Hike #520; Mt Olive Area Loop

 Hike #520 10/24/10

10/24/10 Mt Olive area loop with Jillane Becker, Jamie Becker, "Action Adam" Stevens, Amanda Rosenblatt, Carol and Rob Creamer, Fred Hafele, Sue Bickford Martin, Craig Nunn, Jason-Michael "Jamal" Flintosh, Chis Metaxas, ?, Matthais Bullerman, Eric Pace,

Ball field we crossed along Mt Lane

My next hike would be a big loop in the Mt Olive NJ area.

This trip actually started out the night before with a Masquerade party  hosted by Deb and Amanda Rosenblatt.

Jillane and I were still displaced from the fire, and we were both staying at Jillane's mom's house in Mt. Olive. It was quite convenient to be able to just walk out the door, then onto Highfields Road to Amanda's for the party.

I wasn't into the whole costume thing this time, honestly. It seems like when costumes are customary it's not quite as much fun. I showed up wearing my hot dog cart umbrella or something I think. I forget. I showed up earlier and Jillane spend a lot of time putting makeup on (and she did an awesome job). There were a lot of hikers as well as many other Rosenblatt friends, and it was here that I met Mathias Bullerman, a long time friend of Jillane and Amanda. We had a nice discussion about non profits (which I'm still working on).

The party was a good time, but it slowed down as they tend to do and Jillane and I retreated to get some sleep for the hike the next day.

I stumbled out of bed to Amanda's in the morning to find many a drunken hiker all over the place.  Action Adam, always the life of the party, came out in the morning running around in nothing but a top hat and boxer shorts!

Action Undies Adam

I eventually got people together, and Craig Nunn showed up with a new copy of a trail conference map of Mt Olive area which was exciting. Sue, Fred, and I added info to the map for Craig while we waited for everyone to get together.

When we were all ready to go, we headed outh Highfields to a back yard of one of Amanda's neighbors. We cut through this back yard to a wooded swath and an unmarked trail.

Unmarked trail in Mt. Olive

I took everyone the wrong way on the trail initially, but we soon found our way out to a spot next to a development and a paved trail leading to the Chester Stephens Elementary School, from the open area into the woods.

Paved trail near Chester M. Stephens Elementary School, Mt Olive

Chester M Stephens School

We skirted the school to the right, and there was a "trail" or path below the roadway leading out, though we walked the roadway. We soon turned right into Turkey Brook Park, a large park with ball fields and such. There was a paved path around the outside of the place. Most of us turned left on this path while Jillane and Jamie decided to go straight to cut a corner.

We followed the paved path around the edge of a soccar fields, and Action Adam was still in his undies and a top hat (I think a tie too). The people there looked at him and one said "That's disgraceful!!". We continued almost to Flanders Road where the trail turned right.

Seward Mansion, Turkey Brook Park

Seward House, Turkey Brook Park

This took us to the Seward House, an historic building within Turkey Brook Park. We continued out behind it along the paved trail heading back to the south and to Jillane and Jamie waiting for us. I think Eric might have taken that route as well.

We walked from here through a disturbed area, formerly fields, and all dug up. I had walked this section at night with Kyle, Amanda, and Skyler during the Summer of 2009, but it looked way different. It was more clear of vegetation, while now it was very overgrown with Autumn Olives.

Turkey Brook Park, Mt Olive

We continued across a power line and down hill to where we could see new trail blazes. This was part of the new Turkey Brook trail system. The blazes were too large to be standard, but at least they were done correctly with turns and such.

We followed orange blazes as I recall. The one trail continued south while we made a turn left going east. This followed like an old woods road or something, but the orange turned off to the right. We had followed much of this route with some difficulty in the dark in the Summer of 09. The trail led us down to where we could see the pond.

Turkey Brook Park by the pond

Turkey Brook Park near the pond

We continued on the trail as it turned left along the inlet of the pond heading east. The trail soon followed closely along the pretty banks of the Turkey Brook itself, and continued to do so for a while.

