Hike #1383; Warren Highlands; Fiddler's Elbow to Phillipsburg

Hike #1383: 1/1/21 Warren Highlands Fiddler's Elbow to Phillipsburg with Jennifer Berndt, Diane Reider, Justin Gurbisz, Brittany Audrey, Serious Sean Dougherty, Professor John DiFiore, Kirk Rohn, Carolyn Gokhale Gordon, Robin Deitz, Jim "Mr. Buckett" Mathews, Vi Chen, Tina Chen, ?,?, Dan Asnis, and Celeste Fondaco Martin

This next hike brought us back to the tradition of hiking on New Years Day, and it's become a Warren Highlands Trail thing because I keep adding new sections to it.

When the pandemic stuff ramped up again, I made a deal with work that rather than do the online training stuff from home or whatever, I could instead do trail work.

I set it up that I would take care of every problem on the entire Warren Highlands Trail day by day.
My friend Deidre Supple became part of the trail crew and started routing signs out for along the route, and I showed her the proper way to do trail marking.

My buddy Tom at work was out due to a hernia operation, but we kept him employed by having him paint the routed signs and do training which helped us out as well. It ended up being a great thing.
Deidre accompanied me on the entire trail, and we got every bit of chainsaw work that needed to be done finished.
My other buddy Verdon was also instrumental in getting some sections done, and he helped to clear a final section before he went to work at Round Valley. Joel Castus also helped to do some of the new sections at this time.

I was really happy with what was happening on the trail, but the problem was the state was not going to be doing their First Day Hikes. They decided to cancel all of them before the end of the year. 
That wasn't going to keep me from hosting the hike anyway. I'd already put myself out there above and beyond the call of duty with all of this, and I wanted to share with all of my friends the great stuff we'd gotten done.

Despite all of this positive stuff, I started the year with a major shock. I didn't think I'd have any kind of relationship at all as things were progressing, and I was trying to stay optimistic but somewhat shelter myself from a lot of emotional dialogue with anyone. The gist of the few conversations I did have was basically that I didn't know where my life was going.
Then, the night before, Jillane and I decided to attend our friend Jack's Strikesound New Years Eve party. He usually does a Strikesound Christmas party, and so this was sort of in place of that.

While there, sitting outside, Jillane broke the news to me that she was pregnant.

I was in shock. I didn't think it was possible for her to conceive. I felt like a miracle had happened. It must have been while we were finishing our last long trip across Pennsylvania.
My mind was aflutter with fear, excitement, concern, and joy. I never thought I would be a father. That ship had sailed, and I just tried not to think about it in any way.

Now, everything was going to change. I didn't really know how it was going to effect my life. All I knew was what I'd learned from parents my entire life, and that was that I must not lose my identity to a child. Teach, support, love, but hold onto the core of who I am and what I do. I was assured that it was not selfish, but rather being genuine to the child that I would have. 

I chose not to tell anyone on the hike just yet. I'd not come to terms with it myself, and to introduce such a big topic to everyone on this event might be a little more than I could take emotionally.
I pushed on ahead as if I'd heard nothing just yet.
We met in Phillipsburg at the boat launch area, and shuttled to the start point on Fiddlers Elbow Road, on the NJ Conservation Foundation land near the intersection with Harmony-Brass Castle Road.
I believe it was on this one that my van had died just before the hike started, and fortunately Justin was driving by. He scooped me up right in time to get me to the meeting point.
We started walking down Harmony-Brass Castle Road to the west, and then to the south side of Ragged Ridge on the end of a driveway. We had a couple of newcomers in the group, friends of Tina Chen I believe that she brought with her. I apologize as I do not recall their names writing this over a year later.
We made our way to the top of Ragged Ridge, and meandered along the ridge top on the trail, then to the section overtaken by ATVs, and to the main peak where there is the rock that was supposedly used by native Americans to send smoke signals in sequences to their fellow tribesmen on the distant Blue Mountain.

