Hike #1231; Waterloo Valley Loop

Hike #1231; Waterloo Valley Loop

6/27/19 Waterloo Valley Loop with San Westermann, Daniel T Westermann, Joe Pinto, Brittany Audrey, Justin Gurbisz, Ken Zaruni, and Ellie Zabeth

This next hike would be another one through Waterloo Valley, trying to make heads or tails of the trail system on southern Stephens State Park, and making our way back on Morris Canal Greenway route as well as some other stuff.

yummies

I’ve done various versions of this one in the past, either as point to point trips connecting to Hackettstown, or through other routes looping one way or another.
I had forgotten at the beginning of this that we had tried to do just what I was doing this time and failed in the past, but it wouldn’t occur to me until we were actually to that point.
My meeting location was the Mt. Olive train station for NJ Transit, where we’ve met for many of these hikes before.

Walking the old road

The first part of it would be another variation of what we’d done in the past.
We walked from the station up onto Waterloo Valley Road heading to the west. We used as much shade as we could in the adjacent commercial lands as we could.
I was shocked when we got toward the end of those lands, because there was a giant new building in place, under construction.
This was in fact the very controversial warehouse building that was built on land that many had though should have been preserved, adjacent to so much state park land.

Budd Lake Tower view

It was much more open than it was before. We walked by whatever barricades there were and went to the left when we got to the entrance to the Morris County land where they dump lawn refuse and stuff.
We had done this in the past, and followed some informal trails that took us all through the hills before connecting to the official Stephen State Park newer trails, built and maintained by JORBA (Jersey Off Road Biking Association). It was a little trouble getting through to them before, but we managed. This time it would prove to be a little bit tougher.

View from Budd Lake Tower

As we were heading up the hill, I think the road we had taken in the past that took us into the woods earlier on was now gone. I don’t remember exactly how we did it.

On the tower

I seem to recall that we followed a woods road that became an ATV path and crossed a clearing.
This time, we walked the road all the way to the top to a sort of plateau where they dump off stuff. We continued to the peak, turned hard right, and found another woods road that continued to the west a bit. This one led out to yet another clearing out that way. As I remembered, there was a path that went off of the south side of that, rather obscured through vegetation.
We managed to find the path, and headed into the woods. The leaves that massaged us as we went through soon disappeared with a wider path under a lush canopy.
The problem with this section is that the trails seem to go just about everywhere, and have no rhyme or reason about them. It’s impossible to keep track of where they all go. Cory Salveson was with us the last time we did it, and he showed us images on his phone with some trail app that showed the rogue paths.

View on Budd Lake tower toward the north

I did the best I could to remember where the paths were that we needed to take, but somewhere along the way I must have taken a wrong turn. It seemed to be taking us a bit too far to the north and down hill.
I watched the GPS on my phone, and eventually decided that we would cut off trail through very light undergrowth to try to find our way to the official trails again.
We eventually came to a vague path that went back to the south again, more in the direction we needed to be. I had planned to visit the Budd Lake Tower, originally called 95 Mile Tree Lookout Tower.

Ken on the tower

At one point, I figured we would have to forego visiting the tower because we got so far out of the way, but when the next rogue path we found took us relatively close to it, and I could see there was just a little ridge that connected between them, I figured we would cut off trail once more.
That worked out well. I was inclined to just follow the ridge that entire distance, but it would have taken us the wrong way. It’s easy to get messed up following natural contours. We had to descend through a low wetland, then climb again to the highest point where the tower sits.

Tower lounging

We went to the top of where the tower was by going off trail. That was a good workout. When we got to it, we hurried up to the top. My legs felt like jello for a few days after that workout. I really pushed pretty hard with it.
The top of course had a great view to Budd Lake to the south, as well as to the Delaware Water Gap and the Kittatinny Ridge to the north. We couldn’t see to the city to the east like we can in the Winter time, but we could see Route 80 moving off in the distance.
We didn’t hang out there for too very long before heading down hill on the Fire Tower Trail, the section that follows the access road.
We watched trails to the right, and turned right on a green blazed trail through more woods.
This is where we got screwed up the previous time we tried pretty much this same thing. My plan was to follow the north leg of the green trail to the north leg of the white trail, which makes the longest loop heading to the east.

Informal path

The problem with doing this loop is that the northern leg of the white blazed trail does not seem to have any markers on it any more. The last time we looked for it, we found the south leg of the loop, backtracked, and then ended up on another rogue trail on an old woods road heading north, then used a bunch of informal mountain biking trails.
This time, we watched the GPS and tried to compare with the trail conference maps of the area, and somehow made the same mistake of following the same woods road to the north. I knew we did when we got to “no trespassing” signs high up trees.

Rogue trail

There might actually be a piece of private land up there, but I don’t know. There were also state park signs.
Ken and I were walking up front, and after going past this and down hill a little, we both discussed how we were both on this hike the last time we got lost the same way, and Ken had even gone back since then and tried to figure his way out of it.
By the time we had figured it all out, we were already too far along to shift back the way we came. I would have to adjust the hike to compensate for the mistake and do something a bit different.

