Hike #694; Marble Hill to Morgan Hill

 Hike #694; Marble Hill Opening to Easton and Morgan Hill

4/14/13 Marble Hill Opening to Easton and Morgan Hill with Matthew Davis, Gregg Hudis, Ron Phelps, Corrin Dylnicki, Stephen Argentina, Deb and John Esposito, Tom Straus, Derek Baker, Rich Pace, Ellen Shanahan Berry, Giuseppe DeCaro, William "Guillermo" Fabel, Tim Kovich, Fernando Giron, Brandan Jermyn, Frank Meloi, Carol Van Giezen, Tamara Sapilak, Julie Valasquez, Terri Allen, Ido ?, Shelly Janes, Bobbi Landrock, Dan Lurie, Sue Olivar, Jamie Dritt, Michele Valerio, Jim "Mr. Buckett" Mathews, Ron Lozowski, Eric Pace, Christie ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, and ?.

My apologies for those who's names I don't have. There were a lot who showed up, and I didn't bother with the sign in this time.

The group at the Fulmer Mine

I had been working long and hard for this day.

For over a year, I'd been working to clear and mark the trails in the Marble Hill preserve properties, which include Marble Hill Natural Resource Area of Warren County, Lopatcong Park of it's namesake township, and Marble Hill State Park which was administered under Spruce Run where I work (though I've only been there for work on two occasions so far).

This has been the culmination of several years of working with the great people of Warren County.

I was brought to the Warren County Board of Recreation Commission through Dave Detrich, long time Commissioner and founding member of the Warren County Morris Canal Committee. The county has long been the leader in regards to the Morris Canal, proudly, and Dave reached out to me early on and asked me to lead more hikes on the canal. When asked to "reboot" my Morris Canal series hikes, the effort to hike it entirely across the state to show more activity in Warren County, I obliged by starting in Phillipsburg again, and heading across the county in 15 or so mile segments eventually to Jersey City to complete the canal. I also attended Board of Recreation meetings as well as Canal Committee meetings.

The Board of Rec soon made a recommendation to the Freeholders that I be appointed to the Commission, which soon happened, and Dave told me he would like me to help them develop their trails system over the next few years. By 2011, I was made Chairman of that board, and given the opportunity to be caretaker at White Lake Natural Resource Area. I spent nearly the next two years re-opening the Ridge and Valley Trail there, which had almost completely closed in, and re-marked it with heavy slate markers that had to be carried in a backpack across the property.
I also completed clearing/constructing a trail built by the former Land Steward, Michelle, to connect the Ridge and Valley Trail with the main parking area on Stillwater Road. I then worked with the current Land Steward, Allen, to open the remaining section of trails to and around the Stewardship Barn. I spend countless hours working on that project, and when I moved from White Lake to Great Meadows, I refocused all of my efforts on the Marble Hill property, spending sometimes three hours per night scouting, clearing, and marking the trails across the property.

I proposed to the Board of Rec that we move on developing the trail system at Marble Hill, and everyone was across the board supportive from my fellow Commissioners, as well as Corey Tierney, Director of Land Preservation, and Dave Dech, Planning Director. I'm sure I come across as a complete nut at times, but they've all been so supportive and have my gratitude.

I started just over a year prior working on the trails. The beginning was relatively easy, simply cutting back and clearing existing old mine roads, and just a little bit of grading. I made a lollipop loop immediately, and opened the Warren Highlands Trail and the Iron Mine Trail past the Fulmer Mine. The Warren Highlands Trail was proposed years ago when the Highlands Trail reached Allamuchy Mountain. Two alternatives existed; Hunterdon by way of Morris County, or Warren to reach the Delaware River. At the time, Hunterdon had more public land and so that route was chosen, and pretty much completed by early 2009.
Now, Warren County has probably the better route, and so we are moving forward with development. The board had the trail officially named "Warren Trail", but I felt that it was too confusing, because it follows some of the Lehigh and Hudson River Railroad as proposed, and the Warren Railroad is in part an existing trail aready. I felt the "Warren Highlands Trail" was a better name, or maybe "Cross Warren Trail" to differentiate. Everyone understood and agreed, and so we named it Warren Highlands Trail. I initially blazed it a bright blue, but changed it to the standard Highlands Trail teal, with two by three inch blazes instead of the teal diamond, again to differentiate.

I continued to cut new trail from the area beyond the mine, utilizing a little bit of old woods road, but eventually reaching Ray Raub's farm and the state property in a very nice wooded route. It would be the longest section of trail I'd constructed by myself to date. The board helped to make decisions regarding what should go on trail maps, and some of them joined me on scouting hikes and such within the properties I proposed for the trail route. We also drove around looking for the safest roads on which to route the trail to the Northampton Street Free Bridge.

