Hike #1246; Lake Hopatcong to Mount Olive

Hike #1246; Lake Hopatcong to Mt. Olive

8/17/19 Lake Hopatcong to Mt. Olive with James Quinn, Cory Salvesen, Justin Gurbisz, Pat ?, Annika Krystyna, John DiFiore, and Ken Zaruni

This next hike would be a point to point utilizing both new trails I’d never done as well as some old favorites. It’s really great that new trails keep cropping up, even so locally.

Morris Canal feeder

This time, the main new one I’d wanted to see was the Hopatcong Nature Trail. This one is of particular interest to me because I’d proposed doing a perimeter hike of Lake Hopatcong years ago, but I was looking at using mostly roads and a few other things. It’s now looking like it’ll be possible without this.
The idea I’d had came about when stopping at a bar near Nolan’s Point while doing the Ogden Mine Railroad historic route on the other side, when Tea Biscuit treated the entire group to Irish Car bombs (happy ideas always seem to come up when fun drinks are involved).

Morris Canal feeder

The new Hopatcong Nature Trail exists pretty much only on the west side of the lake for the time being, and connects with the existing Highlands Trail system. It utilizes some of the Morris Canal at the south end, and then a few back roads connecting pocket parks along the way. The route looked quite interesting to me, so I saved the map and planned this out.
I wanted to visit the Tilcon Lake again near Waterloo Village, and so I tried to incorporate that, as well as Jefferson Lake where Uncle Soup and I had a nice swim a year or two back.

Morris Canal route at Hopatcong State Park

I made the meeting point the Mount Olive train station for NJ Transit. We then shuttled from there to the east, to the closed grocery store at Lakeside Blvd and Center Street. I made a visit to the Landing Liquor Factory, and then we were ready to head out.
We walked from the store lot across Center Street and up along Lakeside just a bit, then bushwhacked down into the woods. The Morris Canal, which was abandoned in 1924, had it’s connecting feeder canal from this point up to Lake Hopatcong.
The lake was there before the canal, and the canal was proposed when it was realized that the lake sits at pretty much the center of the state and could be used to feed a canal.

Hopatcong Nature Trail

The canal passed just behind where the grocery store is today, and the feeder broke away from it, and was also used for navigation out to the lake. The lake was dammed in the 1820s to enlarge it for canal use.
At first, the towpath was not at all visible, partly covered over the road. It soon emerged, and the Hopatcong Nature Trail was routed along it for a time.
I set up a pretty good then and now at it’s likely historic point from a postcard, and we continued north as the former canal made it’s way closer to the Musconetcong River. We then reached the bridge at Lakeside Blvd. The trail continues under, and then into the state park, closed when swimming is open.

Hopatcong Nature Trail

We all headed around and I found what I believe to be the historic site of another canal photograph to take.
I couldn’t figure out where the Hopatcong Nature Trail was supposed to go from here. There was a turn blaze at the bridge, and a set of stairs that lead up to Lakeside Blvd, but then nothing. I thought maybe the blaze meant to go into the park, so we went up to a circular fountain area and crossed a closed bridge. I though maybe it was routed there for use out of swimming season, but I didn’t see any blazes there either. We backtracked under the bridge again.

Old pipe on the trail

I couldn’t think of anything else, and so we turned up the steps to Lakeside Blvd. The gate at the top could be climbed around easily enough.
I knew that the trail was supposed to continue into park land further up this road, so we just turned to the left and started heading gradually up hill into Hopatcong.
There were several businesses on the left, and I could see no blazes anywhere for a little while.
Eventually, I saw one affixed to a utility pole heading up hill. We continued on this route until we got to Edsall Road, where a left turn leads up hill to the Civic Center Fields. There was a turn blaze at this point.
Just barely onto the road, the trail cut as a foot path into the woods to the left, and looked a bit grown in. Still, it was marked well enough to follow. We cut over some rocks and some downed trees, then turned to the right to start ascending through the woods parallel with the access road. We picked up a couple of old woods roads and had to watch blazes closely.

