Hike #1259; White Lake/Frelinghuysen/Blairstown
9/28/19 White Lake, Frelinghuysen Forest, and Blairstown with Dan Lurie, Kristina Sekulovski, James Quinn, Ellie Zabeth, and Jennifer Berndt
This next hike would be a point to point, but also a bit of a loop, associated with Warren County’s Land Preservation Day event.
Girl scout camp chimney
White Lake will always have an incredibly special place in my heart. It’s been a wonderful place to visit for many years, but also the place I called home through the very difficult time following the fire that destroyed my home in Port Colden.
For over two years I served as caretaker at the site, which was a huge chore as well as a great blessing.
White Lake Natural Resource Area is a Warren County preserve, and through it runs the Ridge and Valley Trail, a long distance trail that when complete, will connect the Appalachian Trail with the Paulins Kill Valley Trail, and hopefully one day the Warren Highlands Trail which I personally planned much of the route for.
Because the event was going on, I was planning on having a table and setting up near a friend that had a generator so that I could work one of my then and now presentations. I brought my lap top and memory card with the stuff on it.
Marl Works ruins
I planned on a hike that would end in Blairstown, but would start with a four mile loop around White Lake. That would give less experienced hikers a chance to join up with us.
Historic image of the Marl Works (the section to the left is pictured now below)
We would hike the loop, then hang out at the event, and then continue after some of it on a partially new route, partially old route, to end in Blairstown.
Marl Works ruins
I figured it would be a winning route. Some more of the Ridge and Valley Trail had been developed since the last time I’d been out through the area, so I was excited to see it.
Marl Works
The first time I had hiked through White Lake would have been in early 2007, although we had gone by a short section of it in October 2006. I didn’t bother getting out to the Marl Works on that first one in ‘06.
I immediately loved the place, and arranged a few hikes to go up through that area.
By the time of the 2010 fire, I was already a Commissioner on the Warren County Board of Recreation, and getting involved with the county’s trail system. I got a phone call from then Director Bob Resker asking if I would be interested in being caretaker at White Lake.
Marl Works ruins
I said I absolutely would, and went up with him to tour the place.
When I’d walked through originally, Mrs. Wiseman, who owned the place, was still living. She passed and the place was empty, and always broken into. Hunters were using the house as a hunting blind. It was a mess.
The county had hired The Nature Conservancy to act as steward of the land, but the guy they got was not showing up to work. I was laid off for a month and he never once showed up, but during that time I completely rehabilitated the Ridge and Valley Trail, which had grown in heavily with Japanese Barberry, and completed the blue trail which had barely been started. I got it connected from the Ridge and Valley Trail to the parking lot at the lake.
When I finally got together with the land steward, we worked together on a couple of projects, but there were always issues with it. At the time, I also served on Warren County’s Municipal and Charitable Conservancy Trust, and helped to justify other land and historic preservation projects. It was really a great time to be involved in all of it.
Marl Works
There were issues with my being there, including the fact that it was considered a conflict of interest for a commissioner to be living in a county house.
I know through a lot of people that it was much more than that. They tried to make it out to be that I’d abused it or something. I’d had my annual hikers’ hootenanny there twice, and they of course want to make it out like I’m just some heavy party boy, and forget the fact that for the hikers’ hootenanny, I organize a very serious hike to that location, imparting history and ecology information along the way.
Marl Works
And, the last time we had a party, we cleaned up the giant dump piles in the morning that had been on the property since the Wiseman family had been living there.
White Lake
I know the land steward wanted me out because I knew he wasn’t doing anything. All of the work on the trails was being done by me. Literally all of it. Trees fell over the trail, Mr Resker would direct me specifically not to do this work, and after a couple of months he’d say “Fine, take care of it”, and I would.
When the John Deere Gator arrived, which he claimed he needed for property work, he never showed up to unload the thing. I ended up driving the thing off of the truck for them.
