Hike #603; Port Murray/Point Mountain Area

 Hike #603; Port Murray/Point Mountain Area

12/24/11 Port Murray to Lebanon Twp. with David Noble, Jack Lowry, and Eldon Allen

Walking Mountaintop Road

For Christmas eve, I once again arranged at hike that would end at my grandfather's house, which had become a tradition like many others. Every year I would do a different version of the hike either passing by or ending at the house where I in part grew up. This year I would showcase the new Warren County acquisition of the Morris Canal at Port Murray's brickyard property.

I was surprised not to have a larger group. I was confident at least five would come, but more likely ten. It ended up only being a couple of us. The good news was that my old friend David Noble was back from Atlanta, Georgia, where he moved nearly three years prior. It was good to see my old friend again and catch up.

Morris Canal Inclined Plane #5 West turbine chamber and tail race tunnel

After meeting at my grandfather's house, we shuttled in my car down to Port Murray and parked at the Comcast Recreation Fields off of Brickyard Road. We walked Brickyard Road past the junk yard and over the railroad bridge from here. The county has "official use" access on that road, but it is maintained privately by a guy who doesn't want anyone on it. Fortunately, we didn't see him or anyone while walking the road.

Morris Canal Inclined Plane #5 West tail race tunnel

Morris Canal Inclined Plane #5 West tail race tunnel

Morris Canal Inclined Plane #5 West tail race tunnel

We passed by the old brick building, and then past the empty old brick yard into a wooded area where we turned right onto a smaller dirt drive, leading to the site of the Morris Canal's former Inclined Plane #5 West. An incredible study site, the entire turbine chamber from about 1840 and it's tail race tunnel had been completely excavated around, and part of the turbine chamber wall knocked out. It was like it was intended to be a study area. Most of the inclined plane itself had been plowed away to an unrecognizable slope.

Morris Canal Inclined Plane #5 West tail race tunnel and turbine chamber

We made our way up to the end of the tail race tunnel. The weeds had grown up quite a lot since my last visit over three years prior. We made our way through the tunnel into the turbine chamber itself, a tight squeeze.

Morris Canal Inclined Plane #5 West turbine chamber

It looked as incredible as ever. David was wearing an Indiana Jones style hat, and we joked about how this looked like masonry work right out of the Temple of Doom. Much of the floor where the turbine would have sat was now all filled in with dirt. The Turbine was probably taken out for scrap, sadly.

Morris Canal Inclined Plane #5 West turbine chamber

We made our way out of the giant missing section of the chamber and down to the ATV paths through the area. We headed out behind the Inclined Plane site and followed these paths to the top of a dug out area, and followed ATV paths around it to the right. I used my GPS on my phone to guide us east. We reached a clearing and turned left, then headed up hill on some sort of old woods road. A guy had come to a recent Board of Recreation meeting and described a road like this used to remove all of the huge old trees prior to the sale of the property. This must have been it.

The path sort of continued up hill, but we turned right bushwhacking a short distance out to Hoffman Road where we turned right. We followed Hoffman Road down hill to Port Murray Road and turned right again to cross the railroad tracks and then head up hill to the Mansfield Recreation Field park. Unfortunately, all of the trails through here were now closed "until further notice".

Mansfield Township Park trails closed off.

This park was the subject of some problems, because township officials had tried to close it to any non Mansfield Township residents. However, they took money from the county's Municipal and Charitable Conservancy Trust Fund, which meant they could not deny public access. I figured they closed it either for hunting or out of spite, although they claim it was closed due to storm damage. The park is pretty much flat, so that's ridicules.

We continued down Port Murray Road and cut across the municipal building land, then across the elementary school property. We continued to the left, walked a piece of their running track, then bullied between evergreen trees to an adjacent church property, then out to Rt 57.

