Hike #641; Morristown Area Loop

 Hike #641; Morristown Area Loop

7/25/12 Morristown Area Loop with Gregg Hudis, Cory Salveson, Joe Tag, Lyz Hagenbuch, Chis "Colenel" Nani, Dave ?, Cesco and Giancarlo Tetto, ?, Jillane and Jamie Becker, Chrissi Carney, and Alex Chujko.

The group in Loantaka Reservation

My next hike would be another night trip. This time, I had a meeting to attend in Morristown, for which I was permitted to leave work early.

I'm getting to where a big part of me is really enjoying the meetings, sometimes to break down some of the pointless BS that often goes into these things. The meeting seemed forced and like no one had a direction to go. It was a very prestigious feeling, being in the meeting room within the Frelinghuysen Arboretum with important people from throughout the state. It was great to sit among these people, friends many of them, whom I've come to respect so much.I arrived a bit early and wandered on in. I was not dressed for the occasion, in a plaid shirt and shorts. So many others were dressed casual, but like they'd just come off of an office job. I'd been attacked by bees and had jumped into Spruce Run Reservoir. My work attire might have been somewhat more acceptable for the event.Still, it was no worry of mine. The lack of direction of the meeting made me feel a bit more comfortable shortly.I immediately greeted many familiar faces. Bob Barth from the Canal Society of NJ said hello and asked how "the woods" was (and it was nice to be known as this guy who's always out). Soon, I saw my old friend Ron Rice who was instrumental on my canal hikes in the east, and was introduced to more influential people. Fellow Warren Commissioner Dave Detrich soon followed, as well as Karen Williamson from Heritage Conservancy. Dave Dech, head planner for Warren Co passed by, and said "We can't get rid of you, huh?". Dave must get a kick out of me, the way he laughs, but he respects me enough to often ask my opinion on things.The meeting went on, and a few raised the pertinent questions about what we were doing. What is the goal of getting so many planners, politicians, and other people with invested interests in the Morris Canal together? That was apparently one of the goals of the meeting. To find a state wide purpose. Warren County has long been a leader on the canal, as we were the first county to adopt the brown signs where it crosses roads. Karen brought up that they could adopt a similar mission statement that she with Heritage Conservancy came up with along with Langen Engineering.

I listened for a while, and eventually chimed in with my Metrotrails mission statement. The goal of the canal is to create a greenway and to implement it in stages. I broke it down to Planning, Development, Maintenance, and Promotion, but then furthered it by leaving subcategories for Education, Implementation, and Sustainability. I tend to rant, so I kept it simple by explaining each word. After my short speech the meeting felt like it organized itself, and we discussed being in smaller working groups. Planners for government should be one group, educators another, and those of us involved with promotion and history on the trail another. They were all grey areas, but it was decided that we should pick which group we felt we would fit the best in. I feel like I could run the entire process myself. With so many intelligent individuals around me, and a basic direction, this could go so far.

I left the meeting a bit early, as I was to meet the group at 4 just up Hanover Ave at the shopping center with the Wal Mart. Naaron got dropped off with his bike, Cory, Joe, Gregg and Lyz were all there.

We started walking by heading out to Hanover, then following Patriot's Path into the Arboretum again. Many cars were leaving from the meeting as we walked in. We turned off the spur of the Patriot's Path and headed around the perimeter of the arboretum, which was quite nice. This allowed for the Colenel and his friend Dave (is that right?) the chance to catch up.

We looped around the outside, then back along the former route of the Whippany River from before the construction of Rt 287 for which it was moved, or maybe it moved itself. We soon were along the edge of the new river route and heading south out of the arboretum through a chained gate intended to keep the deer out.We met up with Colenel here, and continued south as the trail passed by a parking lot, then ascended on a foot path past a former powder mill site from the Revolution. The trail then crossed back yards and continued to near Washington's Headquarters and ended, but Traction Line Trail began across the street. I'd hiked this so many times before, and even did a version of this hike once.