I knew that when I had to leave, those at the county responsible for it were probably really worried it wouldn’t go well. I know it’s nothing they wanted to have to deal with.
Dyslexic toilet?
I really felt I had to keep quiet about the whole thing for a while, and I didn’t want it to sound like sour grapes.
Even though I was out, I kept going back to the preserve and doing work. I actually cut down all of the Ailanthus trees with the steward behind me treating them with defoliate. The labor was all me. I showed up and was cleaning litter one day in the main lot, meanwhile TNC employees were all pulling in looking for a party at the house I used to live in, meanwhile I was doing the work. My level of disgust was insurmountable.
The last time I went up was in the middle of the day, and there was of course a ton of stuff to do, trees down, etc. I went up to the house and found the steward sitting on the porch drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette. I decided not to visit the property again, not until he was out of there and we had some sort of management in place that would take care of things.
Blue trail at White Lake
The Nature Conservancy backed off from land management, and we got exactly who I thought should be in place to maintain the property: Ridge and Valley Conservancy.
RVC, run by Bob Canase, is a fantastic organization responsible for all sorts of land preservation. I’ve come to trust Bob’s judgement on most things (except trail blazing, which we joke about), and we’ve always had good communication. His ideas are really forward thinking and serve best interests of both public and environment. The commission still has say in what is done with the property, but we do defer to Bob’s expertise in these matters.
White Lake red trail view
I’ve literally watched White Lake go from rather mediocre management to downright amazing. The place always looks great, and there’s always a presence. Every time I show up, I find a land steward. There’s no hiding, no trying to get away with slacking off. It’s been really great to see.
I started the day in Blairstown at Dale’s Market, which was a favorite little place to stop by when I lived there, and got myself a sandwich and some chocolate milk. We then spotted cars on the main street, and headed in my van to White Lake where we would begin the hike.
Blue trail at White Lake
There were already three ladies waiting for me to start the hike when I arrived.
I went over a little of the history there, and we started out by walking a section of trail I had built from the parking lot through the woods, and out toward the driveway to the former Wiseman house, where I had lived.
We were barely moving fast at all, and two of the three ladies asked if they could be in the middle of the group. I waited up for them, but some of the others walked normal pace and ended up way ahead and out of sight from any of us. I walked ahead slightly, and started going over some stuff about the Ridge and Valley geology, and they immediately fell behind again.
White Lake rail spur bed
James was the last in the line, and he said that they told him they left their trunk open and had to go back. We figured that was an excuse, because they just could not handle the terrain. It was only slightly hilly at this point.
The third lady was walking with us through this section to the driveway, and we turned to the right there. Everyone wanted to see where I used to live, but I really didn’t want to get too close since it was now the steward’s residence. We walked up the driveway, and I had wanted to do the new orange trail there since I’d never used it as a part of the hikes before, but with the group already getting separated, I decided to try to keep it a bit simpler.
1918 valuation map of the White Lake spur provided by Fred Heilich
We got to right by the house; the green trail follows the route of the driveway to about this point, and then turns away on a woods road to the left, then a hillside above one of the fens, a wetland on the edge of the lake.
White Lake rail spur
The lady who joined us asked how far the morning hike was, and how far we had come. I told her maybe about a mile we had done, and that it was a total of about four miles.
“FOUR MILES?” she questioned with some shock.
Clearly, no one had told her much about the hike, or how far it was going to be.
“Oh, I can’t do that much...” she said. We were barely moving along at all, but it was still too much for the three ladies that were new to this. This woman decided she was going to turn around and go back the driveway, then follow Stillwater Road back. She was too afraid to go back on the trail.
It’s really amazing how some people are just not in the least bit fit to do any mileage.
The White Lake rail spur
We continued on the green trail around the edge of the hillside, and then reached the Ridge and Valley Trail.
