Hike #756; Gibbstown to Penn's Grove

 Hike #756; Gibbstown to Penn's Grove

3/2/14 Gibbstown to Penn's Grove with Brandan Jermyn, "Serious Sean", Oscar Alvaredo, Dan Lurie, Sue Olivar, and Jason-Michael "Jamal" Flintosh.

The group at the historic Cooper Cemetery in Bridgeport NJ

Our next hike would be another in the Jersey Perimeter series. This time, we'd tackle the route between where we last left off in Gibbstown to Penn's Grove. It ended up being a far more interesting day than I had anticipated. The events of the trip also inspired me to reflect somewhat upon the human psyche.

I had scaled off most all of the remaining NJ perimeter hikes in the previous months, knowing I had so few left before completion (about thirty as of the start of this trip). I could see that many of those remaining in the southern portion of the state would require a great deal of road walking, but still had enough to make them very interesting. This one,  however, was different.

The route and access to the Delaware river was limited by industries, but sand roads and estuaries could be seen crisscrossing the landscape on aerial images. I initially scaled off the remaining hikes rather quickly, and determined that a fifteen mile route would take us between Gibbstown and Penn's Grove. As usual, I began looking at the areas we'd be visiting in more detail as the date of the planned trip approached, and I began to see further opportunities to get closer to the river. Based on the events of the previous hike, and the unexpected ability to walk the berms of the dredge spoil ponds (large retention pond-like bodies of water used to hold silt and mud, or "spoil" removed from the deepened ship channel in the Delaware River), I looked at the route more closely and determined we might be able to reach the Delaware more often than previously thought. I spotted three different areas where we might gain access, deeming them somewhat unlikely, and very unlikely that we'd get to all three. Exploring all three would make the hike twenty miles. In addition, I spotted the Cedarvale Winery right along our route. Even if we were not able to explore the new options I had found, the route looked more interesting than many of the lower Delaware River hikes.

Truthfully, the Lower Delaware River series of  hikes had not been at all bad, nor had the Delaware Bay ones we'd done. Camden to National Park hike had been very interesting, and Gibbstown to National Park was even better. Similarly, the two hikes along the lower Delaware Bay were also quite good. Still, very few people were signing up for this hike.

Posting these hikes, I have to understand the flaws in our natural cognitive tendencies. When people read "south Jersey", "lower Delaware River", "back roads", and the like they will of course get turned off by it. These areas are known for being flat, and more people sign up for names they recognize such as the Delaware Water Gap, Harriman, or Pine Barrens for South Jersey. As the time of the hike approached, more people kept dropping off for one reason or another. I tried to get others to come out, but was met mostly with negative answers. For example, my friend Cupcake, always up for a good adventure, responded "No! It's going to be windy along the river. South Jersey sucks". This is a good example of a logical fallacy on his part. Often times, it is indeed windy along the wide open river, and often times south Jersey hikes can be very boring. Of course, that was certainly not the case for this hike, but it was enough to keep him from coming. Had he known of all of the abandoned houses and other points of interest things might have been different. There was also snow in the forecast, and so this too scared people off, though it barely drizzled all day.

Our morning meeting point was  Incollingo's Penn's Grove Market. I picked up Brandan in the morning, then we headed to Camden to pick up Oscar, who's car was giving him trouble. When we arrived at Penn's Grove, only Dan and Sue were there. Jamal soon showed up, but that left us with only three cars, two of which were needed to get to the beginning. It'd have been a lot of extra shuttling if we couldn't get everyone into one car. Fortunately "Serious Sean" showed up in the nick of time, which left us with two cars at either end, so it'd work out just fine. We took mine and Sue and Dan's cars to Gibbstown.

We started hiking from the recreation fields on North School Street where we started the previous section heading north. Heading south, we simply followed the street for a bit. There was no good access to the properties to the north and west at first, as they were blocked in by chain link fences. We continued and turned right on Morse Avenue along the north side of town. As we made our way down the road, there were large areas both to the left and right of us that were paved over, but nothing was there. No building (it wasn't a concrete foundation) and no paths to it, no driveway. I suppose it may at one time have been a basketball court or something, but there were signs reading "no trespassing" on the lots surrounding them.

