Hike #547 3/9/11
Walking the access road at the southwest side of Whittingham Wildlife Management Area
3/9/11 Kittatinny Valley State Park/Muckshaw Ponds/Whittingham to Brighton with Al MacLennan, "DJ Ray" Cordts, and Christina Manley
My next hike would be another sort of impromptu thing. Al and I had talked about doing a hike during the week on the previous one out in Union and Essex County, and while I was out of work I wanted to get in as much as I could.
At sort of the last minute, a meeting was set by my new boss from the state. I had been officially hired by the State Parks and Forests to be a "Jack of All Trades" which I was really excited about. This complicated meeting for a hike, but of course it held precedent.
We made it work out; Al came to Kittatinny Valley State Park where my meeting was being held, and waited patiently till I got out, and then we shuttled his car to a point that would work out for him to be out for previous obligations. In addition, DJ Ray and Christina also joined us right from the beginning. I decided we would start at the Sussex Branch Trail lot where it crossed over Rt 206 in Andover.
New bridge over an outlet of the wetland in Kittatinny Valley State Park, Andover
We started walking the Sussex Branch north bound, and took a brief side trip to the left to see a new bridge that had been put in over the outlet of a wetland, apparently a small dam. I had thought a trail had been installed, but the bridge led to nowhere. We continued to the north through the woods and soon crossed over Goodale Road. The road paralleled us for a bit on the right, and then had an intersection with a gravel road to the left which crossed over the railroad bed and continued along fields to the left. We opted to follow this one.
We passed through a bit of woods and into another field, then back into more woods. In this section of woods was a really cool ruin of an old stone building. It was very much collapsed into itself, but certainly historic. The west facing side had a slightly arched barn style door that had not yet collapsed, but probably would soon.
Abandoned building ruins in Kittatinny Valley State Park
Abandoned building ruins in Kittatinny Valley State Park
Abandoned building ruins in Kittatinny Valley State Park
View from an outcropping where the cell tower is, Kittatinny Valley SP
We continued on the road. There was a yellow blazed trail that crossed it right next to the old building ruin, but we didn't follow it. We continued up hill along the woods road as it turned to the left and had more trails, I think red and green, turn off of it. We just stayed on the road.
I don't know why I didn't realize it, because it was plain as day from below, but the road led up to a cell tower. It had a big chain link fence around it, so we followed that to the left. It was at the top of a high cliff which gave us a bit of a view into the wetlands below.
View from the area around the cell tower in Kittatinny Valley SP
Building near the cell tower
On the other side was a small building which appeared to be abandoned, with a ladder and a forced open door. DJ Ray went up to have a look inside but it didn't appear to be anything of interest. From here, the woods road pretty much ended, but a power line headed down hill to the northwest following sort of a spine of a ridge. We followed this on a path down the center.
When we neared the bottom, we got a bit too close to private homes. There was a looping residential street called Arthur Ave there, but no way to access it. Just before reaching one of the back yards, there was an unmarked path along the power line to the right. We followed this parallel with the backs of the homes. A truck was pulling into the driveway of one of them as we went by, further pushing the fact that we were not going to be cutting quickly across these yards. We continued over an outcropping and into a spot where we weren't visible between two small ridges and turned left. We were able to continue out through a line of woods leading us out to Stickles Pond Road. The namesake pond was across from us, and came up next to the road to our left. We turned right on the road for a bit from here.
Religious place on 206 owns this nice dirt road
We soon turned left off of Stickles Pond Road onto a short path next to some sort of garden, to a dirt road that was part of I think St. Benedict's or something...a religious place for Monks off of Rt 206. This old road connects Stickles Pond Rd with 206, though it's now private. I figured this would be an interesting and scenic walking route as long as we could get away with it. There was a residence along the south side of the pond the road went by, and we were very visible to it, but we moved on. I figured we're not "Trespassing against them" so we should be fine.
