Hike #1261; Andover/Byram/Tranquility

 Hike #1261; Andover/Byram/Tranquility

10/5/19 Andover and Byram Loop with Ken Zaruni, David Goldberg, Justin Gurbisz, Lowell Perkins, John DiFiore, Shane Blische, Pat ?, Tom Vorrius, San Westermann, and Dan Lurie

This next hike would be a really nice loop hike, the last night hike I would be forced to do on a weekend due to my work schedule. After this, I had full weekends off the rest of the year.

The Sussex Branch in Andover

I planned out a route that would showcase, like usual, some new stuff I hadn’t done as well as some other stuff I had wanted to do, or that everyone would appreciate seeing. There are tons of new trails throughout the area I still have to see, and we have no shortage of more to add.
I made the meeting time a little bit later than usual in Andover, in a lot that’s not necessarily marked as a state lot, so we could get away with parking after dark.
The route I planned would feature three different historic railroad beds: The Sussex Branch of the Lackawanna, the Lackawanna Cutoff, and the Lehigh and Hudson River Railway.
In addition to that, I incorporated sections of the new Tamarack Trail, Allamuchy Mountain State Park Trails, and some other interesting odd stuff that I figured everyone might appreciate.

In Andover

The lot I chose to use was on the corner of Railroad Avenue and Smith Street. Everyone who was planning to come showed up at the start on time except for Lowell, who was coming all the way from Harrisburg for this one. He had recently moved there from Connecticut, and wanted to come out and try to make a hike regardless of the location this time.
I had some ideas for where he could join late, and the rest of us got underway with our hike.
We started out by heading south on the Sussex Branch Trail. This took us through some parking areas for businesses in town, and then over Brighton Ave where there is a box left over form railroad days. The trail passes intimately through back yards with hedge rows or less blocking it from the private properties. It’s really an interesting section and very atypical of what we usually see with rail trails. It’s one of the reasons I love it.

On the Cutoff

We soon passed over High Street, and there were dogs going nuts in the yard there at us. The trail sort of goes right through someone’s yard and driveway at that point.
It opened up a lot more after this, closely paralleled Rt 206, and then weaved away to soon pass beneath the Lackawanna Cutoff.
We passed through the culvert, and on the other side there is an ATV path that leads up to the top of it. We used this to climb after Shane and I set up some then and now shots on the way through Andover.
I got a call from Lowell, and since he was so close by, just let him know how to catch up with us. I knew there would be stuff to see enough that we’d slow down, so he’d catch us.

Ruins on the Cutoff

We started following the Cutoff to the east. It’s weird for me to see it so grown in, because even when I started walking it when I was little, it really looked reacently abandoned.

A scene on Tamarack Trail

It was just railroad ties and very open. When I started organizing my own hikes, even then it seemed like it was just a recent abandonment. There wasn’t much vegetation growing over it like there is now.
Pat brough me one of his favorite beers to try, some sort of red IPA I’d never had. Tasty!

Hiking the Cutoff in September 2002

We passed some of the old buildings on the right, and on the left were some of the metal things that served as sort of rock fall alarm systems for the railroad.
The Lackawanna Cutoff was mostly removed through this area in 1982. After Conrail in 1976, stupid internal politics and bickering held over from the previous merger between Erie and the Lackawanna caused huge problems.

Cut on the cutoff

One of my former supervisors when I worked in retail was a former conductor on the railroads, Alan Warner.
Al told me that after the merger, the bosses form the Erie were trying to reroute heavy freight over lower grade passenger rail. He went on about how stupid it was, and that one day he saw rail cars derailing off behind in in the previous cars after a break. He claimed to me that the mistake cost them so much money, they could no longer afford to continue. I wish I could speak to him about it again now. He really told some great stories, but at the time I didn’t have as good a frame of reference to be able to appreciate it as much.

The old rock fall alarms

We continued along, and I set up some more then and now shots. We passed the future site of the Andover Station, if they ever get back to doing new construction. The plan is that NJ Transit will reactivate the cutoff between the main line and Andover for commuter service, and eventually get to opening to Scranton.
We passed beneath Roseville Road, which had had the bridge replaced for it a few years back. After that, it was not long before we reached the mouth of the Roseville Tunnel

Roseville Tunnel

Around 1909, the cutoff opened through this area, and having the tunnel was sort of a let down for the Lackawanna. One of the reasons to build the cutoff was to eliminate the bottleneck of the two tunnels on the old main (Oxford and Manunka Chunk).
They started trying to build an open cut when they hit some very hard rock. To continue cutting would only mean more rock fall, and so it was decided to bore a tunnel of about one thousand feet long, double track wide.

Roseville Tunnel

I had read about the open cut plan in my Lowenthal and Greenberg book on the Lackawanna, and with my grandfather we went up to the top and explored all around it years ago.

Pirate Shane on the rocks

For whatever reason, I just never got around to bringing a group up to the top to have a look at it. We were always walking through to another location, and I suppose I never had a reason to make my way to the top and then come back down. This time, there was now a trail that ended at Johnson Park adjacent to the tunnel, so I had reason to go up to the top and look closer.
Lowell showed up at the mouth of the tunnel where we had all taken a break. Shane, adorned in his pirate attire, climbed on the rocks as we hung out.

