Hike #1187; Califon to Changewater
12/26/18 Califon to Changewater with Ken Zaruni, Daniel Trump, and Celeste Fondaco Martin
This next hike would be another point to point night hike, this time following many different parks and such in a similar route to what I’ve followed in the past.
Warren Railroad stock
It turned out to be a great night to be out, with a good temperature. Only Dan and Ken showed up at the start, and Ken presented me with a gift: a piece of the Warren Railroad stock from 1945!
It’s interesting that the Warren Railroad, which originally built the line under John I. Blair, was still in existence with a lease agreement to the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western. It was further fitting because we were under the site of the former Changewater Trestle. I put it in a safe spot and we headed out on our way in my van to the start point, by the Aqui Market in Califon New Jersey.
I drove back and forth looking for a good spot to park, and there were signs all over the Aqui Market, which is the former A&P supermarket. I decided to just take a chance and park on the side by Frank’s Pizza. We didn’t have a problem there.
Old mill ruins in Califon
We stopped in at Frank’s for some food. I hadn’t had lunch, so I was hungry too. I had a chicken quesadilla slice and a mushroom slice, which were quite filling. We then headed down from Route 513 on Main Street and crossed the South Branch of the Raritan.
Boardwalk trail
We turned left on Mill Street, which took us out to the former mill site. It’s foundation has some of the old mill hardware in it, which is pretty cool.
I tried to put this hike together doing a lot of different things that would change at intervals as such to make it a really interesting trip. The road walk first, and then this bit of trail behind the mill.
There was a board walk from there into the Califon Island Park. We followed it out to the grassy section, skirted past the playground, and then into the woods parallel with the South Branch. The foot path from here is lesser used, but pretty.
We followed it out to an old dam site. The dam is still there, but in bad shape. The mill race for the mill we passed goes along the edge of the park, and starts just above this dam. Some of the remnants of where the water was directed are still in place.
The dam on the South Branch
We turned to the right a bit, and headed over toward the dam edge. There was a bit of a concrete platform with fishermen on it, packing up for the night. I think that’s where the water flowed toward the mill race. We headed up a path to Bank Street, which becomes Vernoy Road. We turned left on it very briefly, then turned right onto the rail trail, the former High Bridge Branch of the Central Railroad of New Jersey.
The rail bed paralleled the road for a bit there, and then turned away to the right. I pointed out where the quarry spur used to turn off, where the town got the stone needed to build the historic Califon station just to the west of us.
South Branch dam
We continued walking the rail bed beyond there into the village of Vernoy, across Vernoy Road where the rail bed ran parallel. I told stories to the guys about when I worked there on the trail, clearing out culverts using saplings like pipe cleaners, and then about the early 1997 hikes with the group I’d done.
We made our way out of Vernoy, back across Vernoy Road, and into some more woods. It was starting to get pretty dark by this point, and we soon reached the county line at West Valley Brook Road. At that point, we turned to the left to follow the road to the north.
High Bridge Branch nearing Vernoy
We reached Route 513 and crossed directly to continue on Trimmer Road. This lightly used road as well as the others we would be following are the route of the connector trail between Mountain Farm in the Teetertown Reservation and the rail trail. I proposed the route to John Trontis when he was the director back in 2002, on a day I was hiking this same route anyway. He loved the concept and went through with it, which I thought was really cool. It was through that chance meeting in 2002 that I eventually got my job working in parks.
We continued to a ninety degree bend in Trimmer Road, turned left, and then reached the intersection with Maple Lane. We turned right there and headed up hill a bit.
I took a call from Celeste at this point, and she wanted to meet up very soon. I had her go to Teetertown Ravine near the stone bridge, and the timing should be right.
We got to the corner with Teetertown Road, and I pointed out Merv Griffin’s former home on the corner, which was why his shows read “Califon Enterprises” on them.
Walkin' in the dark
We continued on from there up Hollow Brook Road, which soon becomes unpaved. I was surprised at the volume of cars going through it when we got there.
Celeste parked before the bridge and walked up while we hung out on the bridge itself.
Next, my plan was to take the Geology Trail up hill. I knew the county had abandoned that trail, but I thought I’d be able to find it.
It was my favorite trail in the preserve, and they let it go. We tried to get up it, but there were too many trees down. It just shows what a failure Hunterdon Parks has become since so many of us were laid off.
We headed further up the road, parallel with the brook through Teetertown Ravine, and I told Ken about the Middle Valley Trap Rock Company and it’s short railroad line that broke off of the High Bridge Branch in Middle Valley to reach the quarries at this point.
We continued walking to the first trail that headed up hill to the left. This was the White Trail. I always hated that Hunterdon rarely names their trails. In some areas, there are more than one of each color trail, which is idiotic not to give it something more endearing. The contiguous trail system between here and Crystal Springs has several trails of the same color, but they always fought having names on the maps for them.
We continued to the intersection with the red trail, continued left and then up hill at the blue trail which led to the Orchard Trail, which was always unblazed. The lower end of the orchard is much overgrown from the first time I’d ever hiked it, and even when I worked there.
When George Melick was Freeholder, he ordered all of the trees chopped down. He claimed that they would disease his own orchard trees, but the truth is there would have been free peaches and such for anyone hiking through, and he didn’t want it to hurt his business.
It’s been so long now, I’ll throw out some more truth.