We reached the intersection with Repauno Ave, which went to the right also, but it dead ended at a gate and chain link fence a short distance up. We continued straight across on a dirt road that went out behind someone's house and headed toward the railroad tracks. The tracks were formerly the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Line route toward Penn's Grove, and there was an industrial spur breaking off to the right. There were chain link fences to the right of us along the way, but where the first section of spur, connecting to the eastbound track but now abandoned, broke away it went through a non fenced area and had no signs telling us not to trespass. This first section seemed rather unlikely that we'd ever get to explore it, but here was a good access.

We walked down the tracks, across a dry pond, and over the still active westbound connector track. We continued straight across along a power line clearing and passed a weird oblong hole in the ground full of snow. Most of the ground in this area was completely free of snow, which was fantastic. I was so glad to be walking on real ground after having several weeks of snow. Back home, we still had a great deal of it on the ground.

The utility right of way led to a busted up fence, which we could pass through. The only sign read "look up and smile" painted on some sort of transparency, but we didn't see any cameras or anything saying we shouldn't really be there, so we continued and then reached an abandoned railroad spur, a connection from what we were walking before. We turned left to follow it. I assumed this would lead us out to the west, then north. I assumed incorrectly, and the line, double tracked switched to single track and ended at a triangular stopper. Oscar and I continued out through the woods on the abandoned right of way, but I realized soon enough that we were not on the track I wanted to be on.

We backtracked along the right of way, then cut over to the left. A building was now in view through the trees, and I tried to skirt the edge of the wetlands, staying behind the wetland vegetation as best I could as not to be seen, just in case. We emerged from the wooded area onto some sort of an outlet or inlet well outside of the area with buildings. I could see an access road and another set of railroad tracks on the other side. We turned right and went around the metal thing which had pipes and such around it. There was sign next to the small body of water reading "Fire Draft Site" and a number. We ended up passing a few of these. I found out later that these are locations that are set aside for fire department to get water when needed.

We continued along the road, which paralleled the railroad tracks for some time, and passed an estuarine body of water on the right. The sandy road then turned to the right, leaving the railroad tracks which I guess continued on a fill out over the water to dead end. The sand road switched to gravel. We crossed over two bridges which took us over some water flow through places, and then reached the ruins of a collapsed building on the left. I was a little nervous going through here, with nowhere to go, and a body of water to the left known as "Sand Ditch". There were no signs yet saying "no trespassing", and there were pretty fresh tire tracks. We just continued on and eventually reached an intersection.

I suppose the road we reached was part of Flood Gate Road, as that is what it is called further to the west. We turned left here. There was a bridge and signs warning of deadly electric at the site. The bridge crossed over the Sand Ditch, and had pipes and such connecting it to the larger body of water that flowed east/west, known as Aunt Deb's Ditch. I hurried to the other side of the bridge and continued on the road to a gate with chain link fence. We had to climb over it to continue on the old road. There was a somewhat obscured "no trespassing" sign pointing from where we had been this time. I was happy to be past that point. The section of Flood Gate Road ahead was pretty overgrown, following the top of a berm between Aunt Deb's Ditch, with Mond's Island on the other side, and a body of water that was probably a former dredge spoil pond to the left of us. Serious Sean and I were at the front of the group, and continued ahead through a lovely area with still water and Great Blue Herons fishing or flying overhead. The road continued somewhat overgrown and crossed a small bridge over White Sluice Race, another small body of water or creek, until we reached another small bridge, this time over Repaupo Creek. At White Sluice Race, the road became more of a trail, with a park like gate. It was improved and widened, and accessible to vehicles for maintenance.

The Commodore Barry Bridge now came into view. We could see much farther with the more recently opened up road. Aunt Deb's Ditch opened up into the Delaware, and we were treated to outstanding views of the Commodore Barry Bridge, the fourth longest cantilever bridge in the world. The Flood Gate Road access road came in from the left. We were now certainly in Riverfront Park, having accessed it in a roundabout way. We could see one car in the parking area below us, and a sidewalk leading nowhere, probably to a former home. I had labored over Google and Bing images prior to this hike to find the most interesting routes we could, and I saw by way of the 2002 aerial images that there used to be somewhat of a riverfront community here, but most new images showed that it was all but gone. I assumed that sidewalk was a remnant.