Trail along the Turkey Brook, Mt Olive

Turkey Brook, Mt Olive

Trail in Mt Olive near the high school

The trail turned away from the creek after a bit for a very gentle ascent southward to an abandoned road. This road was overgrown to the left, and probably once connected with Flanders Road, and to the right it led out to Mt Olive High School's northern parking areas. We turned away from the blazed route on an unmarked trail to the left which took us to a climbing wall and some high school trust course stuff. Action Adam did some climbing.

Climbing wall at Mt Olive High School

We continued from here across an entrance road to the Mt Olive High School and headed along the edges of the fields heading south. When we reached the tree line we continued into the woods and to a camp Amanda had attended when she was younger. It didn't appear to be in use at this time so we just walked around and had a look.

Camp near Mt Olive High School Amanda had attended

Camp near Mt Olive High School

We continued through the camp a bit, then turned right through some trees and brush and into the yard of the High School. We turned left and followed a fence line next to the trees on out to Flanders Road and turned right. We soon turned left on Flanders-Netcong Road and continued slightly down hill until a creek came into view on our left. My plan was to turn off of the road which abruptly turned right, and follow it's course down to Rt 206 below.

We turned and descended in the creek bed carefully. We had to get through some weeds and over slippery rocks, but overal we had no problems. We reached Rt 206 and then tried to see where we could cross.

Stream along Rt 206, Flanders area

I was at first going to go through a concrete culvert under the highway, but it was far too wet and I didn't really want to chance getting wetter so we were able to skip this one. We dashed across Rt 206 as fast as we could, then climbed up the embankment on the other side steeply to Oakwood Village, a town house and/or apartment complex. As soon as we reached the top their was a parking lot...for a convenience store! Apparently this convenience store was running solely for the use of the residences. We commented on how this was likely the most convenient convenience store we had ever happened upon during a hike!

Walking Mountain View Way, Flanders

Action Adam got some ham and we had a nice break, but then moved on through the development. I think we mainly followed Mountain View Way heading sort of northeast. It was on this stretch where Mathias joined us. It was great to have him here, since he lived in the development and this was truly his territory. He was able to guide us along a bit. We walked to the end of the development and into the woods. Soon, we came to an intersection of trails, sort of like old woods roads. We took a turn to the right, which I was planning on doing but only through a bushwhack further to the south. Mathias's route was much more practical. It took us to a great rock outcropping with a seasonal view into part of Flanders below.

View from a rock outcropping near Flanders

Rock outcropping view near Flanders

The group on the rock outcropping

Hiking just northeast of Flanders

Jillane waited at the trail junction with Amanda, so we returned there and soon came out to an open area from the woods where people had a huge ATV track. Mathias took us across the ATV track and onto a smaller section of paths to the north instead of the more boring wide one. This took us through some woods and out to another big cleared area. We returned to the main woods road which led us out to a gate on Patricia Drive.

Patricia Drive, Flanders

We turned right on Patricia Drive, and the road continued into a fenced area. Jillane and I had come up this road exploring one night looking for trail connections, and we found one. There was a parking area and trail head to the left, so we headed into the woods on that. It was a regular foot path with standard blazing, and it took us around the building that was gated through Veterans Park, then down to the other side of the building where Patricia Drive continued as an abandoned dirt road.

We walked this for a bit, but then took a break when we saw an awesome stone fire place off the road to the right.

Stone structure along abandoned part of Patricia Drive, Veterans Park

Stone structure along abandoned Patricia Drive

Stone Structure along abandoned Patricia Drive

Taking a break on the abandoned section of Patricia Drive near Flanders

This was certainly not an historic remnant of any kind, they were all hand placed stones, a party spot no doubt set up by some local. They had done an amazing job with it, complete with piping through the chimney structure and stick and tarp for the roof. If not for the tarp, the place would look rather professional.

The road abandonment took us out to Mountain Road. We turned right on this briefly, then left into a piece of land with a dirt road going down hill. Probably more of an ATV path.

