Hike #1516; Spruce Run Reservoir

Hike #1516; 11/19/22 Spruce Run Reservoir Perimeter with Jack Lowry, Sarah Jones, Jim "Mr. Buckett" Mathews, Megan Powers, Joel Castus (Dematteo), Celeste Fondaco Martin, Tina Chen, Ken Zinis, CJ (Carol) ?, Susan Robe Buckley, Diana Lam, Hien Cao, Gladys Perdomo, Marianne M. Hopko, Yvonne Ciccone, Bernadette Miglin, Jessica Kurylo, Jade Chin, Quang Vo, Oanh Vo, Joanna Hunt, Brian Boyer, Melissa Boyer, Jill Gupta, David Belziff?, Drew Hunt, Barbara Earl, Suzanne Wilder, Rit? Reichardt, Kandi Chan, Alyssa Valenti, and Elizabeth Manner

This next hike would be another I would post through work, with a surprising amount of interest and attendance. I think eleven or so of the participants are those who have hiked with me before, but the rest were all newcomers, which was very surprising considering the low numbers I'd gotten through state postings of the past.

The last time I did this hike, interest was so high and resulted in such high social media insights on the Spruce Run facebook page that it was agreed upon that I would host the event again.

I've already walked the perimeter of the reservoir multiple times, most of which were on my own time, but when I did post it through the state it was very popular.

I decided to run this one in pretty much the same way as I did the last time around. I worked it out with Union Forge Heritage Association that we'd have the historic Joseph Turner House Museum opened for the group special, and my old buddy Bill Honachefsky would be on hand to give more dissertation and open the doors for us.

I pretty much know the history of the whole area off the top of my head, and with Bill there, we'd have a pretty well rounded story of the area to present to people.

Meeting was at 8:30 in the big parking lot off of Van Syckles Road close to the intersection with Route 31. I planned to arrive early this time, and I was surprised to see that there were already a lot of cars in the parking lot.

I had a sign in sheet for this one, something I used to do on all of my hikes and maybe a practice I should get back into, but I have a sort of waiver built in when people sign up for the Metrotrails meetup anyway.

I got everyone n a circle and went over some of the history of the area, and Bill followed up with some more of the information.

What Bill talked about to add to what we had said, which wasn't presented previously, was about the Land Riots. Back when William Allen and Joseph Turner purchased the Union Ironworks (for which Union Township takes its name) in 1742, there were already settlers in the area, mostly German.

The English business men had very little interest in this worthless land until the discovery of high grade iron in the Highlands. 

Then, interest grew greatly, and land was purchased that already had these people living on it. 

So, when a tax collector or someone like that showed up at the door of people who had already been living there, demanding a lease or money, it was understandable that they were none too happy about it, and so the land riots ensued.

I went over more of the land history, and then into the history of the Spruce Run Turnpike, the historic toll road between Clinton and Oxford Furnace chartered in 1813. It is the direct predecessor to Route 31, and would be he subject of possibly the next hike I lead through Spruce Run if things continue to go as smoothly as they have.

After getting everyone signed in, we headed out on our way along the jetty where the Spruce Run feeds the reservoir. 

We walked down to the former route of Van Syckles Corner Road, moved around 1963 for the development of the reservoir. I went over some more of the history there because it was easier to do it at a point that was significant.

Some of the footings for the original bridge that carried the road over the Spruce Run were visible, proving that the Spruce Run was finding its original route rather than some other flow.

The Spruce Run Turnpike gave way to Route 30 starting around the 1920s when the highway was improved and the main route rerouted. It was found that there was already a Rt 30 in south Jersey, so it was renumbered 69, until all of the highway signs were getting stolen, so it was changed to 31. 

It's been improved multiple times, and I think the section along Spruce Run was already moved pretty early on, with the original turnpike route retained as sort of a side road. 

The bridge carrying the original road over the Willoughby Brook is still there, but under water when the reservoir is full.

Cregar Road out of High Bridge used to meet a four-way intersection with the old turnpike and Van Syckles Corner Road, and then Van Syckles Corner Road continued to an intersection with Polktown Road. A left turn and then a right on Van Syckles Road was the continued westbound route. The left turn was on the Union Road that contin
ued south to Trenton.

Folk art shared by Mike Gronsky showing the W Allen house and Union Furnace

There was a lot of information to go over, so I tried to be thorough while at the same time not hold everyone up at the same spot for too long. The first four or so miles of this hike have the most historic sites, so it is much more slow going.

