Hike #1392; Oxford to Clinton

 

Hike #1392: 2/10/21 Spruce Run Turnpike; Oxford to Clinton with Justin Gurbisz and Brittany Audrey

Every year pretty much, I do a hike that covers the historic route of the Spruce Run Turnpike, chartered in 1813 to connect the towns of Oxford Furnace and Clinton. It was shortly after Archibald Taylor took the reigns on Hunts Mill and renamed it Clinton, adding industry and growth.

I pretty much always hang onto this hike as a sort of backup when there is a lot of snow on the ground. When that happens, I can still cover my high mileage because most of this route is along back roads that are pretty well plowed off.
I think Justin and I were the only ones to just show up, and we shuttled up to Oxford. Brittany was running late, and I gave her directions to meet up with us at the church along Mine Hill Road heading out of Oxford. I think we meandered through the town a little bit first and then got on our way uphill on Mine Hill Road, part of the historic route.

The snow was ridiculously deep, and was particularly telling when we looked at the shoveled sidewalks through Oxford.
I sipped my Leon Russian Imperial Stout as we walked up the hill to the peak between Oxford and Washington, past the old iron mines, and then with the view over into the Pohatcong valley from fallen trees.
We continued on and the historic route became Belvidere Avenue into Washington.
It was interesting to see some of the old concrete surfacing was exposed again on that route. It was all still original concrete when I was a kid and up until I was about 22 or so when they paved over it all. 

We crossed through the center of town, and I think we went into the CVS that occupied where the Quick Chek had been for drinks, then continued across Rt 57 onto Broad Street.

We followed this out to Rt 31 and the historic route crosses over to Springtown Road. I seem to recall Brittany had to pee really bad and was going to go to one of the businesses to take care of business, because it was so cold and such. I don't think she got in anywhere.
This might have been one of the times we went to the graves.
We continued along Spring Valley Road and I pointed out at the intersection, the settlement of Spring Valley with some lovely buildings, how the original Spruce Run Turnpike that used to be the main route used to go through. Now, Asbury-Anderson Road is more o a main road, and it overtakes the old turnpike for a very short distance at this intersection.

New Hampton Road ahead was the next leg of the historic route.
We headed downhill to cross the Musconetcong River and hit River Road. We turned right and then headed into the settlement of New Hampton.
This village was named for Hamptonshire England, but the town of Hampton ahead is much newer. This is because when the railroad junction came in, it was originally called "Junction", which was too generic. With other junctions around, they needed a new name, and the nearest town was New Hampton. As such, it became Hampton Junction. The junction was gone by 1959, and the name of the town became just Hampton. This is why New Hampton is older than Hampton.

We continued through New Hampton with the lovely old homes, crossed Rt 31, and then passed through the town of Hampton heading up hill on the Main Street.
We passed beneath the former Central Railroad of New Jersey, and I told stories about my grandfather growing up in the town. I pointed out the house where he was born, where we bought blueprints, and where my great grandfather had his barber shop on the corner.
We continued up to the peak of this town, the watershed divide between the Musconetcong and greater Raritan watersheds, and headed down to Rt 31 again.

We entered into Glen Gardner next, on the main street there, which is the next historic part of the turnpike.
Glen Gardner was originally called Sodom, but was renamed for a quarry operator later.
We continued down the main street, and I pointed out where my great grandfather's final barbershop in town had been before he passed just three weeks before I was born.
The south part of Glen Gardner is pretty secluded and gets no traffic because the road no longer connects to 31 on the south side of town. That had been severed within the past ten years. We hopped over the galvanized rail and then followed Rt 31 south for the crappiest part of the trip.

We pulled off to the left on a little piece of the original highway in a place known as Irishtown, a collection of homes on the northbound side of Rt 31.
We then came back out to 21 again, and usually I would walk the historic route over to the edge of Spruce Run Reservoir for one of the only off road segments of the hike. I decided to forego this because of the heavy snow.
We pulled off at the now closed deli just north of the crossing of the Willoughby Brook on Rt 31. There, Red Sean Reardon pulled up and chatted with us for a bit. He couldn't join the hike, but he it was nice to catch up a bit.
I believe we took the side road to the left south of here along the edge of the golf course, which was the old route as well.
We continued walking south and got to the right side of Rt 31 to continue into Clinton. 
We went down the last leg of the historic route, now 513 into Clinton where we were treated to nice views of the Old Red Mill along the South Branch of the Raritan.
I don't remember how, but somehow I ended up cutting my hand up on ice. 
I think we parked at the abandoned A&P supermarket for the last time on this one. The store had closed somewhat recently, and soon it would be demolished for the construction of townhouses or something, and the parking lot would be closed off to our use.
It was a good night to be out. It's always a pleasure to look at familiar places I've loved over the years and this hike hits a lot of them.