We were fine; the road took us through woods, by a field, through more woods, past a larger field on the left, up hill through woods, and then out to the parking area. We walked right by the parked cars as well as many people driving in with no problem, out to Rt 206.
St. Paul's Abbey
Across 206 from where we came out was old St. Paul's Abbey, a beautiful monestary that was now pretty much abandoned. It's a shame, because it's an incredibly beautiful building. It's layout would probably be excellent for conversion into a school, like some of the specialty schools, or like what was done with the Rutherford Mansion.
We turned right on 206 briefly to the parking lot where farm trailers are often kept, then cut directly into the woods, the yellow trail of Muckshaw Pond Preserve, called Upper Woodlands Trail.
DJ Ray with his birch sleeve hat
The trail took us into the woods and onto a woods road to the left. It then turned off sort of to the right, and DJ Ray found a dead birch log. He managed to roll the bark off of the log like a sleeve and make himself a hat out of it.
We continued ahead on the yellow trail, and there was a white trail going off to the left, the Seasonal Ponds Trail. This would have been an out and back hike, so we didn't bother trying it this time because I knew what was to come could be a problem.
View from the blue ovelrlook trail, Muckshaw Ponds
Muckshaw Ponds
DJ Ray and his birch crown
Another birch crown shot in Muckshaw Ponds Preserve
Al and his birch crown, Muckshaw Ponds Preserve
Muckshaw Ponds
We continued on the yellow trail to a blue blazed one going left. I'd explored this stuff once before on an afternoon with Jillane, but never organized a bigger hike through it.
We followed the blue trail to a dead end and a bench overlooking the big Muckshaw Pond, a beautiful spot. After a short break we continued back to the Upper Woodslands Trail.
The trail took us down hill for a bit. It looked like the Nature Conservancy who manages the property had recently reblazed and put up more markers, and in a smarter way because they weren't hamered all the way into the trees.
DJ Ray had in the past ten minutes taken his birch sleeve hat and cut it into sort of a crown shape and took turns putting it on all of us.
Soon, we turned left from Upper Woodslands Trail onto a red blazed trail, the connector to the main red blazed Sink Hole Pond Trail. The connector took us down low over a strip of dry land between the big Muckshaw Pond and a smaller one to the right. It then turned left and skirted the waterway on a pretty section before beginning to ascend again.
Muckshaw Ponds Preserve, Sink Hole Pond Trail
Muckshaw Ponds Preserve, Sink Hole Pond Trail
When we got to the junction with the main Sink Hole Pond Trail, we couldn't tell. We couldn't see blazes going to the left at all where they should have been. The red markers they were using with a bit of blue in them were really not very visible in the woods. I decided just to turn left, and I think it was Al who spotted where it should be. We ascended over some steep rocks and were soon on the trail heading southwest. The trail ascended quite a bit to a cliff top in a very much ridge and valley type of topography, and there were some interesting views below.
Muckshaw Ponds Preserve, Sink Hole Pond Trail
Giant Oak along Muckshaw Ponds Preserve, Sink Hole Pond Trail
View along Muckshaw Ponds Preserve, Sink Hole Pond Trail
Muckshaw Ponds Preserve, Sink Hole Pond Trail
Muckshaw Ponds Preserve, Sink Hole Pond Trail
Muckshaw Ponds Preserve, Sink Hole Pond Trail
We hiked along this ridge and came across the largest tree we would see all day. Some sort of Oak, probably a Pin Oak. There were leaves of both Pin and I think Scarlet Oak on the ground, so it was most likely Pin Oak. A beautiful tree overlooking the Muckshaw Pond low land.
The trail descended for a bit and headed over a water area where there was another wet small pond area to the right draining to the main wetland to the left. I was able to cross mosty on a log, but everyone else had to walk on through.
We passed a couple other very large trees and then ascended yet again to another ridge area. The trail came to a driveway along the way, but paralelled it and kept away pretty much.
At the top of the ridge was another beautiful view of more of the Muckshaw Pond wetlands, now closer to it's confluence with the Pequest River.