Waterloo Valley Road

I started recognizing a few little things here and there after the signs, including some rock outcroppings. We turned off on a smaller trail that took us on switchbacks down hill going east and west. We could see the Tilcon Lake through the trees along this route.
When it looked like we were going too far out of the way yet again, somehow we went to the left and found our way along a trail that closely paralleled Waterloo Valley Road. This trail weaved around until it finally came out to one of the official trails out to Waterloo Valley Road near a bend.

Abandoned

The trail hit the road a short distance after the road crossed the railroad tracks, which were originally the Morris and Essex Railroad, and later part of the Lackawanna Railroad system.

Abandoned

By this time, I had devised what the route of the rest of the hike would be.
We would follow Waterloo Valley Road, which was more direct, to the west and then get on the Morris Canal Greenway, and follow it back in the direction we had come. We spent a lot of time up on Mt Olive wandering around, and having the more direct route would make up the difference for all of the switchback stuff we had done. We’d then get on the road around the Tilcon Lake and head back to the station.

Abandoned

Waterloo Valley Road is a great road for walking. It’s not so great a road for driving, full of pot holes and lots of gravel to kick up. There’s still an active quarry area further on along it, and the trucks tear up the road something terrible.
I think maybe only two cars passed by us the entire time we were out along this road.
We continued along toward the entrance to the east side of Stephens State Park, and before we got there, we came to an abandoned house I had not seen before. It was probably abandoned for some time. I think a calendar was from 2013.

Abandoned

Of course, we had to check it out.
The place was a mess, with all of the doors wide open. I don’t know if the state purchased this one yet or not, but it looked like whoever left the place did so rather quickly without cleaning anything out. There were even pictures and such on the walls. There were books and magazines laying around. There was even a rotary phone hanging on the wall.
We walked through all we could in the main house area, and then went over to an adjacent barn structure to look around.

Abandoned

This one was all open as well. For having only been abandoned since 2013, it was in pretty bad shape.
Among the stuff we found were a bottle of beer, which had a huge layer of yeast in the bottom, as well as a big bottle of Vermouth, which looked cleaner inside.
I was going to grab both, but the bottle looked awful. Justin took it to smash somewhere, which is what he loves to do with glass.
I took the bottle of vermouth and put it in my pack. By the time we left the buildings and got back on the road, I had to try it.

Abandoned

I really wasn’t expecting it to taste good in the least bit, and it really wasn’t, but it was also potable. It wasn’t something I absolutely needed to spit out and yell obscenities.
I think most all of us actually tried a sip of it, including Justin. Some jokes went around about how he would drink these awful things or taste old packaged food he finds, but that he wouldn’t try fresh goat cheese made by Sandy.
We followed Waterloo Valley Road past the entrance to Stephens State Park and crossed the Musconetcong River. We could barely see the other abandoned house to the right.

Abandoned

The other one had stood there abandoned forever, and was now behind a nearly impenetrable wall of briars.
Elizabeth called me somewhere around this point to meet up with us, and I directed her to head to the pull off parking on Bilby Road to follow the Morris Canal Greenway. I didn’t want her leaving a car at an obvious place near the end of the park, or near the railroad tracks, and the Bilby pull off is actually pretty good. She got on the trail and started heading toward us to the east.

Abandoned

When we reached the intersection of Waterloo Road and Waterloo Valley Road, we turned right on Waterloo Road. This was now the route of the Highlands Trail.
When we got to the railroad crossing, we made a left turn onto a driveway that leads to the Morris Canal Greenway. The Highlands Trail should really follow this route too, but it remains on the road to the other side of a house a bit further up.
We followed just beyond the greenway, and then came to a collection of more abandoned houses that have been there for a while.

Abandoned

These houses had been vacant for a long while.
The first one had a totally collapsed roof, fallen into the rest of the frame of the house. The second one was in better shape, but the entire inside had been well gutted.
Another house next to this one was pretty much gone, with only foundation and framework still in place. Beyond that, there was a I think three more houses back there, mostly prefabricated mobile units but with roofs still in place. At least one of them still had a car in the driveway. Quite an odd little neighborhood there.

Abandoned

We wandered through this section, and took our time so that Elizabeth could catch up with us. It really didn't’ take her long at all to find us.
After checking out pretty much all of the abandoned buildings, we made our way back to the canal towpath to head to the east.
The next building is one that sits just along the edge of the canal, where the main frame of it dates back to the canal days.
This I believe was the building where a ranger had lived there at one time, and he allegedly shot a boy scout as the story goes, when he knocked on the door.

Not often seen...