There were good views of the buildings along the waterfront, across in Chester PA, and we continued beyond the bridge over the Repaupo Creek and a gate on the section that was obviously used as a trail. To my surprise, after a short while we began to see abandoned houses. The community was not completely demolished. Curiously, it was not only left, but the berm constructed along the river was put in place without the slightest effort to remove the closest house. Giant rubble rock had been crashed through the ceiling of it's northernmost rooms and awnings. The buildings were of course in deplorable shape. It truly is a wonder why they were not removed. We could barely get into the top story of the first building without falling through the roof. We climbed down the berm and were able to get into the lower level of the building and wander around. Three more houses (maybe two and one concessionaire's building of some sort), a couple small out buildings, and an old camper were to the east of the first building. We were able to get into the first two houses, but the third one, which was perhaps the most intact looking, sat on the shore of some sort of pond and did not look at all easy to reach. We moved on back from there toward the first building, then checked out another house, a single story dwelling with couches and such strewn about. There was the messed up remains of a door that read "Candie's Room". Serious Sean sat on the couch and tried to get everyone to get a group picture on the "family couch", but only Oscar would oblige. He sat down and sort of impersonated Ray Charles while tapping away at an old computer keyboard he had found. We moved from this building down the old access road a bit more and came to the collapsed remains of another house. We then climbed back up the berm to the road. All I could think at that moment was "And Cupcake told me this hike would suck".

We continued west from here, and the cleared road forked. One went to the left, but another went to the right, still following the water but a little but more inland. We passed only one other "hiker" on this entire trip, and it was along this stretch grassy road, walking his dog. We continued along, and the road turned to the south as it began to parallel what Google maps showed as "Old Canal". The road remained much the same, but then forked again. We took the right fork, which was still wide and easy to follow. It led us through a section of more dense woods. Oscar and I took the lead through here after making sure the others knew the turn we'd made. After the section of woods, there was yet another fork of sorts, with a less obvious route that was more of an ATV path or something. We followed it until we got to an area with industrial junk strewn about. We tried continuing straight ahead, and it led us to a body of water, and a fence off to the left so we couldn't get through. We went back and followed a clearing, which seemed to have another abandoned rail line along it, to the left. This led us back to flood gate road where we turned right and passed the Bridgeport Speedway.

We walked along the right side of the road, through the mowed grass of the business to the right of us, then reached Rt 44, Broad Street. We crossed here, and rather than turn right immediately, we went straight ahead on Repaupo Station Road over the railroad tracks, and passed an historic stone building on the right that was built in 1807 by L. Enholm according to the engraving. Beautiful building.

We continued down the road and stopped at Cedarvale Winery, an excellent little stop. I of course had to include the tasting at this winery because it was right along the way. This one particularly reminded me of the great experience we had at Jessie Creek, where we actually sat down at a table. It was very comfortable, and we were taken through the entire list of ones. Every one of them was absolutely excellent. Also similar is the fact that less sugar is added to these wines, which in my opinion compliments the flavor more than having something too sweet. They had probably the best Blueberry wine I've ever had, as well as other different ones including cherry. I don't even remember tasting cherry wine before, but this was excellent. The most odd one brought out was the Nectarine wine. I've never tasted or seen it anywhere else, and it was very very tasty. Sean bought a bottle for us to share along the way too. While tasting, there was a Yahtzee game nearby, which Sean brought out. We certainly are a different group, partaking in a game of Yahtzee while sipping wine in the middle of a hike. I had to get a bottle of the blueberry wine, but unfortunately I didn't put the cork back on tight enough and a lot of it spilled off into my bag while we were walking. That was my saddest moment of the day. We chatted with a single Harley rider who came in as well, something I don't see often, and he commented on. The folks at the winery said that we were their first hiking group to ever come through, that they'd only gotten cyclists in the past. That's a nice distinction! The biker commented that it also wasn't common to see a lone rider out to taste wine. He certainly was right!

We moved on from here, feeling very happy, and turned left across a grassy swath toward the railroad tracks. The railroad, formerly the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines route down to Penn's Grove, still active for freight, runs parallel closely with Rt 44, which gave us a nice opportunity to get off of the road for a bit. We passed around cups and Sean poured us tasty nectarine wine, but first stopped at a weird rope swing and took turns climbing up the thing.

