Hike #1527; 1/22/23 Linden to Elizabeth with Jack Lowry, Sarah Jones, Serious Sean Dougherty, Jennifer Berndt, Justin Gurbisz, Brittany Weider, Diane Reider, Robin Deitz, Professor John DiFiore, Tina Chen, Violet Chen, Koshek Swaminathan, and Everen
This next trip would be a very special one, as all of the current series of things we'd been working on was shoved aside to honor our longtime friend Jack Lowry with a hike beginning at his retirement party.
Jack had started hiking with us back in 2007, when I was well into my New Jersey Perimeter hike series, and we covered between Long Branch and Sandy Hook. I'd already done a lot along the Delaware River by that time, but at this point we were working our way both north and south along the beaches and urban Hudson waterfront.
We reached Perth Amboy on one hike, and then started heading in both directions. As we continued north from Perth Amboy, Jack was there, and we found out about his business on that trip.
Jack started carrying a guitar on the hikes around that time, and the character of the hikes turned into these wonderful singalongs at times.
We found that Jack comes from a very talented, artistic family. He started working on his own sound systems at a very young age, and had a band in the 80s called "Strike". He'd told me that his side business was "Strike Sound", where he rented out the equipment that he owned outright.
Even though the band broke up, the name was kept, and he did very well for himself over the years, assisting with the sound on all sorts of different size venues and working crazy hours.
Back when I first met Jack, it seemed like he was always on the cell phone on every hike, trying to keep his business in order. In other groups, this could be a problem because some leaders were very stringent about not allowing cell phone use on hikes at the time. I of course was just happy to have Jack's company, and part of having his company meant accepting the responsibilities of HIS company.
The music ended up shifting to beyond just the hikes, and we'd attended concerts apart from them, and Jack started inviting me to his annual holiday party for his employees. I attended the Strike Sound party every year for over a decade, and it was always a great time.
When I finally got hired into parks as a permanent employee, I passed on Jack's information. He ended up getting the bid for one of the final summer concert series through Hunterdon Parks, and I got to help out with some of the set ups and such (where Jack taught me how to roll a "happy chord").
When the pandemic happened, I can't even imagine what a stress it must have been. All concerts, or any gathering at all for that matter, were canceled for over a year. Jack used his trucks and became a moving company for a while, and the genre of live performance has still not yet recovered. In fact, although the State of New Jersey has dropped its state of emergency, the federal government still has not.
Jack started talking about retirement durng some of that time. His other projects like his band, Gypsy Funk Squad, had been getting more popular. He could still take on a few sound gigs, only if they were fun ones, and then focus on just doing more fun stuff all around. It sounded like he had a really good plan.
There was no Strike Sound Party just before Christmas like there usually is, and Jack said that he would probably have something just after the new year, and that it would be a combined holiday party and retirement party (and birthday party for that matter, as his birthday is January 2nd).
I got the text message a couple weeks before, when Jack asked what days I would be able to attend if he had the party. I was of course going to commit to going whatever day he decided to do, but a Saturday night one was going to work better for me.
When Jack confirmed the date, I immediately put in my RSVP as going, and decided that I would have my weekly Sunday hike be something very close to Strike Sound for the convenience of Jack and everyone in attendance.
Originally, I had my next "Raucous in Secaucus" hike planned to go in this slot, but then I considered that Jack would be selling his big warehouse in Linden, where the party would take place, and this would be the only opportunity to have a hike from that location in the foreseeable future.
I started going over Google Maps to see what we might do through the area of interest.
I came up with an interesting point to point hike, where we would starte at Strike Sound, and then head north to Elizabeth through a non-direct route that would include several little parks, cemeteries, and other greenways. It was one of those hikes that I would never have bothered putting together if not for the criteria that it be something simple to work with this event. Sometimes, working within these arbitrary limitations helps me to create something that is a more special experience.
I think this one came out particularly great, and I enjoyed it quite a lot more than anticipated.
Jack posted that the party would then become a slumber party, and to bring sleeping bags.
I couldn't do that. Even though the hike would be from there in the morning, I needed to come back home and get my son to bring him on the hike. Nothing was going to stop me from bringing him out short of extreme weather or temperature.
When I arrived at the party, music was already going strong. There was basically a drum circle thing going on, with belly dancers spinning around. Food was already out, and I dug in to the pizza, eggplant rolotini, and other stuff that was out. I also immediately got into the drinks. There was some bacardi and some coke, and I started mixing that until none of it was left, then went on to other mixed things to get myself loosened up. I knew it would only be a matter of time before I would be asked to come up and sing something,
I'm not one to get stage fright, especially among friends, but I do have trouble remembering the words to songs if I'm not loosened up a bit. I tend to overthink everything in life, and a couple of drinks make it so I can remember a lot more obscure lyrics.
