Hike #1258; Lake Hopatcong to Netcong
9/26/19 Lake Hopatcong to Netcong with Justin Gurbisz, Ken Zaruni, and Celeste Fondaco Martin
This next one would be another night hike, a point to point between Lake Hopatcong and Netcong that would incorporate some more of the new Lake Hopatcong Trail, as well as some of the new section of the Highlands Trail, and some stuff I’d already done there.
Uh oh, headless pedestrians...
I also incorporated some other stuff into the route that I’d been wanting to cover. It looked like it was going to be a great route, and the only thing that kind of went wrong was that I had misjudged the timing.
It’s getting dark much sooner now, and I over estimate how much we can actually do before dark.
We met at our end point, the Netcong train station on the former Lackawanna Railroad line, now still used by NJ Transit. We shuttled then in my van to the start point, which was to be near the Jefferson Diner. There is a now closed supermarket with a big lot there I was planning to park in.
We got to that point, and started walking to the west. We crossed over Rt 15 and passed a bank, then walked through a section of ball fields heading to the west parallel with Swan Lane. We then got on Swan Lane to continue.
Inlet to the lake
We made a hard left to continue on Swan Lane, and then crossed over a finger of Lake Hopatcong, one of the inlets.
We continued and turned to the right on Edison Road, which took us up hill, and then back down again into a more developed area and Espanong Road.
We turned right, and then Chabon’s Liquor and Bar was on the right side. The parking lot for the bar is part of the former Ogden Mine Ralroad, built in the 1880s to haul iron ore from the mines up on Hamburg Mountain all the way down to Nolan’s Point on Lake Hopatcong.
Former Ogden Mine Railroad
The original terminus of the railroad was Nolan’s Point, where iron ore would be transferred from rail cars to canal boats and shipped on along the Morris Canal. Later, the line was extended by way of a connection known as Lake Hopatcong Railroad to get to the Wharton and Northern Railroad near Lake Junction.
We had stopped by that bar before, when we did an entire day hike on the old Ogden Mine Railroad. We did not stop this time however, and instead followed along where the railroad used to go, Along Brady Road.
Ogden Mine Railroad route
The railroad was either on or just to the left of this road. We walked it to the south and I watched to the left and into the yards to see if I could see any remnants of it.
The Ogden Mine Railroad was active I believe from 1866 until 1941.
We reached the intersection with Cherry Road where the railroad would have continued closer to the lake shore to the south, and we continued to the right on Brady Road toward the bridge over the narrow portion of the lake just ahead. It had been raining a bit earlier, and the clouds were now starting to dissipate over the lake.
Historic image of Ogden Mine Railroad at Nolan's Point, where it interchanged with the Morris Canal
We passed a couple of marinas, and then stepped up onto the bridge where there magnificent views up and down the lake, with the sun shining strongly as it descended.
The docks at Nolan's Point on Ogden Mine Railroad
It was still kind of hot, and I considered getting into the lake to cool off a bit, but didn’t. We continued walking across the bridge and to a lot to the right with more great views.
Ogden Mine Railroad near Nolan's Point from Larry Lowenthal's Iron Mine Railroads of Northern NJ
Once across the bridge, we started heading up hill from the lot, and toward the area known as Prospect Point.
I had explored this area once before with the idea that I would use it as part of a hike, but never got around to it. Right after the fire in the fall of 2010, Jillane and I wandered through the property from the north side, and then reached the community over near Brady Road. For whatever reason I never ended up bringing a group back.
Now, there is an official connection of the Lake Hopatcong Trail here, which we used as a part of the previous hike, and so I figured it was time to make this a part of a trip. I had also not hiked the new reroute of the Highlands Trail there, because it was moved somewhat recently.
Where Ogden Mine Railroad continued straight, south
The trail used to go through quarry property to the north and come out on Rt 181, but now it comes out much further down the hill and requires more road walking. Still, I’d not done the bit.
We continued up hill on the road and soon entered Prospect Point Park with it’s ball fields and such. It borders right up against the Prospect Point Preserve, and we could see where the trail went into the woods as soon as we got off of the road.
We headed into the woods on it, and it was a very easy, nicely surfaced trail that weaved around in the woods. Only some of it I believe followed the trails I’d done before.
Lake Hopatcong
I was impressed that there were signs high up on the trees pleading ATV riders to please stay away from houses and basically to be respectful.
Lake view
There were other signs that said “No ATVS”, probably put up by the municipality, but I think the locals probably put those other ones in out of a degree of respect for the riders.