Once Lowell was with us, we headed on through the tunnel. Everyone who didn’t know better seemed a bit worried about going through this one. They’re used to the normal bullshit I put everyone through with walking through water.

Construction railroad right of way

In the middle, we passed another group of kids passing through in the opposite direction. We passed through, and on the far side we turned to the left on another path into the woods.
The path follows what used to be one of the construction rights of way from when the Cutoff was under construction. A bit further out from that point is the Roseville Pond, which was a borrow pit for earth used for gathering fill for the grade.
We followed the former construction track bed out and around some of the rock outcroppings, and then turned to the left, off trail, toward the top of the mountain the tunnel passed through. We picked up another trace of a path on the way up there, and then came to where we could see the recognizable cut started by the railroad.

The never completed cut

We climbed down into the cut at a less steep place, and then headed over to the top of the mouth of the east portal. From there, I got another then and now photo of the construction of the cutoff from the early 1900s, compared to how it looks now. It came out great.
From here, we made our way out along the steep drop off of the cut carefully, and then followed a faint path that descends between some serious rocks, and back down toward the level of the railroad. I went over to the mouth of the east portal again, and then showed some people out there riding quads the then and now compilations I’d just done.
The others were almost down by that point, and so Dan and I hurried back over to the ATV path that comes in from the opposite side we had gone up.

View of Johnson Pond

We followed this path back through the woods to the south a bit. Ken texted me that he had stayed high up and would meet us in Johnson Park at the start of the Tamarack Trail, part of my next plan for the hike.

Roseville Tunnel

We all followed this ATV track until we could see a private home coming up, and then turned hard to the right to steeply climb back up on a loos rocky road to the top.
Once up, there was a nice little overlook over a higher place above the unfinished cut.

Old tank in the woods

We went from here back down hill to the west again, and then reached another construction railroad right of way. The sun was shining beautifully through the trees as it was beginning to set here.
We followed the construction right of way out to one of the access roads in Johnston Park. From there, we followed a surfaced path around the outside of the park heading toward Roseville Road.
On the opposite side of Roseville Road, the white blazed Tamarack Trail started out.
The trail was very pleasant from the start. It followed some old woods roads and weaved nicely between some stone walls. It made it’s way up slightly, and then followed a slope above Johnson Lake, which was great as the sun was setting.

Roseville Tunnel

During this stretch, Lowell asked everyone a riddle. I probably won’t get it right, but the question was “There is a green house...and in it is a white house...and in that is a red house, and the red house is full of babies. What is it?” We brought up all sorts of ridiculous answers that had us laughing, and no one was getting it. Lowell then told us that the key was to think of the “house” term as a casing.
I eventually came up with the idea of a tomato, because it could be in a greenhouse growing, but I couldn’t figure out the white house part. I think my idea was something like the US President’s tomato crop. Lowell told me that tomato was close.

At Roseville Tunnel

As things go, we got into so many other things that we let the riddle go for quite a while.

Former construction track

The trail made it’s way over some pleasant terrain, all gently rolling and often on old woods roads, until there was a spur that continued to the left, along Johnson Pond. We wanted to continue to the right toward Tamarack Park however. Ken held us up to make sure we recognized the turn, which was a good thing because I might very well have missed it if I were in front.
We turned the right, and then weaved around to the west again where there was a giant metal tank above ground in the woods. I’m not sure what it is. We continued along the trail, and eventually it turned us down to reach the southern end of Tamarack Park and it’s ball fields.

Construction rail grade

It was starting to get dark by the time we were heading down. We still had a little bit of light left as we were heading out of Tamarack Park and onto Rt 206.
Across from here, at Jonaes Lane and Rt 206, is roughly where the Waving Willy Trail starts. This trail is named for the guy named Willy who lived at the next house on 206 to the north and used to wave at the traffic every day.
I figured we would reach 206 and then just go direct to the Sussex Branch Trail, from which the Waving Willy Trail breaks off. That didn’t work out as planned. There was no way of cutting through.

The Roseville rock cut incomplete

It looked to me like there was swamp land in there. I didn’t want to try to bring anyone through that, so we turned left on 206, and then to the right on North Shore Road to reach the Sussex Branch Trail.
We followed that trail north just a bit, and then reached Waving Willy Trail.
I could easily have missed this because someone stole the sign from the start of it. Still, it was the correct way, so we started following it into the woods.
The terrain was somewhat annoying. It went up and down. I didn’t need a light for it, but most everyone was going kind of slow because it could be difficult at times.

The rock cut above the tunnel

We continued following the Waving Willy Trail, and I paid close attention to the blazes to make sure we didn’t go the wrong way. Once a year or two ago I ended up following it around to the development, which makes a half loop on that one. It was kind of easy to miss the Waterloo-517 Trail that I was planning to get to.
As we walked, Tom had an app on his phone that showed the other side trails, official or unofficial, and it was looking promising. Based on the aerials on my phone combined with past experiences in this area, we could skip the Waterloo-517 Trail and follow more well graded woods roads to get out toward Tranquility in Green Township.