The place has been vacant ever since, which is sad because it’s probably the best of the abandoned houses in this stretch.
We wandered through that for a bit, and I was unhappy to see that in the living room area, the main brace holding up the roof was starting to bow out. Originally, the front room was two separate rooms that had had the wall removed. With holes and water damage, it was starting to drop. The building will collapse if something isn’t done soon to save it.
We moved on from here along the canal heading east, and soon reached Saxton Falls and Lock #5 West, the guard lock before Saxton Lake.
We continued by where people fish, and the filled in lock, then made our way along Saxton Lake. I tried getting in it, but it was pretty gross. I had a then and now photo compilation I wanted to try to get, but it didn’t really come out well. We continued along the towpath, which followed slack water of the lake above the guard lock.

Abandoned

Next, we headed up hill on a set of steps that used to access one of the houses above. This house was still standing, but had now been vacant maybe five or so years. It was still lived in not all that long ago.
The others went ahead a bit along the top of the slope above Saxton Lake, but Justin, Brittany, and I went inside the house to look around.
It gets worse every time we go in, which is pretty much the case with all of the houses we find. We then left and headed back to the rest of the group who stopped to wait for us a short distance away.

Abandoned

We did a brief bushwhack to reach Colony Road, which is the route of the Highlands Trail now. The trail used to follow the Morris Canal towpath, but it wasn’t kept maintained, so Glenn Oleksak moved it up onto Colony Road because it was easier to manage.
We followed this for a bit, and then took a left turn onto another driveway road to check out another abandoned house.
This was one that Justin and I first explored one night back when I had badly injured my leg badly. We did a rather short hike, but ended up covering over seven miles trying to find our way to this place.

Abandoned

It’s now been sitting vacant for years, but surprisingly hasn’t been completely destroyed.
We wandered through the place for a bit, and then exited out the front. We walked back out to Waterloo Road and had to do the road walk to the east a bit.
The Morris Canal Greenway isn’t complete in the section ahead because it went out onto a causeway on Saxton Lake. That causeway has been purged up the middle, so it’s no longer accessible from that point to Lock #4, just a head. We walked Waterloo Road to that point, and then behind the old lock house that still stands.

Ruins

The former lock house was later used as Elsie’s Restaurant, and had an addition put on it. I’ve been going in there since 2003, and in 2009 I fell through the floor of the restaurant side. In 2011, I was sent there for work to photograph the inside of the place and how it was holding up.
There are not many lock houses left on the old canal. There were 32 locks on the canal and 23 inclined planes, each which would have had a tender’s home. There are only a few remaining of these structures across the state.

Lock 5 West

Of the 32 locks, I am only aware of four lock tender’s houses remaining. Some have foundations left. Some stand in a degree of stone ruins, but couldn’t be rebuilt very well.

Lock 5 West

There are two lock houses remaining in Phillipsburg, and this one at Lock 4. There are no other lock houses on the entire western half of the canal. The only other one I know of is Peer’s Store, now an Italian restaurant over closer to Boonton that likely was lock house.

Lock 5

It’s for this reason that we would like to see this one saved, but it looks worse just about every year. Who knows what will happen.
We continued along Waterloo Road and missed the turn off onto the old road, which is now the greenway trail. It was alright though, staying on the road was fine.
We turned to the right where the canal turns away from the road, and crossed a foot bridge where there used to be an ore dock on the canal. There is an old iron mine somewhere up on Allamuchy Mountain above us, but I was not yet able to find it.

Abandoned

We remained on the towpath until the trail turned off of it, brought us back to Waterloo Road, and then around back to the towpath once more.

Abandoned

We continued on this very clearly until we got to Kinney Road, after passing the concert fields approaching Waterloo.
We turned right on Kinney Road, then left into the gate area to the Tilcon Lake.
We had a really great break at the lake, but surprisingly only Ken and I were interested in going in. It felt absolutely amazing. It really wasn’t even cold.
We enjoyed the swim, and then continued from this point back out the way we had come in. My original plan had been to walk the path around the outside of the lake, but the heavy rains likely flooded some.

Abandoned

We simply followed the road back to Waterloo Valley Road, the part we hadn’t followed just before, and walked that back toward Mt. Olive Station.

Abandoned

The others went ahead, while Justin, Brittany, and I checked out new construction stuff.
We wandered around the site and eventually found a spot where we could go have a look around.
The place was huge, and I can’t even begin to guess what they’ll use all of the space for.
When we got done inside, there was an extension ladder we could use to get up on the roof, which was also pretty cool.
We wandered back down and out the same way we went in, and it didn’t take all that long to get back to the cars.

Tub

I really enjoyed the hike, but there was so much more to see. I still haven’t gotten around to doing a piece of that white loop trail as part of a group hike yet. I’m thinking maybe next time I’ll try to plan for that to be the start rather than the end, and maybe we’ll find it. The trouble is, finding a place we can park on that end without trouble. Maybe over at the Target or something.
I’d love to do more loop hikes that focus around visiting the lake anyway. I suppose I’ll have to figure out some more of that for the near future, before it starts to get cold again.

HAM