Hike #639; Manaquan

 Hike #639; Manasquan

7/15/12 Manasquan Reservoir to Manasquan Beach with Derek Baker, Gregg Hudis, Carol and Rob Creamer, Brad Ladutko, Lyz Hagenbuch, Jude Shabrach, Martyann G, Michele Valerio, Joe Tag, Bonnie Peters, and Susie Duncan.

Group crossing a creek

My next hike would be another point to point, a similar one to a previous hike I had done with some of the same components, but mostly new. Two things were realized leading into this hike. First, it was the Summer time and we simply must do a beach hike. Second, the past three hikes had been so brutal I needed to post something that would be easier, more relaxing.I came up with a trip that would lead between the ocean in Manasquan and the Manasquan Reservoir in Monmouth County, which has a trail system. We met in the morning at Fisherman's Cove Conservation Area in Manasquan, which we'd hiked through several years earlier, adjacent to some of the original Manasquan Inlet, an estuary known as the Glimmer Glass. From there, we shuttled as few cars as we could for an easy trip to Manasquan Reservoir to start walking.

We found a great parking area that was open until 9:30, so in case we ended up far behind we would probably be alright.

We started the hike From this parking lot on the east side and then began walking south across a levee next to Georgia Tavern Road. The trail turned into the woods on the other side and we turned off of it to the left toward the Environmental Center. A trail led us to a little dead end spot that had a view over the reservoir. We then backtracked to the visitor's center and wandered on in. This place was really nice, and well manned. It made me wonder how Monmouth can have such a presence with their park system while Hunterdon, which is technically richer cannot sustain their own maintenance department.

We wandered through and checked out the exhibits. There was a weird "fish cave" that was meant for kids to crawl in, full of plush fish toys. John Bradford and I of course had to crawl on through.

Once we were done in the environmental center, we continued on across the parking lot to make our way back to the perimeter trail. This trail was overall pretty wide. It was nice to get new maps at the Environmental Center which showed a new trail not on my older maps, and it would fit rather well into my hike.

There were a lot of people using this trail system. A few moments couldn't go by without having at least one person jog or ride a bike by. More often than not they would be in some sort of group.

The trail was so relaxing that it just sort of flew by. We didn't stop by the other visitor's center, but rather kept to the trail until we were near the east side. There, a side trail led off to the right  toward the Bear Swamp Tracts. This nice spur trail took us across Old Tavern Road and then out to ball fields on Preventorium Road. Once there, we cross the road into more ball fields and headed to the far northeast corner of them. From there, it wasn't a far cut into the woods to another ball field area, this one off of Old Tavern Road again. We turned from these and crossed the road near a correctional facility and library area. We ended up passing  a senior center and then bushwhacking into woods among Mountain Laurel steeply. Derek commented that he had thought we were done with these the previous week. Indeed, these were not what we were expecting to see in the inner coastal plain.

We managed to get down hill, cross a wet area, then ascend to dry land a bit, and come close to a golf course. From there, we turned right on a woods road along a utility right of way, which i assume based on arial images was at one time some sort of spur to the railroad ahead.

There was a guy in a cart on the golf course who stopped as we barely skirted it and headed directly into the woods on the assumed railroad bed. He watched us as we disappeared into the trees. The rigth of way was somewhat grown in with grass, but easy to walk save for the muddy spots that crossed the path. We followed this to the active tracks and turned left, north toward Farmingdale. The tracks crossed Manasquan River ahead. I tried to head through woods directly across but it wasn't worth it, so we turned to use the track bridge, then turned right along the Manasquan River following it down stream. Jude and I went in for a dip, but no one else was into it because it was kind of mucky looking.

There was a good clear path along the river for a while, which we followed until we got to an open area where the utility line was a gravel drive heading sort of northeast.We followed the line which led us out to Rt Squankum Yellowbrook Road. We ignored all signs and continued to follow the grassy utility right of way across, adjacent to some buildings and into more woods. The right of way took us to Rt 524. We found here the Brewer Cemetery, a nearly abandoned cemetery with high grass and very old tomb stones. Of course, we had to go and check it out. We wandered through the cemetery, dominated by 19th century engravings, and Jude found one that read "Consort of" on a stone. We assumed it meant "lover", but found later that it meant "spouse". Still, it was an uncommon word to see on a tomb stone.

