This next one would be the annual First Day Hike, starting off New Years Day by hiking the entire time. I have made it a point to hike the Warren Highlands Trail as part of that annually.
The year 2021 had been a huge, crazy mental mess for me. I was afraid and unsure what to expect. I became a father after I had come to terms with the concept that the ship might have sailed, and it would never happen for me.
As I went into this new year, I did not have a resolution, and I didn't even realize until I paused to write this journal entry about it that a resolution had not even occurred to me.
I think the only resolution I could have made was the one I was already well into working on: not to screw this up.
I don't feel like I have to have the most perfect child, better at anything than anyone else. I just want him to grow up to be a good person. If I can make that happen, I can ask for nothing more.
We met for this hike at the Phillipsburg boat launch parking lot. At that point, we had plenty of room and could shuttle to our starting point at Ragged Ridge. I think we did it a little different this time, where we parked on Ridge Road, and then hiked up the Warren Highlands Trail to the overlook, then descended by way of the yellow trail back down the ridge. I wanted to eliminate some of the road walking that we would have at the start of it.
There unfortunately wasn't much of a view on Ragged Ridge this time. I pointed out to everyone the native American smoke signal rock, where smoke signals in sequences could be sent to tribesmen on the faraway Blue Mountain and Kittatinny Mountain.
It was drizzling out, but nothing too bad.
We headed down the lollipop loop trail back to the Ragged Ridge parking lot, being careful the entire way about the wet leaves that can cause a lot of slipping.
Once at the parking lot at the bottom, we crossed over into the field property on the other side, and past an historic spring house. There used to be a house up past it, but that was torn down when the state purchased the land.
We continued walking along the field edges to the left, west, then to the north where there was a misty view back over Ragged Ridge where we had just been. The trail then goes through a tree line to the left after passing over the crest of this secondary hill, skirts another field briefly, and then enters woods on a trail.
Once in the woods, it turns to the left on an old woods road that I'd reopened a bit when we started using it as the trail. This took us uphill just a bit more, and near the peak I put another side trail to a secondary little overlook. Eventually I hope to make a foot path through this entire section.
We continued ahead, and the trail goes slightly downhill on an old woods road, then turns hard to the right on another woods road that descends the ridge. It goes rather steeply at first to the boundary of the state property, beyond which is an epic location deer stand, then it turns right on a more gradual slope down to to the northeast a bit.
After a bit, the trail turns harder to the left, then descends through woods to join another woods road, which was previously the road I had intended for use as the Warren Highlands. I want to blaze it and clear it for a loop in the future, if I ever get around to it, but it is not very high priority.
After the left turn and heading down hill a bit more, we turned left onto new trail that Tom and my buddy Verdon Pensyl built one day. Some of it a little further in follows an old woods road, but it's so obscure that hardly anyone would ever even notice. A lot of this needed clearing, and there were several small trees down that would require some cutting, and I figured I would get around to reporting it when I got back to work.
We headed to near the end of the property again, and then turned hard to the right onto new cut foot path, which brought us down hill and into more fields to the north. There, we skirted the edge of the fields on the left side until we got to the edge parallel with Route 519.
I had said I wanted to cut some new trail parallel with 519, to keep out of the way of the farmers, so I made an initial cutting through a wide swath, which was actually full of Ailanthus trees, from the point of field access out to directly across from the field access on the north side of Belvidere Road, into what was formerly the Boyer Farm.
The new trail was pretty nice, above the road, and out of the way of traffic in what would have been a horrible section. The trail comes down at a spot that used to be a field access, but was covered over with dumped rocks and such when the field accesses were switched to the east and west sides instead.
The section was full of spotted lanternflies going after the ailanthus trees. They were dead at this point, but the trees were still loaded with them, and covered in teh black tar type residue that they leave when they get on a tree.
I had stacked some rocks sort of like steps in the ascent/descent here, and I think someone probably came through and improved upon it after me because it seems like it gets more stable every time I go over it. It was probably Deidre, or maybe Celeste, or another coworker Anne who also came out to help work on the section.