Prior to this event, I was planning on reaching out to leaders among the present day Lenape nation to try to turn this into a native American heritage site.
As the story goes, the previous land owner, Mr. Marden, befriended a native American and asked him to hike up and look at the site to see if it was indeed aboriginal.
The Lenape man said "oh yes, this was our main communication center".
As the story goes, which I heard thirdhand from former head of Green Acres Rich Osborne, who oversaw purchase of the Ragged Ridge property from the state, the Lenape man began chanting from atop the rock, and a vortex of Vultures appeared over his head.
Marden, who was described to me as perhaps sort of a skeptic, in amazement asked the Lenape man what he was doing.
He said he was communicating with his dead ancestors, he said.
He went on to explain that nobody likes the vultures, but to the Lenape, they were sacred. They clean up the ground. They are the connection between the dead and the living.
Ragged Ridge is the home to a vulture rookery just below the ridge on the south side of the mountain.
When the property was transferred to the state, Marden intended for one segment to remain in his ownership so that he might construct some sort of shrine to the Lenape at the sacred spot.

Unfortunately, Mr Marden had not the funds to create such a structure, and so it eventually transferred to the state anyway.
I would like to see this intention through to fruition, but I want to do so with the blessing of the Lenape Nation, and to do so by communicating with them and making sure that whatever is constructed, written, and interpreted, that it be appropriate to their culture.
We continued from the rock downhill along the spine of the ridge, and then over the rocks where surface improvements were made by Student Conservation Association in 2019.
We then descended down to Ridge Road where Brittany met up, and then we climbed slightly on the other side to where there is a good view back to Ragged Ridge, and out over the fields to the west.
The trail down the hill from here has some nice sections that were not in place the previous year, recently cleared again.
The trail goes through the first field, where all of the posts were removed by vandals, through a field to the left at the north end, and then to the right into woods. At the next woods road, the trail goes left along the spine of the next smaller ridge.
We followed the trail along switch backing old woods roads heading downhill to the fields that lead out to Rt 519.

I considered continuing into the property across Rt 519 where I intended to move the trail, but instead we went left and followed the highway out to the Van Nest-Hoff-Vanatta Farmstead to continue.
My stress level was improving some, in part because I was drinking some wine I'd picked up on the last hike in the Pine Island NY area, called Black Dirt Blush.
We made our way uphill from the historic farmstead along field edges, and then on switchbacks up to what we have started calling Hallelujah Hill.
We'd had two new parking areas installed by Joey Maio over the past year; one at Ragged Ridge, and one on Ridge Road near the Merrill Creek pipeline crossing. Someone had put a giant photo of Jesus on the back of the sign there, and so we just started calling it Hallelujah Hill.
Dan had fallen really far behind at this point, and I gave him directions to just continue walking along Rt 519 to catch us at the bottom of Harkers Hollow rather than try to go back up the hill. The climb to Merrill Creek would be hard.
We made our way over the road and along the field section, on or parallel with the Merrill Creek pipeline, past the old Miller Farm barn.
We came out to Harmony-Brass Castle Road, and then headed down the slope. Celeste met us somewhere in this area and continued with us downhill to a branch of the Lopatcong Creek.

At this slope, I set up a few then and now history compilations.
A while back, Brittany loaned me a large series of photos to present through Metrotrails on the construction of Merrill Creek Reservoir. I recognized some of them as Fox Farm Road, and some of the actual reservoir site itself, but then there were several of them taken from Harmony-Brass Castle Road if this very pipeline that would end up part of Warren Highlands.
I tried to get several photos that would match up with the ones I'd gotten from her exactly.
I don't know who exactly took them, but it was someone in her family. So two of those are presented here in this journal entry, as well as a couple others of the construction of the site.

The next time I go up there, I have to take more history compilations, because I found out that Brittany's family collection shows more of the site at the base of the hill under construction as well, which I didn't realize at the time, until I examined the photos more closely.

When we got to the bottom of the slope, we crossed over the creek at the point where I had constructed a little bridge out of old life guard stands. Unfortunately, that has washed away now. Some of us ended getting our feet wet.
The climb on the other side of the creek might be the most arduous of the entire hike. Maybe it's because of the depth perception while going up the hill, but I do think it's really just a tough walk.
We reached the paved road and fenced station on the pipeline route, and then the trail follows the road uphill a bit.
After a bit of a hairpin turn, the road is the original route of Allens Mill Road.
There's a bit of history here to share that probably most people these days don't realize.
If one were to look at the map of the roads around Merrill Creek Reservoir, they will see the intersection of Allen's Mills Road, Fox Farm Road, and Richline Road to the east of the reservoir. This was not the case before the reservoir was built. 

Prior to that, Allens Mills Road went right on through to the west. Some of it goes under the waters of the north part of the reservoir today.
The actual Allens Mills (which might be relation of mine) were just to the west of this point, along present day Harmony-Brass Castle Road. The old dam ruins are still visible along the road, and mill buildings and millers homes are still standing in the old settlement of Allens Mills.

