Hike #655; Barnegat and Long Beach Island

 Hike #655; Barnegat and Long Beach Island.

10/7/12 Barnegat to Harvey Cedars/Long Beach Island with Carol and Rob Creamer

On the beach, Long Beach Island

I was surprised that for this next hike, only Carol and Rob showed up. I was thankful that they were there, though. If they hadn't come, my record of always having participants come out since 2004 would be ruined. The forecast was calling for a bit of rain during the day, and so that scared off a lot of people, as well as the fact that it was so far south compared to previous hikes, possibly the furthest south we've ever gone on the connective hikes (not sure exactly which, but this one and the one to Winslow have so far been the farthest south connective ones).I met Carol and Rob on Long Beach Island at the boat launch area on the Barnegat Bay in Ship Bottom. This wasn't the end point; we'd shuttle our way to the north, to the recreation area on the bay in Harvey Cedars to spot the car for the end. We then shuttled across the LBI bridge and north to Barnegat, to where we last left off on the Barnegat Branch hike last Winter.This hike would be the next one in the series to hike the entire perimeter of NJ. The old Tuckerton Railroad, which now makes up much of the Barnegat Branch Trail to the north continued south to Tuckerton, with a spur to LBI. We shuttled to Memorial Drive on the south side of Barnegat where we'd first picked up the railroad bed the previous time (the road is on the old rail bed), and began to head south.The railroad continued through private land and present day yards ahead, then crossed Rt 9. I tried to pick out the spot, but it was hard to say.At first, we had to walk the road, but when we got to the end of Old Lower Shore Road, we walked away from Rt 9 heading east, and I found where the rail line crossed. It looked a little overgrown, but I figured we could handle it. It actually wasn't so bad once we got out there, and we were able to follow it very easily a good distance from the road!Before we reached Taylor Lane, the next road, I believe it was here we cut into the woods further to the east to come out onto the road (some of this was Edwin B. Forsyth National Wildlife Refuge, but other parts were private), as to avoid back yards and a fenced in area. Once out to Taylor Lane, we cut back onto the rail bed but immediately came out behind businesses.We walked Rt 9 shortly past Precision Fence company, then cut into the woods back to the rail bed, which was very clear at this point, with occasional railroad ties still showing. The line was abandoned in the 1930s in this section, so it was cool to see something was left and that it was clear enough to walk.The right of way remained pretty good and easy to walk until we got to a bunch of piles of dirt bulldozed into the grade. We had to climb atop it and continue through a yard for a disposal company. We continued through the yard, past trucks and an old gas pump, then were able to get back into the woods onto the old rail bed on the other side of the place. The rail bed eventually led us out to Hilliard Boulevard in Stafford Township. The right of way on the other side was pretty much obliterated and would go through people's yards shortly ahead. We turned left and then right onto Parker Street, and followed a drainage basin along the road for a bit, then the road itself to Beach Avenue where we turned right.On Beach, we came to an old cemetery on both sides of the road. They had some 19th century tomb stones, which was cool, but there was no way of going through to the next road from here, so we continued to Division Street in Manahawkin and then turned left from that onto Stafford Ave. This town had more historic markers than I think i've seen anywhere. Every house seemed to have it's own marker with the history of the location on it.We continued on the road, and came across a railroad crossing history marker, telling us the former rail crossing site. I was impressed.We turned right onto South Union Street and emerged on Rt 72. Across the highway was a power line, which the railroad sort of followed. We dashed across and followed that path, then turned left onto the former rail line that once went out onto LBI. It was nice and clear, and recognizable as a rail bed. This led to another power line, then back out to Rt 72, which we had to walk for a little while.

