Hike #1229; Frenchtown South Loop
6/20/19 Frenchtown Area Loop with Shane Blische, Dan Asnis, Brittany Audrey, Ellie Zabeth, and Rich Pace
This next hike would be an interesting loop I’d put together, and a sort of rehash of a previous one I’d done not so long ago, but involving a lot of different trails I’d not done.
Frenchtown Nature Trail
I wanted to double back on some of the previous ones that I’d really loved, but then also do a lot of other stuff I’d not seen at all yet. The preserves along the bluffs south of Milford are so extensive, we could spend a whole lot of time there.
We started off over by the Frenchtown Station along the Delware, the former Belvidere Delaware Railroad station.
The historic site had one been a very beautiful two story station, but was the top story was removed, as was the entire rear and the awning. Only the ticket window in the front remained recognizable from the original.
My then and now
When the Bridge Cafe took over the station, they did a pretty good job of extending the building again closer to it’s original length, and reinstalled the awning for ambiance.
Another then and now
We arrived at the station, and I had to wait a little bit for people to show up that were running a bit late. Dan picked up Shane so that he could attend this one.
Another then and now
Shane was running around taking photos at the start, but the lighting wasn’t really good to be taking ones for his own then and now compilations. We started moving up the street from the bridge and stopped for drinks on the way before heading to the trails.
Steps in Frenchtown Park
We headed to Creek Road, where Frenchtown Park is right at the Nishisackawick Creek. There is a little playground, and then a great loop trail that follows both a mill race and creekside in a one mile loop.
We headed to the swinging foot bridge and started heading north along the old mill race route, which is quite beautiful.
Shane had done this one another hike once before, so he chose to stay behind near the playground and not do that loop, while Dan, Brittany, and I continued around.
I had tried some weird “4/20” hemp infused Four Loco drink, not because I even like the concept of 4/20, since it clearly has nothing controversial in it anyway, but just because it’s a weird flavor I hadn’t tried. I wasn’t all that fond of it, but oh well. We continued on our walk, and found a dead toad or frog covered in odd bugs along the way. Brittany was of course fascinated by it while the rest of us were grossed out.
Frenchtown Park trail
The trail continued along the former raceway, which served something I’m not sure about actually, until it came to where there used to be a dam over the Nishisackawick. There, it turned to the right and started following the creek back down stream.
This lower section, to me, also looks like it could have once been a mill race, maybe an earlier one, but I’m not sure.
We soon got back to the swinging bridge and crossed, and I took a quick dip in the creek. It was really horribly hot out.
yuck
We made our way then to the playground area, where Brittany climbed a giant web thing, and Shane found some sort of kids riding toy that was left there. He could barely fit in the thing to make it roll.
From here, we headed out of the park and onto Kingwood Avenue. We followed this just a little ways up hill, until there was a driveway entrance that provides a back entrance to the Frenchtown Cemetery.
We turned right to head up hill to this, and then cut across the upper end of the cemetery to the Little Nishisackawick Creek.
It’s a curiosity that this creek takes the same name as the larger one, because they both join the Delaware separately, although rather close together.
We followed the creek down stream slightly from here, and found some good spots to cross.
More yuck
Shane hurried across at another place and ended up on a trail somehow. There was a house just below the cemetery along the stream, and they had their yard mowed up to almost the edge of the cemetery, so I didn’t want to go too far down to encroach on their privacy.
I watched the GPS on my phone, and found that I was just a bit too far west to catch the trail where I wanted.
I helped Dan and Brittany across, and then we bushwhacked a short distance to get to the yellow blazed trail. Shane found his way back to where we were quickly.
Nishisackawick dam site
I had hiked this property to a limited extent once before, exploring with Shane and Cupcake, but we stayed to the south side mostly and then did some back roads. This time, I wanted to do a more extensive exploration of the site.
The Frenchtown Preserve is a 150 acre tracked that includes both woods and fields, preserved by the Hunterdon Land Trust in 2006 and turned over to the state park service. There are eight miles of trails in this preserve alone, so there’s plenty more to do.
Old culvert along Nishisackawick Creek
Prior to it’s preservation, the area was zoned for high density housing, which could have seen more than one hundred units installed.
Old grill in Frenchtown Park
We headed up hill on the yellow trail and passed an intersection with green.
