10/9/12 Flanders/Mt. Olive Loop with Gregg Hudis
On Turkey Brook Trail
My next hike would be a loop starting in Flanders NJ.
Originally, I was planning on a Warren Highlands Trail scouting hike between Merril Creek and Oxford. Gregg signed up for it, but was the only one. I had the day off, so I wanted to do something.I ended up going to Flanders to try to pick up a piece of certified mail for Jillane from the post office before hand, and got a message from Gregg that he was on his way, and then I realized: Gregg lives in Flanders. Why not just do a loop from here, save some time, and be one earlier?I called him up and he was game, so I met him at his apartment, the same complex where our friend Mathias use to live, that we hiked through after the Rosenblatt Halloween party in 2010. I decided we'd do a variation of that hike and explore some more.Gregg had told me he knew of new trails in Veterans Park, adjacent to the apartments, and he led me to a new green blazed trail to the rocky outcroppings with the seasonal view, which was starting to become more clear already.The blazing was sloppy, but there were turns and such. There was also a picnic bench and signs. We followed the trail as it stayed along the ridge line, then led out to Patricia Drive. We turned north on that, and soon a yellow blazed trail cut back into the woods on the same side of the road. This too was not there when I was there last (we followed a blue blazed one from the gate at the end of Patricia, then went around in the woods out to the abandoned former continuation of Patricia Drive).The yellow blazed trail didn't have sloppy paint, but rather standard sized tags with good turn blazes except for one confusing spot. This trail too went on out to abandoned section of Patricia Drive, directly across from where the blue trail came to it, and ended. We turned right and followed the old road, which had some blue blazes on it as well.While we walked, a guy was walking close ahead of us. We stopped to talk to him. His name was Don Gordon, and he told us of the generations of his family who had lived in the area, going back to the 1600s. He had relatives who fought in both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. His family was the previous owner of much of Berkshire Valley Wildlife Management Area as well. We had a nice long chat with him before moving on. He followed a side path off, and we continued on Patricial out to Mountain Road and turned right. Where we'd turned into the woods previously was now an environmental investigation site, and we had to pass it, then cut into the woods down hill to the left between houses in a wider strip of woods. There were ATV trails at first that made it easy, but then we had to walk in a brook bed down stream to Ledgewood Canal Park. Once we hit the regular trails, we turned left and went up to the High Ledge Mine, which was still blocked off, then turned right on the blue trail that follows the old mine road out to the Morris Canal site. The canal pond at the base of Inclined Plane #2 East was still in place, and in good shape, but the inclined plane itself was getting overgrown badly. Ailanthus trees were growing between the sleeper stones and the tail race, which was sad to see. It was once in really nice shape. We followed the canal past the turbine chamber and for a bit more until the loop trail turned to the left. We followed that up hill over some nice rock outcroppings, then turned off of that onto the power line right of way, with good views to the east.
We turned then and followed the power line west. It got a bit wet at one point, but was otherwise clear out to Lazarus Drive, then on to Conkling Drive left. The power line got too overgrown. We ended up fighting through some awful weeds at one point.We continued from Conkling on a clear path out to a driveway access to a small building, but beyond the trail led into a yard, and was overgrown beyond. We opted instead to follow the drive back out to Conkling and turned right, past Mooney Road, and a small pond called Mooney Pond. We then stayed on the road for a bit, and cut into the fields to the right, which was shown on the google maps as Mooney Mountain Meadows, public land. We headed from the fields into the woods and found a huge farm dump with lots of interesting broken glass, including milk jugs with five cent deposit written on it.
We continued through woods, and then came to some masonry ruins, with some sort of what appeared to be a trough leading to the south. It was a substantial construction site, and when I followed the impression the trough made, it led to a giant old mine hole. I'd heard of something called the Mooney Mine before, and assumed this must have been it. It had water in it, but the nearest neighbor had been using it to dump off yard refuse. Quite a site to see.
We continued through the meadows and came out at The Marketplace at Roxbury. From there, we crossed 206 directly and cut into a commercial building lot, then headed through an overgrown meadow behind it to try to bushwhack to International Trade Center (ITC). This proved to be a rough bushwhack. I found a buck's skull out there, which I gave to my landlord Brian when I got home.We crawled under some awful Atumn Olive for a bit, but then got into some nice woods, and were able to easily walk to an abandoned roadway which appeared to once connect ITC with Rt 206. We walked it till it got overgrown, then went left and paralleled former fields until we reached another woods road access. We then turned right into a wide open, but starting to get overgrown, field. We wandered for a bit and couldn't find a good way around, but soon fought through a section of weeds to a truck access near Gold Mine Road. A truck driver was there, and I asked for directions. I must have looked like enough of a nut, but then Gregg came stumbling out of the woods and fell on the ground. The truck driver must have really been confused.We headed across ITC and stopped at McDonalds for some food, then continued onto Gold Mine Road to where it becomes abandoned, a neat area. This led us to the other end of the road, then we turned left onto the white blazed trail leading to Turkey Brook through nice woods. It led out to near a development, Morris Hunt I think it was, then continued to over Flanders Road. We turned left into Turkey Brook Park, and this time kept all the way to the left instead of going through the park the way I had in the past. This trail led us down hill to the power line, turned left, and then to the orange blazed Turkey Brook Trail. It led us through beautiful foliage out to Mt. Olive High School. We then walked along Flanders Netcong Road down hill, across Rt 206, and then cut through woods up hill into Gregg's development. There were halloween signs that said "Welcome Home" on them. I thought I should get a picture of Gregg with that before taking off, but I didn't realize till it was too late.We had succeeded in scouting a new route that I would hopefully soon lead an entire group on. It's amazing that in areas, still so close to our homes, we are constantly discovering amazing new places and beautiful trails.
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