The trail continued to weave around close to some of the homes, and then turned to the left sort of deeper into the preserve.
At some point, I missed the turn where the Lake Hopatcong Trail headed up hill to the left and the well graded multi use trail continued ahead. We continued following this spur on a bit of a switchback down hill to where it reached a newly completed footbridge to Liffy’s Island.
Lake Hopatcong
Liffy’s Island is an interesting places in that it is the only undeveloped island on Lake Hopatcong. How it came to be so to to know the history of the lake itself.
Lake Hopatcong was originally two small pond connected by a stream, with native American farmlands in between. It was first dammed in the mid 1700s to provide water to power a forge.
It was further dammed in the 1830s to provide the main source of water for the Morris Canal. The more recent dam replacement raised the level of the lake a bit more, and the absense of the canal keeps it lower than it would have been if it were still being used for that purpose.
Lake view
During the late 1800s, the Brady Coal and Ice Company profited through ice harvesting from the lake, and utilized Liffy’s Island as part of that. There is a stone causeway through the lake connecting to main land that might have been built by them for this purpose. Originally, Liffy’s Island was part of the main land, and only separated when the lake was dammed.
The latest use for the property was as a scout camp, purchased by a troop out of Staten Island in 1922. By that time, most of the entire lake was houses and hotels, so the 77 acre island was an anomaly.
Lake view
The island at the time became known as “Scout Island”, and it was the site of Camp Aquehonga. Scouts were taken out by boat, but some suggest that the causeway was created out of there at that time to provide hiking opportunities off of the island.
Lake view
The scout use there was short lived, as they were gone by 1929. The troop moved to the Ten Mile River Scout Reservation in the Catskills.
There’s only one small foundation left on the property from the scouts. They mostly did tent camping there. The camp cook, William “Pete” Peterson, returned to camp on the island, scouts or not, until the early 1970s.
Clandestine camping has of course taken place on the island over the years, and Justin had been out there by boat previously. He told me that this bridge had literally only opened a few weeks prior.
Lovely lake view
The boardwalk was actually not part of my plan for this hike. I didn’t even know it had been built until we got there and Justin told me about it. It was then we decided to take the trip.
Entrance to the trail at Prospect Point
We headed down hill and across the boardwalk, named the James Leach Boardwalk honoring a member of the Lake Commission.
We didn’t go onto the island this time. I really want to, but we would need to take a lot of extra time for that, and I knew we needed to get through some of the Highlands Trail section before dark. If the new section was anything like the old one, it would be some rough going.
I kept teasing Celeste that it was going to get worse the entire time we were walking. I know she can handle it just fine, but it is quite rugged back there near Bear Pond.
The ATV sign
We got to the other side of the boardwalk and then just walked back. The trail continued along the edge of the lake to the north, but now I realize we should have gone back the other way and found the official trail. It would have been less extra distance.
Still, we walked to the north, and the section led out to someone’s house on the end of Mason Street. We should not have gone out that way, because there were no trespassing signs we saw just as we were leaving, facing the opposite direction for no access to the park. Fortunately, we hurried through without having any run-ins.
Lake Hopatcong Trail
We continued out the street, and the rest of it was not so heavily posted as what we had done. We kept to the left at an intersection, which took us back out to Prospect Point Road. Unfortunately, this required that we head steeply up hill on the road to get back to the park property.
I hurried ahead so that I could be sure to find where the trail came out of the woods on the left.
After coming over the crest of the hill, the trail was on the left, at the same place that Jillane and I had accessed it years before, and with pull off parking on the right.
Lake Hopatcong Trail
The Highlands Trail, I had not realized, was now routed on Prospect Point Road in the section we were walking.
It went into the woods, co-aligned with the Lake Hopatcong Trail, to the right.
When the others caught up, we simply headed into the woods, and the trail started out to be quite pleasant. It followed some old woods roads in roundabout routes, and passed by the stone foundations of an old house. It wasn’t a direct route, but it was a pleasant walking one.
James Leach Boardwalk
There were a lot of little ups and downs, and eventually the trail turned away from the woods road routes and became a simple foot path. It was still stuff I’d never done before.
James Leach Boardwalk
We continued along and eventually came to another woods road, which took us up a steep hill. Once at the top, the area started looking familiar to me.
Water between Liffy's Island
I thought I recognized a giant boulder that I’d climbed up on during a hike back in July of 2005. I didn’t see where the original trail used to come in. It was starting to get darker.
