Hike #1400: Warren Railroad

Hike #1400: 3/20/21 Warren Railroad with Scott "Tea Biscuit" Helbing, Alex Helbing, Troy Helbing, Jacob Helbing, Mark Godfrey, Mark Godfrey Jr (Bobo), Matthew Davis, Jennifer Berndt, Rich Pace, Larry Philips, Bill Transue, Professor John DiFiore, Dan Asnis, Galya, Kirk Rohn, David Adams, Jim "Uncle Soup" Campbell, David "Captain Soup" Campbell, Jennifer Tull, Carolyn Gockel Gordon, Jack Lowry, Sarah Jones, Serious Sean Dougherty, Kevin Kowalik, Kathryn Kataldo, Ken Lidman, Michele Valerio, Stephen Argentina, Justin Gurbisz, Red Sean Reardon, Don Mayberry, Violet Chen, Robin Deitz, Eric Pace, Brittany Weider, Jim "Mr. Buckett" Mathews, Russ Nelson, Ewa,   ?, ?, ?, Karen ?, Cousin Scott Soup Campbell, 

This would be the big 24 year anniversary hike of the start of the group. I was very happy to have it turn out to be a bigger group again after the much smaller thing we'd had the year prior.

This is the hike that started off everything. On March 23, 1997, instead of having a birthday party, I gathered some of my closest friends and we hiked my favorite abandoned railroad bed.

It has become a tradition that we do this hike every March, on the weekend close to that original date.
This time, it was three days short of the actual anniversary.
We usually always pull a big group for this event, but this time was extra special for me personally.
It has in the past few years become a family affair, and this year it was more so than ever.
I not only had my extended hiking family join; this year for the first time, all three of my brothers joined. Not only that, both my dad and my stepdad joined on this one. And of course my nephew Jacob was there too. I was so happy they could all make it.
We met at the usual Port Colden Mall spot and shuttled up to the town of Delaware like usual.

The worst part of all of this is always trying to pull together the car shuttle. Once we get everyone together, it's hard to keep them together. But that's alright.

We used to start this hike in Columbia NJ, walk over the foot bridge, and then continue on the old main line all the way through from Portland PA, but that is not really so easy to do anymore because it's not encouraged sending people across the old railroad bridge over the Delaware.
It really is no harder than it ever was, but now people are of a more critical disposition when it comes to all of these things, and so I didn't need a giant group of people to be seen coming off of the bridge. That's why over the past few years I've been cutting off the front part.
We made our way past the Sanico place on Rt 46 and did our usual group shots at the former bridge abutment on Clarence Road, and then continued to Smiddy's liquor.

The owners there are always really happy to see us, because we always spend so much money there when we go through.
Unfortunately, they don't carry any of the really good strong beers that I tend to like.
I usually try to bring something really special for these milestone hikes, but unfortunately I couldn't buy them there. Everybody else got the stuff they liked through.
We continued from there onto the right of way and I pointed out some of my family history spots. Where my great grandfather had lived, where my great grandmother had lived, right across the street from one another. How the property for the railroad was sold to John I. Blair by my five or six times great grandfather from his death bed.

There is so much history that is family related with this, it's just unbelievable.
We continued on past the old family sawmill sight, and then across the road across from Marshalls fruit stand.

We continued then above the Ramseyburg Cemetery and toward Ramseyburg where the cell tower access road had been built over the rail bed.
I don't usually do the Shrub of Might activity any more. That's where we run up a slate and shale slope to reach a mountain laurel bush up top. It has gotten to be too time consuming to have everyone who wants to do it do so, so we don't bother.
I was also wearing a nice red jacket I didn't want to get wrecked.
We continued on to Ramseyburg Road and crossed, then made our way along the shelf high above Rt 46.
It isn't all that long before we reach the Manunka Chunk Tunnel at that point. 

When we got there, I gave my dad a bottle of Weyerbacher Insanity, which is their Blithering Idiot barleywine ale aged in whiskey barrels. Quite a delectable drink.
I think I had given him something else special that I'd saved for a while for him at the start of it too, and he drank all of that.
We split the group at the tunnel, where some of us would go through and the majority of the group went over the top.
Manunka Chunk Tunnel is a really cool spot, and a lot of people love the tunnels, but a lot also are just not all about getting their feet wet in March.
I led the way through that, and I remember Jen and Sarah were not too far behind me on that. I'm not sure who else bothered to go through it this time, but there were a few.

A family affair

Once we made it through, we walked through the water of Catherine's Run, which flows partially through the tunnel since the 1970 abandonment.

A path leads to the left up to a small falls on Catherine's Run, where the wood work is still in place and we could see where the wooden flume system used to carry the water of Catherine's Run in a trough and then into an artificial waterway to move it on to the south and then under the railroad at a safer spot.
I suspect that this was shifted in years later, probably after the big washout in 1913, because there is an obvious dug out route for it above the rail bed, but lower than the rest of the right of way as well
We went up the path, and then we can step across the creek on a couple of wooden plants that have been set up over the the water for all of my life.

Once we got to the other side, we all had a break and waited for the others to catch up. I think some going over the tunnel went the wrong way. This is also something that's been happening just about every year since I started doing this.
While we waited, I went with Larry to check out the old flume system, and he had located a foundation I had never seen before as well as a filled in old well pit. Quite interesting that there is always stuff to find in these areas, even when I'd figure I'd have found it all by now.
Also while waiting, Tea Biscuit busted out an aged bottle of Heresy, another great Weyerbacher past brew that we never see any more. I'd not had it in years, and this was quite delicious.

