Hike #1236; Clinton to Flemington

Hike #1236; Clinton to Flemington

7/13/19 Clinton to Flemington with Tom Vorrius, Sue Bennett, and John DiFiore

This next hike would be a point to point, similar to others I had done in the past, between Clinton and Flemington. My original plan for the hike didn’t end up working, but we still had a great time of it all.

Landsdown Trail, Clinton Branch

My plan for this hike evolved hugely before we even started. I had all of these plans to do a bunch of places I’d never done before, or was barely familiar with on the hikes. I was going to start in Lebanon and then head up along an informal trail to water authority, and then come down to Round Valley Reservoir to make our way south. Then, there was a new farm preserve with a series of trails I had yet to check out. I had it all planned, with road walks in between, but then things went awry on the drive there.

As we drove past Round Valley, there were both state park police and fish and wildlife police parked and not letting anyone in, walking or otherwise. It was right where we would need to go in. This changed the entire plan when it came to where I was going to go. I had to think fast how I could try to salvage some of the route. I drove down along the north dam, and then down along the Mountain Road thinking maybe we would go in by way of Cushetunk Mountain. I couldn’t find anywhere I could get away with parking between there and Whitehouse Station.

LV bridge jumper

We kept going, and then I figured maybe I could park at the Stanton Store, which had been closed somewhat recently, only to find that it had been reopened again. That wouldn’t work. The church had a parsonage, so that wouldn’t work. Nothing was really coming together. I almost parked at another church south of Annandale, but that would have involved a lot more road walking. I finally decided against all of the other plans, swallowed my pride and decided we would repeat some of the stuff I’d done along the South Branch of the Raritan in the past. A sure and proven way to get through without a problem.
I figured on a few twists and turns that would help to make the route a bit more interesting, and maybe add in some new stuff as well.
We parked on street in Clinton, right at the head of the Landsdown Trail, which follows the former Clinton Branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. We simply followed that past Fox Lumber, which uses the old Clinton Station as one of it’s buildings, and continued walking south under Rt 78.

Old and new pier portions together

We continued along the trail, passing by a few wine berries to eat, and along the South Branch of the Raritan. We didn’t try to swim yet on this bit.
It was a night hike, because it was one of those crappy Saturdays I had to work. Whatever route I chose would have to be something we could get through easily in the dark. Whenever I have something like that it takes a bit more planning. As we walked, I continued to formulate exactly what I wanted to do as we headed toward Flemington.

View toward water authority from the LV bridge

We reached the end of the Landsdown Trail, and then turned to the left on Landsdown Road. We took this out toward the Melicks Bridge section of the South Branch Reservation, and then turned right on old Hamden Road. This road becomes abandoned, and the bridge site on it is now pedestrian only. We followed that out to the water authority place, and then just before the bridge turned to the right on a foot path.

Double pony truss on Hamden Rd

We walked along the river to the former Lehigh Valley Railroad’s main line bridge over the South Branch. Some people were swimming there when we got there, and there was a kid climbing to the top of the trusses to jump off. It looked pretty crazy. I’ve jumped off the bridge before, but I would not jump off of those high trusses. We watched him do the jump, and I got a video of it. It looked pretty crazy. We of course also took the opportunity to swim, which was already much needed even by this point.

Old date plaque on the bridge

From here, I usually walk along the river to the south,a nd sometimes hit the Pine Hill section of the South Branch Reservation, but in the name of saving time (not distance, it’s about the same), we instead crossed the river on he high railroad bridge, and then made the right at the next grade crossing. This is apparently another part of Hamden Road, which is confusingly segmented.
We followed this down past Camp Carr, and then turned hard right to cross the double pony truss bridge built in 1885 over the river.
The road name changes here from Hamden Road to River Road and continues down stream along the South Branch, although the river moves away rather soon.
The section parallels the Valisnky’s Section of the South Branch Reservation, which has an old stone smoke house standing off to the left of the road I pointed out.
We continued along the road, which I think is one of the most beautiful roads in all of Hunterdon County, through farm land with frequent shade.

Pony truss from 1885 Hamden Rd

I think only two cars drove by us the entire time we walked this stretch of narrow road, which was just about perfect. I think the route is just as good as just about any trail.
We continued south for a bit, passed some beautiful farm properties, and then came to the Kiceniuk Road bridge, a rare example of a triple pony truss. Usually we wouldn’t see such pony trusses (open topped with the letter “w” variations on side) so long. This particular one is also surprising in that it was built in 1927.
There was a giant wasp nest stuck in the east side of the bridge which was unnerving.