Informal path at Roseville

At that point, even though it wasn’t blazed, it was looking promising enough to try it. A lot of those trails were really well worn by ATVs, and so I didn’t mind if it would make it a bit easier for everybody.
I was thinking this was a really pretty hefty gamble at first, but it seriously paid off when it got us exactly where we wanted to go. Tom’s app didn’t show us all of those trails, but I knew of side ones pretty well enough to get us through. I had spent an entire day up there lost by myself many years back on one of those days before 2004 when no one would show up.
Dan cut out early before getting too involved with that kind of messy trail.

Glacial erratic

The woods road headed pretty much due west, and the development on Highland Ave was eventually parallel with us. When we got to be parallel with the far end of that, the ATV paths were pretty much gone from the road we were walking. I think it was meant to be a development road that became defunct. A turn to the right eventually took us clearly right out to Highland Ave.
We continued to head down hill on the road from this point, which was a welcome break after all of the ankle turning little rocks in the trails.
The road changed names to Scenic Drive, and we walked by Papa Park. I figured we might be able to cut through that to get over to the next road, but then opted to stay on the same one.

Johnson Park

We made a left turn onto Meadow Lane, which turne ninety degrees to the right. We eventually came down toward the end of the road, and then cut to the left through a line of trees out to the back of the Tranquility Seventh Day Adventist Church.

Construction rail bed

We walked far enough back from the building, along the edge of the cultivated field with some sort of business further out in it. We crossed over an access road, and people at the church left without ever looking at us.
We could see the lights from Pub 517 directly across the fields from us, so we decided to just continue walking straight toward them.
We came out right in the parking area for Pub 517 and headed in. We got a good size table that held all of us, and ordered some food. It was a really nice time hanging out there, having some food and drink, and sort of enjoying Summer’s end.

Hanging out at Pub 517

After a good time, we headed out from the bar onto the road. It was an easy walk from there out to Kennedy Road, which leads into the main settlement of Tranqulity.

The moon over Tranquility

Evergreen Park was just ahead on the right. It has well surfaced trails following the edges of the fields around it, which would be part of our route. We could follow some of this, as well as right across the ball fields, until we got to the Lehigh and Hudson River Railway bed. This line has been abandoned since 1986, and I’ve done a great many hikes on it.

Johnson Park

We walked the edge of the park out under a pavilion, and then to the access to the old railroad bed, which is well cleared, and to my surprised, now surfaced here.
It’s been neat seeing how this railroad bed has changed over so many years through the hikes. Some sections have been like informal trail all along, even before the taking over, and some just have grown in something fierce.
The state has owned most of it below Andover for a while, but nothing was ever done.
In more recent years, they have cleared the section from Evergreen park to a point where another side trail went off to another one of their park lands.

Tamarack Trail

In the past year, a section from Evergreen Park to Trinca Airport has been well cleared and it’s very usable. Ken, Dan Asnis, and I walked it.
I had found out more recently from Mike Brennan that they had cleared the entire thing off pretty much from the Cutoff north to the Sussex Branch in Andover. I really wanted to get around to walking this section pretty badly.
I figured when I planned this hike, when got near the end we could make a decision to go one of two ways with it.

The moon shines

When we got to the Lackawanna Cutoff, if the underpass was no longer cut off from the rest of the world, we would continue walking LHR back home. If it was covered off due to private land encroachments or boat storage or whatever, we could climb up to the cutoff and walk that back to the point where we started.
It was so nice that the surfacing was on, because it used to be all ballast rock. It got to literally really difficult when it was all ballast rock and trying to cover it for several miles.
We managed to make our way through the woods out to Creek Road.

Walking Airport Road

The rail bed had not yet been cleared along the edge of Trinca Airport, and so we opted to follow a bit of Airport Road to avoid anything crazy.

Moonlight

We followed the road to where the railroad crossed again.
In the stretch of one of these road sections, we talked about about the riddle Lowell had brough up earlier saying that I was close with my tomato guess.
I think it was Pat, but might have been Tom that first came up with idea that the answer was watermelon.
We turned right on the rail bed at the next crossing, which was pretty easy walking save for some brush when we got over by the other side. We just kept going on it across from there, and found that the culvert under the cutoff.

Night walk

This determined that we were in fact following the cutoff back, but we’d have to get up there.
It’s a high climb, especially in the dark, so we tried to follow a woods road to the right to see whre it went.
The woods road continued up hill gradually, past some sort of business building, and then away from everything into deeper woods. It definitely took a lot off of our climb, and eventually started descending again. At that point, we cut off of the thing into the woods to get back to the cutoff.
Once everyone was up, we followed it to the east for a while, and then turned to the right on the ATV path that led back down to the Sussex Branch.
We turned right on the same path that took us up earlier, and then turned left on the Sussex Branch to get us right back to the cars with no problems.
There are more trails to see. So many from Hopatcong Trail to the near ones all over Byram. There will be plenty more hikes to try to scout out all of those ones.

HAM