Muckshaw Ponds Preserve, Sink Hole Pond Trail
The trail began to descend from here, and I was impressed that some really nice stone work had been done on the trail route, leading the pathway down hill on a stable route with stone steps near to the bottom.
Muckshaw Ponds Preserve, Sink Hole Pond Trail
We continued down hill and soon came out to Rt 618, directly across from Whittingham Wildlife Management Area and one of their parking lots. The trailhead here had a really nice wooden fence sort of entrance, with a kiosk and map box in the woods.
Muckshaw Ponds Preserve, Sink Hole Pond Trail
Rt 615 along Whittingham WMA
We turned right along the road for a bit to the intersection with Fredon Springdale Road on the left. Straight ahead of us, parallel with Rt 618 was the ruins of some sort of old stone mill I had seen so many times but never bother to go and check out. It was now convenient to do this.
Old mill ruin, Whittingham WMA
We walked straight on from the intersection skirting a field to the left, then into some weeds on a path to the very front of the old mill. It was tall and made of stone, though the center between the windows was cracked and appeared that it might not last all that long. It still had a roof, but it looked from what I could see like it was undermined somewhat.
To the left of the building was another stone structure which from a distance looked similar to a tall old iron furnace. This of course was not the case, and upon closer inspection looked more like an old barn of some kind that had long been gone, with a corner section still remaining.
There was busted door at the lowest level of the mill, but that only led to a dirt slope. I didn't see an easy way in, and there were no trespassing signs all around the mill. It was in close proximity to the house across the street, and I figured they might have owned it so we didn't bother exploring much more. I found out later it looks like it's on state property.
Old mill ruin, Whittingham WMA
Big tree in Whittingham WMA along Fredon Springdale Road
We turned onto Fredon Springdale Road and followed it for a bit. There were some nice big trees in this area as well.
We soon passed an office for State Fish, Game, and Wildlife and walked around the back of the building to see if anyone was there. There was a big kiosk and a map of Whittingham, but there was really nothing else of interesting, just wildlife magazines and the map in the kiosk itself, none for public.
We continued down the road a short distance to a gravel drive on the left leading down into Whittingham to a parking area. There was also a sign there for "Big Spring Trail". I had no idea there was an official trail in this WMA so I was excited to explore something new.
Big Spring, Whittingham WMA
Big Spring, Whittingham WMA
The trail took us along the edge of some cleared fields to our right. It then led through lines of trees and joined with other woods roads. It was pretty obvious which was the main route to follow for the "trail". At points where it didn't seem so obvious to us there were signs that read "Big Spring" or had arrows pointing us in the correct direction. We walked along the edges of fields, and then into the woods with still more woods roads breaking off, until we eventually came to Big Spring, a pond in the middle of the WMA with a swampy wetland around it. There was a structure out on the water and a little island near the middle; a very interesting secluded little spot in the middle of a giant piece of property.
Somewhat cleared area in Whittingham WMA
We continued following the woods road from here. There were cleared areas that seemed like they were part of forest managment projects. Not all trees were cleared, but certainly a lot had been removed. Maybe they were Autumn Olive thickets or something. I'm not sure. The woods road skirted a field area and then seemed to head back in the direction we had come. This was no good, so we cut down hill through woods off trail. We headed down hill and across a small tributary to the larger wetland, and then found another old woods road ascending on the other side.
Old woods road in Whittingham WMA
We were able to follow old woods roads on and off for a while. They were long unused, but we could see them, and in many cases they were clear enough to walk. We eventually came to a point where we couldn't see any more woods roads and we had to turn off and go off trail. There wasn't a lot of undergrowth yet, so it wasn't so tough. When I got to a promontory and looked down to see more old stone rows I figured we'd be fine, so I descended to them.