Planners Dave Dech and Albert Kraus accompanied me on several occasions to GPS and mark sections, well after their normal work hours, which really illustrates the their dedication to this great project. Dave often came to our Rec meetings with updates on maps and kiosks. We made suggestions for text for maps and kiosks as well as locations interpretive signs should be placed. Sometimes the Board of Rec meetings would go on over two hours, and the county staff has been very patient in dealing with our sometimes overabundant discussions.

Jillane helped me to clear the new Lopatcong Connector Trail, red blazed, to reach the most important active recreation park in Phillipsburg area, a very important connection. The township agreed to keep the approach to this trail mowed, for which we are thankful.

The Yellow Trail, which I suppose is best to call the "Marble Hill Trail" since it reaches Marble Hill Road, was a joint effort between myself, Matt Davis, and new friend Dana Hovey. I initially marked a section of wood road/ATV path from Warren Highlands Trail down to Marble Hill Road, but wanted to connect a parallel section to Marble Hill Road where the new parking lot was done over by the township where the shooting range used to be (they also did a nice little lot on River Road. I was there with them staking it out, which I called out of work to do.)

We flagged a little of the connecting route, but not much. I then moved from the parking lot and opened a section with switch backs up to Warren Highlands Trail near a power line. The original plan was to use the power line, but that simply would not work. It was a mess, so I took it upon myself to clear a difficult new route. I soon led a hike along the newly cleared route with my friends Megan and Gabe, and shortly after they showed the trails to Hovey.

Hovey came in and helped clear some of the stuff including vines which I did not finish, and then took it upon himself to clear and essentially "build" the entire section of trail from the parking lot to the existing yellow trail, which saved me a LOT of time and effort. Matt came in and began work on the yellow trail where to where it was supposed to connect to Warren Highlands on the other end. He did some initial clearing and I finished it later on.

Matt then came back and did fantastic work on a new side hill approach to the giant ditch on the Warren Highlands Trail which made the descend so much easier. At this point we were pretty much finished with the trail system for the opening, save for the last few hundred feet out to Belvidere Road on Warren Highlands Trail, but I'd gone with the Superintendent to talk to the nearby land owners to let him know the options we had, and he wanted to talk it over with his family. We'll reach the road by way of one of two routes.

My plan for the day was to lead a hike point to point. I would meet the group in the morning, do 3.7 miles, then have the opening. From the opening, we'd continue to do more mileage and pretty much the rest of the entire preserve, then Warren Highlands Trail to the free bridge, and cross into Easton to show how this will connect with the existing Highlands Trail system, which might follow the Delaware and Lehigh Canals.

We had a group of well over thirty show up in the morning, and we went up the Lopatcong Connector Trail to Warren Highlands, then followed it to the right over Matt's new switchback, then headed up along the trail I built to reach the woods road further on. We turned on it and took a break at the little view at the power lines, then moved on along the newer stuff I hadn't led a group on yet out through state park land to to Raub's fields. We cut down through the fields with the great 180 degree view down to where the old school house used to be. Old Ray showed me the pile of rubble, which was all that remained of it. I actually like this route for the Warren Highlands Trail more now the the previous route because it has such a nice pastoral setting, and still has sort of a view.

We had to backtrack from here on the route we'd already taken. Some waited behind and didn't head down to the school house at the view. We followed Warren Highlands Trail back to the power line, then came down to the development and to Belvidere Road below. People were taking pictures of the Llamas behind the fences, and so a land owner came out to holler at everyone. I was already way ahead at this point, and so when we were walking out Belvidere Road, the guy pulled up to talk to us. He was actually very nice and let us know that it's his property and that he didn't want to have to put a fence up. I figured the power line was public, but I guess not. Fortunately we had no problem.

We arrived early to the opening, and so many in the group either split or went to get lunch and come back. I hung around to meet with the others showing up. Corey Tierney was there after not long, as well as planner Dave Dech, National Park Service representative, Martins Jacoby Watershed Association, and then John Trontis, Assistant Director of State Parks. I chatted with them a bit, and then we put a tarp over the trail sign for the ceremonious unveiling.

When everyone arrived, we gathered everyone at the sign, and Dave Dech started things off, thanking dignitaries including Nat'l Park Service and Martins Jacoby for the grants, and the township for support and helping keep the trail approach open. Also, the road department for construction the parking areas.

Following Dave, Freeholders Jason Sarnoski and Rick Gardner both spoke. It was really nice to have them there for support. I've never seen two Freeholders together at one spot, especially not a park opening. I was very grateful they were both there. They're also both very nice guys anyway. Matt and I were both thanked for our work on the trail system.

