Hike #701; Great Meadows Loop

 Hike #701; Great Meadows Loop

5/23/13 Great Meadows/Alphano Loop with Brandan Jermyn, Gregg Hudis, Michele Valerio, Chris "Cupcake" Kroschinski, and Carol Van Giezen

Townsbury trestle.

Memorial day was coming up and I was unfortunately scheduled to work Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. I wasn't particularly happy about it, but then again with this schedule, I was not scheduled to work another Sunday through the end of the year, so the hikes would be clear, and I was only scheduled to work from noon till closing of the park on Fourth of July. Every other day was a schedule I'm happy about.

So rather than complain, I scheduled a hike for Friday night after work, starting right from my home in Townsbury, or rather from the parking lot right below the house on the old Lehigh and Hudson River Railroad to do the loop we did shortly after Jillane and I moved here.

We followed the Lehigh and Hudson River Railroad bed heading east out of Townsbury toward Great Meadows. The right of way was much clearer than it was the previous time we visited this point. We ended up bushwhacking through some awful stuff that time, but this time ATVs had been using it right on to the deck girder trestle beyond Townsbury. We followed it with ease out to where the paths turned left away from the right of way, with plastic tape hanging below the fill to keep trespassers away. We turned right, out to the open fields that are to become an extension to the cemetery. We followed them right out to Cemetery Road and turned left to the Great Meadows church, then on to Rt 46 to visit Nykun's Store for some snacks and drinks.

We returned to the rail bed and followed it to the lovely old station, then headed back to Rt 46, and crossed onto Alphano Road. The section of rail bed from there to Alphano Road was not in great shape, and it's almost covered over because of private land issues. We headed on from there to the state land parcel and got back on the rail bed again, which was now nice and relatively clear on out to Alphano and the sod farms in Allamuchy Township. Cupcake met us at that point.

The bridge over the creek in the middle of the sod farm was in poor condition, more so than on previous visits. We followed the industrial lane past the sod farm from the rail bed down to Alphano Road again, and then we walked to the bottom of Strawberry Hill, the Independence Township park land. Cupcake and I checked out an iron mine that was abandoned off the road just before.

We climbed on a few of the trails as we did before up to the unmarked side trail which led to the overlook in the Old Farm Sanctuary of the Audobon Society. It was getting darker all the time, so we didn't hang out at the overlook for all that long and continued down the trail system. The trails were in awful shape compared to our previous visit. They were hard to follow, blazes had been torn down, weeds were growing over, and many trees had blocked the paths.

We ended up bushwhacking and making our way out to the abandoned former Ryan Road. It looks from maps as though Ryan Road and Cat Swamp Road used to cross at a harder angle, and then the routes were straightened, and the old ones were abandoned or just became private driveways. We turned right on the abandoned road, then headed out to the intersection of Ryan and Cat Swamp roads. We then made our way to the right on what becomes Water Street into Great Meadows. We ended up having to miss a nice section of trail, but it was probably going to be very wet and overgrown.

In Great Meadows, we turned right on 46, then cut across the school property to the township park and followed their paved trails to cemetery road. We then turned left along the road, down hill across the Pequest River where the new bridge was built next to the old one, then turned right onto the trail connecting to the development. We walked the development roads to Townsbury Road back to Townsbury.

I drove Cupcake back to his car. It was good seeing him again. He's always been a great friend, and so it was good to have him there. He's been very busy, but I hope to see him more often in the near future.