We continued from here along the utility right of way which led us to the abandoned Freehold and Jamesburg Railroad in Allaire State Park. We had followed this once before in August of 2008. We turned right to follow it southeast. The previous time, we ran across Rt 195, but this time we turned right on a trail heading to the camp grounds in Allaire State Park and made use of their showers. I must have used the good one, because it was hot and had good pressure. The women said their side was cold I think, and Derek's was too hot, and someone else said they had no pressure. Either way, it was good to get rid of the excess sweat.We continued from here trying to make our way to Atlantic Ave to cross 195 safely, but made a wrong turn and ended up on the rail bed again. We had to turn once more and succeeded in the second attempt. On the other side of the highway underpass we turned left on a non standard orange blazed trail. It took us to the rail bed again, but we turned left off of it on a loop through the northern part of the park. The trail looped back down to the south and eventually ended at Atlantic Avenue again near Spring Meadow Golf Course. We took a break along the road and pulled off a plethora of deer ticks. It was amazing that we could even see them. I can't remember ever having so many of those tiny ones on me at one time. I'd had plenty more of the large ones, but this was bad when it came to deer ticks. There were also a lot of lone star ticks.

We bushwhacked across the road a short distance to hit the trail. The rail bed was obliterated by the golf course in this area, but the trail was routed around, to rejoin the rail bed on the east side where it becomes the Edgar Felix Memorial Bike path.

We soon reached the Hospital Road and crossed, then crossed the large foot bridge over the Garden State Parkway. We were closing in on Manasquan fast. This section of trail went by fast as well. I remembered this section from before; in late 2008 I had had a mental break down on this stretch of trail, and I thought I might feel something of it walking through it again. Fortunately, I didn't feel anything much. Just a sense that it is in the past, and I'm glad I'm through it. My relationship with Cathy Fisher at the time had been falling apart, where I felt I was trying to hold it together without support. It was nice to be in this position and think of Jillane, and what was becoming a positive turn of events with us. It was nice to pass this spot without remorse or even any discomfort.

We continued on along the trail and the miles just seemed to fly by, passing through Allenwood and neighborhoods on the way to Manasquan. The trail ended at Main Street. Everyone but me went to a store and got ice cream and stuff; I went and rested on a curb further on. We followed the rail right of way through a parking lot across for a block to Osborn Ave where it went onto private land. We turned left here, then right on Atlantic for a bit. The railroad would have crossed Broad Street at the intersection with Atlantic roughly. We turned left on Broad, and there was a school on the right hand side surrounded by chain link fences.  We turned right to head around the back of some business, then went to the southeast side of the parking area where we found a path leading into a tiny swath of woods. There was a chain link fence on the other side of a tributary, and a path following the swath to the east. We followed this for a bit, which was kind of a neat change in scenery that was unexpected. We emerged at Park Ave I think, stopped at a store and then moved on to cross Rt 71 following a nice relaxing break.

Our next route was Stockton Lake Blvd. It bordered it's namesake lake and had a nice little path along the left side for a bit, which offered nice water views. We then had to return to the road and continue following streets, mainly Ocean Ave out to the beach. There was a sign reading "Welcome to the Jersey Shore", which was cool just as we were finishing. We walked right out onto the beach, which was really great, and had a very nice swim. The waves were getting really big due to an approaching storm, who's clouds we could see out on the coast to the south.

After the swim, we made our way back up the beach and onto the roads the remaining few blocks to Fisherman's Cove Conservation Area on 3rd Ave.

This was just the kind of relaxing hike we needed, complete with a great ocean swim at the end.

I needed the rest badly. The night before, I arrived home from work exhausted, and sat down. I immediately passed out, unintentionally. When I awoke, I looked at the time on my cell phone: 6:50. I posted a 7:00 meeting time for Wal Mart in Mansfield. I began to panick, knowing I'd be late. I ran and hurriedly put on ridicules clothes, couldn't find my wallet, but still ran to my car and took off for Mansfield, texting Derek and Gregg whom I was supposed to meet along the way. Derek answered my texts saying "I think you got the wrong number". I was freaking out. Did someone change my contact numbers? I had to look back at my conversation with Derek to see that it was correct. I was also texting Gregg, but didn't get an answer till later.

I finally had to call Derek up. I asked where he was when he didn't arrive at Wal Mart at 7. He told me he was in Sussex County playing golf or something. I asked "you're not hiking?". I forget what he said, but then I asked "What day is it?"."Saturday" he replied."What time is it??" I asked."7:10" he replied.

I was starting to understand but had to relax for a minute."Dude, you're 12 hours early!" Derek told me.I was in shock, not believing I could make such a mistake, but then my exhaustion was having an effect on my mind. I still felt confused and I told Derek I had to go home and lay down, there's something wrong with me. He told me he'd see me in like 11.5 hours, and we said goodbye. I went home and went back to sleep for a while, too tired to laugh at how ridicules I was.