The lake from James Leach Boardwalk
The original Highlands Trail from Bear Pond used to pass through the lands of Peter Kellog, known as Hudson Farm, and then headed out through quarry property. On the Kellogg Lands, Bob Moss had built a side trail loop with black spots on the teal diamonds.
Lake view
We had done that route on the 2005 trip, which passed through some beautiful land with a bit of a view, and then came down to reach the original routing. I think this current routing follows some of the original alternate routing, but I can’t be sure.
I hurried ahead of the rest of the group, and came to a spot that was very steep and rocky. The trees through the area were really young and dense. I remembered walking through with Bob Moss on the section where it was almost no tree cover on the top, resulting from the Gypsy Moth deforestation.
Trail at Prospect Point Park
The view was east-facing, toward the next little bit of ridge. The sun was going down beautifully as I reached this spot, but I was very concerned for getting out of that property in reasonable time.
It was a steep climb down from there, and at the bottom was the woods road that Bob Moss had designated “Eve’s Mountain Road”, which is now a block dot in tea diamond blazed side trail to the parking area at Roland May Eve’s Mountain Inlet Sanctuary. I had used this as starting and ending points for several hikes. Before the others caught up, I made the judgement call that we had to go this way.
Highlands Trail/Hopatcong Trail
I didn’t want to leave the Highlands Trail, but it was a long way over rough terrain, and it would be in complete darkness. The stuff along Bear Pond is easy, but it was the same distance we had come from Prospect Point Road to get to Bear Pond, and that was a long way to be doing in complete darkness.
We all turned down along the woods road, which took us out to a driveway and then to Lakeside Avenue. We turned right here to follow the road for far longer than I’d wanted to.
Old house ruins
The road walk seemed to go on forever. It wasn’t terribly busy on the road, but when a car did come, it could be uncomfortably close to where we were walking.
Highlands Trail
The roads around Lake Hopatcong are not the most pedestrian friendly to say the least, and the white line go nearly to the edge of the pavement. The only reprieve we get is walking through some people’s yards that come close.
We headed up hill, and the road name changed to Indian Trail. Near the top, we could barely view in toward Bear Pond on it’s developed side.
Dan Lurie was going to come and meet up with us, but he couldn’t get to Mountain Inlet, and he didn’t want to chance leaving his car at the fire department we passed near Bear Pond.
Highlands Trail
This was at Maxim Drive, where we turned to the right. The road took us down hill over the end of Bear Pond, which looked pretty in the dark. I again considered climbing down and jumping in, but didn’t do it.
We continued walking then back up hill, and past where old friend Ben Tharp used to live along the pond, and where the Highlands Trail comes away by a road called Alladin Trail, and then continues on the other side through the hills. This section too would not have been good for walking.
Highlands Trail
Had we stayed on the trail, this would have been where we’d have come out, but it would have been just too tough.
Rather than continue on the trail even at this point, we had to continue on Maxim Drive.
The road takes a very narrow switch back heading down to the west, and cars coming around the corner get really uncomfortably close. I felt bad that Celeste was stuck on this section with Benny, because she’d have to hold his leash very close while these cars were going by. Fortunately, by this point we were just about done with the more busy roadways.
Highlands Trail
At the bottom, we crossed Stanhope-Sparta Road, and continued ahead on Lackawanna Drive. A guy pulled up looking for a gas station, and I directed him back toward the lake, because there’s literally nothing up there.
Lackawanna Drive was far less busy than the other stuff we’d been on. We descended to cross Lubbers Run, and I again fantasized about getting into the water, but again did not do it.
We continued up hill a bit more again, crossed a power line, and soon made our way to the culvert underpass of the former Lackawanna Cutoff.
Highlands Trail
This used to be the route of the Highlands Trail. It used to come off of Lake Drive at the other side of the culvert, and then climb a mountain we referred to as “South Sparta Mountain” with a great view toward Lake Lackawanna. The trail was rerouted from there to areas to the east at the request of Peter Kellogg, and so it no longer goes this way. However, I figured we would be able to follow the old route a bit, because it provided easy access to the grade of the Lackawanna Cutoff. Unofficially, the route to take for the trail ignored Lake Drive and just followed the Cutoff for a short distance.
Highlands Trail at Hudson Farm
I considered just climbing up the high fill of the Cutoff from the road, but I figured the old Highlands Trail route would be better and easier.
We turned to the left on Lake Drive after passing through, and then crossed over Lubbers Run.
On the other side, I didn’t recognize the place. I think they might have built another new house on that side. I thought the road dead ended, but it must not have. Still, I could see where the trail used to go, and we started ascending on it to the left side of Lake Drive. It was a good route, but only briefly.
