Hike #757; Ocean Gate to Forked River

Hike #757; Ocean Gate to Forked River

3/9/14 Ocean Gate to Forked River with Brandan Jermyn, Jennifer Berndt, Tom Vorrius, Erica Daniels, Dan Lurie, Sue Olivar, Gregg Hudis, Phyllis ?, and Nicola ?.

The group at Maple Creek along Barnegat Bay

Our next hike would be anothe in the Jersey Perimeter series, this time between Ocean Gate and Forked River.

As I've been working on this series of hikes over the years, I've only taken it very seriously for about one. This really dates back to the beginning of the hikes, when so many of those abandoned railroad rights of way, abandoned powder plant areas, and trails above the Delaware Water Gap were followed. After a time, it became a series to follow the whole Delaware, or a certain rail line. It wasn't until so many years later that I realized by connecting these hikes that I might one day cover the entire perimeter of the state. It seemed so far off.

Even as recently as the past couple of years, I didn't really consider everything as seriously. We had a hike following the old Barnegat Branch between Waretown and Toms River, which was a pretty direct route, in order to connect to the south. At the time, my goal was more to reach the next sections of beach for Summer hikes. The entire perimeter of the state seemed so far out of reach still.

After connecting to LBI, I started building a lot stronger interest. At that point, the old rail bed southbound really was often the closest I'd get to the bay without getting soaked in the estuaries. We continued to connect to Tuckerton where the rail line ended, and then utilized roads heading south. The endeavor became more serious to me when we reached the town of New Gretna. Consequently, that was Brandan's first hike with us.

The attention to detail I had to pay with scaling and routing of the hikes from here was at a new level. I set the goal of reaching Atlantic City by the Summer, then continue with beach hikes. This goal was met, we skipped Brigantine and connected southward along the beach with the idea that we'd complete most beach hikes before the cold weather set in, and do more of the back road stuff again the next season. We made our way around most of Cape May, all connective, and worked our way north on the other side of the state, leaving three Summer hikes to complete near Atlantic City, and one at the base of Cape May for the next warm season. This Winter has brought us north from Cape May to Jake's Landing, and south from Camden to Gibbstown.

Now, with the detail invested to these hikes, I looked back at what we've done and realized it was incomplete. There were still more back roads we could follow closer to Barnegat Bay from Toms River to Forked River. I found three more hikes we could do to cover the area between Toms River and Forked River that I had missed. Potentially, there are a couple more in other parts of the state that I might have missed. As of now, the remaining sections besides this one were two loop hikes on LBI, a loop out of Toms River, a route between Forked River and Waretown, two at Atlantic City, one at  Brigantine, and one at Cape May saved for Summer, 12 more along the lower Delaware River/Delaware Bay, 4 more to connect Camden and Trenton, a re-do along the Bayonne waterfront, and two more on the NY border. At this rate, it might be possible to to complete the series by mid 2015.

This time, I made the meeting point the Staples in Forked River. I didn't really want to do two south Jersey hikes in a row, having done the Gibbstown to Penn's Grove the previous week, but there was the chance of more snow and I really didn't want to do any more trudging, so keeping it south seemed to be the thing to do, and besides, this was the opposite end of the state.

Brandan and I arrived to find no one there. It was daylight savings time, and so I assumed many would be running late. Newcomer Nicola was next to arrive, and then I got calls and texts from the others running behind. I was surprised to find out that Tom was coming with Jen and Erika. Jen had had school work to do and I had not been told anything of Erika coming. Additionally, Dan and Sue signed up so late on Saturday on the Meetup.com group that I didn't get to see it.

We managed to shuttle north in mine and Nicola's cars. Our beginning point was Ocean Gate, at the end of a peninsula from Toms River. I'd still have to do a loop hike at Toms River to connect the north end of this hike with the others. We parked on Narragansette Ave, near the intersection with Arverne Ave. We began out walk  heading south on Narragansette to it's end.

Just inside the woods from the end of the road was the abandoned right of way of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the line that went east out across the Barnegat Bay on the long gone Ocean Gate Draw Bridge. The bridge would have been over 1.3 miles long. The right of way was clear, partially followed by a power line where we got on it. We turned left to follow the clear route toward the bay. It was quite lovely, and it offered us nice views of the estuaries. This line was opened up as a through route to Philadelphia in 1881, and abandoned in December of 1946 when a fire partially destroyed the old bridge over the bay.

