Hike #1474; 3/20/22 East Newark to Montclair Heights with Chris "Cupcake" Kroschinski, David Adams, Gregory Andres, Justin Gurbisz, ?, Professor John DiFiore, Kirk Rohn, Tina Chen, Kat Cataldo, Diane Reider, Melissa ?, Ken McCabe & his girlfriend, Violet Chen, Robin Deitz, Stephen Argentina, Serious Sean Dougherty, and Cindy Browning
This next hike would be a point to point, and sort of starting the series on the Greenwood Lake Branch of the Erie Railroad. This was something I’d been wanting to hit as a series completely; I’d already done most of it anyway, but was missing enough sections that I figured I should do it all again.
Just the previous month, we had hiked the first bit of it as part of my new Hackensack River series. It was an obvious overlap, and so too would be a portion of this hike.
I've already gone over the history of the line in previous journals, but will reiterate some of it for those who haven't seen that.
The line started life as the Montclair Railway, established in 1867. By the 1870s, it ran from Croxton, in northern Jersey City, just north of Journal Square in Jersey City, all the way to Sterling Forest NY. We had walked the Croxton Yard to the Hackensack River crossing on that last hike.
The financially troubled line went into
receivership and became the Montclair and Greenwood Lake Railway in 1875, and
was reorganized as the New York and Greenwood Lake Railway in 1878. The
railroad was controlled by the powerful Erie.
The subsidiary Arlington Railroad was created
in 1887 as a new, more direct route over the Kearny Meadows, which was much of
what we had walked before, as well as what we would be walking this time.
The line was abandoned in stages to the north, with the segment to Greenwood Lake going first, followed by other stuff on the way down to Pompton Junction. Below there, tracks remained in place all the way to Mountainview until the time of this writing, August 2022 when they were removed, literally within days of this writing.
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| 2000 view by Rich Taylor |
Below Mountainview, the line is still used as the Montclair-Boonton Branch of NJ Transit. Up until 2002, it was used by NJ Transit right on up through Croxton, but was cut off in Montclair area for a new connection to eliminate the Hackensack River crossing.
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| 2013 |
For years, this has been proposed as the "Iron and Ice Trail", because the line shipped both iron ore from the Hudson Highlands, and ice in the days before refrigeration. It seemed that the project was eternally stalled.
Then, in November 2021, NJ Governor Phil Murphy announced that the state of NJ was purchasing the line from Norfolk Southern, and that it would be made into a trail.
The price tag on this $65 million, which does not count any development of the project at all, only purchase. That makes the project the most expensive rail trail project in the history of the world.
Nine miles of the line are purchased at what
comes out to be more than $300K per acre, for a tract of land that due to
slopes, and the fact that much of it is on a causeway, would be otherwise
undevelopable and is already known to be contaminated.
I'm all for saving and using these derelict
corridors, but this price tag is insane, and to make matters worse, Norfolk
Southern is one of few corporations that has declined to disclose their
campaign contributions of the past three years. That makes this entire
boondoggle illegal, but no one is saying anything.
To add insult to injury, Murphy said this would be the "crown jewel of the NJ State Park system", which is a huge slap in the face to every other state park when we consider amazing places like Worthington, Stokes, High Point, Cape May Point, and so many others.
Aside from that previous Croxton to the bridge trip, I had walked the bit out on the Meadowlands to Arlington, and then to the Passaic River crossing before, but I had never walked anything from there west to Montclair. I had walked across but never parallel with the active part up through Montclair.
From Mountainside, I had walked the entire line north through Pompton Junction and beyond to Wanaque Reservoir area. I had then walked parallel with some. Some of it goes under the Monksville Reservoir, and I'd done then most of it from where it comes out to Greenwood Lake.
This section was part of the 9 Murphy miles, which was why I wanted to get out there and walk it as soon as possible. It might not be something we could wait on because it would be changed forever soon.