This main trail used to be marked with slate markers, with the Ridge and Valley logo on it, but Bob switched to yellow plastic tags because they hold up longer. We turned right on that, and passed the old lime kiln on the left.
The trail dips down into the valley at the end of the fens, and then climbs up another little ridge on the other side. After reaching the height of the land, it passes through the property that used to be the girl scout camp. There, there is a large chimney that was part of the mess hall building. The tree roots grow oddly because they started growing on top of the building ruins before it all rotted away.
My then and now of Marksboro
We continued from here further down the trail, and then reached the iconic Marl works.
These ruins were where limestone dredged off of the bed of White Lake were processed in the style of a large industrial lime kiln, and then hauled away by train to Newark where it was used to neutralize it’s sewer systems.
Historic image of Marksboro Station
Marl is a limestone based sediment made of ancient ground up shellfish. If you were to take a handful of it, you could still see some shells in the fine white bits.
The New York, Susquehanna, and Western Railroad’s Marksboro station was just down the road from here, and the spur railroad led from the Marl Works to that point.
A later then and now of Marksboro
During Winter months, the Marl Works area was also used as an industrial ice house complex. After the railroad came through Marksboro about 1881, the businesses throughout the area grew, because there was more connection to outside areas.
Historic image of the Paulins Kill and the White Lake spur at Marksboro
We walked to the right and checked out the building ruins. We passed around the split rail fence, and then back around the other side of the building to the Ridge and Valley Trail again.
Former junction with the White Lake spur at Marksboro
We turned right from Ridge and Valley Trail on the blue trail, which leads up and along the west side of the lake. This was a connection we talked of making while I was living there, but was never cut through until well after I’d moved out.
We made our way to an outlook on the lake in this area, and I chatted a bit with one of the park guys who was kayaking around the area. It was at this point that Jen realized she had lost her phone. The others went back around the lake to the event and I helped her to look for it in the Marl Works.
We couldn’t find the thing anywhere, and James came out to find us on the trail with hopes that an app he had on his phone would help us find it.
Bridge over the Paulins Kill on the old NYS&W line
Fortunately, someone had picked it up at the portajohn at the event. We walked back aroun the lake to there and retrieved it.
I ended up not setting up the table and doing any presentations, and just hung out for a bit and talked to different folks I knew from different sites. I chatted for a while with Michael Margulies about preservation issues, and with other associates.
New Ridge and Valley Trail connection from PKV Trail
After a couple of hours, we headed back out on the trail to continue with the hike. Elizabeth showed up to do the latter portion of it, and after covering the blue and red trails to the west of the main lot, Jen decided to cut out early.
The rest of us continued down past the Marl Works, and then out the former rail spur on the Ridge and Valley Trail route. This took us past the newer connection to the white trail, also which I had never incorporated into a hike yet, and then down to Spring Valley Road.
I told everyone how just after 1930, Spring Valley Road and the railroad sort of traded places.
Ridge and Valley Trail above PKV Trail to Gnome Hollow
The road was rerouted and widened onto the railroad bed, which was cut away partially, and the old road route with it’s stone bridge was abandoned. Now, the trail follows the old road route out to the intersection with Primrose Road. The trail then crosses the intersection at an angle, and goes down hill across a foot bridge, and picks up some of the earlier route of Spring Valley Road before reaching the Paulins Kill Valley trail at the former site of Marksboro Station. From there, we turned left, following the trail northeast. The Ridge and Valley Trail will do this to reach the next section also.
Ridge and Valley Trail on DEP land heading to Gnome Hollow
We made our way along the trail, past some farms, and I pointed out where the White Lake spur used to come in to the main line from the left.
Ridge and Valley Trail; Gnome Hollow
We continued from there, and soon the railroad crossed over the prettiest bridge on the entire line, a through style truss bridge over the Paulins Kill.
We continued from here through a long wooded section of shelf, and through a bit of a cut. There was some private land to the right with a house, but after that I was looking for where the trail would break off to the right.