When the reservoir was built, it was decided that Allens Mills Road would end at Richline, and Fox Farm Road, which also went into what is now the preserve, used to travel at a slightly different route. Fox Farm Road was then extended through to Richline, much of which had to be rebuilt, and Allens Mills Road from new Fox Farm Road down to the actual mills was abandoned except for the short bit still used for a service road.

We headed uphill, reached Fox Farm Road, and then headed across into Merrill Creek Reservoir property and climbed to the dike on the west side.
From there, although Warren Highlands Trail was not coblazed on it yet, it follows the perimeter trail around to the parking lot on Fox Farm Road.
We walked that route, and I think Celeste cut out again in this area.
As we reached Fox Farm Road and were turning left, who pulled up to us but Doug DeGroff, who was on his way back from another hike. When he saw Dan walking alongside the road, he picked him up and dropped him off at his car. So he drove by to let us know that we didn't have to worry about him.

It was raining at this point, but not terribly cold out. We walked Fox Farm Road out to the intersection of Wester/Decker Road, and then cut into the fields formerly owned by Oswald Stecker, known locally as Ozzy's Fields. We walked past the view of Delaware Water Gap in the middle of the fields, then cut into the woods at the end.
The trail passes over when I have since dubbed Shandor Summit, which was the favorite hunting spot of Bob Shandor, the former landowner. He ran with his friends to this point when they were children, and he declared that he would one day own this, and he did.
Bob Shandor Jr. worked with us on the sale of the tract, and we intend to have a memorial to Bob Shandor Sr at this site. He was my predecessor as Chairman of the Board of Recreation for Warren County, and died in a Freeholders meeting when he was all fired up. He's become quite the legend.
I only just started getting involved in any county politics just before Mr. Shandor died, but I remembered seeing him around my grandfather's house, and one of my first public meetings on Warren County Smart Growth was attended by both he and myself. So, I feel some connection to the man, and the place.
We made our way down to Harkers Hollow Golf Course, which still had stuff dumped over the trail, and then no one bothered us where the angry neighbor always came out and yelled at us.
We walked down to 519 again, turned left on Strykers Road, then soon right into the Farmers Fairground field property. We meandered the field edges in the rain, and dealt with a lot of mucky surface.
From there, after passing through a swath of woods and crossing a small tributary, we headed through the county owned Geiger Tract, and then out to Belvidere Road. A left turn took us after 0.3 mile to the base of Marble Hill.

I'm extremely happy with the way the trail looks at the state owned side of Marble Hill, because the neighbor Scott Smith has been mowing the entire route up along the fields. It's in better shape than it's ever been through that section. We also have good signage from the road, and soon we will hopefully get a kiosk in there.
It was pouring by this point, just as it had been the previous year. Moving, I didn't really notice how cold it had gotten. The next bit of the trail is so undulating that the workout of it keeps us warm.
I don't think we went to the iron mine on this one, but rather continued on the Warren Highlands Trail through the state land and into the county land, then down to River Road.
I honestly don't remember if we went into the giant pipe on this one. If we did, I was getting to be too out of it to realize. I was out late the night before, drank quite a lot then, and I was feeling pretty good at this point too.
I think we actually went through the pipe the opposite way, and then maybe followed the railroad tracks straight on through to the end point. 
Whatever way it was that we went about it, I remember clearly getting back to the parking lot at the boat launch, and we talked about getting something to eat.
I think it was Jenny that said that I was in no shape to be going out anywhere, and that I needed to be brought home. I guess I was shivering. I asked Justin if he would go through the Taco Bell drive in for me and he said he would.
Apparently, I passed out as soon as I hit his back seat, and continued shivering. I was probably going into hypothermia.

I don't remember anything from there until Justin woke me up back by my house. I remember asking if we were at Taco Bell, and he said no, that we didn't go there and that I was home.
I remember feeling disappointed by that admission, and then everything goes black again. Apparently, he and Brittany walked me back to my porch holding on to either arm, drenched having not used an umbrella. They got me in my front door, and then I don't remember much else again.
My next memory was that of sitting in my shower with hot water flowing over me, shivering.
On one hand, I felt like I was completely shutting down, not only because of my body, but because too much was running through my mind. There are times that I have so much going on up there that I become completely exhausted and just pass out. With our without a drink, it's just lights out like a computer crash.
It was certainly going to be an interesting year.