We reached Bayview Avenue, and tried checking out the former rail line beyond, but nothing could really be seen. In some aerial images, some of the wooden footings for the bridge can still be seen. In Seaside Park, there is a pier on the eastern terminus of the former bridge.

Historic view of the Ocean Gate Drawbridge

We headed to the right, south on Bayview Ave with more estuary and bay views. As far as road walks go, this one was something different so I don't think anyone much minded it. We continued south through a developed area, with many side streets, and buildings out onto sections of the bay with canals between them where there were no streets for direct water access. This area was known as Good Luck Point.

The night before, I had spoken on line with Erik Weber, a writer for Ocean Signal and other periodicals, and contributor to Weird NJ. We had talked on line in the past, dating back to the Myspace.com days as I recall, and he added me to a group called Beechwood Historic Alliance, which I used to gather historic information on abandoned rail hikes I'd done around the area. Erik offered to come by and take a photo of us for his paper, and do a little story about the effort to hike the entire perimeter of the state. I texted him when we were nearing Good Luck Point, and he headed to try to meet up.

We walked past the Good Luck Point area and the sides of the road opened up to more estuary and bay views again. Erik caught up with us somewhere by Potter Creek to get the shot. We agreed to talk on Tuesday or Wednesday about the interview.

We continued on through another little development area similar to the one at Good Luck Point, this one called Holly Park. At Bay Blvd, we turned left and passed a bar and grill, not opened yet, and reached a section of beach and a dock. We walked out onto the dock, which was newly built, and then walked a narrow section o fbeach to Holly Park, an actual little park within the community of Holly Park. We came out to Main Street through chain link fences, as it appeared that the regular park access was closed. There was a house on the end of the road that was closed off, probably still from the surge created by Tropical Storm Sandy.

Main Street took us back to Bayview Ave, and we passed by some little houses with chickens and roosters running around, which of course spurred a line of off color comments. We turned left on Bayview and crossed over the Clamming Creek, with more public land to the left, though it was inaccessible. We continued south on the same road and passed another development known as Glen Cove, and then crossed over the Maple Creek in another undeveloped area.

We continued on Bayview until we reached a road known as Brennan Concourse and turned left. This led us out to Berkeley Island, a county park area. The park area was closed and blocked off by a chain link fence to the end, but there was an open access to the bay to the left. We headed in here and then followed the beach further to the east into the park, thereby avoiding any closed signs. We followed the main roadway, and Brandan, Erika, and Jen climbed up to the top of a giant sand pile. We continued to the left on an eroded paved walkway to the north side of the peninsula, and Jen and I checked out a busted up pier that had not yet been repaired from Sandy. We headed south then along the peninsula on more washed out paved paths, and then followed beaches back to the west. Brandan, Tom, and Erika went and played on the playground for a little bit before this.

As we made our way along the narrow beach, or as Brandan labeled it, extreme perimeter I believe, I spotted a white truck driving back and forth around the sand in the area we were nearing. I thought it might be a park truck, but it wasn't. Just some joy riders. We were able to continue along the sand to a small peninsula, but then had to turn back because it was just a bunch of muck on the shore, and not easily possible to follow. We headed back to Brennan Concourse westbound.

From here, we turned left on Neary Avenue, then right onto Harbor Inn Road. The road followed the bay outlet of Cedar Creek with some lovely views. From here, we continued to a left on Sand Road, then right on Island Road around a corner, then cut across a grassy swath to continue on West Island Road across Cutlass Way. We followed this road a short distance, then cut through a path out to a billboard on Rt 9. We had to turn left along Rt 9 from here.

We reached the bridge over the Cedar Creek, which was flowing strong here, and not backed up from tides. We went over the bridge, and I thought it might be nice to do a side trip. I knew the old Cedar Creek Trestle from the Barnegat Branch was very close by, and everyone would love it. I asked everyone about it, and they were all in, so off we went on an unmarked path beside Cedar Creek heading west. The path led us out to Glen Cedars Park near the dog area, and then past a beach. We continued past a playground, turned right to the parking lot and reached a connector to the Barnegat Branch Trail. The trail reaches the old railroad bed at the trestle, which now stands like a tower, the fill on either side of it having been washed away by floods over the years since it's abandonment. The trail was nice, and took a circuitous route to reach the old rail bed, crossing a boardwalk along the way. We climbed up to the bridge and made our way across, but Dan watched from below, taking pictures.