We crossed over 519 and followed the farm access out to a field line where the old farm house used to stand.
The house was shown on the 1874 Beers Atlas also, as being home of J. Boyer. I figured it had just been demolished, and nothing at all was left.
The leasing farmer met with Deidre and I at some point after this, and he explained that he was related to the family, and that the house still existed! He said it was a big brick house, and it was completely dismantled and then rebuilt in Pennsylvania, somewhere in Williams Township.
Williams Township is where both my dad and my brother live, so I'll have to keep my eyes open there.
The house was shown on the 1874 Beers Atlas also, as being home of J. Boyer. I figured it had just been demolished, and nothing at all was left.
The leasing farmer met with Deidre and I at some point after this, and he explained that he was related to the family, and that the house still existed! He said it was a big brick house, and it was completely dismantled and then rebuilt in Pennsylvania, somewhere in Williams Township.
Williams Township is where both my dad and my brother live, so I'll have to keep my eyes open there.
The trail then turns left to follow the north side of the fields in a slope high above the Buckhorn Creek, which was originally part of the Lammason's Creek according to old maps (Lammason's Creek still exists but is only a tributary of the Buckhorn Creek these days as I understand).
After a ways, the trail cuts into the woods to the right, and follows a switchback downhill a bit to closer to the edge of the Buckhorn Creek. Tom and I had only finished building this trail the week prior.
We had come out and looked at what needed to be done along the creek and started with some side hill work along a steep section directly on the creek.
That went pretty well, and so we scouted ahead and figured out where we needed the switchback to go up and down to get from the fields to the creek. I had started doing a switchback first, but then decided that it was too steep, so we rebuilt it a bit.
Using rock rakes and our feet, we built a reasonably good switchback that went down at an angle to a point where there were a mess of trees, and then switched back to the west.
We got a long section of trail constructed from this point along the creek out to where an ATV path comes from the hill above and crosses the creek. There was only about fifty or so feet I think that we didn't finish of that section, because we worked on it right up to the close of the work day, we were sore and tired, and just said "screw it".
We followed this section, then continued beyond the ATV path.
This was a tough section to build because it was so close to the property line, which was basically delineated by old fence posts.
We followed the posts to the right when we built this bit of trail, which was often kind of wet.
The roughest part of this was where the trail goes onto a steep slope on the south side of the creek. On the north side, there is a house that has some private land blocking the way, but they encroach with their back yard onto the state park land, and I didn't want to get involved in any of that mess potentially slowing construction of the trail.
At one point, we had to cut the trail around the top of a large tree in the bank. We managed to do it, and beyond that point it was much easier.
The trail goes onto a wider flood plain, and I had carried some scrap wood out into the woods here for people to walk on rather than get into the mud.
To the right, there are abutments where a bridge used to cross the Buckhorn Creek.
We continued on the trail through more wetlands; the creek was off to our right a bit, but another waterway was over to the left. I assume that this was the former site of a saw mill.
Again, the 1874 Beers atlas shows there having been a saw mill in this area, adjacent to the home of Samuel Depue.
We continued on the trail to a little more height of land, where a building would have been standing, and then out to a small flow and a bridge I had built out of an old park wooden gate (with reflectors on it), then out to Hutchinson Station Road.
We turned left on the road and followed it to the south for a bit parallel with a dry wash.
We headed back to Rt 519, turned to the right briefly, and then up into the fields owned by state park service again. From here, we could see the approach to the Van Nest-Hoff-Vanatta Farmstead the trail passes through next. Some of the group walked the road because it was easier.
We came to the farmstead where there was a porta john and we took a little break. While we waited, I went over some of the history of the farmstead as I had known it.
The site is considered a living historic farm type of place, leased from the state to the Harmony Twp Historical Society.
Prior to that, the buildings were all on the state's demolition list, despite being so historic.
The main farm house building was built in 1755, with an addition that came about 1810. Near it, a spring kitchen was also erected about 1810.
