Hike #1227; New Village to Riegelsville

Hike #1227; New Village to Riegelsville

6/8/19 New Village to Riegelsville with Ken Zaruni, Brittany Audrey, Michael Krejsa, Jack Lowry, Sarah Jones, Russ Nelson, and Ewa Wdzieczak-Smering

This next hike would be a point to point associated with Warren County’s Parkfest. I wanted to be there for that event, but unfortunately I was scheduled to work.

Happy ride

It’s frustrating that I can’t have the deal I always had previously, where I worked every Saturday and had every Sunday off, or could work every Sunday and vice versa, because it really messes up not only what I can do with my hikes, but all of the events I want to and should be a part of.
Still, I make the best of it as often as I can, and I managed to put together a trip that would begin at Parkfest, at Break Lock Park in New Village, and then end in Riegelsville following some of a route I’d never done before.

New signage at Bread Lock

I chose the lovely Riegelsville boat launch on the Holland Township, Hunterdon County side as the end point of the hike, because I like jumping in the river at that point, and the start would be at Parkfest.
It was cool to see Russ and Ewa were back so soon, visiting the area and staying with Matt. We worked it out so that they would have an early out on the hike, and get to at least hike the portion of it on the Morris Canal Greenway.
We all jumped into my van, and headed to Phillipsburg. We left Russ and Ewa’s car in the Still Valley area near the Target store, and then headed over to Bread Lock.
We pulled in and said hello to the people we knew there, and checked out a little of the new animation to be used at Plane 9 in the future. We didn’t get to check out as much of it as we would have liked, because there was a long way to go, but we’ll head back for more. The new “Story Walk” is also looking good.

Morris Canal boat mockup

We got out on the canal and towpath, which had a house built on it years ago. That house now serves as the canal museum at Bread Lock Park. We went up the steps to the back porch of it, and then back down the other side. We continued along the canal out to where there is now a mock up of a Morris Canal boat, with it’s flat top and coal carrying all authentically replicated.
I hadn’t really taken the time to show this to everyone in the past, but it’s worth checking out.
Perhaps the coolest thing about this boat is that you can go down into the cabin where the canal men and women would have slept and experience how crammed it really was.
We checked all of that out, and then continued along the towpath past “Bread Lock”, lock #7 West. This lock was so named because fresh bread was sold here. Canal lock houses would double as stores because of convenience.

Canal boat cabin

Boats would have to wait to lock through on the canal until other boats had passed through, so it was convenient for stores and concessions to be at lock houses.
We moved on from here toward where the trail leaves the open part of the park. Jack’s Strikesound business was working the entertainment for the event, so he went to check on his employee briefly, and then we headed on to the west.
The trail follows a mowed route where the canal is somewhat obliterated through here, and I pointed out some concrete drainage structures that were probably put in when the final engineer, Vermuele, had dismantled the canal in 1927.
Soon, the trail resumes on the towpath and becomes quite nice in the newest section of the greenway heading west. The canal is even somewhat watered in this section, until it becomes obliterated through fields.

Morris Canal towpath

We reached where the towpath came to an end, washed out and then obliterated, and the trail turns to the left through fields.
A solar company has put a field on the former canal, and the county allowed for this in exchange for a greenway for the trail around the outside.
They volunteers (not including me this time) and the Youth Corps have done a great job marking the route through the fields using metal posts, with wood affixed to them with the octagonal Morris Canal trail markers.

Morris Canal

We headed down along the fields, and then came across a very good crop of mulberry trees on the right, so we had to stop and pig out for a little while.

Morris Canal Greenway

From here, the trail takes us further down through the fields, almost to the former Morris and Essex (later Lackawanna) railroad tracks, and then turned to the right closely parallel. We checked out an old farm underpass on the railroad, and continued across a wash and gradually up to closely parallel the fence at the solar farm.
The surfacing on this section needs a little work because it keeps washing out, but the route that needs to be followed is obvious. Someone keeps stealing the Morris Canal trail markers in places, but still easy to see the route.

Mulberries!

We continued on ahead and soon came out to Richline Road. The canal actually crossed Richline Road further up, next to Route 57, but we couldn’t have a trail there.

Land owners were unwilling to sell Inclined Plane #8 west, so instead the land on the south side of the railroad tracks from it was purchased as an interim greenway with hopes that one day we might get the canal on it’s historic route.
The trail turns left on Richline Road, and then right down a set of steps along the edge of the farm fields heading west. It dips down and crosses a small stream or wash, where there is a culvert somewhat recently replaced under the former Morris and Essex line.