When I used to live at White Lake, the Gnome Hollow Preserve was in place, partially an old Christmas tree farm that had the endearing name Bob Canase chose to keep.
Ridge and Valley Trail at Gnome Hollow
There was, however, no connection at that time. I knew it existed now, but I had never followed it. It was obvious when we found it. Some old railroad ties were placed over the trench next to the tracks as a little bridge, and it climbed to the hillside above. It then switched back to the right, and then cleared the next hill and descended beside a swamp area.
The trail then came out onto Stillwater Road (a different Stillwater Road than the one White Lake is on...there are actually three Stillwater Roads, and another Stillwater Station Road, which is very confusing).
Ridge and Valley Trail in Gnome Hollow
The trail turned right on the road for a short distance, and then after the last house on the left, turned right into the woods into Gnome Hollow Preserve.
We followed the trail to the first intersection, and then basically continued to the left at all intersections. I wanted to try to follow the extreme western perimeter of the place. In the past, I’d done a loop through on many of these trails, and pretty much covered them all. I wanted to make sure I was hitting anything we could that might be new.
Mushrooms in Gnome Hollow
The trails weaved up and down, and the under-story was sparse, so the walking was otherwise pretty easy.
We continued through the preserve, and all of the trails were blazed with the newer yellow Ridge and Valley blazes, save for a few classic slate ones from years before.
I was rather surprised when we finally came to an orange blazed trail to the left. My plan was to try to follow yellow on through, because I figured that would be the official route of the Ridge and Valley Trail, but none of those blazes continued further south than Gnome Hollow.
We took the orange to the south, and it led us out to the former Lincoln Laurel camp property.
This Frelinghuysen Township acquisition was another one that happened shortly after my involvement with the Municipal and Charitable Conservancy Trust. I felt I had to resign from that board because I was forced to work weekends, and attending the site visits in the Summer was impossible for me.
Never hike without your official Warren County lip balm
I also felt it was probably another conflict of interest for me to be sitting on that board, because several of the applications were for properties leased from the state.
Gnome Hollow connection to Lincoln Laurel
As long as I was working at the state office for which some of those sites were managed, it could be considered to be a conflict of interest.
Lincoln Laurel camp lands
I was already abstaining on some votes because of this, and I didn’t want to complicate things any more. The camp completed a greenway with something I was involved with previously on the MCCT, the Frelinghuysen Forest Preserve. This preserve was a dead end road built for development, but would work as part of a regional greenway trail. Nothing much had been done the last few times I’d hiked through on it, but the trail system was now complete. A system of trails connected through Gnome Hollow to the Lincoln Laurel Camp, and then through Frelinghuysen Forest.
Old camp road
I don’t know which trails were which from memory at this point. I know we came out to a paved former camp road, and there were some mowed paths going off to the left as well. Many of the buildings back there I think were demolished.
Sometimes called the “Kids Camp”, it only somewhat recently closed.
We turned to the right and followed a section of paved former roads, some which had yellow blazes on them now, out to a parking lot and a large assumed former lodge building to the right. This one had been restored.
Camp Lincoln Laurel
A shabbier but interesting looking camp building sat on the edge of a pond beyond the restored lodge type building, but had caution tape around it.
Lincoln Laurel pond
We reached the main access road, and then turned to the left to the edge of the pond where there was a kiosk and a few other trail starts. We walked along the south side of the pond with a nice view of the other building, and then made our way up hill and into a meadow area.
We followed the mowed path to a former farm lane, closely parallel with Lincoln Laurel Road.
After a bit, the trail came out and we could see where the next trail went across Lincoln Laurel Road into the older section of the Frelinghuysen Forest Preserve. I still had not followed this connection yet.
Former Camp Lincoln Laurel
We headed slightly up hill on this trail, I forget which color. We followed the ones typically to the far east of each preserve section to remain around the perimeters.