Along Hopatcong Nature Trail

We climbed rather steeply for a bit and summited the little hill there. The trail then turned somewhat to the right. We spotted a long pipe passing through the woods in this area which was probably part of some former house or hotel or something. There was a lot that used to be in this area that had been destroyed.
Much of the trail was heavily used by ATVs, and we could always hear them somewhat close by, but at no time did any of them ever come into sight through the entire nature trail section.

Hopatcong Trail

The first of several spur trails soon broke off to the right. This was confusing to us at first.
While the trail made use of turn blazes when it came to where to go, it did not have double or triple blazes for beginnings and ends of trails. It was all marked with plastic markers, which is kind of a foolish and costly way of doing it, because even though it’s new, many area already growing into the trees. It was also a major issue because in this section in particular, we could see where there were obviously blazes before, but they had been town down off of their nails. We had to be vigilant of turns.

Hopatcong Trail

The spur trails had blazes with the same thing as the others, marked with the trail name, but they had “SPUR” printed on them. If you weren’t looking closely, and were not in close proximity, you could easily miss this.
The first spur appeared to go to the Civic Center Field.
We headed down hill through the woods, turned left on a wide ATV trail, and then right to skirt the Middle School property. The High School was close by, but not nearly as close. We came out to a power line clearing where the trail was mowed, and turned to the right for a bit, then through woods to the right.

Veterans Field

This took us out to the entrance to the Middle School. There were no blazes there either, so it got confusing again. I tried to follow the official Hopatcong Trail map, which helped us to get through where we were supposed to be.
We turned to the left out the access road, known as David Road, and then turned right on Frances Avenue.
We continued through a neighborhood out to Flora Avenue, and then turned to the left.
This led us out to where the power line we had just followed crossed again, and then to Veterans Field on the left.
I wasn’t sure where this trail was supposed to go, and I was ready to just head into the weeds looking for it to the left. It’s a good thing we didn’t because we followed the edge of Veterans Field to the left, and it turned out there were blazes affixed to stuff in there, like poles and fences and such. We were still on the correct route.

Lake Hopatcong Trail

We continued along the edge of Veterans Field as it started to turn to the right. We kept seeing the blazes affixed to the fences along the edges of the ball fields, and I wasn’t paying attention to what they said. Someone eventually pointed out to me “this one says ‘spur’ on it”. We had been following a spur of the regular trail, and I couldn’t figure out where the main one was supposed to go. We would have to backtrack.
We followed back along the fence, and I kept my eyes to the right for where the trail would have turned off. At first, it looked like it was madly overgrown and it would be awful to find.

Hopatcong Trail

Fortunately, the entrance to the main trail was not nearly as bad as it looked initially. It was a foot path that had grown in somewhat, but it was pretty good overall.
We climbed up over the power line, and then entered the woods on the other side.
This next bit was the biggest wooded expanse we’d pass through on this hike. We continued up hill a bit more again on a lesser used foot path, but once we were away from Veterans Field into deeper woods, it got a bit easier.
Another spur trail broke off to the right to head out toward Durban Avenue and school.

Glacial erratic

This bit got a little confusing again for a bit. There was a second trail to the right as I recall, and it was one that had the main trail markings posted on it. I recall it followed a woods road. I figured that this might be the new route of the Highlands Trail, although it did not have the Highlands Trail blazes on it. I just figured maybe it wasn’t done yet. To the left, there was another spur that a sign said went to Cowboy Creek. This creek, a tributary of Lubbers Run, is so named because it flows through the Wild West City theme park area over closer to the Byram center area. We followed this spur.

Lackawanna Cutoff

There was a woods road parallel with where we were going, and the blazes seemed to avoid it by going off of it and back to it at times. It seemed like they were supposed to follow the road much of the time, but we stopped seeing them entirely for a while. We just kept following the woods road, which appears to come out behind a municipal salt shed or something on Stanhope-Sparta Road.
We continued on, but eventually came upon the blazes again, and so we followed those instead, off to the right over a knoll.