I also went over some of the history of the reservoir starting with the Water Bond Act of 1958. A reservoir was envisioned as early as the 1930s at the location, but it couldn't really be justified until the two hurricanes in 1955 devastated the Delaware and Raritan Rivers. After that, there was little opposition to building new resevoirs because they would of course serve as flood protection.

We went over some of why the Spruce Run Reservoir exists beyond flood protection. I went over necessary volume in rivers, such as the fact that sewage treatment plants downstream require volume in order to release their treated waste into the river and have it be innocuous.

I was happy to have Susan Robe Buckley from Water Authority present to go over some more of the details I had never heard before.

She shared that the Millstone River to the south was having a major problem with the Harmful Algae Blooms (HAB) and that extra water was needed to flush it through, because so much of that water goes to public drinking water supply.

It just so happened that my regular weekly hike the next day was entirely on the Millstone River watershed, so we had more to talk about.

We all turned right to walk the old Van Syckles Corner Road to the west. The road emerges from the water to the current route of Van Syckles Road at the second parking lot coming from Rt 31. The parking lot actually exists because it was the old road.

The water of the reservoir has slowly been coming back up because the Millstone issue has passed, and so it is getting a bit wetter on shore than it was. 

There is a spot on the old road where it gets kind of mucky, and its one of the worst spots on the entire hike to stay dry, before even the first mile. 

We got past that first messy spot and out to just before the parking lot, where there is still a remnant of a bridge that passed over what I think was part of the raceway that served the Union Furnace.

I pointed out to everything the ruins of the furnace, a pile of rubble to our left. We headed down to that next.

Upon stepping onto the old furnace ruin, I was deeply disappointed to discover that more of the structure had been dismantled and destroyed. When I first discovered the site, it still had rounded stones all the way around helping to identify it as the old furnace, but this time, stones were all removed from the side except for one, and dumped into the middle of it. 

We all stood in a circle on it, and Bill and I discussed how we almost don't want anyone to know what it is that's out there, but people aready do know. 

So at this point, we are sort of at a crossroad. It might have been that a few years ago, fewer people knowing about it was a good thing, but now too many known and people are apparently ripping it apart looking for artifacts, stupidly. 

They're not going to find anything in the structure of the furnace itself, and they're just wrecking history. Some others might just be trying to pile stones or maybe they think they're filling in a fire ring. 

We continued from the furnace up and along the shore of the reservoir. The thing was around forty percent capacity at this time, so there was plenty of room to walk.

I pointed out old foundation ruins in the area ahead, and noted how the old horse-hair mortars don't last underwater, but more modern concrete and mortars do. 

This is why we still see concrete ruins when the water goes down, but the old stone ruins look like simple stone rows or piles. 

This next ruin was that of the William Allen House, which was built around 1735 I believe. Allen purchased it with the ironworks and lived there as I understand as a Summer residence.

In more modern years, the home was added to and served as a nursing home, which is what it was when the state purchased it for the reservoir.

We continued along the shore from here to the south along the first of the recreation area peninsulas.

I brought up that Spruce Run Recreation Area was now fifty years old. It opened partway through the season 1972, and the first full year was 1973.

Pretty soon, we reached the boat launch area. I pointed out that the restroom was to the right if anyone needed it, and then they could just go to the water on the other side and take a shortcut around that peninsula. I continued to the end of it to the south, then weaved back around the other side where everyone reconvened.

There was a visitor service staff member from Round Valley Recreation Area on the hike, and she informed me that a man in the back of the group angrily announced "I am NOT walking ANY MORE!" and said he was leaving. He was with a woman, who didn't add anything, but he was clearly very angry, and said to the girl "I hope you're happy!" before leavng.

I'm not sure what made this guy so angry. It appears that he did not read the hike description in any way, or if he did, he had no concept of what fifteen miles was because he didn't even do one. 

Maybe he was led to believe it would just be a history presentation. I'm not sure. I went back over both mine and the state's postings for this event, and I found it to be quite clear.

Regardless, after he left, everyone else was in high spirits and did very well on the hike. 

We continued back to the north at the interior of the boat launch area, and soon reached all of the foundation ruins of the old farms, including several circular foundations that used to be silos.

This area used to be the Exton Farm, who purchased property from the Union Ironworks early on. Many of the barns were very large and modern with concrete footings, and there were what appear to be old cattle stall remnants. 