We continued down the tracks and passed beneath the big underpass of Rt 130. Jamal found giant sixty lb tow chains that he opted to drag behind him for a while. He said he was going to bring them the whole way, but these things were so heavy I don't know how he'd do it. I told him they would go for a good amount of money if he could sell them. We crossed over the Moss Branch of the Little Timber Creek, now caked between Rt 44 and Cedar Swamp Road, then turned right off of the tracks when we reached Oak Grove Road. I convinced Jamal to leave his tow chain behind a pile of dirt so he could come back and get it after the hike. We immediately turned left along Rt 44 heading west.

The next unexpected thing we came across was the 1789 Cooper Family Cemetery. The small plot, lined by stone walls had many graves, most of which were illegible, but contained the remains of many Revolutionary War veterans. I couldn't help but comment on how awesome this hike was going, constantly finding new interesting things. Jamal found an unopened pack of camel cigarettes in the cemetery as well.

We continued along Rt 44, walked through a little bit of Bridgeport Cemetery, then turned right onto Springers Road. The road took us out across Rt 130, and we turned right to reach Barkers Road. I was hoping to find a way through to get to the next section of bay side, and pass beneath the Commodore Barry Bridge. I honestly thought this would not be likely, and we'd just continue on. We reached a power line underpass on this dirt road, and turned left to follow it, passing some sort of shed made of strong looking windows with plywood holding the rest together. A side path led off of the power line and past a formidable looking hunter's blind. There was then a creek standing between us and the slope of another dredge spoil pond I thought we might get up. I tried fording the stream, but it was cold and we'd all be soaked attempting it. I also tried going further down stream to find a better way, to no avail. We had to turn back to get to Hansons Row Road, and reached a large pipe with spray paint on it advertising a marine place. We continued beyond here on a dirt road that headed out toward the bay. It looked as though we might reach the bridge.

The road went on for some time, and I watched the aerial images on my phone closely. When I reached what appeared to be some sort of road department yard, we turned left to follow the top of a berm out toward the bridge. There was barely a deer trail on top of the thing, but we managed to fight on through. The berm led us out onto a portion of Raccoon Island, and we were soon next to the Commodore Barry Bridge. Below the bridge and to the east was a graveyard of abandoned barges, intentionally sunk in a small cove. We re-grouped here, then headed onward toward the underside of the bridge. I didn't see any no trespassing signs again, but there was a camera mounted on the bridge. It was not trained on us, but rather on just ahead of us. I waited beneath the bridge until we were all together, and signaled everyone to head beneath the bridge and out the other side before heading closer to the water again, just to stay out of it's view in case.

We soon reached small stream heading out into the Delaware. Sean, Oscar, Brandan, and I managed to cross it without getting wet at a deep cut in the berm, but the others crossed just upstream into a field. There were then giant piles of dirt lined up through the field. I had to take the opportunity to photograph everyone in the group on top of the piles.

Not piles of hikers, hikers on piles.

We continued along the waterfront and passed Ferry Road. This concrete road was until 1974 the only way to get across the river from Bridgeport to Chester PA. When the bridge was completed in '74, the ferry closed, but the road remains and some of the fields remain park land according to maps. We continued along, passed beneath a power line and through fields. The section seems a blur to me. Beautiful with views of the Commodore Barry bridge as we walked the plowed and tilled fields, but still not as prevalent as where we just were

The farm road we were following turned along the Raccoon Creek, with a few views. I had to keep referring to the aerial images to get on through. At one point we had to go out and around a bit of berm in order to get out to the next road, Buttonwood Lane. We passed some wrecked boats, then turned right on Buttonwood Lane. This dirt road had a couple houses and some sort of boat business, but nothing else. We took the road along a section of woods and out to Ferry Road. The road still was old slab concrete, probably dating back to the 1930s. We followed the road to a right turn on Island Road out to Rt 130. The bridge the highway took over the creek was a giant lift bridge, which looked pretty cool. We continued across, but then on the other side was a path leading along the creek, then up to fields.

When we were at Cedarvale Winery, the proprietors told us that the Gloucester County Dream Park, which this was part of, was open to pedestrians. I had read about it and assumed it was only an equestrian center, and just didn't consider it. This changed a lot. It was another section we had to walk in order to do the perimeter. I wasn't expecting two previous sections to be accessible and they were, and now there was this. I was happy, but at the same time I was beginning to understand that we wouldn't be able to do the entire route I had originally proposed. We headed down the path, then up to the fields in the Dream Park.