Farm scene on River Road

Considering the previous bridge was 1885, and looks so similar, that was surprising to me.
We took a right turn after crossing this bridge into the Sunnyside Picnic Area.

Along River Road

Sunnyside is another section of the South Branch Reservation with some wider well used trails. We continued past the county’s 911 memorial, Awossagami Grove, and then found a good spot to jump into the river.
Only Tom and I went in, and we apparently disturbed a fisherman that was just up stream. When I saw him getting out, Tom and I hurried out and went to sit at the nearby picnic bench with Sue and John. The guy walked out the trail, gave us a wave as he walked by, and left the park.

River Road

As soon as the guy was out of sight, Tom and I hurried back into the water. It was just too unbearably hot out not to get back in.
After a bit, we continued on along the trail, which soon took us out to yet another double pony truss bridge on Old Clinton Road. This one was constructed in 1901.
The trail continues across the road from here over a little foot bridge. The original footbridge was a beefy pallet that Adam Johnson (Bandit) and I took upon ourselves to construct during some of our end of day free time at work with Hunterdon County Parks.

River Road walking

At Hunterdon, they used to be a bit ridiculous about foot bridges for little improvements, and so I would take on a few little projects like this to improve the trail situation.

Farm view on River Road

We slapped the thing in place after cutting some scrap wood to fill the gaps from the original pallet, and then stuck it in place.
Like a month after Bandit and I put the bridge in place, it washed down stream a ways into a weird spot in the woods. Unwilling to give up, Bandit and I went out with the six wheeled Polaris Ranger and hooked a chain up to it. We dragged the bridge back through the woods, re-installed it, and this time chained it up to a tree so that it wouldn’t float away. That bridge remained in place for I believe 8 years until someone finally built something to replace it.

1927 Kiceniuk Road bridge

We followed the trail from here along the South Branch heading down stream, which is quite beautiful and secluded. It continues until a stream flows in from under the LV tracks.

Bridge happy

At that point, the trail turns to the left and ends officially at the tracks, but if you know where you’re going, you can use the tracks for a short distance to access Echo Hill Environmental Education Center, or continue to the Stanton Station section of the South Branch Reservation.
This time, I had figured on a route that would take us up into Echo Hill.
We turned right on the tracks for a bit, and I watched for where we would need to turn to the left to get to Echo Hill, just across the parallel Lilac Drive.
When we got to that point, we headed up the road for just a bit, to where the orange blazed loop trail at Echo Hill turns to the right.
We headed up the trail through some woods, ate some berries on the way, and emerged at an opening for the old Echo Hill Camp. The trail turned to the left, and soon we reached the old Stanton Station.

It always surprises everyone to see an old railroad station perched atop Echo Hill, not where the former Lehigh Valley Railroad who built it was routed.
The history of Echo Hill dates back to the first farm cleared here in 1836. The stone house which now serves as offices was constructed then, as well as a barn, chicken coops, and a peach orchard from the times when Hunterdon was peach capital of the world, at least until the blight killed them all off in 1890.

The property was purchased in 1936 by Robert and Hermia Lechner who opened it up as a camp for boys. The next year it was extended upon to permit girls. The barn from the site was dismantled and the wood repurposed to create the frame for the dining hall, which is now the lodge building at Echo Hill. The name comes directly from the Lechner’s name for the property: Camp Echo Hill. The orchards were cut down and replaced by the evergreen grove near where we entered the park, planted by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1939.

Trail at Sunnyside

The Lechners purchased the old Stanton Railroad station for $75 in 1943 from the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and it became the girl’s dining hall. They also constructed the pond that still exists below for kids to learn to swim. The Lechners gave up the camp in 1959 and sold it to a church. Hunterdon County purchased the property in 1974 and turned it into the park.
We continued from the station area down hill toward the main road and the lodge. Usually, the back door of the lodge building is open, and there are good restrooms inside, so we made use of that.

Old Clinton Road bridge built 1901

From there, we headed up hill on the other end of the orange trail for a bit. I pointed out a building I replaced the roof on with some of my coworkers, and one we converted.

Old Clinton Road bridge

The one building was originally one of the cabins, but rather than destroy it, we made it into a nature blind by reroofing, then cutting away windows so that people could look off into the little valley of the Prescott Bridge below.
We headed down to beside the Prescott Brook from here, and then followed the raceway out into the open area near the pond. We walked the perimeter of a mowed area, then headed to the trail that connects Echo Hill with the Hunterdon County Arboretum.