I planned on a meeting point at the Montclair Heights Station, now NJ Transit, because it looked like there was free weekend parking as per the NJ Transit website, and it was about the distance I wanted to get to. Once there, we all shuttled with as few cars as possible to the Shop Rite in Kearny to begin our hike.
My plan was that we would wander to the south at this point, to where the "Orphan Annie" Bridge is permanently set in the upright position.
The lift bridge is the former Newark Branch of the Erie Railroad that has not seen any train service since 1977. The bridge was featured in the Orphan Annie movie in the early 1980s I think it was. It's come to be known as the Annie Bridge.
Once we reached that point, my plan was to trace the old Newark Branch of the Erie to the east out to the junction with the Greenwood Lake Branch, which was on a causeway out in the middle of the Hackensack River. We would then turn left and follow the Greenwood Lake Branch the rest of the day.
We walked along the store fronts to the south a bit, and out to Passaic Avenue. When we got to the intersection with Johnston Ave, close to the Annie Bridge, we cut up hill at an angle to the old Newark Branch.
This was apparently used as recently as 2000, because popular railroad history photographer Rich Taylor had taken a shot and shared it to the Metrotrails post at the site. It's not too hard to believe considering the Greenwood Lake Branch beyond had been used a recently as 2002. In fact, I am quite certain I rode over the Greenwood Lake Branch.
We headed east through weeds, then open area across Grant Avenue. When we had walked this in 2013, the rails were all exposed and visible, but now they were covered over completely with crushed stone aggregate for I suppose a parking area. It was definitely not a trail type of thing.
Ahead, the line went beneath Kearney Ave. This area too was covered over in crushed stone, and where we were able to walk beneath the culvert and continue in 2013, this time there was a chain link fence under the bridge. We had to go up to the right and then climb back down the other side along a concrete wall.
We continued on and passed beneath a pedestrian bridge at 5th Street, and crossed Davis Street at grade. Rich Taylor shared a great photo of this site as well from his own collection.
All of the right of way at this point was covered over with crushed stone, and best I could tell was that the rails were still beneath all of that. They emerged again after Davis Street, and we paralleled West Hudson Park. The right of way became a parking area we went through, and then had to cut down hill to the right along some apartment buildings, then came back to the right of way again at Central Avenue. We pushed ahead parallel with another ball field park there, and then crossed Schuyler Avenue. There, we popped some of the Governor's wine and drank it for the next several miles. It only seemed appropriate with the new acquisition coming up.
We skirted an industrial area where the rails were buried, but they became visible again near the end of that complex, which had a bit of a siding still visible, and passed beneath the former Lackawanna Railroad bridge.
This was a branch that connected two branches of the Lackawanna Railroad by shortcutting along and skirting the Hackensack Meadowlands.
We continued with rails all exposed from this point, in a pretty dense area surrounded by wetlands as we made our way onto the Meadowlands.
When we did this in 2013, it was all so terribly wet that we got to a spot where we couldn't cross without getting a mess. We had to backtrack to the CNJ line and some graffiti artists directed us to follow that to the next road to get through. This time, Serious Sean went ahead to see if by chance the water was low enough, and it was.
We continued on the tracks to the east, and then crossed Bergen Ave followed by an industrial driveway. It got to be much more wide open as we headed east over the wetlands, parallel with a toll plaza and Rt 280. There was a causeway after that on the left, followed by an underpass of the NJ Turnpike. We regrouped under the bridge and checked out the waterfront views, then continued on a bit more ahead to the crossing of the Belleville Turnpike overhead.
At this one, we turned to the right a little bit and checked out some even better waterfront views. This entire area was pretty heavily used by ATVs which is surprising that they get out there. There is definitely some sort of an access because the pickup trucks with the trailers was parked beneath the bridges. To the left in a clearing they were parked and partying along the waterfronts. It didn't seem like an odd spot for it except that I'm surprised they were getting away with it with no police coming by, along such a busy highway.