We began walking the Traction Line Trail heading east parallel with the former Morris and Essex Railroad line, now NJ Transit, out to Convent Station. It went pretty quick. Cesco, Giancarlo, and another friend met up with us at that point to continue on.I meant to leave the Traction Line Trail a bit earlier, but instead we continued on to it's end on Danforth Road and turned right. We then wandered on out to Rt 124, not far away, where we could get on the Giralda Farms Trail, which parallels the private property of the same name on the outside of the fence. We had followed this trail once before as well, but not in a while. This time we would follow it out to Loantaka Brook Reservation parallel with Rt 124, Dodge Drive, and Woodland Ave. After entering Loantaka, we turned left at another trail heading to Loantaka Way. We took a break here, and I was in phone contact with Jillane and Chrissi, both whom planned to meet up with us. They were going to meet at the parking lot  down on Loantaka Way, but we directed them to the next one where it would be easier for them to access. We were pretty silly from Jamison that Cesco supplied for us.We turned right on Loantaka way to the other section of the trail system north and followed it through nice woods out to the next road, Kitchell Road. Jillane, Jamie, Chrissi, and Alex were all waiting for us there. Jamie didn't want to leave her car there, so Joe volunteered to drive it up to the next lot where there would be safer spots. We all continued through ball fields and past a pavilion, then on the section of trails to the east side of the reservation to head north. This section of woods took us out to the Seaton Hackney Stables area. We met back up with Joe, Jamie moved her car to a nearby hospital parking lot, and Chrissi and Alex returned to their car because they didn't want to get ticketed.The rest of us turned right and crossed some of Seaton Hackney Stables to Ginty Pool and Ginty Field recreation area on Fangk Road. When we crossed Dyer Road, on what was the Ginty Field trail heading north, they were playing the new Muppets movie on a big screen. We stopped and watched a piece of it for a bit before moving on.After crossing Woodland Ave, the paved trail ended near a school. We walked to the left side of the open field and found an opening leading into an apartment complex. We were able to follow the roads from here to Madison Ave, which we could use to cross Rt 287. We then turned right on South Street to Rt 510, Morris Street. We turned right briefly to cross a bridge over rail tracks, then turned left on Olyphant Place. The Colenel and Cory left us here to follow most direct roads back to the cars. We followed Olyphant to the end, where it dead ended but we could climb a hill to Lafayette Drive. Olyphant Place continued across, probably a former through route. We followed it up hill, then went left on Jardine Road down hill. This was really a neat back road through a nice little neighborhood that leaves one forgetting it was Morristown. This was a pleasant section to walk for sure. We then returned to Olyphant and turned left out to Abbet Ave. We turned left, which led us to where the Patriot's Path comes out of the playgrounds and little park. It follows a couple back streets to the edge of the cemetery, then parallels the Rockaway River and the railroad tracks out to Ridgedale Ave and crosses. We followed this in the dark, which was pretty easy. After crossing Ridgedale though, it got tough. The trail parallels the tracks, but it was getting really overgrown. We ended up just walking the tracks back out to East Hanover Ave rather than the trail itself because it was just too much work to fight through the weeds in the dark.

This was such a big group for a night hike. It must have been the combination of location for convenience, as well as just the right availability at the right time. It's not often a night hike pulls so much interest. It ended up being a bit of a shambles. The route at the end was not the best, and the group became more fragmented and messy.  Chrissi and Alex rejoined the group when we were on South Street, and did the rest of the hike to the end. Alex knew the back roads from working in town better than any of us, and I knew the trails. Joe knew the roads outside of town around Loantaka the best. These combinations made it go as smoothly as I suppose it could for as much chaos as their was. Still, we finished earlier than we might have, and everything worked out with getting people back to where they needed to be.

I'd like to try something like this one again with a bit more organization. Maybe a similar route as a point to point or something. Either way, the night hikes were gaining the popularity that I wanted, and even though it was not nearly the best route we'd done, it left me with a guide on what to improve.