Usually, I don’t pay a lot of attention to loop trails, but the density of the trail system here makes it so that every time I do a version of this hike, I could do a different colored loop route. This time, I chose to take one of the two routes of the orange trail, which start out together.
We took the yellow up hill, which closely parallels the Little Nishisackawick, and eventually connected with the orange blazed one going sort of back the way we came, but up hill and along the slope a bit more.
Web stuff
The trail turned right right along a slope and the red one went left, and we headed down to the edge of some fields to the west. The field version of the orange trail was very exposed, and combined with the fact that it was very hot, we were not going to do this.
The other orange trail remained in the woods somewhat from the field one, but eventually goes the same place, although our route meandered a lot.
We weaved through the trees, and it remained open enough that it wasn’t uncomfortable.
Climbin'
We crossed the green trail as we headed south through the preserve, and then reached the south side. We continued straight for a bit and emerged on fields when I realized we had barely gone too far. We turned back, and then went left to continue on orange to the east.
Just after a short bit, there was a giant metal cattle gate hanging from a tree in the woods. I have to remember to tell my co workers about this, because this could be very handy for some of our projects in the parks.
Shane's mean ride
The trail meandered beautifully through the young woods, and crisscrossed a couple of other trails. It eventually descended to a tributary to the Little Nishisackawick, and then climbed along the east side of it to head back to the north. The area had some surprisingly pretty outcroppings and formations of Brunswick Shale, one of which had a spring with a lovely little waterfall I had not expected to see. The creek meandered a lot creating some very nice scenery through this stretch.
Field at Frenchtown Preserve
We eventually emerged at the trail head on Horseshoe Bend Road, where we had come out the last time I hiked through the area. We’d follow the road to the east from here.
Cattle gate
Horseshoe Bend Road is a very pleasant road. It gets so little traffic that it’s perfect for what we were doing.
We continued down the road to the east, and I got a message from Elizabeth that she wanted to meet up in a bit. I came up with a spot for her to join, which would work out pretty conveniently with Rich, who was also planning to meet after getting out of work.
We passed some scenic farmsteads and a bed and breakfast in an historic building, and then reached the lovely Copper Creek Bridge, which was an historic stone arch that had been oddly rehabilitated with a curve and steel in it. It’s still not accommodating to larger vehicles, but too me it’s further proof that it’s not some legality that these roads must be two lanes.
They tried pulling that with me when it came to the Point Mountain Bridge, and the truth is that these planners and law makers can and will lie, and the burden of proof is on me.
Frenchtown Preserve
We took a break at Copper Creek, because it was so damn hot that we had to go in. Only Shane and I went in at this point. Dan and Brittany were not into it.
Frenchtown Preserve
There was only one spot that was really deep enough to enjoy it, but it was enough for us for a bit.
We continued on from here over the bridge and slightly up hill to where the Horseshoe Bend Park’s north section was. I had hiked that on the past hike, and there’s an interesting old vacant house out there, but I had too much new stuff I wanted to do on the opposite side of the road to include that again this time.
We continued up hill a bit more, and there was both Hunterdon Land Trust and some other property I recall on the east side of the road.
Tributary to Little Nishisackawick
When the public land began after a private farm on the right, we hopped up from Horseshoe Bend Road onto a mowed trail that skirted the property heading to the east. This is the same way we accessed this tract the last time we were out.
At the end of the field field bit, we turned to the north, out toward a building where they have the Kingwood Dog Park, and then cut back through some higher grass.
The rest of the trail system I wanted to be on was somehow isolated from where we were.
Brunswick Shale outcropping
We cut through where there was a break in the wire fence, and ended up on the the orange trail in the Horseshoe Bend Preserve.
The Horseshoe Bend Park, with it’s contiguous Copper Creek Preserve and Cooley Preserve, is a combined 736 acre land area with over 11 miles of trails. There have probably been more recent acquisitions to make it even larger at this point.
The property had been a point of interest for many years by NJ Conservation Foundation, but they were unable to come to an agreement with a land owner who was planning to develop it. Around 2004 or so, efforts to preserve it started, and eventually, through acquisition of private tracks including a church property, it grew to it’s current size.
Like the previous hike I’d done through the area, we were not able to cover nearly as much of the trail as I’d wanted to that time around, which was why I planned this one.
