Hike #1250; Rockport to Hampton
8/28/19 Rockport to New Hampton with Red Sean Reardon, Annika Krystyna, Jennifer Tull,
This next hike would be another of my night hikes. I’d had to reschedule it from the original plan of having it the Saturday night after Musikfest to this week night because of Red Sean’s unavailability. He had suggested we do a hike ending at his house to have a pool party for a while, and I loved the idea.
Morris Canal near Rockport Church
Unfortunately, things happen, and we had to change the timing for it.
I usually do a hike in northern Hunterdon County incorporating Point Mountain and Penwell for swimming anyway, so this was the perfect opportunity to put that together.
I looked at a variation of a route I’d done for the Holiday North Hunterdon route several years back, starting in Rockport, and then finishing around my grandfather’s place, and reworked it to have less miles in between, but head up to my grandfather’s house, then down to New Hampton and to Sean’s. It looked like it would work out well.
Backroad walking
We met at the liquor store in Hampton, and then Red Sean showed up to usher us to his house. Jenny Tull made it out for the first time in forever, because she had been inundated with work lately.
We spotted cars up there, and then shuttled out to the old canal near Rockport.
The back roads through this area such as Watters Road through the farmlands are incredibly beautiful, and I never tire of using them for hikes. The weather wasn’t too hot for it, so we had a nice walk on those for a while.
Backroad views
We made our way along, and out to the abandoned former Penwell Road section from Rt 57. The section on 57 was really the only very crappy section of the hike for us this time.
When we got to Penwell, we had a nice break for a swim. I was surprised that people weren’t into swimming it as much as I was. It felt amazing.
I’d been going to Penwell my entire life swinging off the rope swing, from the first time my grandfather took me there when I was little. In more recent years, it made its way onto different swimming hole websites, and city people came in and literally destroyed it.
Back roads
They left so much garbage that Mansfield Township had to close the area off to anyone but fishing license holders. Now, Point Mountain is starting to get overrun in the same way.
After our break, we headed back out to the main Penwell Road, and turned left across the Musconetcong River. I walked on the adjacent gas line bridge you can’t really see from a car.
We turned right into the Rosen Fields, along the access road to the Point Mountain parking lot, and started following the trail through the field edges. I was happy to see that at least one of the trail marker posts I put in back in 2008 was still standing here.
Red Sean fun
We followed the blue trail down from the fields and out along the river heading down stream. There’s another great swimming hole in this area, but I walked by it without realizing it.
Penwell
Soon, we came out to Point Mountain Bridge. I think this was the first group hike I’d organized since the replacement of the old pony truss bridge here.
Musconetcong
The new bridge isn’t terrible, but it was one of the last remaining pony trusses across the river. Now, only two remain. One of them is at the Hackettstown Union Cemetery, and the other is off of Love Lane in Stanhope.
Point Mountain graffiti
I went across the bridge and jumped into the Musconetcong on the other side to cool off. Celeste joined us for a time, to follow us along the river and then to go up Point Mountain. They all started to get a head start while I was swimming.
Point Mountain graffiti
I soon got out and hurried up the trail. I was actually surprised that without even trying too hard, I passed everyone in the group on the way to the top.
Celeste had trouble with a dog she brought that she was babysitting. Her regular dog, Benny, was having some trouble recently too, but he’s been doing better. She turned back and cut out before making it to the top.
I was surprised but disgusted to see the amount of graffiti was on the top of the mountain this time.
Point Mountain Graffiti..."He's Not the Sun, you are", and "I Have AIDS"...okaaaaaay
There was some weird uplifting phrases about being the sun or something on one side, and on the other was something about penis or something. There was also a rather good rendition of Spongebob, but it’s just not the right place for it.
Rainbow
I was told that within a few days of being there and posting the photos, all of the graffiti was painted over.
We continued from the view point down the yellow blazed trail, which is still marked with the same yellow paint I’d put on it over ten years ago, even though all of the plastic tags Hunterdon had hung are all now gone. I keep telling people, stop using tags with names on them. People take them as souvenirs, and many have trail markers from every trail they’d ever been on.
Sunset
We continued down across Point Mountain Road, but Elizabeth cut out and headed back down the mountain the way we’d already come to get picked up.
Happy fun!
We headed gradually up hill toward Point Mountain North, and reached the intersection with the white blazed trail. There, we turned right to follow it out toward the Wattles Fields
The trail was the worst I’d ever seen it. Clearly, no one has been maintaining it in a very long time. The trail markers are gone through a lot of sections, which just goes to show how they should have been going with my recommendation and using brush paint, and other sections are so badly grown in with multi flora rose that no one will ever want to hike it. The section following the old farm lane particularly is very bad.
Even when we finally got through the mess out to the fields, no one has been mowing them out to the edge in a long time either. Last year, they went around the wet areas and created a better new high and drive trail, but this time it was just not mowed at all until getting more than half way across the fields toward the parking area.
We had had a little bit of rain in this section, and as we got further into the fields, there was a lovely rainbow behind us to the east. The sun was setting, just as we got out to the open area, so it was really perfect timing to arrive there.
Rainbow
We continued out to this area, and then turned left on Mountain Top Road, with a good view over Jay Garish’s Born to Run Farm.
ON the mountain
It was starting to get a little darker at this point, but we still had an easy walk up the road to my grandfather’s house where we stopped for a little break.
Sunset
We hung out and chatted for a while, then made our way onward.
One of the reasons for posting this particular hike was because Hollow Road had been closed for a long while. There are stone bridges and walls all along the lower end where it closely parallels Deery Run, and it was closed for bridge work. I figured there would be no better time to walk down that road besides when it was closed, and would make it a much better walking route.
Mansfield
Unfortunately, I found out that the road was just reopened to traffic again the day before. Fortunately, most people hadn’t realized this and some of the detour signs still remained up at this point.
We had a very nice walk down Hollow Road, all the way down through the most narrow parts of it, with stone work that were WPA projects in the ‘30s, and to Musconetcong River . We turned left to follow that out through Changewater.
We passed beneath the former Changewater Trestle site and followed the pleasant River Road along the Musconetcong all the way to Dutch Hill Road where we turned left to climb steeply to the entrance to Red Sean’s development.
Musconetcong
His driveway wasn’t far in, and I couldn’t wait to get to his place and get in the pool.
When we got there, everyone except John and I left. I was totally surprised that no one wanted to hang out in the pool and eat junk food.
Musconetcong wetlands
John and I stayed for a while and had snacks and such. It’s really a beautiful place there.
It’s really amazing that so few are really into parties and such now. Even if it were a weekend night, I’m finding that less and less people are inclined to stay for such things. I think I can be sort of the opposite at times, not wanting an experience to end when it’s part of a bigger picture.
At regular parties, I’m awkward and out of place. I don’t feel like I belong there and struggle to find what my part is in the place. But when it’s a hike ending at an event, that doesn’t happen as much. I think it might be because whatever awkwardness of the social situation I am finding is not so much there when there’s an established bond between people prior to it.
Super happy fun pool place
Whatever the case it is with me, I’m thankful to have the process I have, and that it works for me. I’m thankful that anyone is still willing to join me in the craziness at all. Such long distance is still so far outside of the norm, it really is a special niche.
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