This party was great because there were so many people from within the hiking group there. Of course Sarah was there since she and Jack have been living there in a relationship for years now. She was playing co host and welcoming everyone, pointing out food, and taking fun photos of everyone.
Jen was already there when I arrived, and so was Justin and Brittany. Many who should have come didn't make it. Serious Sean showed up soon, and he was pretty much on stage and playing along the entire night.
I don't remember what song I sang first. I was eating and drinking and just watching everyone else. Jack's brother Beirne started singing the Flock of Seagulls hit "I ran (So Far Away)", at first slow until he instructed the rest of the band to speed it up a bit, and it sounded great.
Jack came up and said I should sing something. There was a cover of Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks" from Led Zeppelin IV, and so I asked if they knew how to play "Rock and Roll". I hadn't sang the song in forever, but I think I remembered the words alright.
I periodically ended up there singing stuff that I'd done before like "Spin Me Round", "Paint It Black", and lots of other stuff. I think I took over singing "Ring of Fire" because the guy up there didn't remember the words. I also would run up and do a harmony on a song if I happened to know it. It's always fun to just be able to jump in and sing somethng, with so many amazing musicians up there.
One of the highlights of the night was a rendition of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs", with all of the musicians doing an amazing job, especially Rodney from Gypsy Funk Squad on the drums. There was also a great version of the Beatles "Birthday" for Jack early on.
As the night went on, by the end I found it really cool that only members of the hiking group were still on stage making music.
Of course Jack and Serious Sean were still there, but they were joined by Brittany trying her hand at the drums, and Professor John also on guitar.
I hung out until probably about 1:30 am. I then had to drive over an hour home, shower, get to bed, get Ev ready, and drive over an hour back to arrive for the hike at 8:30. I got I think less than 2 hours of sleep. Serious Sean also headed home around the same time, but he also made it back in the morning.
I headed back into the office area and let Ev loose to run around a bit before we got going. Jack provided some bagels and such for breakfast for those that spent the night.
We didn't hurry to get going in the morning since we were just walking from Strike Sound. Slowly, everyone began showing up to park along 21st Street.
Ev was having a blast just ramming around the office and greeting everyone.
Eventually, we were ready to head out. We gathered everyone in front of the warehouse to get a group shot, and we started walking north on 21st Street.
This street was indeed the closest we could get to walking the Jersey Perimeter when we were doing that series. The road ahead to the north is cut off, and there's no way of walking further inland from Tremley Point without trespassing and probably getting caught because there's a power plant and lots of tank farms. Everything across the street from Jack's business was giant oil tanks.
We continued to the north and turned to the left on Clinton Street, and Morses Mill Road went straight but is blocked off to public entrance.
As we got to about two blocks to the northwest, Serious Sean chimed in with a little history of the area. He had grown up in Linden, and just ahead was 19th Street, and he told us about the 19th Street Gang.
He said this wasn't a gang where you would get shot or even stabbed, but that if you walked through and you were not a part of that gang, you would definitely come out with a black eye or roughed up or something.
Apparently this spot was kind of a big deal because somehow sea mammals were coming up into this stream. It was kept on the down low for a while, and would be kind of unbelievable anyway, because no one would believe that aquatic mammals would want to come up a creek surrounded by oil tank farms.
We turned right on 13th Street for a couple of blocks, and Sean was telling more stories about growing up in the area.
There were paths that went off into the cemetery ahead, but my plan was to follow the extreme perimeter of it instead.
When we were still on the road, I made the alarming discovery that the front tire of my Graco jogger stroller was going pretty flat. I didn't want to break the bead on the tire, but it might have been too late. I usually try to fill it up the night before a hike or something, and I always keep it pretty low pressure, but this time it was looking pretty bad. I'd have to be extra careful.
It was sometimes kind of narrow, and I had to push to the left a bit to get around tightly fit graves and some really impressive, huge trees.
I think most of the enormous trees were Pin Oaks. Very impressive ones.
We continued along this east side, and then came to a corner where the cemetery stretched to the south. We passed by the gate we had passed earlier that goes out to Woodlawn, and then continued toward Emma Place.
We continued along the cemetery edge all the way to the end at the Morses Creek wetlands.
Once we reached the farthest east side, we turned to the north. The cemetery grounds through here got pretty wet at times. It was sometimes harder to push through it.
Soon, we reached Westbrook Drive, which is one of the cemetery roads along the east side. This made passing through the cemetery much easier for a time. It brought us pretty close to Brunswick Road, which is not open to public as far as I can tell, because it connects through to the closed off Morses Mill Road to the east and south.
