Hike #582; Mt Paul to Sparta

 Hike #582; Mt. Paul to Sparta

9/1/11 Mt. Paul to Sparta with Amanda Rosenblatt and Chris "Cupcake" Kroschinski

Inside

My next hike would be another random point to point trip between Mt. Paul and Sparta. This would also be Amanda's last time out hiking with us, as she headed out to Italy for the season.

I spotted my car in Sparta and Amanda and I headed up to Mt. Paul. This former monastery property was acquired by the state of NJ some time back. The Highlands Trail already passed through the property when it was still in use, but now it sat vacant.

Signage

We parked at the entrance road where the no trespassing signs were left up in addition to the state park signs, to scare people off. we then began to follow the old road up hill to the main area.

Garage

Driveway

The road was long, and it was in rather good shape. I knew from work that the guys I work with go up there regularly. We first passed a trail on the right which headed off. I had a copy of the trail map of the area, but we wouldn't get to exploring much of it this time. We continued on and there was a garage on the left, just before the large main building came into view ahead. This didn't look like the unique old monestary on Rt 206, and there was a house off to the left of the building.

House

Main building

The house looked rather modern, and the monastery building was certainly modern. It was made of like a brick material, and resembled a modern school. There were weeds growing out of the pavement which worried me that the place would be wrecked soon because it looks abandoned. The lack of boards and such on windows just invites vandals.

Main building

We walked over to the house first and had a look inside. It was very nice, with no items left inside really except for a table and chairs, a nice kitchen set.

Abandoned house

Abandoned house

Abandoned house

Stony Brook Lake, Mt. Paul

We left the house and walked over to the main building to have a look.

Building

Holy sink

We went in and there was a certain feel like a school. Halls went off in both directions, and there were large stairs going up. We checked out every room.

There was a marble plaque in the wall from when the building was built in the 70s, a huge auditorium, stainless steel sinks...this place was in great shape. It's really a shame there is no tenant for it. I kept thinking of how I have to come back to the site in the Winter when no one is around, it must look incredible. There were a few people further down on the driveway walking dogs and such, so the area does get some use.

The upstairs level had a balcony, and it's a good thing that we didn't close the door behind us because my keys did not work on that one from the outside!

The entire building lacked the feel of a religious institution, save for one stained glass window in a corridor inside, one of the most interesting things about the building.

Wow...

My phone is still missing the back from when I lost it in St. Peters Pa. Mirror shot here.

There was a great view from the upper level off to Stony Brook Pond. We wandered around the building for quite some time before moving off. We walked back through the large kitchen area and around the corner past a giant halloway to the front door. We then exited the building and turned left off of the access road on a dirt pathway.

The map said this was a cemetery...

The roadway took us to a giant open area with a big cross in the  middle of the field. The map I obtained from Kittatinny Valley State Park noted this was a cemetery. There were no graves though, just a large cleared area. I wondered what that was all about. Just down hill and to the south of this open area was a giant concrete structure, which I figured might be some sort of a mausoleum. I cannot be sure.

Mossoleum?

We headed back onto the road back down to Amanda's car. Cupcake was on his way to meet up but was running late. He would shortly arrive and continue to hike from Ryker Lake. It was sad to say goodbye to Amanda, as it would be the longest period of time we'd go without seeing her since we met.

Tree falling on Highlands Trail near Mt. Paul

The area was still a mess from flooding. The Highlands Trail from Mt. Paul heading north was under water shortly before this visit, and there were branches and uprooted trees. If it weren't for the blazes I would not have know where the trail was.

Highlands Trail bridge over Russia Brook. When I tried to put the bridge back I realized the watrr was still too high.

I got to the Russia Brook, but the bridge was washed down. Fortunately it had been secured with a line to a tree, so I figured it would be good to do some volunteer work, and I tried placing it back across the way it should be. I found out by doing this that the stream was still swollen far beyond it's normal width because the bridge did not nearly span the length of the creek as it should.

