Hike #676; Newark and Hackensack River Exploration

 Hike #676; Newark and Hackensack River Exploration

 1/13/13 Passaic and Hackensack River Exploration; Newark to Garfield with Matt Davis, Frank Meloi, Dave "Captain Soup" Campbell, Jaque Melo, Gregg Hudis, Dan Lurie, Jack Lowry, Susie Duncan, and Craig Nunn

Near end group shot

Our next hike would be an incredible point to point trip in the urban eastern areas of NJ, and it would be far better than I anticipated.

It had been a while since I last hiked in Newark, and I needed to do something in the area. In Winter, it's always better to do  urban area hikes anyway to avoid both snow, which slows us down and makes high mileage difficult, and crime, because everyone knows that most criminals prefer not to be out in the cold.

I came up with a route between Garfield and Newark Penn Station, with a side trip onto the Meadowlands via abandoned rail rights of way connecting the Passaic and the Hackensack Rivers. I'd seen them on arial images many times, but never considered that we could do it as easily as we did.I picked up Matt and Frank, and we drove to the Wal Mart in Garfield. There, we met up with Capt. Soup and Jaque, and went inside for snacks. We moved on from there quickly up the street to the Garfield Station. We almost didn't make it, but we bought out tickets from the vending machine on time.

We rode the train to the Secaucus Station, switched to Newark bound train, and reached Newark Penn Station on schedule. While in the station, we first met up with Gregg, followed by the only newcomer, Dan. No one else who was planning on attending showed up, so we continued on out of the place.We made a few wrong turns in Newark, trying to find Raymond Blvd. I can never get my bearings at first in a city unless I have some sort of landmark, and I don't know them well enough in Newark. We first went the wrong way, then found our way to Raymond, back under Penn Station, and out to Military Park, where the Lenape Trail ended. We hiked on through Military Park, and at the end crossed past a convention center along a paver pathway toward the west bank of the Passaic River. We turned to the north to Bridge Street, and then turned right to cross the Bridge Street Bridge.

As we went to cross, we saw a young black guy with a beard, on a bike, running by us screaming out "fuck the cops" and ranting about some sort of incriminating thing he was caught in, and then yelling they should be doing something about the kids in Connecticut, not him.We crossed the bridge, then turned left, heading north along the east bank of the Passaic, near a hotel. It was a nice paver walkway with a view of the rail bridge as well as the main highway. The walkway ended near the rail bridge, and we had to cut to the right. The path wasn't complete, so we had to cross a fence and then head out to the next road north. We followed the river as close as possible to the abandoned lift bridge, which was once part of the Erie Railroad. It was now permanently locked in place, in lifted position. The Passaic is no longer used for navigation due to some moratorium on dredging because of the contaminants in the water.

I wished Wheeler Antabanez could have joined us; he is the undisputed KING of the Passaic, having written "Nightshade on the Passaic" for Weird NJ. He didn't stop there; he continues to report constantly any weird or interesting stories that regard the Passaic. An injury kept him from meeting with us this time. Also, Craig Nunn was at first unable to join due to prior obligation, but he'd meet up with us later. Craig is the undisputed king of urban hiking, and a veritable fountain of information on architecture and industrial history.

The old railroad line had a bridge missing over the road, but we climbed up it and began following the right of way east. Soon, there were tracks stillin place, but overgrown with grasses. We followed them on a somewhat narrow path to the east, and across a couple of roads.

There was a lot of litter, but we were able to get through okay. We paralleled West Hudson Park, and then entered a wooded section. It got pretty tough as we entered a deep cut. There was some water we had to get around, and some thick brush, but it didn't last for long, fortunately. We soon passed beneath another abandoned rail line, then continued onto a causeway section with water on both sides of us. We followed it through phragmites out to Bergen Ave, but then were cut off with a moat of water blocking us from the road. We couldn't jump it, and it was far too disgusting to try to wade on through. We had to turn back.We made our way back to the old railroad underpass, but held back for a bit because we thought there were police there waiting for us. It turned out to be two guys spray painting. It wasn't the ugly graffiti, these guys were pros, doing some really attractive tagging with clean lines and beautiful fading. The guys were nice enough to tell us how to get on through to the other side, by climbing to the other rail bed and heading north to Bergen Ave. We thanked them and complimented their work. They thanked us and said not to call the cops, which of course we wouldn't. It was nice to see nice work being done, and it was a black guy and a white guy together. There was no racial prejudice, just respect for art and passion for the work. I don't know if anyone else noticed, but I appreciated it.We followed this other higher rail bed out to the next bridge, then climbed down to the road and followed it north to the old Erie line again. It was easy to walk on the other side, like an ATV path. There were no signs saying "no trespassing" so we just wandered on through. Craig would tell us later that these rail beds are on the county's trails plan.

The rail bed soon passed over Kearney Marsh. There was water on both sides of us. Sometimes it flowed over the rail bed a bit, but we were able to get around it without getting too much a mess. At some points, there were huge piles, tufts of brackish water plants washed up over the rail bed to the point that it was no longer recognizable as such. We had to step up onto it, as many had obviously done before us, but still recently since Sandy hadn't happened too long ago. A path was sort of beaten into the sometimes three foot high piles of vegetation and tightly packed phragmites. With every step, It became more incredible where we were.

We soon passed beneath the NJ Turnpike. It was obvious the water had rushed up through these areas from the washouts. Beyond, it passed beneath Belleville Turnpike. Before that, there were old signal towers left over probably from the days when Belleville Tpk was still an at-grade crossing.

Some of the under-bridge washout was so large that we had to get far to the right and pass by the edge of the piers. There was a water foul, species uncertain, under the bridge that kept diving down beneath the water and emerging further off. It was pretty interesting. From Belleville Turnpike we headed out on a narrower causeway into the Hackensack River. The narrow route was fantastic. The weeds on either side of the railroad were high, but afforded us occasional clear views in both directions.

