Hike #1429; Wickecheoke Creek

Hike #1429: 7/14/21 Wickecheoke Creek with Jennifer Berndt, Shane Blische, Justin Gurbisz, Professor John DiFiore, Kirk Rohn, Cory Salveson, Linda Salveson, Brittany Weider,  and Thomas McNamee

This next hike would be a point to point Summer day trip on one of my favorite tributaries.

So much stuff had happened recently. After the last hike with Jillane, her water broke and she was in the hospital waiting for our son to be born. I was going there and staying with her most every day.

It was pretty stressful. I tried to be there for her, but she was also in pain, frustrated, wanted to go home, but they wouldn't let her out. Some of that was taken out on me, and so it was better for me to stay away some of the time, while still staying close.
I wanted to try to get one more hike in before my son was born, just in case it would be a while before I could resume any hiking. 

He was going to have to be in the hospital, as we understood, at least a month because he was going to be about two months premature. I was worried, but tried to hold it together and have a more confident facade.

I understood that my weekly night hikes were going to pretty much be ending, and I was already out of work on some family leave, so I took one of the days and said "let's do one more week day hike".

I wanted something with swimming where we could just have a good time and relax. I needed it badly.

I decided that there was some stuff along the Wickecheoke Creek we could definitely do, which was really close to the hospital. 

We could go between Stockton and just outside of Flemington, basically following the entire length of the Wickecheoke. I'd done most of it in the past, but there is always stuff to see different.

We met in Stockton, and then shuttled with as few cars as possible north to the Huey Property, off of Joe Ent Road west of Flemington. 
I still haven't followed all of the trails in this section, but we've now covered much of the trails through the propagation ponds, or at least that's what I think they used to be.

The property is not all that well known, and has some really nice views on the little ponds that are some of the head waters of the Wickecheoke.

When we arrived at the well hidden kiosk, it looked as though someone had either violently vomited all over it in an upward fashion, or angrily spilled (and wasted) milk shake on it or something.

We headed out the trail from here and into the property, around some of the ponds which are mostly mowed around, and eventually back on out to Joe Ent Road where we turned left to continue south.

All of these properties we would be walking on the Wickecheoke that are actually preserved, have the New Jersey Conservation Foundation to thank. 

They have had an invested interest in these properties since the 1980s, and they slowly piece together a terrific greenway.

The worst part was this upper section, because from the Huey Property on down to below Rt 12, there are no other preserved pieces just yet.

We followed this pleasant back road to Allens Corner Road, and turned right for a bit. We then turned to the left on Rake Factory Road, which is a really nice back road also. This one is a little bigger since it has a yellow line in the middle of it, but still was very little used.

While walking down this road, after passing the pastoral views, we entered some woods where I stepped off to the right to take a pee. There, I noted an old stone homestead foundation.

After a bit of walking, the road was lined with tons of American flags, on both signs. Then, just a little further ahead, even the double yellow line in the middle had red, white, and blue painted between.

We reached Oak Grove Road, where we had to go slightly right and then left in order to continue on Rake Factory Road. At this and the previous intersections, a lot of the group was already going way ahead and assuming.

We pushed ahead, the road turned hard right, and Goose Island Road continued straight where we went to the left.

Rake Factory Road had a couple more ninety degree turns before coming out to Sam Levine Road. There, it crossed over the Wickecheoke Creek over an old pony truss bridge, probably built around 1900.

The creek looked rather odd here, different than further south. It was just a shallow stream loaded with grass. We turned right on Sam Levine Road out to Old Croton Road where we turned right.
Pretty soon, we came into the old settlement of Croton. This collection of a few buildings; a bar, a Mexican place, and some homes, is rarely ever referred to as its colloquial name any more. It even once had its own Baptist church, which is still standing. Just to the left of us at the intersection is Kollmer Equipment, a major equipment repair and retailer that occupies the old brick chapel building, gutted and repurposed.

The church building was built in 1865 and used for that purpose until the early 1900s. It then became a paint factory for a time before it was taken over by the equipment retailer.

We continued through Croton on Old Croton Road, and then came to a spot where the Wickecheoke Creek came really close to the road. This was where I had the idea to do something crazier. 

I walked a little too far without looking at my GPS so we did have to backtrack a bit. When we were about where I wanted to be, we watched for no cars to be around, then bushwhacked down into the creek.

We then started walking down the middle of the creek, which made a turn to the south a bit.
Pretty soon, we reached the Rt 12 bridge. We just waded the creek beneath the bridge and onward to the south.
The creek in this next section only comes close to a couple of houses, and then enters a section of NJ Conservation Foundation land that doesn't have any formal trails in it yet. My plan was to get past the first house quietly, and then continue on down and stay away from the shore of the creek to the south or east side until we got into that land.

This is exactly the type of hike to do in early July. When it's hot out, just get in the water and basically stay there or close to it most of the day. It makes it so it never seems quite as hot.
The creek in this section was transitioning from the vegetation filled, more level land stuff out of the farms to the north, to the deeper gorge passing over Piedmont formation falls and cascades. It was a really pretty section and a very pleasant one to walk.
I got way ahead of the rest of the group here, because I could navigate the stream and the rocks probably better than most. I occasionally got out when there was good treadway on the left side.

Soon, we came to the Whiskey Lane bridge over the creek. There were some people walking along the creek when we came out toward the road, but the informal trail from here doesn't go in that far.

