Hike #1170; Pequest and Belvidere Loop
11/1/18 Pequest and Belvidere Loop with Ken Zaruni, Ellie Zabeth, Red Sean Reardon, Celeste Fondaco Martin, and Jillane Becker
This next hike would be the regular night hike, put on the schedule this time specifically for Ken, because together we had walked the entire line from Andover southwest to Pequest Furnace site.
Pequest Furnace Railroad bridge site
By doing this loop hike, which I’ve done in the past, Ken would also have walked all of the Lehigh and Hudson River Railroad from Andover south. It’s a great hike, so I don’t mind repeating this one, although I rarely repeat the same hike. It’s just a really nice, convenient one to do.
We met at Pequest Furnace, and began our walk by heading across the LHR bridge over the Pequest River. Immediately on the other side, an ATV path leads to the left, under a former bridge site that carried the Pequest Furnace Railroad over the river and furnace site.
Pequest Furnace Railroad
The trail split to where one goes to the left to a big boulder from the last time the furnace went into blast, but to the right climbs to the railroad bed. I have a suspicion that the Pequest Furnace Railroad might have been the Warren Railroad before the Pequest Cut was completed, because it has rights of way going around the mountain in such a way that it would make sense. I’ve seen nothing to prove this, but the site is an area of a lot of questions.
I pointed out down to the right as we ascended where another bridge on the furnace railroad was. Abutments are still obviously in place and this time of year they’re getting easier to see.
Lackawanna old main
We continued walking the furnace railroad bed along a shelf high above the LHR line and the Pequest River to it’s former northbound junction with the Lackawanna old main, formerly the Warren Railroad, built in 1856. This nice long stretch through Pequest Wildlife Management Area is among the nicest sections of the old right of way. We followed it along another shelf, and through some cuts on the way to it’s crossing of the Pequest on a three arch concrete span just before reaching Rt 46.
This is a spot I’ve wondered about for years also. The LHR passes directly beneath the Lackawanna line and over the Pequest at the same point on a through girder bridge. Originally, it was a three arch stone span, but now it is concrete. In most cases, when railroad bridge is replaced, they would build the new one next to the old one as not to have an interruption in service. Around 1910ish, this might have been a big problem, so I wonder if the old bridge is actually still there with concrete on top of it. It’s kind of unlikely. I suppose they could have routed traffic at that time over the Cutoff and not worried about the old main. Still, it makes me wonder.
We came out to Rt 46 and crossed where DOT has recently put in a “no pedestrians” sign. We have always crossed on the right of way here, but now it’s apparently illegal. Fortunately, we had a meeting on Warren Highlands Trail the previous week, and we had expert planner Mike Dannemiller put eyes on it, and I’m optimistic that this could get better.
Part of me wonders if it was a retaliatory action against me because I’ve been so vocal agains the fences through the Delaware Water Gap. I also reported the bad tunnel collapse in Oxford directly beneath Rt 31, for which DOT has not returned my calls or e mails. It was just after this that the sign went up on the point. I had told them on the phone that this was a major trail crossing, because they had blocked the right of way initially. While they moved stuff from the right of way, they also made it illegal to cross where we always had.
We headed up and behind the former mini mart place. There’s a permit or something in the works for something new to go in at that site, which has encroached on the old railroad bed. This is seen now as a possible bargaining chip for the trail we’ve been discussing. Hopefully something works out well for this.
We followed the ATV paths above the right of way and then descended to it again to head west through a cut. We then came out to and crossed Green Pond Road.
The railroad bed is obliterated in the next section so we have to walk the cut off road to the left from Green Pond Road, which runs parallel to the rail grade, which now has a tennis court built on it partially. We cut back into the woods beyond that point.
Reforestation of the sand quarry?
We headed over big piles of busted up asphalt that had first appeared during the anniversary hike in March. Then, it was just one small pile, but it was now a giant pile maybe over a hundred feet long. It looks like it was in place to block ATVs from going through the property. I had posted it on the Metrotrails group, but then found out that this section is still private land. I looked into it on the NJ Geoweb, and was surprised to see this, but also found that the other side of the sand quarry off of Rt 519 actually was state land, which I had previously thought was not.