We continued on until we got to a junction point out in the middle of the water. It was here that the Erie line joined with the former Boonton Branch, and as I understand once the Greenwood Lake Railroad, which I had hiked many sections of further to the north. This line was more recently abandoned, because it was much clearer, but still obviously not used for a while. We made our way out further beyond the junction to the swing bridge in the middle of the Hackensack. The bridge was permanently swung open. Only a few of us went out to the end because there was an access road to the south where a vehicles could get to us. There were still no signs forbidden trespass except on the giant electric poles warning to keep off. We turned back and headed west on the old Boonton line.

There was a lot of ballast rock, but we could often walk on the tracks which weren't terribly overgrown yet. We soon passed back under the NJ Turnpike, followed by Belleville Turnpike. These tracks were badly damaged by Sandy, worse than the other line. There were long sections of track suspended up in the air with no fill beneath. We could get around, but some of us opted to walk the tracks. I walked the rails mostly, but when I tried to walk the ties, they would sometimes fall loose, causing me to tumble, so I kept to the rail. Jaque took one bad fall but ended up being okay, fortunately.We continued on along the old rail bed beyond Kearney Marsh, and onto a higher fill. We soon cut across the rail line we walked further to the south to get past the water, known as the Harrison Cutoff, and then met up with Jack and Susie who had run a bit late. We headed back into part of Kearney, and then soon came to an old station platform, which I think was one of the Arlington Stations. It didn't look like it had been abandoned for as long as many other lines, but to the west it started looking worse. We took a short break while others went and got refreshments, then moved on into a very deep cut, the Kearney Cut.

This was one of the most incredible spots on the hike. The walls of the cut were incredibly high, not what I was expecting to see in this part of the state. Matt and I were ahead of everyone, and I commented how if we didn't know better, we could be in Warren County. Of course the type of rock was different, but to the untrained eye, we were not in the city. This cut was very substantial. We exited the cut, and came out to a corner on Passaic, Midland, and Laurel Hill Terrace. There was no longer a grade crossing of the tracks here, but there was a walkway across. To my surprise, the bridge was intact across the Passaic. Matt and I took our chances and walked on out onto the bridge for a while for pictures. This was very exposed, but no one bothered us for going out onto it. It would have been easy to go over, if we were fast. Maybe another time. We just went out and back, hurriedly.

We then followed Laurel Hill Terr. to the right and down hill a bit to Passaic Ave, and then walked into a bit of parkland along the Passaic River to the left. We were able to walk through some nice park for a while, then had to go back out to the road and head north across Rt 7 by Arlington Diner. We made a stop there at KFC and a little junk mart where Frank and I bought ridicules shirts that showed a dinosaur, reading "T Rex Hates Push Ups". Too funny not to get!

We headed north and passed in and out of a few little parks. As we entered the Riverside County Park area, Craig met up with us, and we continued together close to the river through the park. We skirted ball fields and such, exited the park to Riverside Ave, then cut to the left beyond an apartment complex to a nice walkway along the River. We were glad Craig was there, because we might not have found this area. We continued north to the Da Jessa Memorial Bridge (I forget the historic name for the bridge), and then made our way up the street to another park section. Craig led us on through, and he proposed a slightly longer but interesting walk through his home town of Rutherford.I of course was 100% open to changing the hike from the riverfront because Craig's presence offered us a unique chance at seeing different points of interest in the town. We headed up a street that Craig explained was once the main trolley route. There were nice trees lining the streets of Rutherford, which is promoted as the "tree town". He explained how a track went in and the proprietors convinced the powers that be to make this the main street because it was better for the business. We headed north, and he showed us the former home of Fairleigh Dickinson, for whom the college was named, and co-founder of Becton Dickinson. His co founder and neighbor, Maxwell Becton, made his home only a few doors down, and we saw that house as well.Craig pointed out many nice old homes on our walk through Rutherford, including "Villa Tony", an outlandish display of columns and religious stuff, and then another with more rustic looking religious statues including an odd one of Moses. As we reached the area around the train station, he showed us the home of William Carlos Williams, father of beatnic poetry.

The railroad station in Rutherford was one of the first in the country, from the days before locomotives, when railroads were simply mule drawn. The line is still active today at this point and the station is nicely restored. Craig explained to us that the original Erie main line was abandoned to the east, and that the "Erie shortcut" to the north was now used as the main line. The old Erie is now a rail trail, but only sort of.Craig told us it both is and isn't a trail. Two towns, for which the railroad bed makes the border, had agreed to make it a trail, but the railroad was holding up or something. Some guy in Rutherford who was some sort of contractor took it upon himself to clear along the tracks himself and lay down wood chips, opening the trail himself. So today, it is a well used trail, but is sort of under the radar.We walked along the road parallel with the tracks, then headed down into the cut when the active line turned north on the "shortcut". The right of way was actually pretty cool to walk. We had a nice hike along it for a while, and emerged on Jackson Ave next to an old building that looks like it's going to be demolished soon. I think it was a silk mill or something.

Craig left us here, and we continued north on Jackson. We really couldn't get back out to the riverfront and have it be that good, so we took more direct route on Locust Ave to shave off a corner in the river, and then followed it along the road for a bit. There were some nice night views of it.

We took side streets after crossing the Saddle River to head back to the Wal Mart. Before heading out, we all went over to the Applebee's to have some dinner together, which was great.

This hike was another that breaks down misconceptions, and renewed my interest in the Newark area once again. Craig and I had discussed a lot of different options on urban hikes in the area, and so I am going to explore the options and hopefully we can get one or two more that he's suggested in before the warm weather comes. This was truly a great hike.