Railroad pipe

The stone work of the original can be seen around the outside, but there is a concrete pipe now up the middle.
We headed back up hill, and fortunately we were in the shade for a bit again. The previous section was really brutally hot for a bit.
The trail reached the end of the field, and then turned left to follow them to the south. In this area, it hits a driveway and then goes out to Main Street in Stewartsville. At this point, we turned slightly left along the fields.

View from the greenway

There was an old house that was currently being demolished that I wanted to have a closer look at, but hadn’t gotten the chance really previously.

demo

It looked like demolition was well under way at the site, with vehicles and a dumpster around. It looked like some stuff had been taken for salvage as well.
It’s sad, because this was a very old house. Probably early 1800s. I wondered if anyone was documenting anything in the process and figured I’d better get to it.
It was pretty well gutted, had some firewall and some old saw milled wood work in it. There was a spiral wooden stairway called a “Jersey Winder” in it.

Old house

It also had a couple of old fire places that would have been nice when it was in use.
One of the more curious points in it was that a section of wall had been removed and exposed to reveal some stenciled wallpaper, painted on. That’s always neat to find when you have a renovation somewhere.
We wandered through the site for a short bit, and then made our way back out to the trail.
It’s such a shame that this building is going. There are so many vacant ones all over the place, and so many people who could live in them. It could even serve stewardship purposes.

Abandoned

The problem is, government does not want to be a land lord, nor does it want to set itself up as a land lord. It’s an uneasy, complicated mess to deal with, and can potentially be far more problematic.
I really think Warren County is on the right track having an organization such as Ridge and Valley Conservancy in place with live in land stewards, like where I used to live at White Lake. Before I moved in to the site, it was getting broken into on a regular basis. It was also broken into while I was living there. People would show up all the time.

Abandoned

Before I moved into that, I went up to tour the place with then WC Director Bob Resker, and we found the place unsecured, and with the laundry room window opened. The place was being used as a hunting blind that very week, with bait in the yard. A hunting magazine was left on the counter behind it. Those hunters ended up showing up when I wasn’t home and Jillane scared them off.
Then, after I moved out, some guys I worked with at Spruce Run even ended up breaking in. The land steward at the time had no idea they had been there and said there were no problems.

There is a huge benefit to having such places, but we have to figure out a way of it being practical and economical, without being a burden on government. It just takes the right combination of good ideas and good people in the stewardship spots.
We headed back out into Stewartsville, which is a lovely little settlement.
The historic and quaint little town of Stewartsville is the largest of several unincorporated communities within the township of Greenwich in Warren County.

Old fireplace

It is named for Thomas and Robert Stewart, who came from Tinnicum, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, to Greenwich, in 1793.

Abandoned

The Morris Canal was built through the north side of town in the 1830s, and the settlement on the north side was once a separate village known as Cooksville after a local doctor. Later, the Morris and Essex Railroad and the Easton-Washington Traction Company's trolley served the town. Today it is a quiet cut through between Routes 57 and 22 with a European feeling center and single blinking traffic light.
We reached the church, and turned right through the back of the parking lot, and headed to the rear of the building where there was grass and access to municipal land.

Old fireplace

There is a very small creek, a tributary to the Merrill Creek, which flows through this land. There is a little foot bridge that took us across onto the land behind town hall.

'Eu 'Splorin

The town isn’t what it used to be; the little general store in the town has been closed for a while now. The elementary school has also been closed and stands apparently vacant. There’s an almost joking faded sign in front that reads “Greenwich Recycles”, but it obviously doesn’t mean it’s buildings.
We made our way around the municipal building to Greenwich Street, Rt 638, and turned right. There is a paved trail that follows along the edge of this road I’ve used for hikes in the past.

Abandoned

I would have followed the Morris Canal itself, which has legal public access, but we’re not allowed to really develop it because of the people at the Stewart’s Hunt community that sued the county not to put the trail in. Hopefully that will get going in the near future, because it’s really an awesome section.
Instead, I usually walk through on the parallel paved paths through developments and such.
This time, we followed the trail only for a bit. I was planning originally to go into the cemetery on the south side of the road, but it doesn’t really connect through to other trails.

Steps

Instead, we remained on the paved path past a few old farm houses, and then made our way across the street to the new Thomas Stewart Park.
This park has a paved trail all the way around it, and it connects on through to the Greenwich Elementary School. I saw it as a way we could cover some new different ground, and a little new local trail.
The trail is a paved route that far exceeded my expectations. It passed through a stunningly beautiful section of cultivated fields unlike other paved multi use trails I’ve come across. We don’t have any other trails in Warren County that look quite like this one, so it was really great.
The trail weaved to the north, and then down hill slightly near a line of trees before making it’s way out of the park and onto the Greenwich school property. We skirted that and headed to Wyndham Farm Boulevard.