This time, the sand quarry was grown over and green with grass they have been keeping mowed. A great many Birch trees have grown up since we were last there.
Silliness
The sand quarry has been probably the most constantly changing place we have ever visited on the hikes. We’ve been walking through it now for almost 22 years, and on Hike #1 it was still a clear railroad right of way passing along the edge of it. I remember when I was little how it was all still wooded. Over the next several years, they had mined completely over the grade to where there was nothing left. We had to skirt the quarry several different ways until the last several years where we pretty much go the same way around it to the north.
There is old farm equipment sitting near the center, and even this has grown over with lots of vegetation.
We reached the other side and continued around a fenced propane area or something, then crossed Rt 519 at Bridgeville Station, the only remaining old main Lackawanna station still standing in New Jersey. Despite suffering a bad fire over a year ago, it was rebuilt and the old stone station still survives within the newer structure.
Bridgeville Station
It was good to see not only that the station was back in use, but that people were actually working there as we went by. Hopefully it will stick around a lot longer.
The old Lackawanna near Hope Crossing
The section from Bridgeville all the way to Manunka Chunk Tunnels is now part of Jenny Jump State Park, and the right of way is mostly clear and very nice to follow. We continued on the wide route across Hope Crossing Road, followed by Sarepta Road. We continued from there on to Upper Sarepta Road, where the railroad bed becomes overgrown and filled with water from Catherine’s Run. We have to turn right at this point and follow the closely parallel old farm road into Beaver Brook Wildlife Management Area.
At Upper Sarepta Road
I paused for a moment at Upper Sarepta Road and looked ahead. I could picture myself in the same place nearly 22 year prior where my dear friend Derek Baker took a photo of the group sitting on some dumped old furniture that had sat there for a while.
At Upper Sarepta Road today
We continued walking through the edges of the fields and I asked the group if they would prefer to go through Manunka Chunk Tunnel, or over it. If it were warmer, I would have insisted on going through. It was way warmer than it ever will get this time of year, but even I didn’t want to go through that badly and mess up the open sore on my leg more.
Catherine's Run plank bridge
We cut to the left and reached the plank bridge over Catherine’s Run above the tunnel. These planks are surprisingly still holding on, which blows my mind because they are remnants of the flume system that carried Catherine’s Run above the tunnel and into the artificial waterway used to usher the creek beneath the railroad at a safer spot to the east. It rots a bit more every year, but it’s still holding my weight with seemingly no problem.
We turned to the right on the path on the other side, where to the left would go to the tunnel. The path used to be wide and easy from ATV use, but now it’s quite a mess to follow. We had to step over lots of downed trees and at one point I thought I lost it. We did eventually find our way to the fields, and were on the correct way all along.
Me in the fields, October 2000
I think the thought of the previous picture from Hike #1 set something off in my mind because I started looking at everything in a way from the past that I hadn’t been before.
Same spot now
I spotted a bit of field and realized I had my photo taken there in October 29th of 2000 by my brother. It’s hard to believe it’s been 18 years since even that time. I had Elizabeth take the a photo of me at the same spot now. Interestingly there are more leaves on the trees now.
Manunka Chunk Tunnels with my grandfather, Uncle Harry, and my brothers, 1989
We headed down from the fields to the west portal of the Manunka Chunk Tunnels where I gave an historic dissertation. I then realized I’d been coming to this place probably since I was only five years old. I’d already been through a great many times by the time the photo was taken of my brothers and I there when family was out visiting from Idaho.
My grandfather at Manunka Chunk Tunnels, 1990
My Aunt Leora and Uncle Harry (my grandfather’s sister and her husband) had visited in 1989 and we took Uncle Harry through. Then, my cousin Mandy and her husband Tom Snow came out and I took them through in 1990 myself.
