Hike #754; Spruce Run Turnpike

 Hike #754; Spruce Run Turnpike

2/20/14 Spruce Run Turnpike; Oxford to Clinton with Brandan Jermyn, Gregg Hudis, and Justin Gurbisz.

The group on the former Spruce Run Turnpike, usually under the waters of the reservoir.

Our next hike would be another night hike. It had been a while since I had done a night hike. In 2013, I kept them going pretty regularly, but this year so far has been sort of dead with those. Partially it is because I've been trying to stay home more, but it's also because of the heavy snow cover. It's really been too much to enjoy hiking in in the same way.

I decided to post the Spruce Run Turnpike hike again, the one that I'd done about the same time last year because of snow cover. This year was so much worse when it came to snow cover, but it still seemed like the right thing to do. I met Gregg and Justin at the A&P in Clinton and then picked up Brandan along the way to Oxford, where we parked at the central school.

Brandan and Justin headed over to the liquor store for some drinks while Gregg and I hiked across the foot bridge over Furnace Brook, then headed to the main street and observed the site of the Oxwall Building that was burned by arsonists in the past. There is a really nice water tower there that's going to be torn down, and I told Justin he needed to try to climb it.

Brandan and Justin caught up with us in front of the Shippen Manor, historic iron master's house, and then we moved on along the main street heading up hill to Mine Hill Road. I pointed out the Oxford Furnace, first of the hot blast furnaces that employed bellows, and also the old mill that had been turned into a church because the iron industry wanted the property the original church was on.

We headed up hill and I pointed out where all of the railroad rights of way crossed, as well as the old mine as we headed up hill. The hill heading over toward Washington was the worst one we'd have to go up. There were interesting snow sculptures along the left side of the road too, including a hear, a bugs bunny looking thing, and an incredible stegosaurus.

After cresting the hill, we descended a bit past where I was bit by a dog hiking the same road with my grandfather in the 80s, then we enjoyed the nice view that Tropical Storm Sandy created with the trees blowing down along the left side.

We continued down hill and crossed the Pohatcong Creek. On the right, it looked as if they're getting ready to start building a new development that had been started years ago but never finished. There were young trees planted along the access roads, but too much snow must have them stalled. It's sad that this nice swath of land will be ruined with new houses. The place could be like another Meadow Breeze Park.

We headed up hill further, crossed Jackson Valley Road/Kinnamin Ave, then took Belvidere Ave into Washington, also the former historic road route. We continued into town, and it drizzled rain for a bit, but wasn't bad. It stopped soon anyway. We passed Quick Check and instead went into Sal's Pizza for dinner.

We took our slices to go, then continued down Broad Street and up hill to the fork at Cemetery Hill. We then headed to the left slightly to cross Rt 31 onto Springtown Road, the next leg of the trip. Justin called Lerch while on the road to talk to him about Buckettfest that upcoming Saturday, and we harassed him about spending the night there

We reached Asbury Anderson Road, turned right, then left onto New Hampton Road. This offset on the road is rather odd, because what is now Asbury Anderson Road is an oddly bending road, and the original main road was the more direct, and now smaller Springtown toward New Hampton.

We continued talking on the phone with Lerch while we walked this stretch. It snowed lightly as we walked for a bit, and we descended to the Musconetcong River. We crossed on a somewhat new through style truss bridge. The previous bridge was an open decked I-beam or girder structure with green hand rails on the sides. This one bore no resemblance to the old one, and was much wider. It causes traffic to move much more quickly, which is one of my problems with the replacement of other bridges in the area adjacent to park land.

Justin climbed up onto the trusses, which were seriously slippery. Even he had to get down and use his hands because of all of the ice on them. We turned right on River Road which took us into New Hampton. The first building we passed was the old New Hampton School, which is now a Lebanon Township history museum. The settlement is stunningly beautiful with many old stone and wooden structures. It might be the largest collection of historic homes on the former turnpike route.

We made our way out of New Hampton and past the New Hampton Inns, both the old historic stage coach stop as well as the more modern hole in the wall bar. No one wanted to go in surprisingly. It really is one of the most dive looking bars I can think of! We continued out to Rt 31 and crossed at the traffic light, then headed through Hampton. I told everyone the history about how the Mansfield Woodschurch in Washington, then Mansfield Township, burned down and the congregation split, half of it going to Musconetcong Valley where the new church was constructed in 1837. It was thought that the new town would grow around the church, which is what usually happened, but in 1853 the Central Railroad of New Jersey built it's line hugging the slopes of Musconetcong Mountain, missing the area with the church. In 1856, the Lackawanna Railroad's Warren Railroad made it's junction with the CNJ, and a settlement developed this and the new station. The town was named "Junction", but with time this generic name was changed to Hampton Junction to give it more distinction, taking it's name from nearby New Hampton. The people of the church decided to build a new Presbyterian church in the new town, and since that time have attended Summer congregations in the old church in the valley, and cold or inclement weather times at the one in town. My grandfather still attends both churches, and I attended with him for over ten years. The junction itself was abandoned in 1955, at which time the "Junction" name was dropped, and it became simply "Hampton" (this is why the town of New Hampton is actually much older than Hampton).

We continued through Hampton along the main street, up hill and beneath the railroad tracks, which themselves have been inactive since 1986. We passed the house where my grandfather was born, and the building where my Great Grandfather had his barber shop.

We continued through to the other side of town, crossed Rt 31, then headed into Glen Gardner. This little town was much better the previous time we hiked through because we were able to actually use the sidewalks. This time we were just walking in the street which was sort of a drag to me. We passed another site where my great grandfather had a barbershop, and we continued out of town onto Rt 31, where the original main road had been cut off to traffic in recent years.

We had a stretch of Rt 31, with one side road off to the left to follow being the only original piece of Spruce Run Turnpike. We then turned left onto the connector road to Buffalo Hollow Road, another former highway route. From here, we crossed Rt 31 and the Toyota Dealership property, where the road used to go. We crossed Van Syckles Road and headed down the fish and game driveway into what is usually the reservoir. The water was low enough again that we were able to walk the original road route out onto the reservoir and across the old bridge over Willoughby Brook. It was extremely difficult to walk on the old road because of all of the snow. The trudging was horrendous.

We made our way out of the reservoir area, then up to Rt 31 again, and opted not to follow the abandoned piece of the road on the other side of the highway because we didn't want to deal with more snow. We stayed on 31 and I think we might have stopped into the mini mart on the right, but I can't even remember.

We turned right off of 31 onto Rt 513 south, also the former highway route. After crossing the South Branch of the Raritan, we turned right on the side street to connect with Main Street in front of the old mills, one of which is the Old Red Mill, most photographed historic structure in NJ. Of course Justin had to try to climb the bridge.

We turned around and followed the streets of Clinton back to the A&P where we'd met earlier to finish the hike in good time.

It's not the most eventful route to follow, but there's a lot of history, and it felt really good to get out and walk a long distance again on something other than a weekend.

The next morning my stomach felt really good, and my mood was much better. I really need to do more night hikes in addition to my weekend ones. The exercise is uplifting.