Attic stuff

We tried to remain in the shade as best we could through this stretch, and then followed the grassy swath near Wyndham Farm Blvd back out to Greenwich Street. We turned left, and I wanted to get on the development paths to the right of the road. There was a fence blocking the access to it, but we could climb over to get there.
When we all started to climb, Russ and Ewa decided to just walk the road more directly back to where they were parked. The rest of us got through and started walking the path, only to realize that if we had walked a very short distance further, the fence ended with clear access.

Jersey winder

When the trail started to turn to the north, we headed out to Dumont Street, and then went straight to stop at a pizza place as well as Bourbon Street for some drinks. I found something interesting, but I forget what it was.
Mike shared some pizza with me in return for my sharing drinks with him. I’d already been feeling stuffed from the mass quantities of food I’ve been eating, but more is always great.
After the break, we walked across Greenwich Street and continued in the back of the Lowes store access road. It eventually opened up and was mowed on the steep slope above it, so we went up there along the evergreen tree plantings behind the Dollar Tree and other stuff.
We soon came out to Dumont Road where it curved to become New Brunswick Ave, and headed down to cross it. There was a sort of utility access road that went into fields at the corner where we turned in.

Abandoned

The sun started to go down, which was particularly beautiful with the crops growing.
We took this path to the southeast, and it soon ran immediately parallel with Interstate 78. It remained clear and easy walking all the way out to Beattys Road.
We turned right on the road and enjoyed the shade of the underpass for 78 briefly, and then headed up hill a bit to another park access, Beatty’s Fields, on the right. We entered the parking lot and skirted the edge.

More winders

The fields took us right out to Route 173, which is old Rt 22, at the intersection with Greenwich Church Road.
We skirted the bottom of the field, crossed Rt 173 and turned left very briefly to the start of Ravine Road.
Ravine Road is one of my favorites in Warren County. It becomes unpaved and barely traveled, and follows closely along the Pohatcong Creek.
In the Summer, it gets overrun with people swimming in the creek at a deep hole next to the underpass for the former Central Railroad of New Jersey, with a double arched culvert.

Old wallpaper stencils

We headed down hill to the double arched culvert, the one on the left for the Pohatcong Creek, and the one on the right for the road, and stopped on the other side.

Abandoned

I immediately went in the water, but as I recall, the only other one who wanted to get in was Ken. It was rather chilly, but not really that bad at all. Once I was in, it was as refreshing as could be. I couldn’t believe that more people didn’t want to come in because it was so refreshing.
Jack and Sarah held back at the culvert, and Jack sang and played some songs with his guitar using the acoustics of the culvert, which resonated strongly even though we weren’t under the culvert at the same time.

Abandoned

We spent a good while here, because I didn’t want to get out. When we finally moved along, we followed the road to the south and soon crossed a pretty little pony truss bridge built in the 1930s. It’s a curiosity to me because usually those old style ones were out of favor by the first years of the 1900s. This was probably the last of the old style pony trusses to be built.
Ravine Road came out to Municipal Road, and we turned to the right, following the Pohatcong Creek the entire way.

Abandoned

We passed Still Valley Road, which is another I plan to hike in the near future because it’s closed to traffic at some point through, so it’ll be a nice walk, and then stayed on Municipal Road heading to the west.
We next came to another old stone culvert, this time carrying the former Lehigh Valley Railroad, now Norfolk Southern, overhead. Also a double culvert carrying the Pohatcong Creek on the left and the road on the right, it came after the Jersey Central one. The Lehigh Valley Railroad through this area was completed in 1875 when the tunnel to the east opened.

Abandoned

The Central Railroad of New Jersey had already been in the area since 1853, and the two were then competitors until Conrail took them both over. Now, the Jersey Central is abadondoned through this area because it would have crossed Rt 78 at grade, and the Lehigh Valley is very active with freight.
Once we got through the Still Valley culvert, we turned to the left into more municipal land.
There is a rather nice little mowed trail that follows along the Pohatcong Creek for a bit.

Stewartsville School all closed

The trail eventually ends, and we had to walk up hill to behind the court and police station. No one was around when we came out.
From there, we just walked through the lot into the back of the municipal garage. Their gates were left open, so we could just walk right on out it and return to Municipal Road.
We turned left on Municipal Road, and headed down hill.
As we were coming to the intersection with Rt 519, Springtown Road, there were dogs going nuts in the house on the right. Someone made barking noises back at the dogs and they ended up barking more. The owner came out and started hollering “Don’t mock my dogs!”. It was kind of silly how completely serious the guy was being, like we had some sort of ill will toward his pets. When Jack and Sarah caught up, Sarah started doing the same thing, not knowing that the guy had just hollered at us. I waited on the corner because I knew he’d yell again.