Woods road off of Mountain Road west of Ledgewood

View north toward Ledgewood

The path led us down hill and then just petered out. It whipped us back to the south, as we had been heading north and simply started looping back. We needed to get down hill to the left into the Ledgewood Canal Park. I led everyone on a bushwhack down hill from here. It was rough at first, but then we came to a creek and were able to follow it down. We came down at the right place because there was a swamp in the way otherwise.

Once we were down along the creek we had an easy time walking to pick up the first trail, an old woods road, and turned left. Much of the group was planning on cutting out in Ledgewood, but they opted to stay with us for a bit of time to take the loop trail.

High Ledge Mine

High Ledge Mine, Ledgewood

The trail took us up to an intersection where we came to the High Ledge Mine. Unfortunately, since my last visit in the Summer of 2009 at gate had been installed over the entrance. There was no way to get in unless we repelled into the shaft further up. We weren't doing that this time, so we headed up hill along the trail.

At High Ledge Mine, Ledgewood

High Ledge Mine from the top

Taking a break at High Ledge Mine, Ledgewood

Taking a break, Ledgewood Canal Park

Rock caves in Ledgewood Canal Park

Near the top of the ascent, with seasonal views east, we came to giant boulder piles. I had not gone this way on my previous trip. We instead followed the woods road section up to the power line. There were awesome rocks here with little caves beneath them we could climb through. Action Adam and I were right on that and did some really cool climbing.

Rock outcroppings, Ledgewood Canal Park

Rock outcroppings, Ledgewood Canal Park

Ledgewood Canal Park

In one of the rocky caves, Ledgewood Canal Park

Cave in Ledgewood Canal Park

Rock cave in Ledgewood Canal Park

Outcroppings in Ledgewood Canal Park

We left the outcroppings and continued on along the trail. Those from the group who were cutting out early

left with Fred at this point, and he led them back to the Morris Canal out to Ledgewood. The rest of us found our way to a nice fire pit and campsite on the top of the rise.

Fire pit and camp site in Ledgwood Canal Park

We continued on the trail from here to the power line where we left it and turned left, but first admired an awesome view to the east of Mt Arlington area.

View from Ledgewood Canal Park

Foliage along Lararus Drive, south of Netcong NJ

From here, we turned left on the power line. The power line had a fork in it ahead, and we turned right, leading us out to Lazarus Drive. Jillane and Jamie's sister Jenna and her boyfriend Tom were going to try to meet us for a bit here, but couldn't quite get to us. They thought we were still on the power line when we were on the road. We followed Lazarus to the right

Along Mountain Road

We followed Lazarus to a right on Hemingway to another on Conkling out to Mooney Road and turned left. We then made a right onto Mountain Road for a bit. Jenna and Tom found us here, probably not happy they weren't able to join. They took Jamie with her and headed out.

The rest of us, Jillane, Action Adam, Mathias, and Amanda  continued on down the road with the plan of turning up a driveway leading to a house we suspected to be abandoned.

Abandoned house in Mt Olive area.

There was a guy directly across the street driving an ATV around, and we didn't want him to see us wander off up this driveway so we dilly dallied around, and when he was facing the other way we took off up the driveway. He must certainly have seen us, but oh well. The house looked as though there might actually be someone still living there. I think there was clothing hung out on the line.

Abandoned house, Mt Olive area.

We couldn't tell for sure, and were too freaked out to check any further so we just kept moving fast out of there to a ball field off of Mountain Lane. It looked like there might have been another abandoned building back there, but it was posted and I think people lived back there in trailers, so we didn't check it out.

Ball field off of Mt Lane

We came back out to Mountain Road without finding another way to go. I was intending to follow the power line to the north where I could see the existence of good ATV trails, but there was just now way in through the thick brush that stood in the way. We'd have to settle for the road, which at this point wasn't too terrible for everyone.

Abandoned house near Rt 206

Just before coming out to Rt 206 we came across another abandoned house on the right. I wasn't too keen on trying to get into this one right next to the road, especially since the guy who saw us further up on this road might have called the police, but I reluctantly followed everyone as they ran behind the back of the building. Action Adam was able to climb up and get into the back porch area of the house, but the rest was far too sealed up.