Behind the main buildings, there was a bank barn erected in the 1820s. Near the front of the farmstead are two out buildings and a double corn crib and barn combination. The end building sat within the right of way of Rt 519, and so in part with funds from the Warren County Municipal and Charitable Community Trust, the footprint of of all three buildings was shifted back away from the highway, and each was restored.
Once we were ready, we continued following the trail to the back of the farm, and into a swath of woods that we had also recently cut clear. My plan was to cut further into this to try to have a better trail, but we hadn't gotten quite that far yet with the project.
We came out into the field to the left, then followed it up to the next tree line, turned to the right, and then skirted the north side of another field. We just remained on this field edge until the Warren Highlands Trail went back into the woods again.
I had not been on this section in a while either, and it needed some cutting back, but was doing okay.
We headed across a spring, past a big tree, through a former fenced enclosure, and then up a lovely little tributary heading up the mountainside.
The trail turns right and crosses the creek at a spot I picked with an interestingly shaped rock with a pointy top, and makes its way up to the west, to almost the Merrill Creek pumped storage utility clearing. The trail then turned left to climb the remaining distance up to the new parking area off of Ridge Road, at a point we call "Halleluja Hill" because people always put Jesus pamphlets on it and such.
That went pretty well, and so we scouted ahead and figured out where we needed the switchback to go up and down to get from the fields to the creek. I had started doing a switchback first, but then decided that it was too steep, so we rebuilt it a bit.
Using rock rakes and our feet, we built a reasonably good switchback that went down at an angle to a point where there were a mess of trees, and then switched back to the west.
We got a long section of trail constructed from this point along the creek out to where an ATV path comes from the hill above and crosses the creek. There was only about fifty or so feet I think that we didn't finish of that section, because we worked on it right up to the close of the work day, we were sore and tired, and just said "screw it".
We followed this section, then continued beyond the ATV path.
This was a tough section to build because it was so close to the property line, which was basically delineated by old fence posts.
We followed the posts to the right when we built this bit of trail, which was often kind of wet.
At one point, we had to cut the trail around the top of a large tree in the bank. We managed to do it, and beyond that point it was much easier.
The trail goes onto a wider flood plain, and I had carried some scrap wood out into the woods here for people to walk on rather than get into the mud.
To the right, there are abutments where a bridge used to cross the Buckhorn Creek.
We continued on the trail to a little more height of land, where a building would have been standing, and then out to a small flow and a bridge I had built out of an old park wooden gate (with reflectors on it), then out to Hutchinson Station Road.
We turned left on the road and followed it to the south for a bit parallel with a dry wash.
We headed back to Rt 519, turned to the right briefly, and then up into the fields owned by state park service again. From here, we could see the approach to the Van Nest-Hoff-Vanatta Farmstead the trail passes through next. Some of the group walked the road because it was easier.
Prior to that, the buildings were all on the state's demolition list, despite being so historic.
The main farm house building was built in 1755, with an addition that came about 1810. Near it, a spring kitchen was also erected about 1810.
Behind the main buildings, there was a bank barn erected in the 1820s. Near the front of the farmstead are two out buildings and a double corn crib and barn combination. The end building sat within the right of way of Rt 519, and so in part with funds from the Warren County Municipal and Charitable Community Trust, the footprint of of all three buildings was shifted back away from the highway, and each was restored.
I had not been on this section in a while either, and it needed some cutting back, but was doing okay.
We headed across a spring, past a big tree, through a former fenced enclosure, and then up a lovely little tributary heading up the mountainside.
The trail turns right and crosses the creek at a spot I picked with an interestingly shaped rock with a pointy top, and makes its way up to the west, to almost the Merrill Creek pumped storage utility clearing. The trail then turned left to climb the remaining distance up to the new parking area off of Ridge Road, at a point we call "Halleluja Hill" because people always put Jesus pamphlets on it and such.