We continued along the causeway, and there was a spot where another right of way went to the south, and then we joined the Greenwood Lake Branch, which was most recently used as part of the NJ Transit Boonton Branch in 2002.
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| 2013 |
When I hiked this through in 2013, I didn't go all the way to the end to the swinging bridge. I think I was stupidly in a hurry to get through to the next bit because there were so many miles to do, or maybe someone was meeting up. I forget. Jen was trying to meet up with us this time, but she ended up not finding the spot to park and went home before ever joining up.
We got out to the bridge, and were able to walk right out to the very end of it where the bridge fit together. Serious Sean and Justin went out to the wooden bulkheads on the sides as well.
Beyond, we had a great view of Snake Hill, the rock formation we had climbed to the top of just on the previous hike, which the railroad went by.
Officially named Laurel Hill, because some politician or something said it was the crowning Laurel of the area or something, was originally known as Snake Hill, in Secaucus NJ.
The igneous rock formation towers 203 ft above the Hackensack River Meadowlands on Hudson County park property.
It was named "Slangenbergh" or "Snake Mountain" by Dutch colonists in the 1650s.
The area around the hill was home to a penal colony, a tuberculosis clinic, and alms house, and an asylum. Over five thousand bodies from the adjacent potters field cemetery were re-interred after NJ Turnpike constructions between 1950 and 2003, and some 9000 plus remain.
Quarrying took place during prison years and ended with an asphalt plant operation in 1982. Four fifths of the original outcrop had been removed.
When Laurel Hill Park was opened on the north side, it was the first new park in Hudson County in 77 years.
My old friend John Trontis, who first hired me into parks, had decided to trespass up there many years ago to watch the fireworks with coworkers, and in doing so came up with the idea for the park. Unfortunately, there is still no official trail to the top, which is sad because the view is stunning.
The trail plan at this bridge site will be complicated because the closed bridge would cause problems for navigation, and it is said that it will never be reopened. There is a plan as I understand to instead have the trail go to the south, cross on one of the road bridges, and then go back across to Jersey City.
We headed back out from the bridge, and then checked out a building that used to have electric stuff in it on the edge of the bridge. From the steps of the building, we could see the bridge of the former Pennsylvania Railroad to the right, which is the current NJ Transit crossing spot.
We probably spent more time out at this spot than we should have, but I made no big deal about it because it is certainly going to change very soon.
We turned and started walking back to the west here, and checked out pretty much every piece of infrastructure that was left strewn about along the way. There were boxes and poles and such. Some of the group climbed these. To the right, there were fences, which were intended to keep debris from flowing and washing over the tracks and posing a problem for derailment. After Irene and Sandy around 2010, much of this washed out pretty badly and the fences were damaged.
We eventually passed beneath the NJ Turnpike again, and there were tracks suspended in the air from flooding beneath it and beyond. There was also some really pretty amazing graffiti beneath there.
We continued from there, and soon came to the underpass of Rt 7/Belleville Turnpike.
Compared to 2013, the area before this looked quite a lot the same, but after started getting much more overgrown.
There were more big washouts and suspended rails through this area, but there was also a lot more tree growth. Little sticks of trees were up everywhere, and we had to descend to a path below the suspended rails to a point that might have been as much as six feet below the track grade at one point. We were fortunate it was not wet this time, or we'd had to have gone around or through the water.
We continued out of this sloppy section, and skirted more land and businesses to the right, with the wetlands to the south. Here, there was young forest taking over the tracks. ATVs had kept the path to the right, the former second track, clear of vegetation, but the trees were surprisingly good sized. These will likely all be removed as part of the trail development.
Pretty soon, we came to an outlook area to the left where we could see the Lackawanna Railroad branch we had passed beneath on the Newark Branch earlier. It was badly overgrown, and barely recognizable as a railroad. Some of it was just in the water and muck. I'd like to try to walk that one some day, but I know it'll be a tough one.