After we were all across, Dan opted to try to ford the stream. He was doing alright at first, but the water kept getting deeper. Just beyond half way, it was nearly to his armpits. He tried throwing himself ahead to the next wooden beam, but the current was too strong and it started washing him down a bit. I threw my jacket off and ran in to fish him out. He was trying to hold his cell phone up out of the water, which I grabbed from him, as he'd need the aid of his hands to get him out of the water. It was only about 40 degrees, and so it would be pretty cold. I gave Sue one of my spare sweaters for Dan to wear in case he got too cold. We pretty much continued walking on from here as if nothing happened, though Dan was sopping wet in a trenchcoat that must have weighed at least thirty lbs more than when we started.

We followed the railroad bed on to the intersection of Railroad and Warren Aves, and followed Warren back out to Rt 9. We turned left here to nearly where we'd left off, passed a church and turned right on Bay Way, into another development in Lanoka Harbor.

We followed Bay Way to Clairmore Ave and continued straight, then turned right on more development roads. We zig zagged around a lot until eventually reaching Cedar Drive on the south side of the development. We turned right to follow it west, and I watched to the left to see if there would be a way of getting into a section of Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. I didn't see one at first, but then between two homes I spotted what appeared to be an unofficial trail. We followed it.

The trail soon petered out, but we managed to walk off trail rather easily, avoiding wet areas as best we could. We tried to skirt to the right of where it became a bog as not to get our feet wet, and eventually reached an old woods road. We followed it to the left briefly, but then turned right off trail again. There were some giant fallen Atlantic White Cedars in the deep woods as we walked. We soon came to another informal trail in the middle of the woods. The trail led us ahead, and I started to hear the sounds of children playing.

The trail led us to another old woods road, where a group of people were walking around with their kids. I told them "I'm glad we found you! You might be able to help me!". I explained our plan to hike the perimeter of NJ, and they called another guy who they said could answer my questions much better.

This guy with a machete came up to me and had all sorts of great information. He explained that the road we were following was made in the 1800s by the Quakers who settled here, and that it was their private access to the bay. They had once had a skating pond out closer to the bay that could still be seen, though we didn't go any further in that direction. It was recommended that we take the road out to the end of Haines Street, as there would be bodies of water we'd have to cross that wouldn't be easy the other way. We tried to follow the recommendation, but we ended up on Knollwood Drive and had to cut through someone's yard. A lady drove up as we were coming out, and she wanted to know what we were doing. I explained we were just hiking and got lost, and she said there were people in there doing "illegal stuff".

We just moved on and turned left on Haines Street. We passed an old cemetery and reached Rt 9, at which point I made the unnerving discovery that I had lost my car keys. They were in the pocket of my blazer for some time, and I kept checking on them as we walked. I didn't remember the last time I was sure they were there. If I didn't have a spare key in my car, I would be in big trouble. I didn't know what to do and started feeling a panic. We had just been talking about getting something to eat. We had just done fifteen miles and it wasn't even yet 4 pm. I  hurried back along Rt 9 south to the parking lot, and Gregg offered to drive Nicola and I back to our cars. On the way, we checked a couple possibly places I might have lost them, including the likely spot, at Cedar Creek. When I got there, I could not find anything. I ran all the way back along the trail, then out to Warren Street again and found nothing.

When we got back to the cars, as if by some miracle I had left my window barely cracked. Phyllis handed me a metal bar that was part of her jack, and I used it to unlock my driver's side door. I got inside and called AAA to see about getting towed, or getting a key made while I searched for my spare key. Fortunately, I had a spare key hidden in the car, as well as another house key. I then headed back south to pick up Brandan and do a little bit more searching. I still could not find the keys.

When I realized they were gone for sure, I headed back to Toms River where we had dinner at a good Mexican place.

This was quite a way of ending a stressful week. I was up until 1 am the night before, having gone out bowling (I don't bowl, another long story), and slept very poorly the previous three nights due to stress. I managed to stay awake well enough for the drive home this time, but I was completely knocked out shortly after walking through my front door. I managed to put up the pictures before passing out.

I was far too fatigued to go to work the next day, and felt delirious when I tried to stand up. I really needed a break after this long week.