Ahead of this, where a small spring flows through the reservoir bed, are the foundation ruins of the old Exton farm house. It was another very old one that dated back before the 1870s and had additions over the years. A giant tree stump along the edge of the old building site is still there.

Just to the west of here, the Old Union Road comes into view, from the weeds on the shore of the reservoir and into a bit of muddy water, then out along the current site of Picnic Areas 4 and 3. The intersection with the driveway to the farm buildings is still obvious at this low water.

We went around and onto the old Union Road to continue south on the next peninsula.

This is a really relaxing section to walk. There's no mud since the pavement of the old road is still in place. There is a foundation to the left side, including the apron to the driveway and garage from the place. I was told that this building still exists, and that it was moved to 1 Van Syckles Road. 

The original foundation has a date on it, I think 1934. The building where it sits now is going to be demolished very soon, as early as December due to mold and water problems in the basement.

We continued along to the boat rental area, and then along the campground. Along the shore, since the water has been going down, people were carrying picnic benches down into the reservoir bed quite often. I remembered while doing this that we have to spend some time going out there and bringing them all back in. 

The last time we hiked this, there was a long peninsula at the end of the campground area, with an island of sand out there. Now, that is no longer connected to the land, so the water has come up quite substantially in the past month. Definitely a few feet.

We continued around and then to the north again along the shore parallel with the campgrounds, and then along lower Picnic Area 2.

I could see as we approached the beach complex that one of the park police was cruising through, and stopped at a viewing spot as if he was looking on at us. I had talked to two of them and invited them to come by to hear the history talk and say hello, but neither of them showed up. I figured this might be one of them, and because I was stopped going over some history again at the time, he might have assumed I was walking the other direction. 

At this point, I told the story of why there is a jetty on the west side of the beach area.

We saw one more park police car going by as we walked along the beach, but they were also going the wrong way and no one stopped to say hello, so they might have gone the wrong way.

We went out and around the jetty, then out to the point below the old tower and clubhouse building, the oldest extant buildings in Spruce Run.

These buildings were built as part of a WPA project in the 1930s. Back in the days of traditional hound hunting and such, the tower was a judge's tower, and the clubhouse associated with the group as well. We paused on the shore in case anyone wanted to go up and use the restroom that occupies the tower building today. A few used it.

Just a little beyond, we passed the Ranger Dock behind the maintenance buildings, and then came to where we could see the old route of Van Syckles Road come back out of the water again. There was also another old stone building foundation I don't remember noticing previously.

We continued around the edge of the water, and then got directly on the old road route after a bit of weaving around. We followed this out to where it used to cross the Black Brook. Someone scrawled that they love someone in the foundation back when it was placed but I forget what it says.

At this point, it is really easy to hop over the brook and continue ahead. 

We left the reservoir edge just up ahead, where the old Van Syckles Road route emerges from the water. It is pretty badly overgrown, but I remembered where to get back out. There is a barely passable little path I'd knocked through to get to the old road behind a wall of vegetation, and at that point the road is the route of the Highlands Trail.

I used the opportunity to talk about the Highlands Trail a bit. It is about 170 miles long from the Hudson River to the Delaware River, but it is being extended both east and west of those points. I let everyone know I'm working on a series on the Highlands in Pennsylvania, and we'd already done eight hikes in that series. I hope to do more of the stuff directly connecting to Spruce Run as part of work as well, but time will tell if that remains something of interest.

We turned left from Van Syckles Road's old route, and continued through grassy mowed paths from woods to fields in Clinton Wildlife Management Area.

When the beach complex was built, the drainage system was failing, and it was decided upon that they would pump hot tar into the pipes to plug wherever it was leaking. In doing this, tar ended getting all over the beach, and my friend Wil Bullivant, who was the first maintenance supervisor at Spruce Run from about 1972 to 82, told me a woman came up to him and showed him tar had gotten in her bikini. 

To control this, the jetty was built between the outflow pipe and the beach, and it took care of the problem.

The trail meanders through these fields for a bit, then follows an edge down to a tree line where it descends to cross a small spring flow. From there, it climbs again along a field edge, and crosses a driveway that I think was once part of the Lloyd Wescott property, which is why it wasn't taken by the state. We crossed the driveway, climbed, and reached an old road where the trail turns right. I made sure that everyone was caught up.

From here, we turned and followed the road for a bit, then turned abruptly left to descend to another small spring area which feeds a pond outside of the reservoir. Here, a yellow blazed side trail leads to the right, to the Joseph Turner House Museum.