Penwell dam

Musconetcong River, Penwell

We crossed Rt 57 and descended to the right onto Penwell Road. At the bottom of the hill, we turned left onto the abandoned portion of Penwell Road that when I was younger used to go back out to Rt 57. We passed by the Penwell dam, and then went by the rope swings where I'd spent so many of my Summers swimming after school and work. We then exited the road back onto 57 at one of the prettiest spots along it's entire route, with the slack water of the Musconetcong in clear view to the northeast.

Musconetcong River, Penwell

We continued on Rt 57 past the entrance to the Columbia 2 junk yard, then on past Watters Road. Jack texted me that he would be joining us in about an hour, which was cool. I was contacted by several other people around this time telling me that they weren't going to make it.

I noticed for the first time that the left turn onto Watters Road, the intended truck route to the Borealis corporation was pointing in the wrong direction. Silly people.

Old Turnpike Road Bridge under renovation

Old Turnpike Road bridge being renovated

We soon reached the intersection with Old Turnpike Road. Here, there is a fantastic old stone arch bridge that was now under renovation. The side walls were completely removed and repaired on the Hunterdon County side so far. There were chain link fences barring anyone from walking or driving across. The fences went right to the edge of the bridge which would make trying tough. We had already been held back from the Mansfield park, so we weren't going around this one. We made our way along the edges of the fence, which was a little unnerving, hanging over the steep dropoff to the Musconetcong River. We made it across and no one tried to stop us.

Crossing Old Turnpike Road bridge during renovation

Seasonal view from Point Mountain north

Stone wall on Point Mountain North section

On the other side, we passed the Behr Farm, and then turned right into the parking area for Point Mountain North. Here, we picked up the white blazed trail that I helped to lay out for the County while working there. We followed the white blazed trail through the overgrown fields parallel with the former north end of Hermit's Lane, now only in use from the south end on Penwell Road. We then began ascending the mountain as the trail found it's way onto an old carriage road. There were so many branches and trees down over the trail it was heartbreaking. I knew that since I was laid off from the county that no one was taking care of the trails at all, and it was obvious.

We turned left onto the blue blazed trail which followed another older logging road with some good seasonal views to the north. Where this trail turned from the old road, there were so many blow downs it was pretty much impossible to see where the trail went, save for the blazes. The blue paint blazes were still looking as fine as when I first painted them a couple years prior.

We continued on the blue blazed trail and then turned left onto the red one, which took us through the giant stone wall that Bill Clother had found a few years before. We then made our way back to the white blazed trail which would take us to the main section of the park. We took a nice break near the top before descending.

Seasonal view on Point Mountain North

We followed the white trail down hill and under a deer stand that had been there for what seemed like forever. There were more branches down in this area, but the trail was pretty easy to follow, thanks mostly to my turn blazes I'd added. We had a nice view across the gap in Musconetcong Mountain on the way down toward Penwell Road and the creek.

At the bottom, there were two guys rummaging around in the woods. They told me they were geocaching, and I then recognized them as having met them on one of the rail trails near Clinton, I think the Landsdown Trail. We continued across the road and along the creek, then to where the house used to stand on county property that was torn down more than a year prior. We made our way over to the small parking area that had been created here, and waited for Jack to show up. It didn't take more than five minutes for him to pull up, and we were off.

We had a tough time crossing the creek here, as it was quite high and some of the rocks that were put in by a boy scout had seemingly been washed out of place. We managed to get across, but I twice got my right foot wet, which was awful because it was a cold day.

We followed the white trail on to the Ridge Trail (orange) at the end of the Rosen Fields and turned right. We met two other hikers here who asked me how to do the loop. I told them how they'd get around, and that we'd probably see them again as we were doing part of the loop in the opposite direction.

Musconetcong River in Point Mountain Reservation

We followed the fields to the junction of the blue riverside trail an the Ridge Trail, and turned left heading down hill through the fields and woods to the Musconetcong River. Once along the river, we met another lady looking for how to do the entire loop, and so I told her the same stuff I told the two guys we had seen just a bit earlier. When the blue trail split, we kept to the right along the beautiful section of the Musconetcong.