National Park Service and Martins Jacoby Watershed both spoke as well, followed by John Trontis, who is one of the best off the cuff public speakers I've ever met. I was so glad when I asked him to say a few words that he agreed to it. I felt kind of bad for Lopatcong Townsip Administrators to have to speak after John. He's not an easy act to follow. Dave introduced me as the final speaker, and I could see he might have been a little bit nervous about what I might pull off. I suppose that's somewhat right, because Matt and I were talking about cutting a ribbon with a chain saw to surprise them.

I too spoke off the cuff, though I'm sure not nearly as well as John. I thanked the others who helped me out on the preserve like Jillane and Hovey, and also the Dept. of Land Preservation, because they were always so cooperative as well as patient, with Board of Rec meetings often running late due to we overzealous Commissioners, and Dave and Albert from Planning Department, who wandered these routes scouting and GPSing with me, sometimes well after hours and saying "okaaay...let me call my wife".

I then thanked the Freeholders for their support, for letting us do our thing. I commended Warren County for doing something right. While we were in the past under pressure for being one of the only three counties in the state without a park departments, we don't want anything we can't sustain. Hunterdon is falling apart, other counties still don't have their trails opened after the storm, but we created something new, and after the storm had everything clear in a week (I actually just moved the trail instead of clear it). I commented that by using volunteers we were creating sustainable facilities at minimum cost to tax payers.

Ric Gardner and I talked for a bit afterwards, which was really nice. He told me that he and the other Freeholders have always felt it best to "stay out" of the business of the Board of Rec, that they trust what we're doing. Bob Resker, former land preservation head told me when I was first appointed that the "Freeholders pretty much listen to what we have to say", which was very different than Hunterdon.

I likened the system to an unbroken chain of support, from Freeholders right down to the volunteers who created the trail system. Everyone was passionate and excited about the prospect, which is truly why it happened. The whole project was done with just a few of us, so imagine what we'll accomplish when we bring in more volunteers and more organizations. This is only the very beginning of something very very big.

It was great to see both Jillane and my dad had come to the opening. I was so relieved, and we got moving along the trail. Everyone was surprised that I was going to continue on for another 10 plus miles in my pin striped suit and tie, with dress shoes.

We moved on up the Lopatcong Connector Trail and again up Warren Highlands the way we'd gone in the morning, but then turned left down the new yellow trail to the parking lot. We turned onto Hovey's new section which I just finished a bit more clearing and blazing on, and then followed the section on to Warren Highlands Trail again. This trail, where I originally blazed it, was not what the county thought I'd do, and so it appeared on the map wrong for a bit. We ended up building the trail to be what the map showed, and the part I marked first I made yellow with red dots in the middle.

We got off of the yellow trail and followed Warren Highlands to the overlook for a break, then on to the mine trail out to Fulmer Mine. Dave was there with the woman from National Park Service, and we showed everyone the mine. After a break here, we headed down the mine trail to Warren Highlands again to the base of Marble Hill. I opted to split the group here so I could bring those who wanted to go through the giant pipe. Only Eric and Bobbi didn't go through, so the rest of us headed down to the river and on to the pipe.

After everyone had caught up, we headed through the pipe, then scurried together out the other side. We then followed the trail route on street to the free bridge, but first stopped in a store at Union Square.

Across the free bridge, we went down to the path from Columbus Park, and followed the river to the forks where we could see the dam at the mouth of the Lehigh. We then followed the riverside pathways on to Rt 611, crossed, and followed 611 south until we could get on the Lehigh Canal towpath trail, where the canal used slack water.

We followed the old canal easily on from the slack water section to the regular canal in Hugh Moore Park to Glendon. We then made our way onto roads. We followed Morvale Road up to Morgan Hill Road and finished the hike at Crivellaro's Ristorante where I used to hang out quite a bit when Jillane and I got together, and a bit before that when my brother Tea Biscuit first bought his house a few doors down.

I talked to the owners about hosting the hike 700 party there pretty soon, and they might be able to do open bar for us for 30 bucks a head, with buffet dinner. NOT BAD!!! I think we're going to go for it.

We hung out and talked and ate till late, and a lot of the group stayed for dinner. It was great to see the long time members of the group  integrating with the awesome new people who have joined. There was a time when I thought to myself that this could end up becoming like one of the other hiking clubs, with mostly retired older folks, and the group would dwindle as I age. That hasn't been the case so far, with young newcomers always out, the diversity in age and backgrounds of the people has remained the same. I really hope it continues to be this good as long as I can be involved.