At only ten years of age, I asked them in the tunnel if they wanted to play a joke on my grandfather, and we could come back over top of the tunnel and surprise him while he was looking in wondering where we had gotten to. They loved the idea, and so we went for it. I ended up taking them through Stinging Nettle, which they don’t have in Idaho, so they said it was like another souvenir.
Mandy took a photo of my grandfather when he came out looking for us on the other side.
From this point, I showed where the junction with the Belvidere Delaware Railroad used to be, and then we continued down the Bel Del line heading south. This section became part of the behemoth Pennsylvania Railroad, but was abandoned north of Belvidere after the Flood of ‘55 washed out the junction and it was deemed “irreparable”.
The right of way to the south along Rt 46 is particularly nice, and we can see the Delaware River below. It was getting pretty dark by this point, but not hard to walk.
Manunka Chunk Tunnels and junction historic image
We could only follow the rail bed as far as the site of King Cole Curve, where the Bel Del used to cross present day Rt 46. It was a tight turn and a dangerous curve with many fatalities, so it was torn out shortly after the railroad was abandoned.
Ahead, the Bel Del goes into the Hoffman LaRoche facility and is tough to follow. It’s active on the other side, and we used to skirt the property along the Delaware back in the day. At times, we were seen back there and would run like crazy to get away. These days, we just walk up the highway and then cut to the right on Manunka Chunk Road into Belvidere.
We did just that, and started heading along Manunka Chunk Road. It was really a warm night and I had to switch from my pants and button down shirt with blazer to shorts and a tee shirt. This is likely the last time something like that will happen this year.
As we walked Manunka Chunk Road off to the edge, there were two trucks parked to the right side. We didn’t know there were guys in them, but the one guy said that they were just there to pick up their buddy when he was done planting with his combine or something, and asked that we don’t walk on the crop areas. They weren’t expecting to see anyone walk by clearly, and I had a beer open wandering by. While the one guy was talking to us, the other one laughed maniacally from the inside of a vehicle. He probably saw me scratching my nuts or something. Either way, it was funny.
We remained along the road to the Belvidere park where the pool is, and a paved trail heads into the woods that barely anyone uses. We followed it until it came close to the Bel Del Railroad tracks, still active south from the Roche facility down to Riegelsville, and started following it south.
We passed beneath one road, then over a couple more. Belvidere has lots of bridges on the Bel Del, which carry it over every street as well as the Pequest River.
Historic image in Belvidere
We continued across this bridge, which had some open tie sections, went one more block, and climbed down. Celeste parked on street here and met us at Skoogy’s Deli just up the road, which was our little dinner spot.
I went in and got myself a half sub sandwich and a chocolate milk which was really good. I’ve always loved the stuff they sold at Skoogy’s. Good quality stuff.
From there, we walked up the street a bit and then turned right down past the former creamery site now owned by my grandfather. We then cut into the former lot for the railroad station and resumed walking south on the old Bel Del line.
Historic image of Belvidere Station credited to Edwin P. Alexander, with Superintendent McDowell in the high hat. Fred Heilich Collection.
I pointed out the site of the former northbound junction with the Lehigh and Hudson River Railroad, which was abandoned around the time the northbound connection with the Lackawanna was abandoned. After a rock cut, we then turned left at the former southbound connection. There are still rails in place on the LHR from here to the yard area where the old freight station still stands as some sort of propane place office or something.
Jillane met us here. I had told her to park on Mansfield Street and walk it to the south, which leads to the former yard and station. We got to the road and didn’t have to wait more than thirty seconds and she was there. Together, we all continued along the rail bed into the woods. If you don’t know where to turn to get back on it, it’s really tough to figure out at this point.
We continued from here past the old station, and then into some really dark woods to the bridge over the Pophandusing Brook. The bridge has had all fo the ties removed in recent years which makes it harder to cross. Only the metal beams remain. Celeste and Sean went down to the right to wade across the brook rather than cross it. I think Elizabeth did too. I helped Jillane across and we were good to go.