Point Mountain Bridge

We continued to Point Mountain Road, and then crossed directly next to the old truss bridge. We passed by a rock, and I could still see remnants of the initials I'd put in the log from when I was with Cathy many years before. We continued on this trail, which wasn't as badly overgrown as I'd feared it would be, but when it began to turn away from the river, it was sad to see that the puncheon that Jillane and I had built had washed down stream and I didn't even see where it was. I had told Hunterdon Parks that we needed to put stakes in the ground so that it would not wash away, with trail markers on them to serve the double purpose, but they wouldn't let me complete the job (they didn't let me start either, Jillane and I built it together on our own time).

Ascent of Point Mountain

Ascending Point Mountain

We continued around a corner in the trail, having conversations about music and such, and then crossed Point Mountain Road again to the head of the orange blazed Ridge Trail, which would take us steeply to the top. On the way to the top, we passed by the two guys we had talked to earlier, who had had no problem following my directions and were heading back down to their cars. We paused to chat with them at the last corner before making the final ascent to the view point.

View of Anderson from Point Mountain

Once we reached the top, the view was as clear as I'd ever seen it, with the views of the mountains all in focus. Although there were quite a few cars in the parking lot below, it was surprising to see that no one else was hanging around at the view point.

View toward Port Murray from Point Mountain

Farm view from Point Mountain

View toward Changewater from Point Mountain

View toward Hengst Farm from Point Mountain

View of Mt No More and Kittatinny Ridge beyond from Point Mountain

Jack on Point Mountain

David on Point Mountain

View from Point Mountain

Me on Point Mountain

We could see clearly all around, Port Murray ahead, the elementary school we had just walked across, the tower at Comcast near where we had parked, down the Musconetcong Valley toward Butler's Park and Changewater, with the rest of Musconetcong Mountain in the distance, the Hengst Farm where I had worked in High School, the village of Anderson and the farm lands around it, the Pohatcong Mountain ahead, with County House Mountain and West Oxford Mountain sort of framing Mount No More, like a camel hump directly behind it. Beyond Mount No More, the flat blue line behind it was the Kittatinny Ridge in clear focus, and we could even see the arc of that ridge that was Mt. Tammany of the Delaware Water Gap.

I jumped from the first rock to the second one, a feat that usually freaks everyone out, and that once gave me a bad foot injury while hiking there with Katie Smith. No such problems this time.

We left the view point, and then made our way further along the ridge, past the intersection with the shorter yellow blazed trail to Point Mountain Road. As we made the next slight ascent (as this was not yet the top of Point Mountain), we passed the lady we had passed along the riverside, on her way to close in the loop. She told me it was blazed very well, and she had no trouble following it. She also told me that was because it was similar to the far end of Round Valley. I asked if that was the county's Cushetunk Mountain Nature Preserve. She replied that it was, and that it was marked the same way. Ironically, that's because I marked those trails as well! It was good to know that someone was making use of my work, and appreciated it, because it was like pulling teeth trying to get Hunterdon Parks to agree to change their blazing to the international standard, with turns and such.

"Dinosaur Foot Print" on Point Mountain

We turned at the next crest so I could show Jack and David the "Dinosaur Footprint", a dip in the top of a big rock that was not in fact a dinosaur foot print, but was shaped like one.

We continued from here along the ridge, and made our way through a small saddle and to the very top of Point Mountain where there was a rock jutting straight forward, at an elevation of 934 feet.

View from Point Mountain

We had a nice view here of more of Mansfield Township, and unfortunately Columbia 2 junk yard.

