Hike #742; High Bridge to Changewater

 Hike #742; High Bridge to Changewater Mountain

12/15/13 North Hunterdon/High Bridge to Changewater Mountain with Michael "Lerch" Clark, Jen Berndt, Tom Vorrius, Cory Salveson, Steve Levy, Paul ?, Michele Valerio, Bilal ?, Carla ?, Rich Pace, Eric Pace, and William  Honachefsky Jr.

The group on Columbia Trail, High Bridge

Every year around Christmas time, I have a couple of traditions that I love. Those who know me well know that I really don't "do" Christmas. For too many years it's been a time that just doesn't feel good to me. My grandmother passed away very close to Christmas in 2002, and I always associated the season with celebrations she was a part of. I've also been pretty broke around Christmas, and I couldn't stand the obligatory exchange of gifts, and how Christmas has turned into something so corporate. A long list of other things have made Christmas a bad time for me, and so I just try not to deal with much of it.

It has improved for me a bit over time, and I'd found my own way of enjoying it through the hikes.

Every year, I host two holiday hikes, one in which we visit my grandfather at his home in Lebanon Township, on Changewater Mountain, as well as a Holiday New York City hike. I love for the people in my group to meet my grandfather, who is always full of great stories and positive attitude. I think it's important for them to meet the man responsible for starting me off hiking at the age of three, and to see some of the reason I am the way I am.

This time around, we met at my grandfather's house in the morning, and shuttled to High Bridge from there. Unfortunately, we were hit with a good amount of snow the day before. I managed to get up to the house in good enough time, and then started shoveling the driveway. Paul showed up about the same time as me, and we both got on shoveling detail.

Lerch showed up soon too, and he grabbed a shovel to help out as well. The group ended up being a lot smaller than we'd anticipated. Although I'd posted in two different groups, less than half of those who had signed up actually came. I guess I can understand because the roads certainly were not good. Michele was behind, but she managed to meet in High Bridge.

We got enough spaces shoveled that we could get all of the cars in without any problem, then headed down to High Bridge.

We had to abandon more of my original plan as well, which would have involved a bit of the Taylor Steelworker's Historic Greenway Trail that I'd not yet incorporated into any of my hikes, more of the new bike trails at Nassau Tract, and an off trail connector from another park. With the snow on the ground, this was simply not feasible. I had to change the hike to start at Union Forge Park.

Fortunately, Bill Honachefsky was still intrepid enough to join us for the first leg of the hike. Bill's knowledge of the Taylor Iron and Steel Company, and later Taylor Wharton added a great level of history to the hike that I could not have imparted in such detail. Rich and Eric also joined us at this point, and they were going to cut out early. Carla would meet us late.

We began the hike by walking along the Huskies ball field. We continued around the old iron company buildings, and then reached the TISCO building, the oldest office building in NJ, which has been worked on with grant money from the Union Forge Heritage Association for which Bill serves as Vice President. The organization brought thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of grant money to the town, and saw through the completion of not only the Taylor Steelworker's Historic Greenway, but the opening and successful run of the Solitude House Museum, replacement of the porch on that structure, roof stabilization of the TISCO building, and preservation of the only example of a steer reinforced I beam dam remaining in NJ to name just a few.

2009 Bridge Work

Bill gave us some history here, and we continued across the 1890 Carnegie Truss bridge that we worked to re-deck together in Summer, 2009. UFHA put countless hours of work into all of their projects, and I was honored to work with Bill,  UFHA President Mike Gronsky, and my other friends Kyle Zalinsky, Matt Davis, Shelly Janes, Dana Janes, and Zack Crowell to remove the old decking and begin placement of the new current walkway. This was the first time I'd seen the new plaque with our names on it at the center of the bridge, secured into place by Custom Alloy, a corporation who granted UFHA an easement over their land for the trail and have been constant supporters of their projects.

The plaque was secured with chains in an interesting way from all four corners, which makes it all the more interesting. We crossed the bridge, then continued on the greenway to Kyle's grave site, the memorial his friends gathered together in 2010 to create for him. I uncovered the marble stone with his name engraved from the snow for everyone to see.

We continued from here to the ruins of the Bloomery Forge, where Bill imparted more information about Allen and Turner, and the part the furnace played in the American Revolution. We moved on from here to the Solitude House itself.

There's a sadness today about the Solitude House, now sitting vacant. UFHA was removed by the town of High Bridge foolishly; in order for a non profit organization like UFHA to apply for grants and to keep functioning, state and federal interests require a 15 year lease. Despite the tens of thousands of dollars brought to the town through the efforts of UFHA, the town insisted on nothing more than a 5 year lease that could be revoked at any time as they saw fit. The town council wants to see a Bed and Breakfast or something in the building. Having attended a meeting myself, I found the council to be rather pompous and unwilling to listen to reason. Mike made a very good presentation before them, but I think their minds were already made up by that time.

Now, the house, built about 1712, and the historic location where John Penn was held prisoner of war during the American Revolution, sits more solitary than it ever should. Perched on a grassy hill above the entrance road, it seems to almost tease onlookers with the image of what it was and could be if only the municipality could have some sense.

We continued from here to the Solitude dam, always an incredible sight. Bill and I climbed up the stairs to the right side of the dam. I'm glad I had the opportunity to jump off of it on Hike #500 before it was changed.

Me jumping off of the Solitude Dam on Hike #500

The dam now has a cleared spillway an open setting along the top. Formerly, this was a very bucolic setting that we really wanted to see preserved, but it came down to the choice of having the dam and the recreation value of Lake Solitude, or restoring the river. There are arguments for both, but for now they have saved the dam, which meant having to remove many of the trees on the spillway.

