Hike #679; Spruce Run Turnpike

 Hike #679; Spruce Run Turnpike

2/1/13 Spruce Run Turnpike with Frank Meloi, Carol Van Gliezen, and Bill Honachefsky

In Clinton

This next hike would be a point to point, after work night hike tracing the route of the former Spruce Run Turnpike.

I have actually done this entire hike before, but not in one day.

My grandfather, who first started me off hiking at the age of three, took me on a series of hikes to follow the route of this road. It ended up being quite a reminiscence for me. I'd always said I would hike the entire thing in a day, as one of my group trips since it's just about fifteen miles, but never got around to doing it. I decided to do it finally as a night hike.

I met Frank and newcomer Carol at the A&P in Clinton. It was a big, safe lot where we could park after hours so it worked out good.

We shuttled to Oxford Central School, the parking lot parallel with the Busy Bee, and started our walk. We crossed the foot bridge over Furnace Brook, and had a look at the Shippen Manor, which served as the iron master's mansion. The old Oxwall building that had burned down a couple years earlier still was a pile of ruined rubble, with the old water tower still standing. It was deemed arson I hear, but no one ever found anything out.

We turned to pass the old stone church, which was formerly a mill. When the industry of the area wanted more land, they purchased where the old church was, or swapped it for the current building. It was converted from mill to church.  Last year, as a member of the Municipal and Charitable Trust Conservancy Grant Commission, we approved funding to stabilize the south wall, which was buckling and leaning out under the weight of the roof. Next to the mill is the historic Oxford Furnace, the first of the hot blast furnaces. The original furnace sits behind a newer one, and the newer one was completely covered in plastic stuff while people worked on the facade, apparently repointing it. I remembered the older one being done in the early 2000s. I used to jog through while my then girlfriend Cathy would lay on the beach at Oxford Lake.

We made our way through town, up hill, and I pointed out the original 1856 right of way of the Warren Railroad, as well as the Oxford Iron Mine railroads, which also crossed this section. The Spruce Run Turnpike went up the main street and onto Mine Hill Road. There used to be another church on the right, and all signs of it were now gone. Even as a little kid, I remember being saddened when it was torn down.

The old water tower was nearly collapsed on the left of the road, and we could see the old railway spur that swung away from the road and back to the pit mine on the right. When I walked this with my grandfather when I was little, the road was being overtaken by this mine. The chain link fence that blocked it had a big hole under it where the blacktop was caving into the mine. The road has since been re-routed slightly out of the way from the water filled pit. My grandfather always told me that if I fell in there I'd never get out.

We continued up the road, and I remembered the home of Richard Harpster's granddaughter. Harpster was a great man, who helped to save the Delaware Water Gap NRA from becoming a reservoir, and countless other things including saving the plaque from the Oxford/Van Nest Gap Tunnel. He was also the man who tapped out the order from Eisenhower to drop the bomb on August 6th 1945 on Hiroshima. He and I had a nice e mail correspondence before he passed away.

We crested Mine Hill, and then began to descend on the other side. There was a nice house sitting off to the left, across what is now an access to the West Oxford Mountain Natural Resource Area, a county preserve. When I walked this with my grandfather, there was a big German Shepherd that came running out of the house, and bit me on the butt. My grandfather scooped me up quickly to protect me from further harm, but from then for many years I had a fear of unfamiliar dogs that was hard to shake.

As we continued down the road, we came to the spot on the ledge where many trees were blown down by Super Storm Sandy. The one good thing that came out of this disaster is the more open views we now get from Mine Hill Road. It was a nice spot, so we stopped to take some pictures.

Moving on down the road, we crossed the Pohatcong Creek, next to Pohatcong Creek Natural Area, and then ascended slightly up to the crossroads at Jackson Valley Road. The historic Spruce Run Turnpike route continued ahead on Belvidere Avenue. I've always loved that section of town, with beautiful Victorians, though some of them were sadly altered, like the Cornish Mansion. Washington was once the organ capitol of the world, when the Cornish Organ Factory was in use.

Some of Belvidere Ave was still the old concrete, which I also loved about the road. It adds a real historic ambiance to downtown. We crossed the former Morris Canal route, which looks nicer now than it did in my youth, having had all of the brambles removed from it, and headed into town. I pointed out historic buildings, and the snow began falling rather heavily as we passed the post office and it grew darker.

We made a stop at the Quick Check where we got some sandwiches, which were quite good. I saw my old friend Mr. Josh, who was working behind the deli. I used to sit behind him in English class in 7th grade, and later worked with him at Wal Mart (obviously, this was quite the nostalgic hike for me).