Abandoned house near rt 206

We moved on from here to Rt 206 where there was a gas station on the right. We stopped for a break here and got some drinks and snacks before moving on. We dashed across Rt 206 and realized there was a police station right there. How bad would that have been if we had been caught?

Old cemetary on Old Ledgewood Road

We walked Old Ledgewood Road from here around a few swooping curves, and then came to an old cemetary on the left hand side. This one was a particularly interesting one because it sat on such a steep grade along the edge of this hill, very uncharacteristic of old cemetaries.

Old cemetary on Old Ledgewood Road

Cemetary on Old Ledgewood Road

Cemetary on Old Ledgewood Road

Jillane had pointed this cemetary out one night when we were driving around, so it was cool to be able to include it. It was very old and not kept up much. Some graves were off in the weeds, and the entire lower section was in a bed of ivy. We took a nice break here before we moved on.

Cemetary on Old Ledgewood Road

Cemetary on Old Ledgewood Road

We cut through the trees from the cemetary out to Flanders-Netcong road from behind a business and then turned left. We passed the entrance to a Fla-Net Park, a camp ground, probably one of the crumbiest rated in the entire state from what I saw on line. There was a nice pond out in front of it anyway.

Fla Net Campground pond

Fla Nat camp ground pond

This road continued to International Drive, but was blocked off to traffic there. We headed up the grassy hill to the businesses, and I think most of the group stopped at Burger King or something for dinner. Jillane and I continued to some other place for food, though I don't remember what it was. Maybe McDonalds. Once everyone was back together we goofed off a bit and went by a bedding store.

Taking a break at the ITC, a store along the way.

Gold Mine Road near ITC, Mt Olive

We walked to the southeast side of the entire development and turned right on the Link Road leading down hill slightly from ITC. This led us to Gold Mine Road. Once through roads, they were cut off to vehicular traffic after the opening of ITC.

Trail south of Gold Mine Road, Mt Olive

We continued down Gold Mine Road, and eventually came to a gate on the west side where vehicles could access. From here, another of the new Mt Olive trails turned off to the left. We followed it into the woods as it was getting darker. This trail took us through a lovely swath of woods, apparently a donation required by a nearby developer to open space. The trail went over gradual ups and downs and then skirted some homes on Fennimore Ct. to our left. I had no idea where we were at this moment, however. There was a long wide path going to our right, and we couldn't figure out where the trail blazes we were following disappeared to.

Trail near Fennimore Court, Mt Olive

I decided we'd just follow the wide path to the right and see if we could find a few blazes. We didn't find the large ones that we were expected to find, but we did find smaller ones leading off to the left, so we took it. The trail was wide, but not so much as the previous woods road. They were marked with metal hiker emblems. We continued south and I believe Jillane realized where we were well before me. She led us across a field out to Flanders Road and turned right.

Sunset near Flanders Road.

The sun was setting beautifully as we walked down the road, and the trail blazes we had been looking for soon came in from our right. It was probably the lack of light that kept us from going the correct way. The trail followed the road briefly, then turned left into Turkey Brook Park. Out on the grass we turned away from the marked trail and continued along ball fields out toward the play grounds where we stopped for another break.

Turkey Brook Park at night

There were these strange little spinning things slightly tilted sticking from the playground, and I'd never seen anything like them before. Jillane tried it first, and it was an incredibly fun rapid spinning thing! Once you get it moving, it's extremely difficult to stop, and it spins fast apparently due to the tilt. We all tried it, and couldn't believe they were even installed knowing NJ and how afraid everyone is of liability here.

Mathias climbed the swing set at Turkey Brook Park

After goofing off and climbing around a bit more we made our way back out of Turkey Brook Park and along the right side of the Chester Stephens School. We then cut back onto the path and along the yard we had taken earlier back to Highfield Road and Amanda's house.

It was great to have done this convenient hike, and be able to relax at the end of the night without a long commute.