We continued around the far right side of the cemetery as best we could for a while, but we had to get back out ot the road from time to time, because the area was so terribly wet.
It is amazing that this area was allowed to be a cemetery at all, because clearly it floods regularly.
We continued to the north edge and skirted a wetland area, and then reached an acute angle end of the cemetery. I had hoped that we would be able to cut directly from this cemetery into the Mt Calvary Cemetery, which borders the Rosehill Cemetery, but there was no way in. The chain link fence between the two had been busted through in places, but it was obvious that they'd done everything they could to keep visitors from one cemetery from getting to another.
We cut over to the edge of the Mt Calvary Cemetery fence, which had some big trees growing along the side, and just followed it with hopes that there would be some way into it.
There was nothing. We could see where the chain link had been cut in a few places, but it had promptly been replaced and resecured.
We ended up having to walk all the way back out to the edge of Rts 1 and 9, where there was another fence barring our way.
We did find a hole in the fence along the highway, which everyone could use to get through except for me. It would require me to pass Ev through, and then left the stroller over, which I didn't want to bother with. I told the others that they could go ahead and do that, and while they were, I would make my way to the south just a bit and go out the next gate. By the time everyone else got through, I would have caught up on the outside of the fence again.
A few in the group followed me over to the other exit, and through the gate. The rest of the group was hanging out by the fence hole, already all through.
I made my way over to them, and together we all walked to the east up along Routes 1 and 9. We passed by the Mt Calvary Cemetery, where there was a narrow area to walk along the highway.
Just after the far entrance to the cemetery, the highway crossed Peach Orchard Brook, which is wide and tidal at this point, and the road edge became extremely narrow. I didn't' want to go through this way, but there was enough space between cars that I could get Ev around when none were coming. It was only a short distance to the next traffic light with crosswalk. Serious Sean helped me to lift the stroller through the problem spots so that it wouldn't be dangerous.
There was no way it seemed to go beneath the bridge. It seemed to have water right up to the sides, and where there might be any dryness, was all loaded with phragmites.
These are large perennial wetland reed grasses, native to Asia, which were introduced and started taking over all wetlands in the Eastern US starting around 1910.
They are pretty much impenetrable along wetlands, but not quite as terrible as Japanese Knotweed.
Once we got to the Philips 66 Linden Terminal, the side road and grass along it provided enough of a safe buffer. We got to the crosswalk and waited, but even there people were blasting through too fast. We commented that we are probably the only people to ever use that crosswalk on Rts 1 and 9, and that people were probably commenting on this group as they went by.
We cautiously went across when we had the signal to do so, but that doesn't mean that anyone will stop for the crosswalk. Fortunately we didn't have a problem there, and so we turned left on the grass on the other side to head toward the Rosedale or Rosewell Cemetery at the intersection with Willow Glade Road.
I don't know the official name where we went in. The first cemetery was Rosehill, and Google Maps call this one both Rosedale and Rosewell Cemetery.
Sean ran up to a gate on the corner of the property to see if we could find a way in. I was thinking it would be an open gate looking at Google maps when I planned it, but it was completely shut off. At this point, we'd gone enough out of the way and I didn't want to have any other problems, so I figured we'd try to lift the stroller across this time.
We found a spot where it was pretty easy to scale the fence and get in, and so we took turns doing that. I handed Ev over, and then Sean and I hoisted the stroller over without too much problem. Ev was not happy about being taken out at this point, but he was fine once I sat him back in.
Just as we were all climbing over and looking suspicious, a cop was going by. We were pretty obvious, and I'm surprised he didn't stop right there to see what we were doing. I figured we would probably see him in the cemetery.
He didn't see the stroller go over; Ev and that were already across by the time he went by.
Once everyone was over, we began following the cemetery roads winding around to the northwest. I thought to possibly follow the grass instead, just because I suspected there might be an issue, but we stayed on the road anyway.
Just as we came to the first intersection in the cemetery, sure enough the officer was there. I was up in the front with Sean, and I believe he saw the stroller, assumed it could not have been us, and moved on! He continued down the roadway to the left, and then pulled over. We cut to the right through the grass and on another service road blocked to traffic, sort of to the north. We saw him one more time ahead, weaving through the cemetery. It was pretty funny that he was very likely looking for us, because he probably would never enter the cemetery otherwise.
At this point, there would be no question as to why we were going there, because our next stop was to visit the grave of Serious Sean's father.
When we reached the William Robert Dougherty grave stone, Sean asked if we could do a group shot with his dad, and we happily obliged.
