Hike #647; Great Meadows Area Loop

 Hike #647; Great Meadows Area Loop

8/25/12 Great Meadows Area Loop with Gregg Hudis, Tim Kovich, Kristen Shoop, Justin Jones, Bobbi Landrock, Paula Scheyer, John Spiridon

This next hike would be the second one to begin right by my new home in Townsbury NJ (I did one night hike that began at the lot across and down hill from the house in July).

Jillane and I were looking into options for where to live before moving out of White Lake, and she had found a lovely little carriage house in Townsbury, just outside of Great Meadows. I knew the area well, having hiked the Lehigh and Hudson River Railroad right of way through there so many times. We  headed out to meet the landlord, Brian Megaro, who struck as as a wonderful, positive person. He came across to us as a sincere, genuine hard working family man, and a practical home maker. A teacher and carpenter by trade, he seemed to have mastered finding balance between mature responsibility and youthful exuberance. We both liked  him immediately.

Although much smaller than our previous  home, the place was very well kept and seemed to be all we needed. It even had central air, a luxury neither of us had ever had. For me, it was great that it was literally a stone's throw off of the Lehigh and Hudson River Rail Trail, and the main parking area for the eastern terminus of the Pequest section. It almost seemed too good.

Brian offered us the place, and we moved in June 20th. Between the two homes, it seems to me almost like we've had two separate Summers.Brian has a party for all of his friends annually, and so he told me I may invite my friends as well. Well, I knew that if I posted it to my entire group that sixty or so might show up, and so I told  him that I'd just invite who came on my hike, and keep it simple.I met my group right at the parking lot below our carriage house, an old barn type building that was built to serve the main farm house where Brian lived. Both buildings are very nicely refurbished. Bobbi ran late and would meet us at Nykuns Store in Great Meadows, and Paula would meet us in Alphano.

We began by following the LHR rail bed northbound, actually east at this point, from Townsbury toward Great Meadows. When the rail line was constucted in 1886, the towns of Danville and Townsbury vied for the rail line to build a station in each of their towns. LHR did not have a need for two stations so close together, and agreed to build one, but a bitter argument between the two towns ensued. Not wanting to earn the disdain of either town, LHR opted to take the creative approach and build a station directly between the two towns and give it a name of it's own: Great Meadows.In the end, however, Danville won the argument. They changed their name to Great Meadows to annex the new station and make it their own. Except for nearby Danville Mountain, the name Danville has long since disappeared from maps and most everyone's memory. The LHR became a major part of the northeast corridor for some time until the advent of Conrail. In 1986 the rails were torn up from Belvidere to Sparta Junction area, save for a short section, probably for ambiance, in Great Meadows, in proximity to the unique looking station that now houses Pequest Engineering.

It's amazing to see how much the line has grown over in such a short period of time.

We followed the right of way through woods, and then out over the high deck girder trestle over the Pequest and a dirt road. This time, we had to climb around from an abutment to get on, then crawl on our hands and knees to get off the other side. Kristen commented how she loved my laugh, because I probably sounded maniacal as I giggled at my friends squealing while fighting through the dense multiflora rose thickets they were crawling through.

On the other side of the bridge, the right of way didn't get clearer. There were also invasive Autumn Olive shrubs growing horribly over the right of way. We had to go around them and do more crawling to follow the line. I did spot a telltale, an old structure rarely seen on abandoned lines, which signaled trains of an overhead hazard from a distance. I suppose this one must have been for the Rt 46 underpass further ahead.

When I see this line in particular, it is a trip to think back to when I was little, walking lines like this with my grandfather, and seeing trains still going by. After all, this had been used in my life time. When I first started seriously hiking it in 2000, it was still pretty easy to walk. Since that time, some of it is an impenetrable fortress of weeds. There are so many lines that are easy to walk, and they were abandoned on the 60s. I suppose maybe it will clear off when the canopy takes over above. Still, to see thirty foot high trees that are younger than me makes me feel something...not aged but maybe seasoned...something. I'm not sure what to call it.

We continued across Hudson Lane, a quarry access, after paralleling the right of way in a field (I did this even back in 2000, that section was always overgrown it seems). We then continued out toward Cemetery Road in Great Meadows. It was okay at first, but then got badly overgrown. We cut down hill to the left to pass along a corn field. As usual, John opted to have a taste of said corn.This time, it wasn't the usual horse corn we've come to be used to John eating; it was good white corn. I ate some as well, but John just kept going. Kristen found it particularly amusing how he seemed to just go through the corn so fast. He had handfuls of it. He said he must have had about ten ears but I'm certain it was more.We soon came to another field, and I headed back up to the former tracks and down into a field on the other side. I didn't know it at the time, but we didn't have to do that. There was a public utility building where we were headed, and on the other side was the future cemetery expansion. We'd have been fine.When we finally reached Cemetery Road, we turned left and cut into the old cemetery, past the old church, and over to Nykuns's General Store. I love their breakfast sandwiches, but I didn't have one this time. I showed everyone the booze cooler, which was neat. The stuff looks like it's about to fall on you, and it's almost like you're not supposed to be there, but it's what's expected. A strange cooler.

We got our food and drinks, then hung out in front of the store for a bit. With Bobbi having joined us, we then made our way back up through the cemetery to the rail bed. It was clear from here for a while, and the tracks soon appeared again as we headed toward the old Great Meadows Station. We followed them on past the station, where there was an old rail car currently under restoration, then bushwhacked along the rail bed under the Rt 46 underpass.