We continued ahead more, and the right of way opened up more. To the right, there was an old coaling trestle at an industry. I'm not sure what it was, but there was an abandoned building to the right.
There was a doorway to the place that was right along the tracks, and it was unlocked, so we went in to look around.
We went all the way to the top floor in the place, and it looked like some kind of work was going on, so hopefully the building would be repurposed. When we got to the top, we descended via the fire escape to a lower level, and then walked around the outside for a better look. There was a nice view from this area east toward the NY City skyline. We could also see the coaling trestle much better.
Around the east side of the building, there was a little brick lined tunnel we decided to check out. Lots of stuff had been placed in it. It was some sort of conduit for various utilities it seemed, and so we went back into it.
This thing took us way back to a dead end, and maybe some of the utilities in it were still used. The walls were lined with ridges of brick, which led me to believe it was in place to hold onto more utilities. There were some broken pipes in it. The tunnel once continued on further, but was busted away. The entrance bore evidence that it was longer and had been destroyed.
From here, we made our way back to the railroad tracks, where Sean found a motorcycle sitting there. He sat on it for a bit, and fell off. The thing was really in good shape, and could probably be restored. Hopefully someone went and picked it up. I assume it was probably stolen.
We passed through a bit of a cut and beneath Schuyler Ave, then came to Forest Street and the former site of the Arlington Station. The platform area was still there, rails in place. Sean found a hand saw he carried with him for a while.
We crossed Elm and Devon Street at grade, then went beneath Chestnut Street.
We continued from the former station site, which I had found some more historic photos of, and headed into the deepest cut of the trip.
The Arlington cut was super impressive; it almost looked like it should have been tunneled, except for the fact that the rock was probably too brittle for it.
This cut got very weedy, and very wet at times. Some of it was pretty hard to pass through, and definitely a bit harder than it was in 2013. Some of the group was trying to avoid it, and went up the left side near Chestnut Street. They wandered along and went beneath Chestnut Street.
Serious Sean found a bible laying up there, and when he got to the underpass, he started reading from it in a foreboding voice, occasionally slamming his hand saw into something. He was also wearing the bright red blazer I'd given him a while back, which made it that much funnier.
The rest of us pushed on through, and passed beneath the Hillcrest Foot Bridge. There was a section of the cliff to the right that was collapsing, and had been shorn up with metal and such. The deepest part of the cut was quite impressive.
I think Serious Sean, John, and Diane ended up staying on top of the cliff, and headed out by way of someone's back yard without being detected. There was some chatter about how crazy it looked, with a guy wearing a red blazer, and carrying a bible and a wood saw!
We all got back together when we got to the east side of the bridge over the Passaic River. Ken and his girlfriend cut out at this point due to prior obligations.
I had been considering going across this bridge, but then decided against it the night before because I was told it was chain link fenced off since the last time I was there. It used to be that you could just walk right out onto it, but now had to swing around a fence.
I was talking to my friend, author Wheeler Antabanez the night before, and he suggested that the bridge was in really rough shape, and that probably only Justin and I could handle going over it.
When we got there, I didn't think it was all that bad, and decided to go over. Some of the group opted to turn to the right and go up to the Belleville Turnpike bridge, and the rest of us would just push on along the railroad. I figured it might take us some time, so it would be pretty easy for them to catch up.
Kirk, Tina, Greg, Violet, John, Diane, Sean, Cupcake, Kat, and Justin all followed me across.
Once on the other side, and there was another chain link fence over there. We managed to get around it, and then had a nice section of path along the tracks that led past an old signal and across McCarter Highway bridge. We then passed through a section of badly overgrown railroad track, and reached yet another bridge, this time over the former Newark Branch of the Erie.
The old railroad bed below was now some sort of salvage yard, and big metal gates with pointy tops blocked us from getting over onto the bridge. I had to go down to the right at the end of the bridge, and then climb carefully back up the slanted concrete wall to the bridge base. We all did that, crossed, then had to do the same down to the right on the other side. We swung back around again, and then climbed back up to continue on the railroad ahead. The tracks were still in place.
