Hike #1422: 6/15/21 Budd Lake to Califon with Ken Zaruni, Justin Gurbisz, Jenny Tull, Luke Freselone, John Edmunds, Professor John DiFiore, Jennifer Berndt, Chris "Cupcake" Kroschinski, Shayna Michaels, Violet Chen, Kirk Rohn, Serious Sean Dougherty, Carolyn Gockel Gordon, and Divya ?
This next hike would be another very different point to point trip, this time between Morris and Hunterdon Counties featuring both things we'd done and not.
We met in Califon, at a lot adjacent to the old stone train station, which was the first of the stone train stations on the entire CNJ system. We then shuttled to the east, to Budd Lake where there was a little strip mall with a Dunkin Donuts in it.
This was actually the same lot where I had first met Jillane formally on her first hike with me.
I put together a really odd route that would be quite interesting for the first half of the trip.
We walked out of this strip mall directly behind the Dunkin Donuts onto Old Wolfe Road. From there, we crossed directly on the entrance to Eagle Rock Village, and cut to the right immediately onto the edge of a retention pond.
We cut into the woods to the right from here, and I had hoped to get on what looked like clear field edges, but it ended up being rather inaccessible, and the woods were getting to be a bushwhack nightmare with the hike only just beginning.
We headed out of there, and then skirted the rear of the development buildings heading kind of uphill.
We cut directly through a swath of woods ahead, and then emerged on Treetop Road near a power line clearing.
We reached the intersection with Caddidy Road, and turned to the right slightly. We dipped down slope here through a grassy area and started following the sidewalk in front of a few apartment or town house buildings in King's Village.
Serious Sean had called me around this time; he was running late and wanted to meet up hoping not to have missed us.
Timing was pretty good, and if he didn't join in here, he would end up unable to meet up with us for quite a while, because I had a back woods section in mind ahead that wouldn't have any nearby parking.
He ended up parking on Cassidy, and we waited a little bit of time for him to show up.
He had just purchased a new car to replace the one he flipped on the last hike, a nice suv type of thing. He'd forgotten a hat, so he started hiking wearing a tee shirt looking kind of like ET the Extraterrestrial, but he can somehow make it work.
Together, we all followed the sidewalk path to the last apartment building, and then turned to the left to skirt the other buildings heading to the south.
When the pathways started turning to the east, we left then and turned west through grass.
We followed along the line of trees to the right and headed west to another set of buildings of Kings Village, and then picked up another bit of sidewalk path from behind them, which led us directly out to Wolfe Road.
From that point, we cut into the woods on a dirt road continuing in the same direction.
Forever ago, this road was once a through road from Wolfe Road to Drakestown Road, but probably not in a century or so.
We followed the road for only a bit, and we started hearing music to the right as I recall. I think this was coming from the development on Svea Drive to the north at this point. I'm not sure.
When we reached a clearing to the left side of the old road, we cut to the south. This led us out to the confluence of a small stream with the South Branch of the Raritan River, which itself was quite a small stream at this point.
The South Branch finds is source at Budd Lake, one of New Jersey's largest natural lakes.
We were able to cross the smaller brook and began following the South Branch downstream, along its eastern side.
There were pretty sandy spots, and flood plains lush with skunk cabbage and hay ferns. There were also some giant trees including some handsome beaches with no initials or anything scribed into their bark.
There came to be a place where there was a very steep slope on the east side of the river, so we had to gain a little elevation high above it. It widened out into what had been once a pond.
Near the intersection of Flanders-Drakestown Road and River Road, the old dam could be seen for many years, and I seemed to recall it being replaced in somewhat recent years, but the lake area was not holding very much water at all.
We continued around the upper slope of this pond area, and then reached the concrete dam spillway.
I gave the option of going out to Flanders-Drakestown Road ahead if anyone wanted, but I was going to go walk across the dam and through the water flowing over the bit of spillway in the middle. Most of the group opted to following me at this point.
We got across the dam, and then climbed up to River Road on the other side.
From there, we continued on River Road uphill to the intersection with Drakestown Road.
I would like to have cut through more farm land straight ahead from this intersection, but I didn't want to have any trespassing issues, so we turned left on Drakestown Road for just a bit.
Soon, we turned right on Arbor Way heading southwest. The road walking wasn't too bad here. It was not up hill after River Road, and it was a welcome break after some of the rough stuff along the South Branch.
Jen met up with us at the end of Arbor Way where there is a small cul de sac.
We turned left there on Thomas Farm Lane heading south.
We soon emerged on Flocktown Road, and I think I was considering a bit of power line walking, but some of it is fenced off ahead, and directly from Flocktown it is looking rather overgrown. Instead, we turned right on Flocktown Road for a short bit, and then left on Warwick Drive heading south I believe.