We continued from here and lost a little elevation, along the Ridge Trail. We continued on the Ridge Trail until another white blazed trail went off to the right through a stone row. I wanted to call this the "Farm Trail", but they wouldn't agree to name any more of the trails in Hunterdon (because some of them are idiots). We continued through a wet area, which was wetter than I'd ever seen it before, and then past the ruins of the old barn site. Where the trail turned left away from a former farm road, someone had knocked one of my marker posts, part of an old utility pole, down into the weeds. It was tough to see where the trail went. Again, a cinder block I had marked was also kicked over a bit further up. Very disheartening.

Someone cut the trail blazes out on Point Mountain

We followed the trail up hill into some young forest, and then hit another old woods road. This was where the side trail led off to Camp Bernie. It was obvious someone had driven back this route very recently, with fresh tire tracks. We turned right, and I think my trail marker post may have been missing from here as well, and then headed out to Point Mountain Road again and crossed. I found a double plastic blaze laying in the weeds. It had been completely cut out of a sapling.

Restored wetland at Point Mountain South

Wattles Fields, Point Mountain South

We made our way through the woods and passed the other junction with the yellow blazed trail which leads another way to the overlook, and then continued on the white blazed trail. This took us through woods, past the old spring house and truck form the forties, and then out to the Wattles Fields off of Mountain Top Road. There were more trees down through here. It was neat to see the wetlands restoration work on the edges of the fields starting to look more natural, one of the last things I got to work with during my time with  Hunterdon.

Wattles Fields, Point Mountain South

I was surprised to see that most of the entire field had recently been bailed rather than brush hogged. Huge bails were laying out over the field, which added an interesting look to it. As we continued to walk, we saw a guy and his son with a locator out on the field apparently looking for metal stuff. I joked that I should ask if they were looking for arrowheads. I told them of a junk pile I knew of with old bottles in the woods nearby, but they didn't seem to care.

Geese on Mountaintop Road

As we came out to the parking area on Mountain Top Road, the last trail marker post I had put in was half knocked over. It looked like it was probably hit with a tractor or something. We turned left onto the road and continued past Jay Garish's farm property, and over the tiny creek with lots of geese as usual.

My grandfather on Mountaintop Road

It wouldn't be long before we came up the last hill before reaching my grandfather's house, near the Henry Addicks Orchard, and he was walking down the road to greet us. He didn't join us earlier because he'd just gone through the seventh operation on his eye to try to restore eyesight, which was sadly unsuccessful. I had brought him for the first surgery the day before my house burnt down, well over a year before, and it still wasn't fixed.

Old house collapsing at Addicks Orchard

Along Mountaintop Road

At my grandfather's house

Hanging at my grandfather's house

We continued to walk on to his house just ahead. I noticed to the left of us that the old abandoned house in front of Addicks' Orchard was in terrible shape. The entire right side of it was collapsing beyond repair. My grandfather told us that they ahd put a lot of money into fixing up the inside of it, but that they just gave up and lost their investment. The place was certainly beyond repair by now.

We got to the house, where my Aunt Bonnie and cousin Nikki were waiting, and they'd prepared some pizzas for us. We alll sat and talked about all sorts of things, as we always do, and had quite a nice time. David passed out on the couch for a nap (this was his first hike in about three years!).

We had gotten the hike done very fast. In that way, sometimes a smaller group can be better.

It was good for me to get back to some of these places I'd always loved, after being away from them for over a year. I felt like the day was a metaphor of life in so many ways; the turbine chamber that was now preserved by the county, but overgrown; the historic old turnpike bridge being repaired, the Point Mountain trail system neglected and blocked by nature, mine and Cathy's initials on the log rotting away with each season that passes, the Addicks house collapsing...it was proof that the only things we can hold onto in life are the things we nurture.

At some point we need to decide which are worth preserving, and which we need to let go. Our conversations always led back to us not misrepresenting ourselves, how we've all found our ways of dealing with people around us, following our passions without shame and learning how to be more assertive, whether that be in action or by a simple lowering of the voice.

I had the best Christmas eve I've had in a very long time.

My grandfather talking about music and life with Jack