The property adjacent to Mountain Farm, above the ravine, was that of Louise Sliker. Her intention was for the county to purchase the old property, which was also home to the Sliker Air Strip, a very old one. It was to be added to Mountain Farm and become the Sliker Activity Fields. However, when it came up for acquisition, the Freeholders canceled it.
Louise Sliker passed away, and then George Melick bought the farm himself, reportedly for his daughter. All the hope of the Sliker Activity Fields was killed.
I used to talk to Mrs. Sliker on the phone a couple of times a year, and she never missed sending me a birthday card. She called me one of her “teaching grandchildren”, because she had my father in her class in elementary school.
The Orchard Trail in 2002
We headed up hill, then turned right on the Pond Trail, another unmarked one that is just a woods road. It follows along and then over the dam of the pond. Just after that, we turned left on another trail which took us through to fields closer to Pleasant Grove Road. We headed through the parking lot and then continued directly across on the connecting trail to the Crystal Springs Preserve.
I always told them that they overused the orange trail markers. They don’t show up well. They’re not as easy to see. Yellow and white were always the best. They didn’t listen.
The bridge at Crystal Springs in 2008
Heading through the woods, so many of the orange trail markers were totally gone, we had a terrible time trying to find them. To make matters worse, hunters were using a lot of the trail, but veering off and marking their route with the bright eyes tacks. That sent us the wrong way a couple of times. Fortunately, the paint blazes I’d added to the trail early on were still in place, and they saved us at least twice on this stretch. Still, I couldn’t find exactly where the trail went at one point. There were too many trees down. I just had to bushwhack to find where the Student Conservation Association made trail bridge over the brook was. Half of it is now collapsed, but half is there.
We crossed and came out in fields, then followed them to the right through more of Crystal Springs. This took us to a field entrance, and then across another brook between sections of ponds. Just past this is where the buildings used to stand.
The house that used to be at Crystal Springs
Ahead were some Norway Spruces, and I pointed out that this was where the house used to stand. To the left, there used to be another one right along the side of one of the ponds, plus there was a barn as well as another out building. All were demolished.
The trail system in Crystal Springs was cleared by volunteers on a Hunterdon County Trails Day in early 2008. I was allowed to assemble my own crew for this, and we cleared the field perimeter stuff, the longest section of the projects involved. On that same day, some cleared the route to the east and north, which headed into the not yet closed Pelio Tract known as Pelio II acquisition.
The plan was that the county would acquire a second tract of land from the Pelio family in addition to one they’d already got, then they would acquire the nearby Pitha Tract. With the acquisition of these pieces, we would have permission to build trail sections through the properties of Crossroads Outdoor Ministries as well as YMCA Camp Bernie. We had much of the route already cleared and flagged off over Pelio II and it was ready to go.
By the end of that year, the Freeholders canceled those acquisitions too. The trail plan was then decidedly shot. I felt that with only a short road walk, we could still do it, but no one would entertain the concept, so that was the end of it.
Before the plan died, I did lead a hike through on the new section. I hadn’t gone back and walked through it since.
Just this past year, the county finally did acquire the Pelio II Tract. A few years ago they also acquired Pitha. I still have never tried to hike through Pitha, but I figured that now Pelio II is in hand, we could go across it.
Celeste only wanted to get in a couple of miles with us, so when we got to the main access road to where the houses used to be, she walked out that road toward Pleasant Grove Road (which switches names there to Califon Road) and got a ride back.
When we got to the edge, we stayed on field perimeters. I decided to just do that until the last line of woods we had to get through to reach the intersection with Mt. Lebanon Road and Turkey Top Road. The edges of the fields are wet in that area so it’ll be hard to plan a trail.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/Xb8v3ccuIVM
Also in 2008, Commando Tom started doing some promotional videos for the group, and he happened to do one that featured the Pelio II acquisition, though we didn’t say anything about it because we didn’t know that it would be canceled around that same time.
In the video, a more humorous moment was when Jason Itell checks out the back woods toilet. I looked for that toilet when we went through, but it’s probably rotted away.
We headed out to Turkey Top Road, and followed it rather steeply down hill toward Penwell. We intersected with Penwell Road and reached the white trail in the Point Mountain Reservation, but I chose not to follow this yet. It crosses the Beatty Brook at a rock hop spot that might be under water with all of the excess run off.
Instead, we continued down the road, then went up hill to the left into the Rosen Fields, which have the blue trail running through them. We followed this out to their end, and then followed the blue trail down to the edge of the Musconetcong River. It’s among my favorite sections of hiking in Hunterdon. It’s so back woods and peaceful.
The part that bothers me most about this one was the destruction of the Point Mountain Bridge. My first hike at the age of three was to this bridge, and I really wanted it saved, but they tore it down anyway. At this point, there were just new vacant abutments, and no bridge in place yet. The bridge they removed was one of the few remaining pony truss bridges left on the Musconetcong. Actually, I think it was one of only two remaining. The other is at Netcong/Stanhope and it is much smaller.
We reached the bridge and came out on Musconetcong River Road. From there, it was an easy, but very fast road walk back of only a couple more miles. Aside from a little slow going when we were first heading into Crystal Springs, we were moving along really extremely fast. The last bit went by in absolutely no time, and Ken took me back to my car in Califon.
It was surprising that we’d gotten done so early, but it was a good night, talking about different things, planning future trips. It left me with a lot to look forward to.
HAM
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