The bridge was an open grate structure which are getting to be almost as uncommon as pony trusses. 
When everyone caught up, we turned left and continued to walk down Whiskey Lane to the south. After just a bit, we turned to the right on Locktown School Road for a while.
The old Locktown School itself, a stone structure built in 1868, is still standing as a private residence on the right side of the road.
We continued on from here around a couple of bends, and then soon came out to Locktown Road. Directly across the intersection from us was the old Locktown Church.

Locktown Church was built in 1819, and was originally known as Kingwood. The congregation dated back farther,  having been formed in 1742 in Baptistown.

The first church on the site was an old log cabin. That was replaced by a frame building, and then it too was replaced by the current stone structure.

A quarrel of unknown reason among churchgoers led to them separating into two factions, and one padlocked the door against the other. 

Then, the other side placed another lock, thus locking out the first offenders.  Soon, the tavern keeper, sensing disharmony, procured a large lock and placed it between locks of the two factions. From then, the settlement was known as "Locktown".

The old church even has a step outside in the front apparently for helping get on and off of horses. It's really a beautiful step back in time.
We turned left on Locktown Road a short distance, and then right on Kingwood Locktown Road and checked out the old cemetery to the right, which was associated with the church. It may date back to 1742, the same as the congregation. I wonder if the original church might have been located along the cemetery, but that they outgrew the site and moved up the road. I would assume something like this had happened.

We continued down the road which is very close to the Wickecheoke Creek, then crossed the creek and turned left onto Upper Creek Road. It's also called Upper Creek Road. It seems to change names through municipalities. This lovely unpaved road led us south parallel with it.

After walking a little ways down, there was a section of preserve on the left side, with a little trail that goes back there. This leads to an outstanding little waterfall I often like to visit.

We all went over to it to take a dip. It was getting really hot already and it was just an outstanding place to get in. 
After the break here, we got back on Upper Creek Road and followed it down to Old Mill Road and turned left. This led across the Wickecheoke on another old pony truss bridge.

From this point, the trail actually continues on the road and then cuts back down a little further on, but there was no one around, and if the group was into it, I wanted to try to just keep bushwhacking along the creek or walking in it. I'd never seen the stretch just below here.
Everyone was up for it, and we continued down stream, which had some really lovely little cascades. We were soon in the middle of nowhere on the stream. I headed up the slope to the right pretty much by myself while the others were down below, and I came upon a long abandoned house I had never known was out there. It as in horrible shape so I didn't even dare try to enter it.

There were some more pretty awesome little cascades I'd not seen before, and we reached a trail on the west side of the creek. I'm not sure that I'd followed this before either.

The trails come down from Pine Hill Road on the east side of the creek and follow that side for a bit, and they actually cross the creek with no bridge at a point where during dry weather, one can rock hop across. 

The trail continues a bit on the west side of the creek and then climbs up to join an old woods road. It used to go by an old shed or something that I believe was taken out several years ago. It then emerges at a small parking spot along Upper Creek Road.
We followed the road down the Green Sergeant's Covered Bridge, the only authentically historic covered bridge in Hunterdon County or the state of New Jersey for that matter. It was originally built in 1872.

Like most covered bridges, it went through its share of damages and drama. It was badly damaged in 1960, then dismantled and replaced with a modern bridge next to it. By 1961, public outcry called for the bridge to be repaired and put back. It was rebuilt using as much of the original wood as possible and placed back over the Wickecheoke.

Today, the replacement bridge is still in use for eastbound traffic, while westbound still uses the the queen post truss covered bridge.

The trail actually followed Lower Creek Road beyond here. It passes through the covered bridge and turns right on Lower Creek Road heading to the south.

I was very seriously stressed out through a lot of this. I'd talked to Jill's doctors about the baby coming, and we found out that she was on a very high prescription of adderall during pregnancy that was probably the reason her water broke so early.

I had been feeling guilty for having her out hiking, and she made remarks to make me feel so, but then some of the medications had me seriously questioning all of that.

In addition to the vaping and other stuff. I was worried about her while at the same time feeling very angry. So I had a tough time enjoying the remainder of the hike.

We continued down the road to the south, and eventually the trail turned off to the right and passed through a section of woods, past a big stone pile, and to a nice out look area where there is a major washout. The trail then emerges on Lower Creek Road once again, and crosses the Wickecheoke on another double pony truss bridge. We stopped and went for a dip here.

While here, I stopped and chatted with guy hanging out. It was a good little stop, but I was surprised that hardly anyone wanted to go in the water at this point.

From here, we crossed over Lower Creek Road and headed onto a mowed trail that parallels it, but on the side of the road opposite the creek. It passes through a nice meadow area heading to the south, then comes out to Lower Creek Road yet again. We remained on the road from here out to Rt 29 at Prallsville. The trail does go into the woods to the left a bit, and I think I went in and walked the section, but it's kind of slow going at times there.

At 29, we turned left across the bridge over the Wickecheoke, then turned right into the lot for Prallsville Mills. We walked around the back of the mill and out to the former Belvidere Delaware Railroad, later part of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and turned left to follow it to the south. This brought us out through a secluded little lightly developed area before emerging at our end point in Stockton. I guess we just used on street parking in town for this one just like we did for the night hikes in the past. Overall this was a great day, and a great route. Just the underlying stress was getting to be too much for me to handle, more than I even care to admit. I was trying to prepare for everything, but at the same time trying to get all of my benefit stuff squared away. We had already planned on my exit from parks to go on a paternity leave on the original August due date, and now the baby would be coming almost 2 months sooner. We stopped for pizza in Flemington, and I just couldn't bare to sit and socialize. I was falling apart, and a lot of the only stuff that kept me sane for a long time was going to have to stop.