Once at the top, Deidre had places to be, so she walked to the left down Ridge Road back to her car at the other parking lot where we started. The rest of us turned right on Ridge, then left onto the access road used by Merrill Creek Reservoir to get to their pipe access facility.
We followed the paved road to the end and the access point, and I showed everyone the bit of the view from the overlook of the surrounding area, including Harmony and Lopatcong townships.
From there, the trail follows the pumped storage facility water line, buried here, which was installed in the 1980s. It took us down hill and across a small tributary in a very muddy area.
From there, the trail follows the pumped storage facility water line, buried here, which was installed in the 1980s. It took us down hill and across a small tributary in a very muddy area.
We climbed slightly on the other side, passed through more field, and then the buried utility continues straight where the trail follows fields to the right. This brought us out to a turn into some woods to the left, and into the site of the former Miller Farm.
There is an old corn crib on the left, followed by the old Miller stone barn ahead. It has no roof and no floor, but the vented stone walls remain intact, and we believe it is featured in the Historic Architecture of Warren County book. There is also still a silo standing next to it.
The trail continues on the farm lane along yet another field from here, and then crosses over Harmony-Brass Castle Road into the Merrill Creek property. That led us down hill and across a branch of the Lopatcong Creek. A bridge I had built to get us across is now long gone, so something needs to be rebuilt.
Tanya Sulikowski from Merrill Creek says she is going to work with hunters who do volunteer projects to see if they can help to have a bridge replacement made at the site.
We headed uphill steeply, the steepest section of the entire hike, and then reached where the paved access road reaches a little building. We continued a bit more up hill from here to a switchback. At this point, the access road joins the original alignment of Allens Mills Road, which used to go down to the mills of the same name, now private residences.
The old road can still be seen from Harmony-Brass Castle Road where it joined below.
Tanya Sulikowski from Merrill Creek says she is going to work with hunters who do volunteer projects to see if they can help to have a bridge replacement made at the site.
We headed uphill steeply, the steepest section of the entire hike, and then reached where the paved access road reaches a little building. We continued a bit more up hill from here to a switchback. At this point, the access road joins the original alignment of Allens Mills Road, which used to go down to the mills of the same name, now private residences.
The old road can still be seen from Harmony-Brass Castle Road where it joined below.
From where we joined it, the road used to continue uphill, and goes partially through where Merrill Creek Reservoir is today, then it comes back out.
Allens Mills Road used to continue to the intersection of Richline Road ahead, and to the right, Fox Farm Road joined.
Today, Fox Farm Road has been extended to join Richline Road instead, and beyond Richline Road, the same road is known as Allens Mills Road again.
This is a confusing area, because no one who sees Allens Mills Road today would ever know that it used to be a through route, or why it had that name when the mills for which it was named are really nowhere near it.
When we got to the top of the hill, we continued across and onto the levee and perimeter trail at Merrill Creek Reservoir. I finally got around to blazing the co aligned section with Tanya just recently, which was a good, big step.
We continued on the two trails together, then turned off at the end of the Merrill Creek property to the field section and parking lot off of Fox Farm Road. There was a giant stack of hay bales there which Luke climbed onto the top of.
The trail continues down Fox Farm Road for a bit, and then at the intersection of Wester/Decker Road, it turns right into more fields yet again.
Allens Mills Road used to continue to the intersection of Richline Road ahead, and to the right, Fox Farm Road joined.
Today, Fox Farm Road has been extended to join Richline Road instead, and beyond Richline Road, the same road is known as Allens Mills Road again.
This is a confusing area, because no one who sees Allens Mills Road today would ever know that it used to be a through route, or why it had that name when the mills for which it was named are really nowhere near it.
When we got to the top of the hill, we continued across and onto the levee and perimeter trail at Merrill Creek Reservoir. I finally got around to blazing the co aligned section with Tanya just recently, which was a good, big step.
We continued on the two trails together, then turned off at the end of the Merrill Creek property to the field section and parking lot off of Fox Farm Road. There was a giant stack of hay bales there which Luke climbed onto the top of.