We continued on from here, across the main street, Rt 57 in the middle of town, and followed the historic route onto Broad Street, heading down hill. This is where they always have the soap box derby races on 4th of July. The road goes down hill, then back up and across the railroad tracks. We passed my Uncle Ed's old house, where his wood carving shed still stood (he passed away from cancer in the early 1990s, and I visited him with my grandfather every week).

The historic route crossed Rt 31, and became Springtown Road on the other side. The road now  had a golf course on the right side of it, and a bit further down a development on the left. My friends Jenna and Aaron Marques lived in the first house, and I'd even hiked a bit of this to the Springtown Road Nature Trail when I was in high school, one of the earliest hikes in the Summer of 1998. My first time walking this road, there was no golf course, and no development. The road was tiny, barely even lanes for opposing traffic. It was now quite wide, and bares little resemblance to the road I first walked in the 80s.

The road turned past a couple old houses and intersects with Asbury-Anderson Road. When standing on Springtown or nearby New Hampton Road, one can see how the Spruce Run Turnpike was once the main road, and how it was changed. It's obvious that the turns in Asbury-Anderson don't quite look right. The more direct path is looking on from Springtown to New Hampton Road. We turned right on Asbury Anderson and made the left on the historic route along New Hampton Road. This too was one that I remembered as being a tiny road, but it too was widened to the point of being a development road. Large houses sitting way back from the road now dominated former fields. I remember walking through the fields in this area with my grandfather, while they were being cleared for construction. I found a deer's jaw that I kept in a container up until the fire in 2010, after which I don't know what happened to it.

We turned right on the road, and crossed the bridge over the Musconetcong. The sound of the river in the dark made for a sort of surreal experience. The new bridge that had more recently been constructed over the river was actually nicer than the older one. The old one had simple hand rails on the sides, and a grated decking. This one had a sort of truss, and was much wider. Now traffic flies across it. Even I'm guilty of that; for that reason friends and I have been trying to save the nearby Point Mountain bridge over the Muscy, because the new one will be wider, and will be very dangerous with faster traffic, and trails crossing immediately on the other side.

We turned right on River Road, and headed up hill into New Hampton. I told the story of New Hampton, how it's older than Hampton, and that the railroad came in in 1853, the settlement built around it, and it was called "The Junction". When that name was too generic, it was called "Hampton Junction" because New Hampton was the nearest town to the east, and then after the junction with the Lackawanna was abandoned, it as shortened to simply "Hampton".

We passed the old school house on the right, now a museum. Louise Sliker, an old friend I met through my grandfather was one of the historians in the township. I remember seeing her here as well as at her house. She never missed sending me a birthday card from when I was small until she passed a few years back. I would always call her to thank her for the card, and have a long conversation. She was also my dad's kindergarten teacher.

We continued through New Hampton, a beautiful little village with stone houses and former hotel/stage coach stops. The old Union Hotel was the first one I remember my grandfather pointing out to me as having been a "stage coach stop". He taught me at a very young age what these buildings were, and I was able to pick them out whenever we'd pass.

We then passed New Hampton Inn, one of the most hole in the wall bars in the entire Skylands region of the state. Frank didn't feel comfortable going in the place, which looks to be held together with plywood. It's been notorious for being a rough place, but I wanted to go in just because it is so ragged, for a laugh. Since no one else was terribly keen on it, we skipped it and moved on.

As we left New Hampton, we reached the crossing of Rt 31 where the old turnpike entered Hampton. We followed it through town again, on a steep grade. There was a tunnel beneath the street I used to play in. It leads from below the presbyterian church out to Valley Road. My brothers and I walked all the way through it once, though it was a disgusting mess with PVC pipes distributing toxins to the inside.

We made our way through town, past the old church on the left. Before the railroad, Musconetcong Valley Presbyterian Church was built in the valley, 1837. In 1853 the railroad came through, and the settlement formed around it rather than the church, which was usually the common practice. The congregation built another church in town, and opted to have winter services there, and summer ones in the valley. I attended this church from when I was very little till I was 18 with my grandfather.

We continued through town, and passed beneath the former Jersey Central Railroad bridge. My grandfather told me how he skipped church one day be hiding from his dad up in the abutment next to the girders. I ended up waiting there for a ride after a hike with my friend Kyle back in early 2010 as well. We then passed my great grandfather's former barber shop, the house where my grandfather was born, and then the former blue print shop where I would go with my grandmother to pick up map prints for my grandfather when I was little. Before it closed, and after I got my license, I bought a lot of their stock of USGS maps.