I dashed back down the slope, and we followed the trail back out to Solitude House, then headed along it to the Nassau Tract. We continued on Nassau Road to the other end of the tract, then followed the trail back through from the other end. I wanted to do it as a through route, but that wouldn't work with the snow, so we took this way. Also, rather than follow the new trails, which were unblazed, we kept with our yellow blazed Taylor Steelworker's Historic Greenway. We'd need to see treadway to follow the other unmarked trails.

We continued back along the trail, over the truss bridge and back to the TISCO building. We then headed up hill on the trail, which Bill and I rerouted a bit after Tropical Storm Sandy to avoid blow downs, then reached Columbia Trail and the sign I constructed with some help from Bill in early 2009.

At this point, Bill had to cut out to attend an important meeting, and Rich and Eric also had to go. Carla joined us at this point though, having parked in the town and walked Columbia Trail to us. We followed Columbia Trail from here heading above Lake Solitude and over the Readingsburg Bridge into Ken Lockwood Gorge. We went a ways into the gorge until we were just down hill from Voorhees High School. I wanted to try bushwhacking directly up hill to the high school, which in the snow I knew would be difficult.

We managed to climb up, which was tough, but we managed. Lerch ended up taking a fall without dying as usual, but apparently it was rather nasty. I missed it. When the ground started to become less steep, there was some sort of a path following along the side of a small creek. We followed this, and passed a neat little foot bridge to some sort of fort from a private house. We soon ended up at the ropes course area of Voorhees High School. Of course, we had to take some time to goof off on it, trying to walk the wires and such.

We headed up hill from here, which took us across the ball fields. It got really cold in this section again. I worked up a good sweat heading up hill out of the gorge. I was wearing the very warm old World War II Private First Class Bombers jacket I got for $5 at a junk store near Scranton a couple years back, which was actually too warm at times.

We hurried across the fields and then high school parking lot, which looked to be in better shape when it came to snow clearing than Rt 513, which we crossed to enter Voorhees State Park. We stopped by the restroom here first. There were old expired Brisk iced teas in there, which seemed to have debris floating in them. I gave one to Lerch because he was thirsty, and he drank it, saying it tasted funny! I think he held onto one for a while anyway.

We continued from here on along the main entrance road to the park, which becomes the loop road. I had planned to walk the Parcourse Circuit, but there was just too much snow, and the road was parallel anyway. We continued to the Hoppock Grove pavilion, walked through it and then down to the Brookside Trail. We followed this trail out to the Gold Trail, then to the fields where we headed up hill and around the pond to the old barn near to 513. We then went left on 513 to Bunnvale. I believe we went into the mini mart at the gas station there for a break and some snacks. I probably got a Reeces Fast Break or something, but I just don't remember.

We continued walking up hill from here toward Woodglen. Like we had in the past, we turned left into Lebanon Twp. Memorial Park and I showed everyone my favorite World Trade Center Memorial, made of a two story piece of the twin towers. We then continued on past the Woodglen Store, which was closed as we went by. We followed Red Mill Road down hill, then turned right on Newport Road to pass my Aunt Pam and Uncle Ken's house. I tried calling them, but they weren't around. We turned right onto the old Camp Road, now signed as "Hoy Lane", my aunt and uncle's last name. We followed it out to the ruins of the Newport Mill, another great little spot. Though it no longer has a roof, it still looked the same as it did the last time I went into it in 2008. The water wheel, though deteriorating, was still in place and looking much as I remembered it.

We continued from here on the old camp road out to Miquin Woods. There was definite sign of ATVs going into the property from the property next to my aunt and uncle's place. We continued onto the county land and turned right on the yellow trail, much of which I blazed myself. It's always annoying to see that they cover over my painted turn blazes, done correctly, with large plastic markers that don't even have arrows on them signaling a turn. When there is snow on the ground, there is no way of telling where the trail should be because there's no visible treadway. I wish Hunterdon would see that there is a standard for trail blazing and just do it that way.

We followed the yellow trail to it's end, and then we turned onto the camp road to try to find our way out to the busted up bridge we used to cross over to get to trails on the other side. It was sad to see that it had now finally busted up into a mangled heap slightly down stream. The bridge was now no longer passable at all. If the county could only have maintained this bridge when they took over the property, they wouldn't have needed to get permits for a new bridge. They lost some good recreational value and a great connection in the park here.

We continued back to the camp road, and past the old stone house, then headed over to check out one of the remaining buildings, an old nature center one not visible from the road. Lerch and I had a He Man battle with old light fixtures, and he climbed up on the roof. We then turned right to cross the Spruce Run on the old road bridge, then turned right onto the trail on the other side. The colors of the trails on this side were finally changed (for over five years, every trail in this preserve was blazed yellow). We continued up an old road route and then to the left out to the parking area, then out to Newport Road. We continued along Newport Road back out to Anthony Road, turned left, and it became Hollow Road.

We turned right off of Hollow Road onto Mountain Top Road and soon reached my grandfather's house. We got the cars and picked up some pizza to bring back to his house, and hung out for a while eating and chatting as we always do. I wish it would have been a larger group to hang out with us there, but it's always nice to have a mellower little group too. There's a comfort in that home, where I spent so many years.

Maybe the most amazing thing about this trip is the fact that I have been hiking around this area my entire life, and we still managed to cover ground that I had never hiked. Even greater, there still remains so much more. Next year we'll cover even more new ground, ending at the same location. The only sad thing is that there is not enough time in one life time to see it all.