Highlands Trail in Byram

From there, we continued just a bit, and the Highlands Trail intersected. This still felt like it was in disagreement with where the map said it was going to be, but it was a nicer wooded route on a good foot path. We turned left on the teal diamond blazed Highlands Trail and I announced to everyone we’d be on that for a while.
The trail weaved around in weird directions following an ATV track, and then emerged on Stanhope-Sparta Road. Officially, the trail turns to the left to follow the road for a time from here, and then crosses over the Lackawanna Cutoff to the south.

Highlands Trail in Byram

There used to be a bridge over the Lackawanna Cutoff I recall in this area, until not too many years ago, and it was destroyed. There have actually been a lot of changes on the Highlands Trail section through this entire area.
When I first ran a hike on this stretch of the Highlands trail from Lake Hopatcong Area back in the direction we were going, it used to go from Rt 181 by way of quarry lands to Hudson Farm, the property of Peter Kellogg. It still sort of does that today, and comes out to Bear Pond on Aladdin Drive, but it used to continue down to near Peter Kellogg’s driveway.

New trail connection in Byram lands

It went up Stanhope Sparta Road further up, and then climbed to what we referred to as South Sparta Mountain with a couple of nice views over the valley, including an outstanding one of the Lackawanna cutoff fill above Lake Lackawanna. It then climbed down toward Lake Lackawanna, passed beneath the Cutoff, and followed municipal woodlands to the woods road that is now the trail on the Byram bikeway between Stanhope Sparta Road and Byram Central School. That section was closed, and it became a road walk, and was later rerouted onto the Hopatcong Nature Trail area to Bear Pond. It’s sad that the south Sparta Mountain area was lost however.

Lubber's Run

When we reached Stanhope Sparta Road, rather than follow the road south, I opted to try something a bit more adventurous. I saw an ATV path almost direct across parallel with a bus depot area. I decided we would try to follow that, which was flagged off with some orange ribbon. Maybe it’ll end up being the Highlands Trail in the near future.
No sooner did we get into the woods, there was a really cool glacial erratic perched on a stone to the right.
We headed through more woods and soon emerged on a wide power line clearing.

Lubbers Run

The power line had a good clear ATV path up the middle of it, so we followed it to the left for a bit. It wasn’t long before we were closely parallel with the Lackawanna Cutoff.
This line was created in 1909 to eliminate the out of the way turn the main line had in Washington coming from the old Warren line to the former Morris and Essex. The cutoff would also eliminate the burden of the two old tunnels on that line.

Wild West City

When it looked easy enough to get down, we cut off trail into woods and down to the cutoff. We emerged at the end of a section where they had re-laid track. This has been a controversial issue where they were rebuilding this line. It’s only sensible because it was among the most well constructed railroads in history. A lot of different environmantal and other concerns have kept it stalled for many years, and the completion date keeps getting pushed back farther and farther. The track has sat unused for so long now after they were pushing ahead, it’s crazy it’s taken so long.

Abandoned house

We walked back a little bit to look at the section of tracks in place, and then came back to where the bridge used to cross.
This area was reportedly the site of a very bad train wreck back in August of 1916, which I’d never known about previously. It must have been somewhere very close to this area where we were walking.
We climbed up the embankment to the right, and then emerged on the bike path section of the Highlands Trail where it descends from the bridge site. Even the paved section here had been rerouted in more recent years, I think after bridge removal.

1916 wreck

I made my way up to the trail where a little bridge had been installed for runoff. We then descended from this point along the trail heading down hill. I recall we actually saw a couple of ATVs using this section close by.

Historic image of 1916 wreck

In this stretch, I was surprised to see a new loop trail broke off to the right through the woods. I want to do this for certain, but I didn’t want to set us behind any longer than necessary. What route the hike took from here would depend on amount of light.

Metrotrails Minions

We made our way out along the path to emerged on Mansfield Drive at the Byram Central Schools. There was a rather new kiosk that had been installed at this point.
We continued to the right, as the trail follows Mansfield Drive out to Lackawanna Drive.
When we got to the crossing of Lubbers Run, I was so hot that I couldn’t wait to cool off, so I climbed down under the bridge and took a dip in the stream. This would hold me off a bit.