The oldest section of the home was built in 1760 as a Summer home to Turner, co owner of the Union Ironworks. It was later owned by Benjamin Chew, associate of John Penn, the last royal governor of Pennsylvania. Penn and Chew were sort of held prisoners of war during the American Revolution at Robert Taylor's house, Solitude, in nearby High Bridge.

Robert Taylor was bookeeper and later ironmaster under Allen and Turner, but then purchased the ironworks outright, which became the Taylor Iron and Steel Company (later Taylor Wharton), and is the second longest running business in American history.

I told the group the story about how George Washington HATED fishing, but how he went fishing with Robert Taylor on the South Branch of the Raritan to get in his good graces.

There are so many stories of the area that get lost to time because no one recalls them, and it is nice to be a part of sharing all of it.

Bill was outside to greet us when we got there, and soon let us in to have a look around. The group gathered in the kitchen, and we were shown the hand hewn exposed beams in the oldest portion of the home.

We got to see the historic piece of pig iron, the only one known to exist, from the old Union Furnace.

While Bill and I were downstairs, someone upstairs tried to pick up the piece of pig iron and it sounded like they dropped it, so we hurried up. Nothing looked damaged fortunately, but something that heavy would certainly cause a lot of damage if dropped in the wrong place.

We headed out soon from the museum, around the back and down toward where we turned off of the Highlands Trail.

We headed around the pond, and then to the right into more open fields. When the Highlands Trail continued to the west, we went to the south onto one the last peninsula onto the reservoir. This took us through fields and between tree lines. I switched my work jacket to a green blazer through which one could see my bright orange shirt beneath more easily, since some of the hunting had opened at this point, I think pheasant or turkey or something.

Serious Sean cut out because he's only slept like 4 hours and was planning to do my hike in the morning.

We had passed one hunter a bit earlier with his dog and a little bell, and then two more were walking toward us in an open field as we continued south.

We headed to the southern tip of the peninsula, and then climbed steeply through dried fallen leaves to the bed of the reservoir.

This time, this area was a bit wetter than it was the previous month. We had to take care to get across the area without getting wet because there was some standing water.

Pretty soon, we approached the Mulhockaway Creek. It was flowing a bit more strong than it had been the previous month, and would be a bit tougher to cross. That time, I was able to get across it without gettng my feet wet. I'd used the new boots I'd gotten from Brian Tortora and his wife. This time, I wore my beat bowling shoes knowing I might get stuck walking through the water.

I didn't even try to hold back. I got right into the Mulhockaway and walked down the middle of it until it got above my knees.

This creek was originally known as I think the Mohonselaughaway or something like that, and was further anglicized and corrupted over time from the original native word for it.

The rest of the group approached and didn't see a good way to get across. I was impressed that almost everyone in the group just walked on through in their shoes and chose to keep on moving. That is totally what we do on so many of my regular hikes, so that was cool. I carried Tina across, and a couple of women said if they'd known that was an option they would have taken it up! Some of the group took their shoes off to get across, but most just pushed through it.

We continued along the shore on the other side and just didn't stop for a bit so we'd keep our feet warm. I spent a lot of time talking to Jack about his retirement. He'd been owner of Strikesound for such a long time, ever since I met him, and hate a great warehouse in Linden where he'd had a lot of parties. He was talking about buying a house and still keeping Strikesound around to just to choice festivals that he felt would be really cool, which sounds like a good plan. It's crazy to think because he really doesn't seem like he's nearly old enough to retire, but I suppose he's done quite well for himself. He still has his bad, Gypsy Funk Squad, and they're doing a lot of gigs which keeps him busy as well. I was happy to hear he plans to stay at least somewhat local so we'll still see him around.

We crossed over another tiny tributary, this time on tires that someone had placed rather than walking farther around, and went out a peninsula from the south where we could see the tower, clubhouse, and beach complex from the other side of the reservoir.

We made our way around another corner where we could see the main dam. There was a water authority vehicle that paused on it and I wondered if they could see us and wondered what we crazies were doing.

We made our way along another spot where there used to be a tributary that flowed north onto the Mulhockaway. I pointed out how these tributaries shifted directions in some cases when the reservoir was built. There is only one island that I can think of that is usually out of the water when the reservoir is full, and it is at this point. Now, we could walk right over onto it. 