This next section must have recently been a tent city. It was loaded with so much trash it was unbelievable. There was no walking through without being on tons of trash, so much that we couldn't even see the tracks at some points.
After we pushed through this segment, we reached the bridge over Broadway, and on the other side was the North Newark Station, also known as Newark Broadway Station. It was still used as a NJ Transit station stop up until 2002.
The rail bed was blocked off at this point by another salvage yard or something, so we had to descend from the bridge, and then turn onto Verona Ave heading to the west, immediately parallel with the line. It was at this point that Cindy met up with us.
Some guy was going by on a bike with some sort of amplifier going on about Jesus or something. He paused to preach to us about something, like a very strong assertion of faith to unexpected bystanders, but Sean opened his bible he'd found, saw in hand, and asked the guy something about Archangel Michael or something in a page that he had turned to. The guy on the bike was thoroughly distraught, confused, and had no further comments. Someone like this preaches and expects no response like this, and it very visibly threw him off as he remounted his bicycle and took off shouting into his amplifier as if he had never encountered us at all!
The others that went around met back up with us in this area. We headed west on Verona Ave, and then turned right on Summer Ave I think it was. There, we were able to go across the right of way and more closely parallel with it on another street to the north, past lots of industrial buildings with pretty amazing graffiti.
When we reached Prospect Avenue, at this point in Belleville, we had to turn right to another block to the north, and then go left on Tiffany Blvd. We then went left on Agate Place which took us to Greenwood Lake Street, clearly named for the original branch line.
We walked on the street just briefly, and at the end of a fence we were able to get back on the railroad bed and follow it west. There were signal towers and such still in place, but no visible rails. I think they may still be there, only buried under piled up earth.
The area ahead was once a junction just north of Branch Brook Park. Another right of way went off to the let with crossing signs still in place at Manchester Place and Highland Avenue. It is my understanding that some of this was in service for a distance later than 2002. Just a bit to the west on this other branch, it becomes the Newark Light Rail. That line turns away from this right of way we were looking at in a short distance, and is then built on and in the former Morris Canal.
We continued to the right at this junction site on the former Greenwood Lake Branch/Boonton Branch, and the rails emerged from under earth cover. We passed apartment buildings and the line was far less overgrown than anything we had been on earlier, and then crossed a high bridge over the Second River and part of Belleville Park.
We crossed Mill Street near a restaurant, but we didn't really have time to stop for a meal because it was getting so late. I wanted to try to make it a bit further first.
We continued north and skirted a golf course on the right. I seem to recall that some of the green was extended over the tracks and we had to go over or around some fences in order to continue on the tracks. We then crossed Franklin Avenue on a bridge.
There were some industries and an old siding to the left, and then crossed Lavergne Street at grade. Rails were cut in this area, and some big sections were removed at a switch ahead of the crossing. We then approached Willet Street grade crossing, which until 2002 was the site of Willet Street Station.
We soon crossed Orchard Street at grade and passed into a cut where we went beneath Williamson Avenue. There was some interesting graffiti under the bridge, and then we came out of the cut and crossed the Garden State Parkway on a bridge. Pretty soon after that, we crossed John F. Kennedy Drive in Bloomfield.
This highway bridge was originally built to cross the Morris Canal.
Now John F. Kennedy Drive, the former canal right of way was saved by the town with the idea that they would one day build a high speed light rail. Towns were given first choice if they wanted to use the former canal. Jersey City built their rapid transit on that section. Some areas used it for utilities. Instead of the light rail, the Bloomfield section became a highway known as the Morris Canal Parkway. It was then was then renamed for the fallen president in the sixties. The bridge is one of the few in the state remaining that was built for the purpose of crossing the canal.