We turned left on Devon Road ahead of here, and followed that to Bolton Drive where we turned to the cul de sac.
A woods road entered at the end of this, and then we turned to the right to follow a power line clearing.
Heading down the power line, there is a piece of preserved land I had never been into to the right of it.
We continued down this semi cleared right of way, and when I saw on my phone GPS about the correct spot to turn, we cut into the woods and stated bushwhacking to the south. There is a piece of private land ahead, and I didn't want to get too close to that, but there is a hidden, almost abandoned tennis court or something in these woods.
We headed through the woods for a bit, and it really wasn't very long of a bushwhack at all before we got to the tennis court hidden in the woods a bit off of Fawnridge Drive.
John Edmunds would meet up with us for the first time in a while at this point.
We all stopped and took a needed break after the rough spot at the tennis court area.
When John joined us, we headed out from the courts and crossed over a small foot bridge that crosses a branch of the Stony Brook.
I chatted with John for quite a long time about the current politicians and the lies they'd been outright caught in. He'd been very close to a lot of this through his Eyes on New Jersey news programs online, and had some interesting experiences himself.
The paved trail then skirts another open field, passes a playground, and then comes out on Fawnridge Drive.
I think we turned left here, and then right on Brooklawn Drive, then another left briefly on Fawnridge, followed by a right on Acorn Drive. We followed this to Naughright Road, then turned left for a short bit.
After that short bit, we turned left into Schooleys Mountain Park at an access that heads out to the meadows on the northeastern side of the park. I hadn't hiked this part in a while.
We passed along the meadows, and then made our way into the the main lot of Schooleys Mountain Park.
We walked by the restrooms and the pavilion, then headed slightly down hill across the Patriots Path. We reached the edge of Lake George, and then continued along its eastern shore down to where the Boulder Gorge Trail starts off.
We turned down through the gorge, which is always a pleasure to see. The rocks and cascades through here along the Electric Brook are quite stunning.
When we got down to the first cascade, I took the opportunity to take a dip in it.
It wasn't quite dark yet, so the others took a break and waited while a few others came in.
After our cool off, we headed down stream just a bit more, and saw the next waterfall down, which is almost as pretty as the first one. We continued on the trail downstream from there, and the trail turns hard let to climb from this trail and back to the gorge to the Patriots Path.
When we got to where the trail met up with the Patriots Path and Highlands Trail, which are co-aligned at this point, we made the left turn up to the overlook on Schooleys Mountain, at a point that was once an old quarry wall.
There is a great view here down to Long Valley, where the church steeply and several buildings be seen.
We started heading back down from here on the Patriots Path and Highlands Trail across Fairview Ave in Long Valley. We crossed, then crossed the parking lot, then reached the former High Bridge Branch of the Central Railroad of New Jersey.
We turned right on the right of way, which the counties, foolishly named the Columbia Trail.
I can't bring up enough times that there is another rail trail that ends in Columbia NJ.
We headed into the woods for just a little bit, and then took a side trip on the Gillette Trail, which leads downhill to the left, past a former house site, and then across the South Branch of the Raritan at a great little swimming hole. The bridge there is an old concrete former farm bridge. The water stays very deep there.
A lot of the group decided to go in at this point, and the others just sat up on the shore.
This is a great place with a magical feeling and lightning bugs everywhere. I absolutely love night swimming at this spot and would do it several times per year if I could.
We headed out from here, back to the rail trail, and headed west.
The rail bed and trail deviate just after Frazier Industrial, and the trail follows a short section of what was the Chester Branch of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, then turns off and right to follow some meadow edges.
The trail rejoins the old railroad bed at the intersection with Welch Farm Road on the trail, where there is a cul de sac but no parking.
It's always weird to walk through this area, because I'd been hiking through it while the Welch Farms facility was still standing.
Now the area is just loaded with town houses and giant homes.
We continued across Fairview Ave, and then passed the former station site on the right side, where a bank sits close to the historic site of the original building.
From here, we soon crossed over Schooleys Mountain Road. The trail then continues into very dark woods where it only crosses like one driveway for the entire stretch from here to Middle Valley.
We crossed over at Middle Valley, then continued on through pleasant lands, across the South Branch of the Raritan by way of a deck girder bridge.
Just ahead of that point is a missing bridge that had very low clearance with only abutments and one pier still in place. The trail goes up and down there.
The next crossing after that was the flag stop Crestmoore.
The trail for years used to be closed at this little section because it went through the Jenkinson tree form. The railroad had been planted over and was not discernible through evergreens and other stuff. In more recent years, Morris County Park Commission went right on through with it on the exact right of way, which was apparently an encroachment by the tree farm.