We turned left on Lackawanna Drive, and soon passed Wild West City, the old west theme park.
I had gone there when I was little, and in more recent years to the Barks Yard Sale benefit event. It’s a well loved place in the area, but there were reports that it was closing down due to lack of money or something. Fortunately, that didn’t last long and it had reopened, but who knows for how long. We continued past this and past an abandoned house on the right, and soon came to the Shop Rite plaza on the corner of Lackawanna Drive and Rt 206. We headed through the plaza and opted to take a break at the McDonalds to the north. Annika was talking up ice cream, but I decided against getting any.

Byram Trail

We had a good break here, but then moved on soon.
The Highlands Trail crosses Rt 206 and follows Higlen Drive into a small development. Although it’s pretty much the same road, it changes names from Higlen to Frances Terrace, to Drexel Drive. At the end, the Highlands Trail and the Byram Bike Trail both turn to the right into the woods of Allamuchy Mountain State Park.
We turned right here onto the trail, and when we got to the Highlands Trail turn off, we had to decide whether we were going to continue on the bike path/multi use easier route, or continue on the Highlands Trail over more rugged terrain. Everyone, myself included, was into the easier route this time.

Jefferson Lake

We continued through the woods and soon emerged at the start of the waters of Jefferson Lake. We crossed a couple of bridges and then hit Jefferson Lake Road.
We turned to the left, and then there was a boat launch to the right. I figured this would be a good place to stop for some swimming.
My plan was that the next swim spot was either going to be here or the little waterfall on the Highlands Trail. The latter option is a bit rockier, and much colder, so I figured the Jefferson Lake option would be much better.
I think everyone agrees that it was a great choice, because it felt amazing. We spent a good amount of time here because it was just so relaxing.

Jefferson Lake

A few fishermen came in as we were there, and they were pretty friendly.
We moved on from this point along the Byram Trail which follows Jefferson Lake Road South, past a few houses. I told everyone to keep quiet and not cause a stir going by them, and at the end we continued into the woods on the trail, which follows an old woods road roue out to the Sussex Branch Trail.
Sussex Branch Trail was the Sussex Branch of the Lackawanna Railroad, before that the Sussex Railroad, and to some extent the Sussex Mine Railroad, a mule drawn route, prior to that. We turned left to follow this to the south a bit.
We continued along the trail to where the original mine railroad and later Sussex Railroad turned right. The main Sussex Branch Trail follows from this point a route to Stanhope which was built in 1901 to ease eastbound connection. Prior to that, they all went out to Waterloo Junction at a tougher connection point.

Jefferson Lake

This rail bed is far narrower than the regular Sussex Branch, and it emerges on Waterloo Road. It used to continue out across the Musconetcong, but it would be tough to get through to and involve wading the river.
Instead, we turned to the right along Waterloo Road. My plan had been to follow the old mine railroad route, which is in part an access road, into the historic site.
I opted against that because they apparently have cameras and stuff in there now, and I didn’t want to cause any problems with that. We just stayed on the road until we got to where the Highlands Trail comes in, at the main village entrance, and then turned to the left to head down to the Morris Canal towpath.
From here, we continued on the trail out under Route 80, and then beyond back out to Waterloo Road for a short distance. We broke back off of it over an old weir site, and then back out to Kinney Road. We turned left there to cross the Musconetcong.

moon rise

A short distance ahead, we turned left to the old quarry entrance and followed it toward the water for a great moonlight swim.
The moon was rising up over the mountain beautifully while we were there.
I was amazed that no one but John and I wanted to go in. The water was really probably warmer than the air at this point, warmed during the day in direct sun.
After we were adequately cooled off, we got out and headed along the former quarry roads around the lake’s north side.
The route got narrower as it followed along a precipice between the lake and the Musconetcong again, a spot I quite like.
It wasn’t too long before we emerged on Waterloo Valley Road to the south of the lake.

Moonlight

It wasn’t very far from here back to Mount Olive Station. Just a simple road walk up and over the former Morris and Essex/Lackawanna tracks, and out through part of International Trade Center.
We went by the new commercial building which has come a long way since we last explored it, but we didn’t bother to go over this time.
It was another really good trip with great spots, new and old, and opened doors to more places we’re just going to have to make more trips out to explore.

HAM