Sunnyside

The trail had been well improved since the last time I was there.
There were now foot crossing rocks on the creek better than what was there before; even with high water it was easy.
We made our way along the trail, which had more puncheons and such, and then reached the underpass below Rt 31 to lead us to the arboretum.
We took to the trail along the west side of the arboretum, and then around the back. We went in through the back gate to the gardens, and I took everyone to the two story pavilion. This was salvaged from another location, and built in 1893.

View in Sunnyside

We continued from here back out of the gardens on the north side, and then down the access road to reach the little pond area with it’s fountain. We went around then, then continued to the Vincent Aubrytis Wetland Study Area.

At Sunnyside

One of my favorite spots in the arboretum, it’s a long boardwalk that passes along the wetlands. Some of it had recently been refurbished, and had obviously been painted.
We continued off of this and further into the back of the arboretum. We remained along the north side to where there used to be a side trail that went north to a picnic site. That one has been abandoned, but I kind of know where it was. The reason for taking this was to get out of the back of the arboretum to Stanton Road, and then we’d follow that to the right to the base of Round Mountain.

Stanton Station

We managed to get out to Stanton Road, and then turned to the right. We continued as far as Foothill Road and turned right again, then left into the driveway for Round Mountain.

Stanton Station

It was getting pretty dark, but there was still a little light left. I had wanted to try to follow the original trail over Round Mountain, the Peter Buelle Trail, named for one of the former rangers at Hunterdon who laid it out.
Since I worked there, several more trails were added to the system. Readington Township added theirs, and Hunterdon added more of their own.
This time, we continued as best we could along the Peter Buelle orange blazed route.

Echo Hill

The trail goes up a bit, cuts to the left along a stony slope, and then goes steeply to the right. This was hard to follow the last time I was up there, but this time we managed to find it.

Once we reached a section of it that was on a woods road, we were able to move on through. it’s easy to make wrong turns on the other trails up there at this point, because there are so many. For a bit, I had us going on one of the wrong trails and we had to turn back. We ended up taking the right fork of the Peter Buelle Trail at some point. The trail has two forks that come back together below a field and a power line, and then another that’s a mowed loop around another field.
We continued across the power line, and then down to the field section, which we followed then to West Woodschurch Road. From there, we were able to walk directly to the restroom building in Deer Path Park.

Hunterdon Arboretum

In the Summer, the restrooms are often closed because of the concert series and the strain it puts on the building. Unfortunately, they were closed this time too.
We took a break there for a bit, and then continued to the south side of the park. I had considered taking the connecting trail through the Readington lands to get to the Wings Section of the South Branch Reservation, but I wasn’t sure how well cut back the trail would be. Instead, we turned to the right.

Hunterdon Arboretum

There are two trails that go around the outside of Deer Path Park. There is a horse trail and a walking trail. The one on the outside is typically better, with some unmowed grass between.

Pavilion in Hunterdon Arboretum built 1896

We headed to the west on this, and passed the exercise stations. One is a really fun spinny thing, but I couldn’t quite get it to spin right. Tom and I messed with it for a bit, but then gave up. We continued on the trail across a foot bridge and through fields.

1896 pavilion

When we got to the end of the park, we cut out to Deerpath Road and turned to the left. This took us through a neighborhood, around a ninety degree bend and to the entrance to the Wings Section of the South Branch Reservation.

1896 pavilion

We continued straight on what was once the predecessor to Rt 31, the original old road that once crossed over the South Branch. There are still abutments and a pier left of that bridge.

Wetland study area

When we reached the river, the trail took us to the right. It was pretty wide and easy, but quite muddy. We followed this out to the Rt 31 bridge and passed beneath it.

In the pavilion

Once we were under the bridge, I had to take the opportunity to take a dip. I was sweating like crazy. I think Tom went in too.
Once I was in the water, the current messed up my shoes once and for all. The soles were already starting to come off of the bottoms, and I figured this might be the last hike I could bring them on.
Once I was out, they were almost completely off, and the amount of wetness in them kept me from putting duct tape on them.
At this point, I could barely walk right with them. I thought to take them off. I decided that we’d have to amend the route, go back the way we came, then back out to Deerpath Road to get to Rt 31 north. It wasn’t all that far to our end point that way, and there were some other lots we could walk through, so that’s what we did. We walked a path out parallel with 31, and then cut through some weeds to get up to the highway faster.
Despite things not going quite as planned, this was a pretty good hike. There are still a lot of places I need to see even around the Clinton and Flemington area, but there are also plenty of night hikes to come.