Edison Park area trail map

Ryker Lake

Fireplace in Ryker Lake Wildlife Management Area

The Highlands Trail continued up around Ryker Lake, but this time the route was to follow the side trail to the main parking area for Ryker Lake Wildlife Management Area. The lake was beautiful, as the sun was going down.

Cupcake and I followed the trail along the south shore of Ryker Lake, which then became a swamp, part of the Edison Bog Preserve. Cupcake told me this was where he did his last hike with our friend Christina Manley, who passed away the previous April. Still so sad that she's gone.

We continued along the trail, and it became difficult to follow after a while. The recent high waters had made the already overgrown and difficult to follow trail even worse. We somehow got off of it all together, and had to do some bushwhacking. We ended up on a knoll sorrounded apparently by water, with houses just to the left of us, separated by water, and more swamp to the right. We bushwhacked and found a dry area to get back to the trail. When the trail turned more to the north, we bushwhacked off of it to the west a bit, and soon found an old woods road to follow.

The woods road continued to the north and eventually hit another woods road, which we followed to the left. It was now getting pretty dark, but the roadway was wide and getting through was alright. This led us out to an opening, a former quarried area. Cupcake said he'd recognized this. We could hear cars by this time, which were on the nearby Edison Ave. We made a wrong turn (my fault) briefly, and then we headed along a path that led us out to the road where we turned right toward Ogdensburg.

We headed down the road, which was now closed again, as it was my last time hiking it the previous year. Some of the houses still had power after the recent storm, but the ones lowest before going through the undeveloped sections emitted the low humming noise of generators running.

We descended and soon reached Heaters Pond. We considered jumping in, but neither of us did. We then followed the road down hill further. When we got about half way down there were power company guys there telling us to stay away from the live wires that were down. We passed right through and continued into Ogdensburg. It was here we were joined by our friend Shelly who lived only a few blocks away. She had a friend with her that had been helping her deal with her flood damage at her house. Being right near the Wallkill River, an old railroad culvert would back up the water and flood the entire area. The water would come to a high level in her basement! A lot of stuff unfortunately got ruins.

We walked with her back to  her house and got to see her cat, Mike, who we found on a hike in the Summer of 2009.

A stop at Shelly's house

It was amazing how much bigger he had gotten since that time.

A stop at Shelly's house

We hung out for a bit, and Shelly gave me rice or something I think it was. I was pretty hungry and had probably had far too much "Tilt" to drink (nasty cheap alcoholic beverage). It came in handy.I was insanely tired, so it's a wonder I can remember anything from this at all.

Shelly's cat, Mike, saved on a hike in Summer 2009

From Shelly's house, we turned left and followed back roads. We turned left again and headed past the Sterling Hill Mining Museum, and then continued on through somewhat quiet residential areas. The road made a sharp turn to the left again and then headed back out to Rt 517 where we turned right. I was practically falling asleep while walking at this point. A train came by on the former NYS&W tracks which paralleled the road while we went by, and I was considering walking on the tracks for a bit, but then opted against it because it would be awful just trying to go the little bit extra up hill to get to it, even if it meant staying off the road.

While we walked, a municipal police officer stopped us to ask what we were doing, and was fine with it so left.

We continued on along the road, and stopped in the middle of the bridge over Rt 15 to check out a giant dead moth, and another cop car, this time a state one, stopped by us. They asked us "what are you guys up to?" and Cupcake replied in an overly happy tone "Hiking!", to which the officer replied "Cool!". They were looking for some car speeding around the area, and abruptly took off. A second officer was getting out of the car when the other officer motioned him quickly to get back in and they shot off.

I was thinking we were much further away than I had thought, and so we called up Shelly to bail us out. She arrived and drove us the remaining distance back to my car, which to my great surprise was less than a mile away, and we would have made it fine and in not so much time after all.

Apparently, I also forgot to mention consuming all of Shelly's garden tomatoes and falling asleep for a bit on her couch...