Just after this point, the railroad bed comes out into the age restricted community near Hazen, just outside of Belvidere. I’d walked this many times before the development, but construction was well under way by May of 2000.
Development in June of 2000
The road grid was somewhat in place by November of 2000, and then by late 2001 the first section of trail built on the railroad bed was completed. We walked roads for some of the time while going through when we walked during construction times, but by the end of Summer 2001, the first section of developed trail was in place on the railroad bed.
Development in Nov 2000
I walked through occasionally by planning a hike to pass through it and watched the progress. By May of 2002, all of the roads were in place, many homes were built, and the trail sections were in place at both ends. The development, at least along the entire trail section, was fully in place and walkable by the time I hiked through in February of 2003.
Now, even the tiny trees that had been planted in the development were grown to relatively large size, which for me is crazy to see. We continued through the development and then out to Brass Castle Road.
Trail section under development in May 2002
We turned right on the road briefly, and then went to the left on an ATV path which led shortly to the right of way in a nice line of trees.
We followed this out to one of my favorite spots in the middle of the Unangst Farm, where there are no trees on either side of the right of way. It wasn’t a particularly clear night, or the stars would have been brilliant out here.
We continued out across the fields directly with no flash lights on toward the sand quarry and Bridgeville section.
The section of the rail bed is still an existing right of way because the farm was attempted to be put into Farmland Preservation, but things didn’t work out because of the existence of the right of way. Railroads abandond after 1982 are typically “railbanked” which means they can be rebuilt if it is deemed necessary.
I would love to see this section become part of a trail, because the section through the community is now a path, and many sections to the east are open. It’s unlikely they will build anything on the section in the community in terms of rail reactivation, and if something were to happen with the right of way at the farm, the Unangst family may be able to get money for putting their farm into preservation.
On a side note, it turns out the Unangsts are distant cousins of mine, because were are descended from the original Unangst who came to America in the 1700s.
The fields had rather recently been plowed, so rather than follow the farm lane approaching 519, we were able to walk right along the old right of way to the through girder bridge that carried the railroad across. There is a junk yard on the other side, so it’s necessary to go under the bridge to the left, cross the Pequest on the lovely stone arch bridge, and then turn to the right on Titman Ave toward Rt 46. We used to cross the Edison Road bridge to reach the railroad bed again on more state land, but this section is now inaccessible because the county tore out the road bridge over the Pequest. I wish they’d put a foot bridge back over it or something. We’ve lost a major connection with that, and the rail bed is state park land on the other side.
Hod Dog Johnny's
We turned to the right on Rt 46 and passed Hot Dog Johnny’s where we got our group photo. I was hoping they would be open because I could really have gone for a hot dog, but we were a bit too late. We made the next right turn after Johnny’s and descended to where the LHR used to cross.
Historic image before tracks were removed on the LHR
I pointed out the crossing and that it was state park land, but that the land owners to the left had extended their yards out over it. We kept on the road to where it crossed the Pequest on a lovely old through truss bridge, and we continued straight on the old rail grade behind houses and out to the Rt 31 underpass. I had everyone regroup here, because I had forgotten about the undecked bridge over the Pequest that carried the LHR. Celeste opted to go up to the Lackawanna line and cross on that, then come back down on the other side rather than cross the bridge. I helped Jillane across, and Ken helped Celeste up over the top.
Once we got to the other side and Ken and Celeste descended from the Lackawanna, we all continued on the clear grade through the dark, with the sound of the Pequest and Route 46 to our north.
Red Sean continued with hilariously sick scenarios he kept throwing at Ken or myself, which kept things moving along.
The section went by fast until we reached the bridge we had crossed at the very beginning and got to the parking area, just after 11 PM.
I took Celeste and Jillane back to their cars to finish out the night. I’m looking forward to doing a bit more of the old LHR grade to the north, because I have heard sections above Andover have now been cleared and make excellent fodder for the earlier portions of night hikes. That will have to make it onto the schedule in the near future.
HAM
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