We continued across from here, and I think I was so incredibly tired that without thinking I walked up a ways on the lane toward Bob Jenkinson's farm. We had to backtrack to the trail, then continued to cross the Hunterdon County line at West Valley Brook Road where there is trail parking. We then continued through nice woods to Vernoy.
Vernoy was just a little settlement, where Vernoy Road passes alongside the railroad bed.
The trail was never actually "built", or rather resurfaced, in the stretch next to the road as it was always used by local parking. I suspect it'll eventually be done there.
We crossed Vernoy Road ahead again, and then continued out parallel with it as it became Bank Street heading into Califon.
Just before this spot on the right was where there was a former quarry spur that led out to the stone quarry where the rock was procured for construction of the Califon station. Three large rocks mark the former spur site today.
The town of California was the original name, and the townspeole wanted a stone station, but the Central Railroad wasn't building such extravagances yet. However, they agreed to construct the station if the town provided the stone for it.
They agreed, and the handsome station was constructed of the locally sourced material. The story goes that the sign maker made the sign too small to put the name "California", and so he abbreviated it to Califon, and it became the name.
I feel it is more likely that the town name was changed due to post office issues. When another town already used the same name for their post office, towns usually chose another name.
There are a few places called California; there was even a little settlement in Pennsylvania along the Bethlehem Branch of the Reading Railroad that had that name.
The line we were walking was the major artery for iron mining for the Central Railroad. Chester Mines, Hacklebarney and Langdon Mines, Mt Hope mines, Hibernia Mines, and Ogden Mines, and everything on the Wharton and Northern and Farney Highlands of Morris County fed into the High Bridge Branch to the south.
The mining started to die down, and then it found a second life as a tourism line, and everyone off of the Central Railroad of NJ main would use the High Bridge Branch as the access to the east side of Lake Hopatcong.
There was a time that over fifty thousand people took the trains to the vacation sites on this line per Summer.
This was actually the same lot where I had first met Jillane formally on her first hike with me.
I put together a really odd route that would be quite interesting for the first half of the trip.
We cut into the woods to the right from here, and I had hoped to get on what looked like clear field edges, but it ended up being rather inaccessible, and the woods were getting to be a bushwhack nightmare with the hike only just beginning.
We headed out of there, and then skirted the rear of the development buildings heading kind of uphill.
We cut directly through a swath of woods ahead, and then emerged on Treetop Road near a power line clearing.
Serious Sean had called me around this time; he was running late and wanted to meet up hoping not to have missed us.
Timing was pretty good, and if he didn't join in here, he would end up unable to meet up with us for quite a while, because I had a back woods section in mind ahead that wouldn't have any nearby parking.
He had just purchased a new car to replace the one he flipped on the last hike, a nice suv type of thing. He'd forgotten a hat, so he started hiking wearing a tee shirt looking kind of like ET the Extraterrestrial, but he can somehow make it work.
Together, we all followed the sidewalk path to the last apartment building, and then turned to the left to skirt the other buildings heading to the south.
When the pathways started turning to the east, we left then and turned west through grass.
From that point, we cut into the woods on a dirt road continuing in the same direction.
Forever ago, this road was once a through road from Wolfe Road to Drakestown Road, but probably not in a century or so.
We followed the road for only a bit, and we started hearing music to the right as I recall. I think this was coming from the development on Svea Drive to the north at this point. I'm not sure.
The South Branch finds is source at Budd Lake, one of New Jersey's largest natural lakes.
We were able to cross the smaller brook and began following the South Branch downstream, along its eastern side.
There were pretty sandy spots, and flood plains lush with skunk cabbage and hay ferns. There were also some giant trees including some handsome beaches with no initials or anything scribed into their bark.
We continued around the upper slope of this pond area, and then reached the concrete dam spillway.
I gave the option of going out to Flanders-Drakestown Road ahead if anyone wanted, but I was going to go walk across the dam and through the water flowing over the bit of spillway in the middle. Most of the group opted to following me at this point.
From there, we continued on River Road uphill to the intersection with Drakestown Road.
I would like to have cut through more farm land straight ahead from this intersection, but I didn't want to have any trespassing issues, so we turned left on Drakestown Road for just a bit.
Soon, we turned right on Arbor Way heading southwest. The road walking wasn't too bad here. It was not up hill after River Road, and it was a welcome break after some of the rough stuff along the South Branch.
Jen met up with us at the end of Arbor Way where there is a small cul de sac.
We turned left there on Thomas Farm Lane heading south.