I pointed out how this tributary on the old maps used to flow to the north, but now a spring at the bottom of it flows south. In fact, water from the rest of the reservoir was flowing down into a pool below it, which shows me that the water is rather significantly coming up. Within a few days, we probably won't be able to walk onto that island any more.

We continued back across and onto the main land again, and I pointed out where the little settlement of Cole's Mills would have been. We had passed another barn foundation along the way, and probably other farm out buildings that would have been close to Cole's Mills. The Union Road used to travel down to the "Big Brook", which was the stream after the confluence with the Spruce Run and the Mulhockaway, which is now pretty much lost to time because all but the very end of at the dam is under water all of the time.

As we continued on a steeper slope beside the reservoir, the water authority SUV was in view again and parked at a point where he could watch us closely. I figure that is exactly what he was doing, because we were fast approaching the main dam. We had to go out and around another little swampy spring inlet, and then reached the point below a levee on the south side. 

On the last trip, I climbed up and onto that levee for a bit, but this time we continued to follow the shore a little more closely to get to where the Union Road actually used to come out of the water.

From there, we started following the road up. I stopped to pee at the corner of where the road now hits the shore, and there used to be sort of a cul de sac and it was lined with some fences of metal cable and posts.

The others didn't even notice I stopped, and continued walking the road to the south. I soon caught up and they were surprised to see I was behind them.

Pretty soon, we went around a fence and came out where the Union Road is still a named steet in Clinton. We walked the road to the south out to Rt 173 in Clinton, turned left through a parking lot for a bank, and then around a Dunkin Donuts that is under construction but not yet open. 173 took us then into Clinton and past the old Clinton House. We turned left and then crossed the old through truss bridge over the South Branch of the Raritan River past the Old Red Mill and adjacent old stone mill.

The settlement was a small community until about 1813 when the Spruce Run Turnpike was chartered to connect the site to the successful mines and furnace in Oxford, Warren County. Archibald Taylor, of the Taylor Iron and Steel Company Taylors, purchased the mill and ignited an entrepreneurial flame in the town.

Hunt's Mill, built about 1810, was redubbed "Clinton" after famed governor of New York, DeWitt Clinton, who was known nationally for helping to create the Erie Canal.

The mill is a museum today.

The old stone mill directly across was constructed to replace an earlier one in 1836. It operated for a century before closing, and saw it's rebirth as an art museum in the 1950s.

We all convened on the east side of the South Branch, or south depending on how you look at it, and Alyssa Valenti joined us here. She had cut out early the last time we'd done the perimeter hike and missed this last bit, so she was happy to join in and do the remainder of it.

We continued along the side streets to Rt 513 and headed uphill, across the South Branch again, and then up to the Clinton Library where we took a break for everyone to use the restrooms again. We were way ahead of schedule with only a couple of miles left.

From here, we got on the paved water authority road and trail below the dam. Alyssa told me she had the opportunity to go up on the dam for a special running event just once, where it was allowed. I wished I could have worked that for this hike, but no such luck. Maybe in the future I'll be able to.

We continued around the end of the dam, and then down along the waterfront for the final leg. Elizabeth met us in this bit here with her boyfriend's dog. We could see her on the shore, but she didn't want to attempt the last bit of rocks we had to come over with the dog if not necessary.

This last bit is a little rougher at times than the rest of the perimeter, but still not really too bad. We pushed on through, and the only part that was really tough at all was the bit where the Spruce Run itself comes very close to the steep drop off.

I had wanted to go up top and look for a long forgotten cemetery I had heard was located up there, but I didn't want to take the extra time this time.

I waited at the other side of the steep spot where a spring flows in, just before the confluence with the Willoughby Brook. Some who caught up early headed ahead of me over the old road bridge over the brook. The temptation was of course too strong when we could see the cars right there.

Celeste and one of the new girls actually waded across the creek at the very end there rather than go around.

I hung out just a little longer in the lot because Tina had a bunch of stuff for my son, and a new pair of boots for me to wear, which were a bit tight but work well enough.

All of my friends started discussing going out to dinner afterwards, but I had to get home to my son. That's one of the things I miss when he's not with me. If I had him there, we could all go out and it might not be such a big deal, but without him, I have to do my best to get home to him. I already heard enough grief about doing this hike at all, even though I was getting paid XP time for it (12 hours for working 8). 

I would love to continue doing one work related, cross posted hike per month, and as of now I don't see why that wouldn't be possible.