The trail continues down Fox Farm Road for a bit, and then at the intersection of Wester/Decker Road, it turns right into more fields yet again.
We followed the trail through here, which afforded us a great view toward the Delaware Water Gap, although it was pretty much too hazy to see much of anything.
We then headed along the fields to the tree lines, and followed a woods road to the west through the former property of Robert Shandor, who was one of my predecessors with Warren County Board of Recreation.
One of the goals I had for this particular year was the try to add better, endearing names to the properties along the way. In this area, I officially named the site Shandor Summit.
We then headed along the fields to the tree lines, and followed a woods road to the west through the former property of Robert Shandor, who was one of my predecessors with Warren County Board of Recreation.
One of the goals I had for this particular year was the try to add better, endearing names to the properties along the way. In this area, I officially named the site Shandor Summit.
When Bob Shandor Sr was a boy, he and his friends ran up to the top of this lower summit of Scotts Mountain, and he proclaimed to them that he would one day own it.
It sounds like a far fetched child fantasy, but Mr. Shandor made it reality. He did end up owning it.
When it came time to put the trail through the area, the state did not yet own the top of the land, which was retained by Mr. Shandor before he passed, but it was no longer of use to his family.
Matt Davis and I went to Bob Shandor Jr.'s home and discussed the plan, and he allowed us to mark the trail through the tract before the land was officially transferred to the state, that way we could bypass the Land Management Review process. I think Mr. Shandor Sr would be proud of that move.
Matt Davis and I went to Bob Shandor Jr.'s home and discussed the plan, and he allowed us to mark the trail through the tract before the land was officially transferred to the state, that way we could bypass the Land Management Review process. I think Mr. Shandor Sr would be proud of that move.
Because of the way this all played out, and because there was already a peak of the regular Scotts Mountain, I decided an appropriate name for this lower peak would be Shandor Summit. It just sounds cool and appropriate for the place.
We headed past the hawk banding station in the fields, and it was broken into and messed up. We then continued along the fields into the woods, then climbed a bit more to Shandor Summit. There's no view there, but it's pretty steeply down the rest of the way from there. If coming from Harkers Hollow Golf Course, it really is quite a climb.
We made our way down the first slope, then hard right onto another woods road, further down, then hard left onto yet another, and that took us toward the top of the Harkers Hollow Golf Course. Before reaching the green, the trail turns left and descends a bit.
This section was in rough shape and barely recognizable. One of the land owners doesn't want anyone back there even though it is full public, so he runs them out when they go in.
This time, we found more encroachment dumping from the golf course again, and there were wooden posts dumped as well. I got permission to use those posts as trail markers, but I haven't gotten the chance to get over there to do the work lately.
This section was in rough shape and barely recognizable. One of the land owners doesn't want anyone back there even though it is full public, so he runs them out when they go in.
This time, we found more encroachment dumping from the golf course again, and there were wooden posts dumped as well. I got permission to use those posts as trail markers, but I haven't gotten the chance to get over there to do the work lately.
We continued down below the golf course and no one came out to yell at us this time. We then turned right on Rt 519 briefly, and left on Strykers Road. After a bit of paralleling the fairgrounds, the trail turns right into Farmers Fairground land along field edges.
This section wasn't too terrible. We headed to the north, then through the tree line to the next field, along the edge, then through a swath of woods over a foot bridge I built with Matt Davis and others using some scrap wood.
The trail comes out after another field perimeter section along Belvidere Road. It then heads under a half mile to turn right between two houses where there's no parking. We climbed here, and it was starting to rain.
The trail goes up into woods behind L. Scott Smith's house, and he keeps the trail mowed up through the entire area, so it's quite nice. The trail joins Kelly Lane, an old farm lane, and passes what is supposedly the site of the original Harmony Township one room school house, then up past a collapsed corn crib and where a farm house used to stand.
The trail heads further up to the top of the cultivated fields with a great view across Lopatcong Township next.