We soon emerged on Flocktown Road, and I think I was considering a bit of power line walking, but some of it is fenced off ahead, and directly from Flocktown it is looking rather overgrown. Instead, we turned right on Flocktown Road for a short bit, and then left on Warwick Drive heading south I believe.
A woods road entered at the end of this, and then we turned to the right to follow a power line clearing.
Heading down the power line, there is a piece of preserved land I had never been into to the right of it.
We continued down this semi cleared right of way, and when I saw on my phone GPS about the correct spot to turn, we cut into the woods and stated bushwhacking to the south. There is a piece of private land ahead, and I didn't want to get too close to that, but there is a hidden, almost abandoned tennis court or something in these woods.
We all stopped and took a needed break after the rough spot at the tennis court area.
When John joined us, we headed out from the courts and crossed over a small foot bridge that crosses a branch of the Stony Brook.
I chatted with John for quite a long time about the current politicians and the lies they'd been outright caught in. He'd been very close to a lot of this through his Eyes on New Jersey news programs online, and had some interesting experiences himself.
The paved trail then skirts another open field, passes a playground, and then comes out on Fawnridge Drive.
I think we turned left here, and then right on Brooklawn Drive, then another left briefly on Fawnridge, followed by a right on Acorn Drive. We followed this to Naughright Road, then turned left for a short bit.
We walked by the restrooms and the pavilion, then headed slightly down hill across the Patriots Path. We reached the edge of Lake George, and then continued along its eastern shore down to where the Boulder Gorge Trail starts off.
We turned down through the gorge, which is always a pleasure to see. The rocks and cascades through here along the Electric Brook are quite stunning.
When we got down to the first cascade, I took the opportunity to take a dip in it.
It wasn't quite dark yet, so the others took a break and waited while a few others came in.
After our cool off, we headed down stream just a bit more, and saw the next waterfall down, which is almost as pretty as the first one. We continued on the trail downstream from there, and the trail turns hard let to climb from this trail and back to the gorge to the Patriots Path.
There is a great view here down to Long Valley, where the church steeply and several buildings be seen.
We started heading back down from here on the Patriots Path and Highlands Trail across Fairview Ave in Long Valley. We crossed, then crossed the parking lot, then reached the former High Bridge Branch of the Central Railroad of New Jersey.
I can't bring up enough times that there is another rail trail that ends in Columbia NJ.
A lot of the group decided to go in at this point, and the others just sat up on the shore.
This is a great place with a magical feeling and lightning bugs everywhere. I absolutely love night swimming at this spot and would do it several times per year if I could.
We headed out from here, back to the rail trail, and headed west.
The rail bed and trail deviate just after Frazier Industrial, and the trail follows a short section of what was the Chester Branch of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, then turns off and right to follow some meadow edges.
We continued across Fairview Ave, and then passed the former station site on the right side, where a bank sits close to the historic site of the original building.
From here, we soon crossed over Schooleys Mountain Road. The trail then continues into very dark woods where it only crosses like one driveway for the entire stretch from here to Middle Valley.
We crossed over at Middle Valley, then continued on through pleasant lands, across the South Branch of the Raritan by way of a deck girder bridge.
The next crossing after that was the flag stop Crestmoore.
The trail for years used to be closed at this little section because it went through the Jenkinson tree form. The railroad had been planted over and was not discernible through evergreens and other stuff. In more recent years, Morris County Park Commission went right on through with it on the exact right of way, which was apparently an encroachment by the tree farm.
We continued across from here, and I think I was so incredibly tired that without thinking I walked up a ways on the lane toward Bob Jenkinson's farm. We had to backtrack to the trail, then continued to cross the Hunterdon County line at West Valley Brook Road where there is trail parking. We then continued through nice woods to Vernoy.
We crossed Vernoy Road ahead again, and then continued out parallel with it as it became Bank Street heading into Califon.
Just before this spot on the right was where there was a former quarry spur that led out to the stone quarry where the rock was procured for construction of the Califon station. Three large rocks mark the former spur site today.
The town of California was the original name, and the townspeole wanted a stone station, but the Central Railroad wasn't building such extravagances yet. However, they agreed to construct the station if the town provided the stone for it.
They agreed, and the handsome station was constructed of the locally sourced material. The story goes that the sign maker made the sign too small to put the name "California", and so he abbreviated it to Califon, and it became the name.
There was a time that over fifty thousand people took the trains to the vacation sites on this line per Summer.
We continued past the Califon Lumber place and across the Main Street to reach the parking lot across from the station to finish the hike.
It was another really great one I very much enjoyed, with a lot of places I'd really wanted to have a look at. Just a really great time.
No comments:
Post a Comment