We continued through town, then headed back out to Rt 31. We crossed rather easily, and descended into Glen Gardner on the old turnpike route. This town was also very beautiful. It's steep slope on the left with homes built into it was lovely with the street light ambiance. This was one of the nicest sections of the entire hike.

We passed through town, which included another of my great grandfather's old barber shops, and then out to 31. The old road out to 31 was cut off a year or two prior because it was such a dangerous intersection.

We had to continue on 31 south from here for a bit, and the former road route was on the left just ahead, only slightly deviating from the current highway. Bill Honachefsky joined us in this area to finish the hike. I introduced him to Carol and Frank, and he gave us some history of Union Forge Heritage Association, and of Allen and Turner who owned all of the land for the iron works.

We continued on along 31, then the original turnpike again turned to the left more, to the intersection with Buffalo Hollow Road, then returned to the highway. We crossed at the intersection with Van Syckles Road, then turned left to follow the original road route out onto the reservoir, which is usually under water. There were a few trees on the old road which we had to cross, but it wasn't too bad. Bill gave us a history talk and sort of guided us to where the old Union Furnace used to be. He told us there were actually two furnaces there, which I hadn't known.We soon crossed the Willoughby Brook Bridge, made of concrete but no longer with guard rails on it. It was deteriorating badly, but still strong to walk over. Frank loves underwater bridges, so he got quite the kick out of it. We continued on along the old road route, and then we turned right briefly on the old road that predated Van Syckles from before the reservoir. The abutments to the bridge over Spruce Run Creek are still there, and usually are under water. We went out to them, and Bill pointed out that the furnace was very near to this intersection. I'd love to see a map of where everything should have been.

While we were on the bridge, I called my grandfather up on the cell phone to say "hi". I wanted to let him know I was walking the old Spruce Run Turnpike, and on the old bridge that he first brought me across when I was little during a time the reservoir was drained. He let out a bunch of his normal cracks about not listening to me, turn the opposite way I say, etc. Everyone always gets a kick out of his words of wisdom when I call him along hikes.

We continued back to Spruce Run Turnpike, which turned away and started heading slightly up hill. Bill pointed out an historic spring house on the right side of the former road, still with water coming out of it, and wetting up the road right of way. I got my feet a little wet here.

We continued up hill and across 31 yet again. The next section of the road was an abandoned piece that goes higher than the current 31 alignment, and used to pass an old house that was torn down. I recall it being there, and this section of road was always drivable until recently.

It was still sort of walkable, and the stop sign was still there where it came to 31 on the north. We followed the road for a bit, and Bill was going to leave to go home, but then opted to stay with us. He almost left again when we got to where we'd cross 31 again, but then opted to finish the hike with us. We crossed 31 by Rt 513, then headed south on it, pretty much the original turnpike alignment, and stopped in a gas station to get some food and snacks.

We then continued on to Clinton, turning onto 513 as it heads down into town. We passed the somewhat new library on the right. This was not here when I first walked this section with my grandfather, nor was 31 more than two lanes (now it's four or five). The library was built by the Union, which my stepdad Mark was a part of. I remember driving him to work at the site while he was building it.

We continued down hill to cross the South Branch of the Raritan in town, and we could barely see the old red mill up stream. We turned right and headed over to the mill at the end of the Spruce Run Turnpike. It was really too dark to see it, and they had barely any lights on it. The old oblong truss bridge was beautiful though, and light enough to see. We walked out onto it to have a look around, then back through the town of Clinton, which is also a beautiful, revitalized town like Lambertville or New Hope.

Walking through this town is always nice. We made our way along the streets out to old Rt 22 in town, and then back to the A&P. Carol headed home, and Bill, Frank, and I went into the A&P, which was still opened (and one of the smallest remaining ones in the state I might add) for some snacks. We had some laughs and headed out, dropping Bill off at his house on the way.

Frank and I had some nice conversations on the way back and as he dropped me off at my car. It took him long enough to finally get him out on one of the big hikes, but now he's become a staple who everybody really genuinely likes, has interesting historic footnotes to add to things, and a quick witted sense of humor. We have enough in common to have constant interesting conversations, and enough difference to be interesting. The group has definitely improved with his addition.

This hike was far better than I thought it'd be. I went into it thinking it to just be sort of a refresher, some exercise, and something to do, but it ended up being a really nice and memorable time!