Pond at Lincoln Laurel
This trail was pretty nice. It weaved around, and then came back to a woods road that made up the main trunk of the trail into the preserve.
There was one trail from the map that seemed to be closed now, or blazed differently, but otherwise we followed that extreme outside, and then continued to the north on the old woods road.
This one took us south to a large opening, where the road got to be much more prominent. There was a lovely swamp land to the right of it near the end, and there was an old lime kiln ruin on the slope near the end of the road.
Frelinghuysen Forest Preserve
We started heading up hill on the woods road, and thre was another side trail that went off to the right. It only comes back to the main trail, which I think was yellow blazed, but I figured we could add that one on at a later date. There’s a ton more to see up there.
We headed up hill and eventually came out on Rt 94.
From there, the next bit would take us along 94 south, which would be the crappiest part of the entire hike. I couldn’t come up with any better way to get us through this section.
Wetland in Frelinghuysen Forest Preserve
We walked the highway down hill past the intersection with Lincoln Laurel Road, and then up hill again until we reached the settlement of Marksboro.
Lime kiln in Frelinghuysen Forest Preserve
The settlement of Marksboro dates way back. It is named for Mark Thompson, who was an ardent Patriot during the American Revoluteion, and served in the New Jersey Legislature as well as the House of Representatives.
Dan!
There was some sad recent history, in that on May 11th, 2019, the James Blair Store on the corner in Marksboro was demolished. This was one of the areas first chain stores dating back to the early 1800s, owned by a cousin to John I. Blair.
It had fallen into some disrepair, but didn’t look to be beyond repair.
We walked past the site, and it had large fences around it so that people couldn’t take more photos. There was a huge photo blitz on the place around the time it was to get torn down, and I’m sure they wanted it to be as hidden as possible.
Historic Marksboro image featuring James Blair Store
There is a little general store in Marksboro just past the intersection with Spring Valley Road, and we attempted to go over to it, but it was already closed for the day.
Marksboro Mill
We had just missed the store’s closing by under like a half an hour.
Dan was going on about “Who the hell closes a store down so early in the afternoon on a beautiful Saturday” or something. I suppose he has a point.
I was getting kind of hungry. I had bought a sandwich earlier at Dale’s Market, but then forgot it in my van when we left, so I had nothing. Elizabeth gave me some sort of cookie or something I recall. We made our way from the store down Spring Valley Road, and then passed the historic mill built by Mark Thompson himself in 1757.
The group in Marksboro
The mill is beautifully restored and is now a private residence.
We crossed the Paulins Kill on the road, and then took a break along the bank at the bridge.
Mark Thompson's Mill
We climbed down beneath the bridge, and I went for a dip in the river. It was pretty hot out on this day, and I wanted to cool off badly. I laid down in the river, which was really cold, but I got used to it pretty quickly.
The bridge is pretty cool, because it is a newer concrete structure, but it utilizes the original stone abutments from it’s predecessor. Upstream from the bridge, some of the remnants of the dam associated with Thompson’s Mill could be seen in the river.
While I laid in the river, I remember I was talking some sort of stupid stuff, but can’t for the life of me remember what any of it was.
Spring Valley Rd bridge
After a while, I got out of the water. James only soaked his feet in it, and no one else wanted to get in.
We climbed back up to the railroad bed and started following it back toward Blairstown.
We passed through along a sort of shelf, and then crossed over on a rather high bridge. We continued along and the slack water from the Paulina Dam started to become apparent. The rail bed crossed over the Paulins Kill yet again at this point further up on the lake. It’s at this point I had been concerned about the potential removal of the dam could effect river turbulation.
Old NYS&W mile marker
There’s apparently a good plan in place for how to deal with all of this if the dam is to be removed.
I personally went out earlier this year to inspect the dam, to see if it was in as bad shape as claims were. I was quite alarmed to find that I could fit my entire arm into one of the cracks in the head of the dam, and it was spacious inside.