There was a wide area to walk to the right of the highway, probably the old railroad bed, which passed through car dealership lots and such. We then crossed Rt 72 and had a totally awesome lunch break at Taco Bell where I had a generous serving of all sorts of tasty things. I was so hungry. We spent a while there, then continued on along Rt 72. It seemed as though the rail bed should have been right along the side of the highway, maybe even on the highway at some point, but it was too hard to see where it was. When we found a woods road going off to the left, we followed it for a bit, but could see no signs of a grade. We then bushwhacked parallel with Rt 72 for a bit, and when we really found nothing at all we headed back to the road. We could see parallel with the road what we thought might have been the former rail bed on a sort of causeway across a swamp, but we couldn't be sure. This was in a little settlement area known as Mud City. There was a big event facility and Yacht club to the left before we headed onto the Rt 72 bridge. We had a look under it at first, and could see old Rt 72's route, which would have been at a lower level, probably with a lift bridge. It was sort of unnerving to see so much of the bridge was still held up by timbers, the entire giant concrete deck. Some of the timbers had concrete encasement upon  further inspection.To the left of the bridge, we could see collapsing timbers out in the water, the former route of the old rail line across the Manahawkin Bay section of Barnegat Bay, the Inter-coastal Waterway. It was cool to see that something remained of it at all. It was constructed in 1886, and Rob told me that he had read that it washed away. Upon further research I found that the rail line was abandoned when the bridge washed away in 1935. It once traveled up and down LBI.We crossed the bridge, Rob and I on the north side and Carol on the south. It had been raining for a bit, but not heavily since we got to Manahawkin, so we couldn't see Atlantic City so well from the bridge, but the silhouette of the buildings were still somewhat visible.It was neat to finally see AC from the route of one of my hikes. It made it seem more tangible, that we would one day hike a line to that place. Also, I hadn't been to Atlantic City since I saw Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band there in 1998.We continued on the bridge heading east, and there was a sort of causeway island beyond the middle point. Carol crossed to our side of the bridge underneath on the island, and we walked some of the route of old Rt 72, a lower level. The current highway bridge was built in the 1950s, and the old one would have been a draw bridge mostly at water level. On this old route was one occupied house, and a few abandoned houses, or what we thought were abandoned. The one of them was obviously collapsing, with the door wide open. There was a keep out sign inside the front door. I opted to check it out, so I went in and started taking pictures. Carol took a picture of me in the doorway. While I was inside, an old guy with a white beard drove up in a station wagon and almost ran Carol over. He told her to get out of there, and she said "sorry sir". I could hear him from inside say "not as sorry as this ass hole's gonna be!"I walked to the door and told the guy I was just having a look. The spunky old dude grabbed a hold of me and pushed me out the door. I tried explaining to him that I was just into history, taking pictures, and didn't mean any harm. He kept hollering at me the entire time, and the last thing he said was "Take a hike!", at which point I said "Okay!!!" and walked off. We hung out under the bridge at the end of the causeway for a while just in case the angry man called police or something.After a bit, we got back up on the bridge and continued out to the town of Ship Bottom. We got on the south end of the bridge for the last stretch, then followed a paved path back under to 8th Street and Shore Ave. We headed along back streets east, stopped at a consignment store that only had expensive women's clothing, and then Rite Aid for snacks before heading out to the beach.We turned to the north along the shore, and as we followed the beach there were Dolphins out in the water swimming parallel with us for some time, flapping their tails and popping in and out of the water. It was amazing to see.We headed through Surf City, then North Beach staying along the water line. The water kept coming up and getting my feet wet. It didn't bother me a whole lot, but this was a cold day, the coldest hike so far of the season. It was the first time I'd worn long pants since the previous Spring on a hike.Before we reached the community of Harvey Cedars, where we'd turn off of the beach, a dune section appeared between the water and the buildings. The only way of telling when we reached another community was by the name appearing on the adjacent water towers.I watched the GPS on my phone to when we got to Salem Street, then turned off the beach. We followed Salem across Long Beach Blvd and to Harvey Cedars Recreation Area where my car was parked. There were lovely views of the Barnegat Bay (a Dutch word meaning something about an inlet). We made our way onto a long dock jutting out into the bay with nice views toward the bridge we crossed on. We then took a brief break under a pavilion before heading to my car.I've been going over maps quite a lot lately, and can't wait to put in the next section of the series to hike the entire perimeter of NJ. As the days go by, it's looking more and more like a reality. The worst parts will be the second to next section coming up, the menagerie of roads on the way to Atlantic City to get past the outlets of many bays and rivers, and the difficult, roundabout routes necessary to bypass the brackish estuaries of Salem and Cape May Counties. Still, we will get them done. I am hoping to close the gap in Trenton with a celebration, and perhaps get the media involved when we near the end. Through Metrotrails, I would like to propose a new trail based on this endeavor, and call it the Jersey Greenbelt Trail. The concept is so attainable, and it excites me greatly.