Once we got everyone together, we turned left on the woods road. I decided on this one I was going to take everyone on the roundabout way through Pequest Wildlife Management Area to reach the overlook on Upper Sarepta Road.
Just a bit inside the tree line, we headed uphill rather steeply. This took everyone a bit, but then we came to the edge of the fields, and everything was much easier.
I really like this side route that I'd come up with, but a lot of people tend to prefer going the straight way around all of it.
We continued along the fields field edge, and then past a little brook area. Some of the field corners I have to watch closely to make sure I go the right way.

At a certain turn, we make our way to the northeast and use the farm access that takes us out to Upper Sarepta Road just a short distance from the peak of the hill where we had Russ and Ewa's wedding two years prior.
While we walked through the fields, Alex finished one of his beers, so I gave him a weyerbacher Belgian Style Imperial stout, a really good 12% abv beer.
Well, he didn't like it and he traded it for a Coors light and Tea Biscuit ended up with the Weyerbacher.
Then, my dad couldn't handle the Insanity, so he handed that to Tea Biscuit too! So he was double fisting two strong over 12% beers that were traded in for Coors lights!
I couldn't believe it.
We stopped for another group shot at the overlook in Beaver Brook Wildlife Management Area when we got to the top, and then we headed downhill through the fields to the south.
We cut from the first field to the second one, and then into the tree line onto an old road. That led to the left, and before we came out on Sarepta Road, there is a little side path with a view over the old Ledge Road quarry.
We stopped there, then headed out to Sarepta Road, downhill to reach the railroad bed there again.

We turned left and followed the rail grade eastbound and had a good relaxing stretch ahead.

We continued from here and crossed over Hope Crossing Road next, then made our way out to Bridgeville. Mark cut out at the ball fields over there, and the rest of us continued across Rt 519 at the old Bridgeville Station.
A path leads along the old railroad bed across, and then out to the sand quarries off of Rt 46. The ATV path goes to the left of where the railroad was, and follows a good route on the slope, then descends back to the railroad bed again just before getting to Hot Dog Johnny's.
We descended steeply down the slope from there to get to Johnny's and have some lunch.
Once we'd had our fill, we headed back up to the railroad bed and continued on across Green Pond Road and into Buttzville.
We skirted the cemetery, and then descended to cross Rt 46.

The next bit we climbed up, then crossed the Pequest River on the three arch concrete span directly above the former Lehigh and Hudson River Railway.

The railroad bed continues very peacefully from here through Pequest Wildlife Management Area on a high shelf above the LHR line, and through deep woods.
Jack and Serious Sean provided the entertainment with their guitars, and there was plenty of singing and carrying on.
I pointed out just before we passed through the Pequest Cut where the Pequest Furnace Railroad used to go off to the left, and then beyond the cut where the cinder piles are the remanants of the ash from the Pequest Furnace itself.
We continued on and made our way across Pequest Road, then got on the paved trail section that continues into Oxford.

I think my step mom Donna came to pick up my Dad in Oxford, and the rest of us continued on. I know some of the group besides him cut out in Oxford, but I can't for the life of me remember who all did that or not.
We continued on from there and went to the Mountain Valley Liquors to get some more to drink to get us the remaining five or so miles back to Washington.
We didn't bother even trying for the Oxford Tunnel any more.That has been fenced off on both sides, and I was instrumental in getting the Washington side fenced.
When they initially did it, they only fenced the Oxford side, which was insane. Most people going in are going to do so from the Washington side, and if they do make it through the collapses and deep water, they're trapped when they get to the Oxford side and have to risk their lives to go all the way back through. So I pushed to have the Washington side shut.

The well Larry found

The thing is getting to be a real death trap though, because it is collapsed beneath Rt 31. It is my assessment that one of the two major collapses is beneath the highway right of way, and the other is close by. A third is ready to happen because a ceiling bracing is down directly beneath 31.

NJ DOT doesn't acknowledge any of the problems and still haven't looked at the collapses despite the fact that I'd been involved in getting it in the NJ Herald within the last year.

We continued along Rt 31 through Van Nest Gap, and descended to the rail bed when we got over by the south side of the tunnel. We then made our way through into Washington Township and down to cross over Jackson Valley Road. We lost more people here who decided they would try to walk the road for a bit.
I lost Don Mayberry somewhere in this area as well. He was supposed to convene with us at Port Colden but he never showed up later.
Some of us continued on the other side of Jackson Valley Road through the badly overgrown section.
David Adams and I were right up front for this seciton, bullying on through and doing fine. We eventually came out from the woods and to where there are rails in for the former industrial spurs to American Can and Warren Lumber.
I pointed out to everyone in this area where the Morris Canal used to go under the tracks. Some of the group hung back to hear more about it. Galya asked me a question about it, and next thing you know everyone had disappeared ahead of me at a fast rate.
It was about to get dark, but we had just barely enough time to get back to Port Colden. Even if we didn't, I knew where I was going anyway.
Galya and I were the only ones walking when we got to the Rt 31 bridge overpass, and I assumed the group had just continued straight ahead to the rail yard.
At the bridge, there were flashing lights and sirens and such, and we just continued on. I didn't realize at the time that it was going to be anyone in our group.
As it turns out, for some reason they all went down at the highway for no reason, and then ran across 31.
While running straight across 31, Dave fell and busted up his arm extremely badly. He apparently landed just the right way, or the wrong way depending on how you look at it, to break his arm up very badly. He had to go to the hospital and it required a serious surgery. And it figures he wasn't even one of the drunk ones!
The group really came together for him and put their jackets over him to keep him warm and from going into shock.
Brittany walked Serious Sean back toward the parking lot because he was falling over, but other than that apparently everything else went fine.
I came out of the woods to the Warren Plaza and then crossed to the Port Codlen Mall before going back to Port Colden for our bonfire to close the celebration night.

This hike is always one for the record books, and this time was no exception.
Dave had to stay in the hospital, but recovered well enough to join us again in several weeks.