After seeing for myself where the problems are, I am forced to agree that it will have to be removed, because the cost of repair is just too incredibly high.
The rail trail along the lake
It’s odd for me to have to change my mind on it, but it’s based on what I’d seen. I honestly think the Paulina Dam is the most beautiful dam in Warren County, and I wanted to see it stay in place, but this is pretty serious.
The bridge the trail takes across the lake’s upper end is a through style girder construction. The rail bed then follows very closely to the level of the water along the lake down to where the dam is.
We walked this route, and then took a little break at the dam, where I wanted to look again.
Me on the Paulina Dam
Regarding the history of the dam, Fred Heilich stated the following on my Metrotrails post about it:
There has been a dam in Paulina at this location since the late 1790s. It was the best location for a dam due to the narrowness of the Kill at this location plus access to construct a mill. There had been several different mills or manufacturing facilities on both side of the dam over the years. John I Blair purchased the property in the late 1800s and built the water works there in the 1891-92 timeframe. Blair operated the water works, plus the Blair Academy laundry there until closing that in 1954 timeframe, and the JIB installed an electric plant there in the late 1890s to service the Blairstown station at the footbridge plus Blair Academy and his home. The dam is of stone rubble and log crib construction and has had thin cement over coat facings added over the years, but nothing has been done to the original stone rubble interior since the facing was added.
Paulina Dam
The first covering was probably in the late a890s was Blair Academy wanted to raise the water level during low flow times by using the gates that were there until the 1940s. In order to do this the NYS&W had to raise the roadbed from East Crisman-Kill Rd to just past the upper bridge at Paulina Lake. The track was raised about 2 ft and there was a prolonged action for the railroad to get paid for the work by Blair Academy. Wm Vail finally paid the $700 himself.
I walked all the way across the breast of the dam to the other side and back again. This time, I could not see all of the cracks I had seen on the previous trip earlier in Summer.
Paulina slack water
There was so much aquatic vegetation growing on the dam that one could not even see a bit of all of the cracks I had seen when checking it out before.
View up from Paulina Dam
I walked all the way across to the end and back and really nothing at all could be seen as it was a few months earlier. James walked out on it with me, and it was a pretty scene.
Paulina Dam
We headed back onto the railroad bed and crossed over East Cristman Road, then passed through another section of woods to cross the Paulins Kill again on another bridge.
View from the top of Paulina Dam to Cristman Road
We passed closely to another section of the Paulins Kill which was quite pretty, and then continud to pass beneath Route 94 entering Blairstown.
Paulina Dam
We turned to the right when got to Footbridge Park, where the old Blairstown Station used to be. The foot bridge for which the park is named was built by John I. Blair to access the railroad. The first railroad to town was the Blairstown Railroad in 1876.
NYSW grade
The Blairtown Railroad sold to the New York, Susquehanna, and Western which extended to connect with Jersey City to the east and Stroudsburg to the west in 1881, and built it’s wholly owned subsidiary, the Wilkes Barre and Eastern to have it’s own track to the coal mines in 1893. It’s said that up to sixty trains a day once passed through this section, because there were also trackage rights through the Lehigh and New England over the twenty mile stretch between Swartswood and Hainesburg.
At footbridge park
We crossed the bridge, and then walked across to the other end of town, down the main street, to where the cars were parked. Dan, Elizabeth, and I needed rides back to White Lake, and James offered to take us, so we had him get his car while we walked back over to Dale’s Market for some more drinks and snacks to finish out the day.
In planning for this hike, I realized I have so much more I have to do through the area. For one, I have to completely re-do the Ridge and Valley Trail series. The initial hike is partly the same, and some of the preserves are the same, but there are even more new sections to the north of White Lake I need to get around to. There’s just too much to do, but so much I’m excited about doing.
If my misfortune is only that I have too much to be excited for, I’ll take it.
HAM
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