From here, we head into the woods again, in a rough section to a woods road, then continue on foot path into the county's Marble Hill Natural Resource Area, just after a utility line crossing and intersection with the yellow trail.
The trail goes up into woods behind L. Scott Smith's house, and he keeps the trail mowed up through the entire area, so it's quite nice. The trail joins Kelly Lane, an old farm lane, and passes what is supposedly the site of the original Harmony Township one room school house, then up past a collapsed corn crib and where a farm house used to stand.
The trail heads further up to the top of the cultivated fields with a great view across Lopatcong Township next.
From here, we head into the woods again, in a rough section to a woods road, then continue on foot path into the county's Marble Hill Natural Resource Area, just after a utility line crossing and intersection with the yellow trail.
It was getting a bit rough to walk because the rain was making it so slippery. The trail goes by all of the big trees in the area, and descends to two washes below Lopatcong Park and Phillipsburg High School.
We meandered past the intersection with the other end of the yellow trail, the yellow with red dot trail, and the red trail in this area, then passed the Iron Mine Trail with orange blazes.
Usually, I bring the group through on the orange trail to the old Fulmer iron mine, but this time it was dark at this point. We still had a little ambient light, and some ambient light from across the Delaware River, which was now in view beyond the trees.
We were tired and we didn't need to be doing any extra, plus there was nothing really to see in the dark.
As we took on this final descent from the point of Little Water Gap, or Weygadt Gap, it was nice and gradual. Still, Tom was falling constantly. I was worried that he would fall right off of the cliff. Diane stayed back behind him just a bit and monitored how he was doing, but he kept on falling down. I swear he must have fallen at least twenty times but still kept getting back up.
Usually, I bring the group through on the orange trail to the old Fulmer iron mine, but this time it was dark at this point. We still had a little ambient light, and some ambient light from across the Delaware River, which was now in view beyond the trees.
We were tired and we didn't need to be doing any extra, plus there was nothing really to see in the dark.
As we took on this final descent from the point of Little Water Gap, or Weygadt Gap, it was nice and gradual. Still, Tom was falling constantly. I was worried that he would fall right off of the cliff. Diane stayed back behind him just a bit and monitored how he was doing, but he kept on falling down. I swear he must have fallen at least twenty times but still kept getting back up.
Before we reached the bottom, Tom said "Mike....bro...I'm SO sorry...". I knew he was going to say he needed to cut out, but we were only like a mile from his house, and maybe a mile from the end because the two are so close together.
I told him it was probably easier to just walk back to the cars and I'll take him right back to his house, but he said he was going to try to have his mom pick him up. I said okay, and we got down to the road to follow the designated trail route back to the cars. Usually I do a side trip through a giant pipe in this area, but we didn't even do that this time because it was so late.
It wasn't too long and we were back in the lot. I checked to see if Tom made it okay, but he wasn't answering.
I let Deidre know I hadn't heard from him, and that all I knew was that he made it down to the road from Marble Hill.
As it turns out, he was fine, but he got home and passed out. His phone wasn't working because it had gotten so wet, and so his mom didn't know to come and get him. He ended up walking back up hill to his house after all of that effort to come down Marble Hill!
We made sure from that point that we had contact info on these activities, and I need to step it up and make sure I have them as well.
It was an outstanding start to the new year. Unfortunately, no work would be done on the Warren Highlands Trail for over seven months from this day, and it very badly fell apart.
I let Deidre know I hadn't heard from him, and that all I knew was that he made it down to the road from Marble Hill.
As it turns out, he was fine, but he got home and passed out. His phone wasn't working because it had gotten so wet, and so his mom didn't know to come and get him. He ended up walking back up hill to his house after all of that effort to come down Marble Hill!
We made sure from that point that we had contact info on these activities, and I need to step it up and make sure I have them as well.
It was an outstanding start to the new year. Unfortunately, no work would be done on the Warren Highlands Trail for over seven months from this day, and it very badly fell apart.
It wouldn't be until the Summer with a Youth Corps contract that we could get some of it done, and even then it wasn't all of it.
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