The rail bed was the worst I'd seen it beyond. No one had kept it open as we went along the back of Island Dragway. No one stayed right with me, and everyone turned the wrong way as if to follow the dragway, and I had to go back and get them. An hispanic man was working loading wood up into a dump truck back there, but he payed us no mind. We then got on an abandoned rail bridge over the Pequest River, a concrete one. I went down to take a dip in the river, which was running shallow but was still great. We had a really nice break here for a while. I figured it'd be easy from here on out, but I was wrong.

Just ahead, there was an old access road, now part of state park property. There was a good parking area to the left. I was really happy to see that we now had an official parking area at the south end of the greenway that we could promote, until I saw the weeds on the other side, and that a land owner had blocked the rail right of way by putting a horseshoe pit over it.  I knew we had the right to be there, so we crossed it, continued on the rail bed, and made our way across the backs of other yards too. The rail bed continued rather overgrown to the north for some time. It got a little easier as we went, but not by nearly enough. It was pretty slow going with high weeds all the way out to Alphano.

When we got to the little bridge in the middle of the sod farm, which was now at least half overgrown, we couldn't even get onto it without fighting through high weeds. It was real tough. Beyond, the weeds were even worse. Very high, and we couldn't tell where the rail bed was. I led the way and found it with a bare section of ballast rock, and we continued out to an access road to a former plant I remembered passing years back. It was now closed up with signs about an environmental investigation. Very gross.We turned off of the rail bed and onto a paved road along the edge of the old sod farm. Much of this looked abandoned now. We passed a sort of farm store, and then many abandoned farm buildings. As we headed to Alphano Road we passed several abandoned greenhouses. An old lady kept passing on a bicycle.

We soon turned right on Alphano Road.  We turned right and headed slightly up hill parallel with what we had just done along the wood line. Paula joined us on the road walk here, and we continued on to the trail entrance on the left, Strawberry Hill Trail. There was an abandoned iron mine site on the left just before that.

We followed Strawberry Hill Trail up hill, just an old woods road, then turned left on Overlook Trail. The overlook itself was mostly a seasonal one with a bit of a view of silos in the distance. We then turned right on Stone Row Trail, another old woods road I think, and made another left onto Strawberry Hill Trail again. This took us around part of the perimeter of the preserve.

The days prior I went scouting, and found an unofficial trail with white paint slashes leading to this trail, but this time I couldn't find it. We ended up bushwhacking through woods and over rock outcroppings to reach the Old Farm Sanctuary and it's nice overlook over the farmland below. We took a really nice break at the outcropping, where the official trail ends. There was an ammo box with a geocache and a trail register which I signed. We watched cows running below in the fields, and someone pointed at one and said it was a bear, which the cows were running from. It turns out it was a large bull.

We continued on the trail along the ridge, and then it lost elevation as it headed to the northern corner of the preserve. The trail is in very poor shape, not blazed great and not maintained at all. It's hard to figure out where the corner is. We got on the abandoned road at the north end of the preserve and followed it a bit till the trail turned off of it to the right. We then headed back up hill for a bit, but then the trail seemed to disappear and headed too far beyond where we wanted to go up hill. We turned left to bushwhack for a bit, and I think it was Paula who got stung a couple times by yellow jackets.

We soon found the trail again, and turned left heading down hill to a woods road section. We turned right and followed it out across a wide but wet field section, then through woods parallel and across tiny creeks. The trail continued east until it eventually ended at Water Street. We turned right on Water Street to head back to Vienna on Rt 46, but first stopped at one of the preserve's picnic benches near the end of the trail for a nice break.

After following Water Street to Vienna, we turned right and followed 46. Some of the group got drinks at a gas station vending machine, then we continued on to the store entering Great Meadows and took another break. It was from here that we headed away from the road, across a school yard and to the Independence Township municipal park where we followed some of their paved perimeter trail. When we got near the upper, and newer cemetery, Bobbi and I made a side trip back to Nykuns, a short distance down Cemetery Road.

When we returned, we followed the paved path to the south side of the park, then cut into the woods into part of a frisbee golf couse near a stream. A woodsy path led us back out to the road, where the bridge over the brook had just been replaced, and the old bridge was now a pedestrian trail bridge. We crossed, then turned right onto a clearly mowed path that leads out through overgrown fields and to a development on the south side of Townsbury Road. We walked the development roads and then turned right on Townsbury to walk back to my home.Derek Baker showed up along the road to meet us at the end for fireworks. Our friends Crystal, Corey, and Erin were also there when we arrived, as well as Jillane's sister Jamie.I met up with Jillane, and we headed out back at Brian's farm to watch the fireworks display. It was a very professional display, and great to see. It was the closest we'd ever been to a professional display.

After the grand finale of the fireworks, we headed back to the house. The entire group of hikers headed off for home, and I ended up taking a little walk with Jillane, Crystal, and Corey on the rail bed in the other direction.

I chatted with Brian for a while, and it was a really feel good event. Everyone I met was so friendly, happy to be there, and appreciative. I loved the positivity that was about.I felt like everything was going so well by this point. Even before this day, I've been feeling very confident of better days ahead, and excited about experiencing them with Jillane and my friends.