1920s abandoned canal crossing
We continued on from here, across bridges over Spruce Street and Belleville Ave. We met one lady who came up on the tracks and asked if we were part of the group turning it into a trail. She was much looking forward to it she said, and I let her know my reservations about the plan. She was friendly and interested in what we were doing and the facts about it, but was still happy that a trail would be coming.
Another lady down below the tracks to the left was not so happy about us being on it at all, and she was on the phone immediately with police. I think I told her something to the effect that the state just purchased it for a new park. Some people like this have nothing better to do than to get involved in other people's business.
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| 1975, Anthony Falzo |
We passed over New Street and Broad Street, then made our way out to Benson Street where we crossed at grade. A beautiful old station stood there, now a private residence in Glen Ridge. 
1975 Anthony Falzo
By this point, we were on the part of the line that was first established as the Montclair Railroad in 1867. The station stop was first established in 1873, and the current unique English Tudor style building with stucco facade was constructed in 1883 after it became part of the New York and Greenwood Lake Railroad. Prior to Benson Street, the stop was known as Glenwood, and after that Chestnut Hill.
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| 2008 Elena Marie Durant photo |
The line was absorbed into the Erie system which expanded in the 1890s.
Through mergers and the fall of the railroads under Conrail, the station survived and remained a NJ Transit station stop, like the others we had passed, until 2002 as part of the Boonton line.
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| J E Bailey 1910 |
The station was sold by NJ Transit into private ownership in 2009. The lovely private station is well cared for today, and it was just really nice to see it still standing. I did a couple of then and now compilations of it while we were there.
Doing my photographs set me far behind the rest of the group for a bit. They were already moving ahead on the line toward the underpass of Ridgewood Ave. This was kind of a neat section because it was pretty easy to walk, through an urban area, but we were down in a pretty significant cut.
I caught up with the group, and we passed beneath both Baldwin Street and Bay Street. Soon after that, we approached the junction where the line became active again. Bay Street Station is the new station stop in service to the west.
There never used to be track to the south at this junction. It was a new connection made to the former Lackawanna Railroad's Glen Ridge Branch.
We continued along the tracks out to Pine Street and then headed over to Claremont Ave.
We stopped for a break at the CVS on the corner, and some of the group ran inside to use restrooms or to get snacks while the rest of us waited outside.
I wanted to try to stay along the railroad from this point as close as possible. Most of the remainder of the hike would be parallel with the active tracks, using some parks and such as close as possible. I figured using the aerial images that we would have little or no trouble just cutting through parking lots, but I was wrong again.
We got behind the CVS and tried walking out along the tracks, but there were high fences behind the business and it was just too hard and not worth it to try to scale them. We ended up going all the way around the CVS, then turned left on Pine Street. We followed this to the north, and Melissa cut out to get back faster I believe. The rest of us took Walnut Street ahead and turned left, then stopped at I think it was Panzana Pizzeria for a late lunch break.
From here, we continued out to the Walnut Street Station.
We cut through the parking lot of the station to the right, and headed north, parallel with the tracks. Near the end of the parking lot, we turned right onto a paved trail that went into Essex Park to the north. We came out to Chestnut Street, where we turned to the left.
The road took us to a 1928 concrete overpass for the railroad. Beneath it was a lot of art on the walls. Some of it had been there since the 1990s, but there was other stuff that made a statement about the trajedy of all of the recent school shootings.
I was quite taken when I posted a photo of the art, that so many people took offense to it, called it "trash" or whatever. They told me to keep my political statements to myself. I found it shocking; I'm a registered Republican, am for the right to bear arms, but I don't think any one can deny the horror of what has happened with what seems to have been a constant chain of school shootings. I don't have the solution to all of it, but to take such great offense to art depicting silhouettes of children with the text "never again" seems very far off base.
We headed up the street from the underpass to the intersection with Forest Street. Across and to the left was the old Montclair Cooperative School, built in 1891 as the Chestnut Street grammar school. It has been the cooperative school since 1963.