We followed many field perimeters in the Dream Park, and it was getting darker as we continued. Sue and Dan headed back toward the road while the rest of us tried to stay on the perimeter with the plan on joining back up. We ended up following a chain link fence that didn't work out good, and somehow we ended up at the same place as Dan and Sue anyway. We all continued around the equestrian facility on a sort of farm road. It wasn't really the most scenic thing, but at least it wasn't paved road. We then came out to Rt 130. The Dream Park sign was laying down and looked like somebody had diarrhea all over it. At this point, we had already covered far more than I was anticipating covering, which included one wrong turn early on and the added stuff in the Dream Park.

I believe we had covered twenty miles by the time we crossed over Oldman's Creek on the road bridge. I watched for remaining miles on my phone. Beyond Oldman's Creek, my plan was originally to ascend to another dredge spoil pond, then follow the river on through into Penn's Grove, but at this point we simply could not see and this would not be an option. We'd just have to walk the road back to Penn's Grove and come back another time to do the other sections I had been planning. One of them is a state wildlife management area called the DOD Ponds. When we reached the place I was planning on accessing, there was a last abandoned  house I checked out a bit.

From this point, the others were still pretty close behind, but Oscar and I started powering on ahead. Brandan and Serious Sean were close behind, with Sue, Dan, and Jamal in the back. I figured the four of us would get back to Penn's Grove, then one of us would go back and pick up the others. It was dark by now, and Oscar and I powered further ahead. We were only staying on Rt 130 the entire way, so it was a simple route. A guy pulled up to us and asked us if we needed a ride. I said that we were doing fine, but that there were people behind us that might be able to use the ride. The guy didn't bother going back though.

While we walked, a taxi van showed up, with Jamal, Dan, and Sue in it. I didn't recognize them in the dark at first, but then was glad they got out, although I wish we could have picked them up rather than have them get the taxi, which is never cheap.

When we started coming in to town, Oscar and I went into a couple of stores for snacks and drinks, and to let the others catch up. I was surprised to find a 24 hour deli. Oscar saw Brandan and Sean close by, and we were within sight of the market where we met, so we headed over there.

The two of us went into a nearby pizza place and ordered some stuff, and to our surprise Brandan and Sean were just not showing up. After finishing the pizza and heading back over to the mall, cold and a little damp from some drizzle, I texted Brandan, and he said they were on their way. It turns out they stopped by a diner. Blood sugar must have been getting low, as it probably was for us when we stopped by the store.

Sean was able to get us back to the beginning pretty quickly. For all the walking we did, it's only a 15 minute drive. In the end, those of us who finished did just over 25 miles, and the others probably did about 22.

Indeed, the last five miles were an agonizing death march on pavement, in the dark. Not at all a really good time, but the other four fifths of the hike was amazing. I think overall everyone enjoyed it, but it did not meet all expectations going in.

I think Brandan and I, having the common frame of reference in what to expect based on previous area hikes, and knowing the players involved, thoroughly expected a very good time to be had. I don't know what exactly everyone else thought initially, but I'm sure we all have cognitive biases that we don't realize. It was tiring, but it was something very different; in many ways it was very different than any hike we'd ever done before. The lower Delaware is completely different here than it was along the bay section, as well as the Camden section, and areas north. My memories of this day are vivid, elaborate and anomalous. Twenty five miles of my home state, much of which felt categorically different than anyplace I have ever been.

I hope that the discouragement of the last fraction of the hike does not dissuade my fellow hikers from attending future hikes, especially in this area. It is my hope that with this and all of my hikes that my friends recognize the triumph of exploring and learning about new places, and that they'll hold the memories we've made as dear to them as I do.

Our ride back to Washington felt like a zombie crawl. Not in a long while had I been so fatigued after a hike. Perhaps it was the pizza and wine, and perhaps it was the high mileage, but more likely to me is that the combination of these things as well as process of conceptualizing the events of the day in my mind. There was just so much, and I was beyond my limit. We had to stop twice during the long drive, both times having energy drinks to keep me awake. Even perpetually stimulated and sleep deprived Brandan was dozing during the ride, a relatively uncommon occurrence. I had to pull into a Wawa along the way and take a short power nap in order to continue.

The next day, when I became cognizant of the prior day's events, I knew it was fantastic but that I certainly don't want all of my events to be such a death march. However, some of them should be; it's of course the unexpected nature of exploring that makes it so exciting. Despite the sore muscles and heavy eye lids, I've loved these days.