View in Stewartsville

When he started in again, I told the guy that no one was trying to cause trouble, and he seemed to quiet down. I wanted to move on out of there as fast as we could.

The new Thomas Stewart Park trail

The last time we had hiked through this area, we ended up having a guy come out of his house with a double barrel shot gun and a dog, just because we were walking the road!

Thomas Stewart Park

There are some things that really trigger the crazy in people, and I really didn’t want to be dealing with any more of that.
We turned to the left on 519 up hill a bit, and then reached the intersection with Creek Road where we would turn to the left. I waited there for Jack and Sarah who had fallen slightly behind. They decided to call an Uber out at this point rather than continue, and so the rest of us turned to the right on Creek Road. The shot gun guy was just down this road, so I warned everyone to try to keep their voices low so that we didn’t catch anyone’s attention again.

View from Thomas Stewart Park

I had only hiked Creek Road once before, and on that previous hike we followed it all the way out to the Delaware and then hiked the Bel Del Railroad to Riegelsville.

📷

I had looked at the other roads through the area and realized they would also probably be very scenic, and planned the latter portion of this hike on new stuff like that.

Thomas Stewart Park

We followed Creek Road down stream along the Pohatcong until it crossed over to the right. Here, we turned hard left to continue on Mountain Road, which climbed away from it.
It felt kind of steep for a while, but it was overall fine.
We went around a sharp corner, and then up hill a bit more at which point I turned around to see the lights in view from the Alpha area. It was quite pretty.
Mountain Road continued to climb up hill for a bit more into some deep woods. To the right of us was a great slope into a larger valley as we ascended.

Thomas Stewart Park

We eventually reached the peak, and there were some old farm houses. To the right, one of them was having a huge party. I was hoping they would invite us in. There was some friendly exchange of words with some of them as we went by, but did not culminate in any invitation unfortunately. Stuff like that is how hikes end up taking until 3 in the morning anyway.
The road started descending a bit, and we had to turn right on Pincher’s Point Road just after going down a bit.

Greenwich development path

The up hill on the start of this road felt brutal. It didn’t look like it would be so bad when I mapped it out, but I suppose I was just starting to get really tired.

Lovely field scene

When we finally reached the top again, with fields on our right, it was quite pleasant.

Field path

The road continued at the top of the grade for a bit, and then started abruptly descending. It was quite an intense downhill grade on this one. Brittany commented that this one might even be steeper than Fiddler’s Elbow Road over in Harmony Township, which is real steep.
We continued on down hill past a few houses until we reached River Road, which was right next to the former Belvidere Delaware Railroad. This was the line that connected Trenton up through Belvidere to Manunka Chunk and the Lackawanna main, owned most of it’s life by the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Ravine Road

We followed River Road for a bit, but eventually got on the tracks because it was easier and less of a grade. The road crossed the railroad to the river side after a bit.

Ruin along the Bel Del

I took a side trip off to an abandoned old building, which is apparently made of stone and then covered in concrete. I used to know what it was, but I forgot. I am inclined to say an old ice house because it has no windows and only one entrance.
It had some pretty interesting graffiti along the back of it, but I got covered in Stinging Nettle trying to get through. The others tried to follow me but said screw it in a short while.

Roebling Riegelsville bridge

We got back on the tracks and just kept going south. River Road was at this point below us, and we could watch the cars moving by far too fast as we walked.
It wasn’t too long before we passed the now abandoned “Hoots” bar, and then got a good view of the Roebling Riegelsville bridge over the Delaware completed in 1903. The original bridge at the site was washed out by the “Pumpkin Flood” that year.
We passed the former site of the Riegelsville Station, crossed over Riegelsville-Warren Glen Road, and passed the old store that is standing but collapsed inside to the right.

Riegelsville crossing

Just into the woods, we crossed the Musconetcong River into Hunterdon County on the Bel Del bridge, and on the other side a path led us down slope along the river, and then through a hole in a chain link fence to the parking lot for the boat launch, which occupies the former Riegel Paper site. One abutment remains of the bridge for the company over the Musconetcong.
My legs were still itchy and stinging from all of the nettles I walked through, so I went down to the river and washed it all off. Again, no one else wanted to go in, even though it felt great.
It ended up being a really lovely hike through some favorite old spots and some new. I’ll definitely have to consider some more of those little back roads for future ones.

Municipal Road Lehigh Valley underpass

HAM