Little Nishisackawick tributary
We continued on the orange trail to the east, heading somewhat down hill along the tree line of a field. At the end, the trail took us to the right, down slope to a tributary of the Copper Creek, crossed, and then climbed back up to more field edge. We then reached a connection from the orange trail to the unblazed bit of the Cooley Preserve Trail, which was just a mowed path through state park land.
We followed this trail down hill a bit more, and I got Elizabeth to the parking area off of Rt 29. Rich didn’t want to use that one, so he headed to another spot further up.
Little Nishisackawick tributary
There is a farm access road that is reached from the lot, and I could see Elizabeth pull in from above. There was a nice little view from the top of the hill we enjoyed for a bit here.
A little waterfall in Frenchtown Preserve
Elizabeth didn’t see us from this point and ended up going slightly the wrong way until I went down the road just slightly and called out.
She made it up pretty quickly, and we continued along the edge of the Cooley Preserve from here on it’s south side.
The clouds were absolutely amazing through all of the field stretches up here. I had to constantly stop to take more photos of them.
I think it’s the only time in my life I can ever remember seeing very defined examples of Cumulus, Stratus, and Cirrus clouds together all in one amazing frame.
Soon, we reached the orange trail again close to where we had first cut off of it. We turned right to follow it to the south for a bit.
We entered a wooded section, and soon reached the beautiful Burk’s Run, a stream flowing down to the Delaware. It was so hot out, and the water was so cold, that it created a haunting mist as it cascaded down.
An interesting odd sign not often seen
On the other side of the creek, which did not have a bridge, we headed along what appeared to be possibly an old woods road route, still on the orange trail.
I had talked to Rich not all that long ago, and he had mistaking which we were heading, but I figured he would catch us sooner than this.
Just as I was pulling my phone out ready to call him, he jumped out and scared us from behind a tree! I was glad he was there, because he knows this preserve far better than I do.
Historic barn
We crossed a very long foot bridge over a small wash, and then turned to the right on the Flagg-Kirkland Trail. I have no idea how this trail got it’s name.
Horseshoe Bend Rd
We meandered along on this for a long while. I didn’t realize how long it was, but I was happy for it. It was starting to get pretty dark, but still easy walking. We could see pretty much fine.
We did a group shot when we got to the trail intersection, and then continued out to reach Fairview Road.
I gave Dan the option of turning to the right to follow the road for a shortcut, while the rest of us remained on Flagg-Kirkland Trail to the south side of the road, which loops around further.
Shane in a pot
This section was also really nice, where the first bit had boardwalks along the edge of it.
Copper Creek Bridge
The trail got a bit steeper on the way back down hill, but was still also nice. We could see Fairview Road well before we actually came back out to it.
Three different cloud kinds in one frame
When we got to the bottom, Rich had parked his car just a little bit to the north at a little pull off on Route 29. He decided to head back to that spot, and the rest of us continued.
Burke's Run
There was an entrance to the Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park on the old Belvidere Delaware Railroad grade at this point, and Rich stayed with us just long enough to check out this little side path down toward the Delaware.
Orange Trail in Horseshoe Bend Preserve
Everything is getting fenced off like crazy along the Delaware because so many people are in there swimming lately. It’s getting to the point that it’s been too out of control.
Narrow Copper Creek bridge
Shane had run ahead when he got to the Bel Del line, and Dan decided he was going to follow to catch up with him since he was his ride.
The rest of us turned to the right and said goodbye to Rich, and followed the Bel Del grade to the north.
The time went by pretty quickly on this pleasant and easy walking route.
We did stop when we got to the Kingwood Park and boat access. I always like to swim at the boat launches at night because no one ever bothers me. Again, no one but me wanted to go in.
Horseshoe Bend Preserve
I was in just long enough to cool off, and we were soon on our way back. Elizabeth and Brittany were talking, and when they asked how much further it was to go, I told them some higher mileage than it really was, so they were shocked when I told them about a half mile more. It actually went by pretty quickly.
Horseshoe Bend Preserve
This was one of them that I felt like we could have gone on a few more hours and I’d have been fine. It was pretty relaxing and even the rolling terrain wasn’t very tough.
There’s still more to do throughout the area, in both the Frenchtown Preserve and the Horseshoe Bend Preserve, so there will in all likelihood be another version of this same hike again in the near future, depending on what of interest I happen to find that I want to do otherwise. The list only keeps growing with more stuff added all around.
HAM
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