Stick bug on the blaze
It eventually got too tough, so I just decided to bushwhack it the rest of the way to the top.
This was a sweaty, horrible ascent on loose rocks. I fell down a couple of times on the way up, and did my best to secure myself using trees and such.
Ken made it up first, followed by me. Celeste managed, and Benny seemed happy regardless. Justin just seemed to make it to the top like a ghost.
From here, the route was simply the Lackawanna Cutoff for a couple of miles. The first bit of that was very pleasant in a wooded setting, but this soon opened up widely as we reached the place where new track had been laid for reactivation.
The new track has concrete ties, but it is now also growing over with weeds and such. It’s been several years since it was built, and there’s always something that’s halting construction from continuing.
Young forest at formerly defoliated area
For a while, it was a culvert on the Hudson Farm property, but supposedly DEP has purchased some of that land so work could continue. Now, they are saying that the Roseville Tunnel needs modern ventilation, and so they either have to shorten the tunnel, or put a vent hole in the center of it. That promises to be a very costly project and has been holding it up for a long while now.
We continued walking along the tracks. I walked on the tracks themselves for a bit because the ballast rock is so hard on the feet. After a bit, even the new tracks were too overgrown to use. I think mile a minute vine.
Highlands Trail
We followed the tracks until they ended, and continued through a woodsy section near the bus station, in a deep cut. Beyond that, there is a spot where the Highlands Trail, now on the Byram Bike Path, comes close to the rail grade to the right. We cut up into the hillside there and climbed over the wooden fences by following a stone drainage cut. We then turned to the left on the trail, where we usually go right to the Byram Central School property.
I had never done the trail heading in the other direction. We usually are going through on Highlands Trail or something, and I never bothered to follow it the other way.
A bit of a view on the Highlands Trail
The Highlands Trail passes with the bike path over a bridge over the Lackawanna Cutoff, but another branch of the path continues straight into the woods parallel with the cutoff.
This was the route we followed, since I wanted to add some new stuff.
We followed it over a power line, and then through woods to where it came out alongside Stanhope-Sparta Road, and then out toward the high school property I think it was.
We walked through the school property and it’s large parking lot to keep us off of the roads for a bit more, and then exited back onto Stanhope -Sparta Road to the south. This took us to Brooklyn Road.
Highlands Trail
I had considered walking out back of the school to see if there was a connection over to another Stanhope public school, but figured we didn’t want to add anything extra at this point, just in case. Also, the route we were taking was one I wanted to do either way. We can always do more variations of different hikes.
Ken did end up going back to see if there was in fact a connection, and found one with a ropes course along the way, so we will make that part of a future hike in this area for sure.
We followed Brooklyn Road briefly up hill, and then turned left on Spring Street.
At the school
We followed this down hill rather steeply, and then at it’s end turned right on Coursen Street. There was an abandoned restaurant building there which looked creepy in the dark.
We went right on Port Morris Avenue at the end, then left on Hillside Ave, and continued on Walton Place which became Musconetcong Ave.
This was the main road I had wanted to walk, and it was even nicer than I’d imagined it would be. It left the area of residences and passed through a surprisingly secluded and dark section of lake front on Lake Musconetcong.
Lake Musconetcong
It emerged to an area with street lights eventually, but was still secluded enough to be pleasant.
After a bend in the road, we came to Lake Musconetcong Park on the left.
Da group
We left the edge of the road and walked off into the park, which provided some very beautiful views of Lake Musconetcong. We walked along the edge of the park for as long as we could before we had to come back out to Musconetcong Ave, which we then followed the rest of the way out to Rt 183.
We turned left on 183, and then stepped into a bit of park land on the left side, and I showed everyone Morris Canal Lock #1 West, which still exists but is buried up to the top of the lock walls. It’s all visible from there, with the gate pockets recognizable.
Morris Canal Lock #1 West
We walked out to the water, and I pointed out where a causeway used to carry the towpath out over the middle of the lake. This lake was created as a supplemental water source for the western portion of the canal. Originally the canal passed through a swamp.
My then and now
From here, we simply followed Rt 183 across the Musconetcong River at the outlet of the lake, and then turned right on Main Street to reach the Netcong Station.
Happy happy
Except for the road walking extras, it was a pretty good hike, and one I’d like to do a better variation of in the future.
So many areas have changed so much, and they’re actually getting to be more pedestrian friendly. They all merit having a closer look, and we’re no where near running out of places to explore.
HAM
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