Old stone rows in Whittingham WMA
Wetlands of Whittingham WMA
Wetlands of Whittingham WMA
I headed through a gap in the stone walls and could see the vast wetland ahead of me, but no woods road continueing. I opted to try to descend toward it, thinking I might be okay along the shore, however when I got down there I realized there were a lot of briers and this was not a good route, so I called back up to the others to stay up on the upper ridge and descend ahead. I fought through the weeds to a somewhat clearer area, low between two outcropping areas with the wetland wide to the left.
Big tree in Whittingham WMA
Ridge outcropping in Whittingham WMA
In order to see what was ahead, and what the best route would be so that I wasn't leading the others into some mess again, I went ahead and ascended the next bit of ridge in front of me. There was a stand of evergreens above (and another couple of nice big trees), with a bit of a shelf that could have once been a road next to the water, but the evergreens looked most promising since I knew areas like that to be ususally free of undergrowth.
Making our way through a saddle between little ridges in Whittingham WMA
Wetlands in Whittingham WMA
When everyone else caught up, we started making our way through the woods toward the evergreens. This proved to be rather difficult. The woods went from being easy to pass through to a more dense understory. Not yet anything abrasive, it was still tough enough to fight through, so I opted to take the other route down closer to the water, which was actually much nicer. It was a good thing we did because when the evergreens came into view they were densely overgrown beneath the canopy, probably with multi flora rose.
Another big tree in Whittingham WMA's southwest side.
We made our way along the edge of the water out to a point where the slight shelf seemed to disappear. It was necessary to head up hill a bit over a knoll.
My cell phone, which I had been using for GPS and areal images, was now just about dead, and I was leaving it off, and turned it on occasionally just to make certain we were on the correct route. It made things tough for the last couple miles because it was no official trail and just sort of guessing where to go.
To my great dismay, when we reached the top of the knoll, I looked across to see an expanse of wetlands ahead of me, all blocking the direction we were going. I couldn't believe it, so I turned the phone on. When I looked at the GPS, I saw that we had reached a small ridge that went almost half way out onto the giant swamp and dead ended. We were in no doupt the most secluded spot in all of Whittingham WMA. We were forced from here to head up hill over this knoll. The wide open wetland to the left was something we'd have to go around in order to get back out to the road. We were still so far from Al's car that I figured we'd have to head to the north and just walk roads in order to get him back at a reasonable time.
We soon ended up bushwhacking heavily, in part under the evergreens I had dreaded going under before. I couldn't tell where we were going really, we just kept on. We all fell at some point, probably a few times. I came to a spot where we needed to head down hill, and I tripped and did a face plant right into the ground. It's a good thing there were no rocks or I'd be missing a tooth or two (or five).
Again to my great dismay, I found that we had done a full loop. We were back at the saddle we had bushwhacked across earlier where I'd told everyone else to stay up on the ridge. At the very least this let me know which way we needed to go to head to the north. We climbed back up the ridge we had come down out of the saddle, and I continued toward a hunters stand.
Finally a stroke of luck, this hunter had a good trail cleared directly to his stand. I turned left on it for a bit just to make certain it was a feasible route heading the direction we needed it to, and it was. In fact, it was a great trail. I called back to the others to follow me (they probably thought I was nuts and had begun to plan a mutiny by this time).
The trail led pretty directly, with a few turns, down hill into the saddle. It was a good thing this route was cut because the undergrowth around us was intense. Even logs were cut off of the pathway. There were several other pathways leading off in other directions as well, but we followed the most prominent route.
The route soon became a woods road in another cleared area similar to the ones we were in before. I had a moment of panic thinking we'd backtracked even further yet, so I put my gps on and we were not only now going the correct way, we had covered considerable distance in a short time. There was another nice giant tree at a stone row we crossed, and the stones had angles to them on the left wall that might have been cornerstones to some ancient building.
There were other side roads leading off in other directions, and soon another field as well. I was tempted to go to try to get my bearings, but fought the urge and stayed on the woods road. In the few places where snow was still present there were many foot prints, so I figured we MUST be close to some sort of access point, so we kept going.
