Hike #662; Hazlet to Red Bank

 Hike #662; Hazlet to Red Bank

11/10/12 Hazlet to Red Bank with Chris "Cupcake" Kroschinski, Shelly Janes, Bobbi Landrock, Brad Baesic, Allie Aniska, Ernie Philips, and Jack Lowry

The group at Raminessin Greenway in Holmdel

Our next hike would be a point to point trip between Hazlet and Red Bank. Things didn't go exactly as I'd planned for them to, but it was still a nice hike. The reason I chose this hike was because there was to be a fund raiser in Red Bank for storm relief, but power wasn't all back and things couldn't be pulled together on time, so it was postponed. Additionally, the trains were not running, so the public transportation I'd indended to use would not work out for us.Fortunately, Cupcake lives in Hazlet and knows the area, so he could direct us to the meeting point without me having to study a map along the way.

We started at Hazlet Station, and stopped for breakfast sandwiches, Cupcake's treat, at a place he recommended. The sandwiches were quite good, and the owner requested to have his photo taken with Shelly!We headed south along Holmdel Road, then turned left on Bethany Road, followed by right on Chestnut Ridge Road. We followed this for a bit around a corner to a paved pathway that led into school property. There was a sign reading that it was for residents only or something, but we paid it no mind and kept on passing through. After all, we weren't trying to reserve any facilities. We headed across the field and came to a small public park with a paved perimeter trail. We turned left on this trail, then came out to Crape Myrtle Drive. We turned left past a retention pond, then turned right on Crimson King Drive. We turned left at the end toward a tennis club, which was not currently being used, and skirted the perimeter of it into the woods with a substantial slope behind. Telegraph Hill, a famous spot for Nike Missiles or something, was just south of here, but we didn't go up it this time. We continued onto a path from the tennis club to one of the big parking areas for Garden State Arts Center. We turned left along an access road lined with signs warning that straying from the designated walking path could be dangerous, and came out near the arts center itself (now referred to as PNC Bank Arts Center).We headed across the lot and made our way to the access road under the Garden State Parkway. Between the median was a police station, and the roadway had "no pedestrian signs on the southbound side, but not the northbound, so we walked on through and no one gave us any trouble. We continued from here to a left on the exit lane, and cut to the right into what is called Bob Roggy Field, a ball field park adjacent to a school. We crossed the fields and came out next to the school on Crawford's Corner Road. There was a barn that was used by the school there that was in bad shape, having had a sign and a lot of siding torn off of it by the storm. We followed along Longstreet Road until a trail passed by the road to the right.There was an orange fencing up blocking the trail, but nothing that would keep anyone out. We simply ignored it and headed on in to the Marsh Trail. There was surprisingly a good amount of snow on the ground, unlike back home where we had just gotten a dusting. We headed across a nice boardwalk for a while, then made our way a bit up hill and along a hill and turned right on High Point Trail. The trail junctions were horribly marked if at all. I couldn't quite figure out what was represented on the map. It would be so much easier if they used standard blazing, but they refuse. When asked about it, a former employee there who now worked for monmouth hollered and said "We've won awards for our trails!". With that kind of attitude nothing will ever improve.We figured out how to follow the trails out to the Forest Edge parking lot, and got on a paved trail. I couldn't get my bearings and there was no good signage, so we ended up walking to the north when we were supposed to be going south. It was a nice dirt access road, but not the right way. We turned back and followed the paved path, which loops, on the opposite side of where we had been walking.We hit Beech Glen Trail which paralleled the road and was not closed, and that led us to the Pond View area parking lot. A trail then led around the pond, which we followed for a bit. On the south side of the pond, across from historic Longstreet Farm, we headed parallel with the arboretum area and then out across Roberts Road to another trail head parking lot. The Steeplechase and Raminessen Trails both leave this parking area. We turned right on Steeplechase along the edges of fields, and then turned left onto Homestead Trail. This turned next to a couple of collapsed buildings, and one barn that was still standing in reasonable shape I suppose. Homestead Trail led us down hill to the Raminessen Trail. The Raminessin Trail was a long greenway that leads out of the county park along it's namesake creek. We would follow this for a while now.

As we walked, I was singing the Little River Band's "Reminiscing", which sounded like "Raminessen". The trail led along the edges of fields, and along the edge of the creek out of the Holmdel Park section, and into a municipal property. The trail was rather obvious, but still not marked right.We came out of the park and onto the corner of McCampbell Road and Holmdel-Middletown Road, went straight and then right across Village School property. We passed an interesting little building that housed a doctor's office, which I don't see how it had any room for anything.From here, we cut across the school property onto a pathway across Rt 520 into a municipal park with paved paths around it. We headed south on these around some ball fields, and then out to Longbridge Road, where there was an old cemetery. After exploring the cemetery, we went by some giant old trees across the street into Thompson Park and another paved path. This was another county park, but fortunately this one had it's main trail opened.We continued along the main paved path on the south side of the park for the most part, somewhat near to the Swimming River Reservoir, but rarely in view of it at all. We came out north of Brookdale Community College, where Cupcake went to school, and where I'd delivered stuff for Taylor Rental years before. The pathway led us out to Rt 520 and paralleled it for a bit. Jack turned back to his car, which was parked nearby just off of the Thompson Park area, because he had a party to get to.The rest of us opted to follow the roads from Lincroft, the town we were now in, back to Red Bank. I had originally intended to get off of the roads through little pocket parks, but it was getting late. We had had a pretty good route so far, and there wasn't all that much left. I'd have to try in the future to put together another hike that would be around Red Bank with less road walking.We stopped at a pizza place and McDonalds (I got a McFlurry I think), and then followed the road for a bit. We tried crossing a piece of property that looked public, but some guy was freaking out that he didn't know what was going to happen with the trees out front that were perfectly fine. He pretty obviously just wanted to demonstrate authority.After passing beneath the Garden State Parkway, we turned left through a commercial site and then onto Half Mile Road out to Front Street. We turned right on this road with a narrow shoulder, and stopped at a convenience store before getting into the main part of Red Bank. It was pretty dead and didn't have much, so we continued to walk across Hubbard's Bridge into town. The dark view over the water of the silent railroad trestle was interesting, and uncommon for this place, still much without power from super storm Sandy.When we reached the tracks, we turned right to walk them back to the commuter lot where we'd met in the morning. I couldn't get a hold of my friend Steve who lived in town, so we just headed home. Still, it was a pretty interesting hike that set me up for future alternate versions of it that will probably be even better.