounded about as bad as mine did now, and while my burns had all healed, he had them on his face and had to wear a mask to protect him from the sun. He didn't even think he'd be able to complete this entire hike, but he fortunately was able thanks to the healing powers of Four Loco.

We started our hike in Gladstone at the train station. This was formerly a Lackawanna line now used by NJ Transit, but it dead ended here and never made any other connections despite the close proximity of the Rockaway Valley Railroad. We walked the streets north and then left on Pottersville Rd out to Rt 206. Where the road hit 206 I was able to see what I believe was the former Rockaway Valley Railroad right of way. I vaguely remembered driving with my friend Bob Bodenstein through the area and he pointed it out to me. The rail line made a dramatic bend and had a trestle in this area by Gladstone. We walked Rt 206 north from here.

It was hot and sweaty out, and Action Adam was feeling it with all of his burns. Still, we pushed on north. I was looking off to the left to se if I could pick out any rail remnants, and saw possibilities but none that I'm totally sure could have been the line until we reached Daly Road and turned left. It was here we picked up the Patriot's Path section that followed it into Willowood Arboretum. The trail followed it through the gate at the north side and then turned off of it to the right.

Along Patriot's Path in Willowood Arboretum

We stayed on Patriot's Path out of Willowood and into Bamboo Brook Outdoor Education Center. The trail had been rerouted through this area since my previous visit. It now no longer went close to the buildings like it did before. It circumvented them and stayed in the fields, then headed up hill through woods on the original route. There were, however, side paths marked with ribbons going off of the main path. I figured they might have had a reroute in mind in this area as well, but can't be sure.

As we continued to the north, the undergrowth turned to a beautiful, incredible mess of crazy vines. It would be nearly impossible to try to walk through these woods if we were not on an established trail.

Patriot's Path in Bamboo Brook OEC.

We continued north on the trail and it eventually led us out into the corner of some fields where we couldn't tell which way the blazes wanted us to go. I'd remembered it being much more clear on where we should go in the past. This was in the vicinity of Longview Road.

Pumkin hunter team, Black River Park

The fields were full of pumpkins and gords for the coming Halloween, tons of them. We picked up a few of them when we got there and carried them along. Instead of going around the field on the trail we opted to cross the field directly, picking up a few more along the way.

Hiking the fields of Black River Park

When we reached the road I smashed one. We then moved on to the north and crossed over Lamerson Road. We headed north from there, and were in phone contact with Cupcake who was trying to meet up with us. He finally found a place to park at the end of Pottersville Road, the next road crossing. We switched off of the Black River Trail, the blue route of the Patriot's Path and turned left on the Conifer Pass Trail which crossed Pottersville Road down below Kay Environmental Center. Cupcake joined us on this road just as it was starting to get a bit dark. Action Adam was feeling much better by now and was glad he stayed on the hike.

We followed Conifer Pass Trail down hill and over a small tributary, then up and down to the edge of the Black River. When Conifer Pass Trail ascended back up hill to the right we stayed close to the Black River on the vaguely blazed green trail. This took us to the abandoned ruins of the Kay's swimming pond. There was an old dam and the ruined shell of the stone building that went along with it. We all took a dip here, and it was awesome. The water felt great. After spending a good amount of time here, we made our way back on the trail and tried our best to navigate over blow downs and such until we reached the main blue Patriot's Path/Black River Trail again. I made a couple wrong turns in hee because I lost my bearings in the dark, but soon corrected it. Everybody had to walk down the ravine and back up again which they weren't happy about.

We soon came to the main trail and got down to the river again, then got on the Langdon Mine Railroad section to Hacklebarney Mine, then Hacklebarney Mine Railroad section north from there. The dam and giant trench that I had come across on my previous hike had now been filled in. We were able to easily walk over it and out along the trail to Coooper Mill. The Kay Pond had not yet been refilled though.

Once we got to Cooper Mill, we took the trail under the tunnel beneath Rt 24 and then along the river north. We stayed on it until we got to the red blazed trail that went up hill to Chubb Park, but now this was reblazed white to my surprise. I knew Russ Nee of Morris Parks told me he was rerouting Patriot's Path into the middle of Chester, and it must have been now done at least in part. We followed the blazes up hill to the power line, then followed it left. I realized where I went wrong the last time we were here, and missed the turn off for the railroad bed. We soon turned right on the former Chester Hill Branch of the Central Railroad of NJ which the trail now followed up hill gradually and bordered Chubb Park. We came out near the library on Rt 24 and crosed to the Chester Mall where the rail yard once was.

From here, we crossed over Rt 206 and headed down to the Chester Shop Rite to close our hike. I drove Korski and Mary Ann back to their cars in Gladstone, and Action Adam took Cupcake back to Pottersville Road.

This was a great late day hike, the model for what they should all be like.