We came to more fields, and the woods road stayed between two of them in a line of trees up the center. I rejoiced when I saw a barn to the left, sort of a hunter training area, and a parking area.
Stone ruins in Whittingham WMA
To the right I could see some old stone ruins. The barn itself that was to our left did not look very old at all, as it had a concrete foundation and looked rather new. After I walked over to have a closer look at the old stone frame of a building, I noted that directly behind me was a very nicely built stone wall with a set of steps going up into the middle of it. This must have been the site of the farm house that would have stood here. It had obviously been gone for quite some time.
Probably a former farm house site in the southwest side of Whittingham WMA
Old dam ruin and creek in southwestern Whittingham WMA
Farm view from the Whittingham WMA access road off county rt 608
We started following the dirt access road from here out of the old farm area. We crossed over a creek here where there were ruins of a dam, or at least probably a dam, just to the left of the bridge. We continued out the road with a very nice view of another old farm across the fields to the right, and then came out on county route 608.
Old lime kiln near Huntsville
Old Woolverton Tavern at Huntsville
Pequest River at Huntsville
Old cemetery at Huntsville area
We turned left onto Rt 608, in high spirits for having gotten out of this giant piece of property. I had thought we were closer to where we had left Al's car than we were; we came to the next state WMA lot and I realized the one we left Al's car at was a bit further by maybe a mile.
Al had wanted to be done by five, and I think we were only two minutes late, which was amazing considering what we'd just gone through. As per my Google Earth scaling, we had done already twelve miles at this point!
We said farewell to Al and continued on down Rt 608.
We came to the intersection with Wells Corner Road and turned left. DJ Ray and Christina were both pretty tired. Honestly even I was pretty fatigued. I had been sweating like crazy, and we had all fallen down. My face stung a bit from the face plant I did in the evergreen forest, and I had a couple little cuts. DJ Ray started calling friends that lived in the area to see if they'd be willing to come and pick us up. He was planning on having dinner with his parents that night, and he called his dad, but he was unavailable.
We made a right hand turn onto Mackerly Road, and continued on. We headed down hill and back up, and soon passed the Green Hills School on our right. We continued on this road out to Pequest Road and turned left. It took us down hill and within view of the Pequest Fill, still the largest railroad fill in the world, an abominable mountain of earth with a level grade looking like some crazy dam. Somewhere on our road walk route we went by a nice little old lime kiln as well.
We were now in Huntsville, a little hamlet along the Pequest River. This was the site of the Woolverton Tavern, a colonial tavern with many ties to the American Revolution, now a private residence. We crossed the Pequest River at Huntsville and soon came to an intersection where Pequest Road went left and Sutton Road continued straight. To the right of this intersection was a great old cemetery, which of course we had to check out.
In the old Huntsville Cemetery
The cemetery had a weird thing holding a lot of American flags rather than having a flag on the grave of each veteran. We headed out of the cemetery and crossed onto Pequest Road. There was a wall there along the edge of the road with some snow remaining along it, but there was also a big crack in the road, I guess some sort of drain or something along the wall. DJ Ray decided to crawl into it, and we joked about how it would be a great place to climb out of and scare drivers.
DJ Ray in a hole along Pequest and Sutton Roads in Huntsville
We walked along Pequest Road, and DJ Ray got a call back from his dad at some point that he would come to pick us up. It was getting quite dark at this point.
DJ Ray disposed some his empty beer bottles in someone's recycle can. We turned left onto County Rt 603 to the little hamlet of Brighton, with a lovely pond on the right hand side of us (though I can't remember what it was called).
I forgot the name of this lake in Brighton NJ.
Just as we approached the intersection of Brighton Road, Mr. Cordts showed up to pick us up. At this time, we had done just over fifteen miles. I was surprised that it was this much scaling it off, but happy.
If I could lead two more long hikes before March 19th, the fourteen year anniversery hike would be my 550th such event.
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