We turned right on Forest Street and passed a restaurant with nicely done tile art, and I figured we would get out to Fullerton Avenue from there. Unfortunately, the dead end road had chain link fences at the end of it. We looked around for some sort of way through to the west, but there was nothing. Instead, I decided to have a look at a swath of trees to the right. I found a way from here to get out to and skirt the Montclair Community Services area parallel with the tracks. There are no passenger trains running on the Montclair-Boonton Line on Sunday, so the brief time we'd be along it was nothing to be concerned about.
We soon came out to the grass near the grade crossing of Fullerton Ave. We regrouped, and then turned slightly to the left there, and then immediately right onto a paved path known as Essex Way. This took us past a house, then turned hard left to the west out to Park Street.
At Park Street, we turned right only briefly, and then left on another trail called Mid Park Lane. The trail went wet a bit, cut to the left and right, and then crossed the Second River on a foot bridge. The river was only very tiny in this area. We then came out to Midland Avenue and went almost straight across onto Erwin Park Road. We went ahead, turned right, then left, then right again out to Central Ave. The houses through this development were impressive in that they were not at all cookie cutter mcmansions. Each was unique and actually pretty attractive architecture. A right turn on Central Avenue took us out to Valley Road, where we turned left briefly and then right into Edgemont Park.
The park was a big grassy open area with a pond out close to Valley Road. An island in the pond had a lovely, prominent World War I memorial created by Charles Keck in 1924, and was dedicated in 1925. We headed along the path and over to it, onto the island.
The land was originally known as Harrison Tract Park, and a golf course had been established on it in 1896. The property was purchased for the current park by the town of Montclair in 1906.
To the left, we could see the Edgemont School, now Edgemont Montessori School, built in the 1920s as part of Montclair NJ school expansions. A handsome structure.
We continued on the paths through to the northernmost point of the park, and exited onto Edgemont Road, which was a nice street. It had a wide median at one point.
We crossed Brookfield, Godfrey, and then Parkside Roads, and then entered straight into Anderson Park on another paved path. We kept to the right among some big, handsome trees, and the path was soon closely parallel with the railroad tracks again. We made our way to the north side of Anderson Park, and crossed Bellevue Avenue to reach the Upper Montclair Station.
This station looked to be newer like the one we had already passed, but it had a good station like look and feel to it. We continued north over Lorraine Ave, and there was another structure on the left side of the tracks there that looked like it could have been a station or freight depot.
We continued north, parallel with the tracks, and then reached Mountain Avenue Station. The station was constructed by the Erie Railroad in 1903, and is on lease as a private residence by NJ Transit.
It was getting late, and darker all the time. We were all tired because we went over the amount of miles I thought we would be doing. I really probably should have cut the hike off down at Glen Ridge and it would have been good enough, but it was too late for that.
We just continued straight to Mt Hebron Road with no problem, and then Carlisle Road was immediately parallel with the tracks to the right. We followed that for a bit, and then were able to cut over into the parking lot of the Montclair Heights Station.
Despite the NJ Transit website saying parking was free, every one of us had hefty parking tickets on our cars. Someone clearly didn't know what they were doing.
I assured everyone I would look into it first thing in the morning. Little did I know, pretty much everyone was working on the same thing, at the same time as I was. I pointed out that we were a hiking group, and that we were promoting history and tourism, and that it looked bad on the town to be ticketing against what was written on the NJ Transit website. I ended up having to call a few different numbers before finally getting through to someone who could actually help with this.
I was told to have everyone report their ticket numbers and they'd be thrown out. At the same time, several others in the group had already done this. They must have had some tension in their offices after this debacle and tons of hikers calling in to complain!
Thankfully it all worked out, and when we do the next hike in the Greenwood Lake Branch series, we'll know to park somewhere else.
This had been a really awesome hike that would be hard to top. We saw so much, and still had so much more to see through the area. It will be one of those things we'll all be able to remember when those tracks are long gone in favor of the governor's new bike path.
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