Our next point of interest in the cemetery is perhaps one of the most odd grave markers in the entire state. We headed to the north a bit, and through an area of mausoleums on good pathways, and then to an enormous, 36 ton life size granite sculpure of a 1982 Mercedes Benz Limousine
The memorial is to Ray Tse Jr, who died in 1981 at the age of 15, and fantasized about one day owning a luxurious Mercedes Benz. His millionaire brother, David, commissioned the piece said to cost some $250,000.
The sculpture is amazingly authentic, lacking only rear view mirrors that I could see. The license plate on it reads "Ray Tse" and has no other markings anywhere on it. I didn't notice it, but apparently an adjacent mausoleum building has more written on it.
After a third group shot for the day here, we moved on to the west, through more of the cemetery. We tried to stay in the middle of it on that trajectory, away from most of the roads. The officer that was patrolling through before was nowhere to be seen at this time.
At the south side of the cemetery, there was another entrance as well as a restroom building. We stopped, thinking we would be able to make use of that facility, but it was locked up. I ended up having to go and hide behind a bush. We wouldn't be passing any other such facilities for a long while, so I recommended that everyone take the opportunity while we could be hidden.
We emerged on East Linden Avenue and turned left. Our trajectory was to be to the north, but the problem was that there was no access to the other side of the very busy Northeast Corridor railroad tracks. We had to either go north or south a considerable distance to find away over.
I decided that we would just make our way to the Linden Station anyway.
We followed East Linden Ave for a bit, but then made a right and headed to Pennsylvania Avenue closer to the tracks. Trains went by multiple times while walking parallel or beneath just ahead. I pointed out the trains to Ev every time they went by. He seems to be gaining interest in them.
Along the way, the VFW lodge building, which was a two and a half story structure on the left, was burned out pretty badly with a tarp on it. It looked like it suffered a fire somewhat recently.
The railroad here was very old, part of the original Pennsylvania Railroad that inherited the Camden and Amboy. The first station to be built here was along the tracks when they were at grade.
The line was double tracked in the 1850s, and most of the Pennsylvania Railroad main line system went to four tracks just after 1900.
Grade crossings were a major liability on such a busy line, and so it was decided that the track through this urban area would be elevated to eliminate those grade crossings. As such, the original station had to go, and a new one was built perpendicular to the tracks, along Wood Avenue.
The station was completed in 1911, in Spanish Revival style with brick and tile roof. That building no longer serves as a station, but it still stands with another business inside, and the Linden station stop is still quite busy.
As for the original station, it too exists, though not so well known to most. It was moved from its original location to just up the street, and is now a private residence. It stands today on West Linden Avenue, and when you look well enough, the white building looks out of place compared to the others surrounding it.
We turned right on Wood Avenue, passed beneath the railroad tracks, and headed up to Elizabeth Ave.
This was what I figured would be the worst part of the entire hike. I had no particular route to walk from here that would not be road. My plan was to use several small parks heading to the north to Elizabeth, but there was just nothing in between, and the railroad tracks barred our way. There was no way of cutting across thems sooner, especially with the stroller.
This actually wasn't really bad at all. It was a nice, relaxing walk with pretty good sidewalks the entire way. I quite enjoyed it actually.
The tire on Ev's stroller in the front was just about totally flat and off the bead. It was impossible to avoid the way it was. Most of the weight is on the back ones, so it wasn't terrible, but I didn't want to have any further problems.
It was Sunday and most places are closed, but I figured if we found anyplace that might be able to help, we'd stop.
While going up this road, we came across Joel's Auto Repair and Tires. I figured I'd have a look and see if they could give us a quick fill.
The guy who came out barely spoke any English, but he gave us a quick pump of air and we were good to go! I thanked him for his help, and the stroller started moving along much better almost immediately.
We continued north on the road through here, and soon passed beneath the girder bridge of the former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which is shown on the old maps of the area as "Baltimore and New York". There are still tracks up on it, but I understand them to be barely used. I would like to walk that right of way, but again with the stroller, it would not be prudent to do so. Maybe in the future.
I had considered using that right of way to get across the active tracks as well, which in most cases would have worked fine, but not this time.
Once we got through, we turned left on Baltimore Ave. It was my plan to head to the right on Essex Avenue, and then turn left through St. Mark's Park, which would take us to Hussa Ave.
Sean asked if we could head just one block out of the way because he wanted to knock on the door of an old friend. One block was nothing, so I agreed and we headed to the house. All of use were waiting on the street, while he went up to knock on the door. I figure it would be funny for him to have this big group of friends just meandering through when he knocked.
Unfortunately, his friend had moved from this site, and he didn't know it. A young guy answered the door, looking quite annoyed.
We moved on up the street a few feet while I was going over maps of our trajectory, and the guy from the house went out to his car and looked at us suspiciously. He probably thought we were lunatics.
We followed Bergen Ave straight ahead across Chandler Ave, and I figured we would go straight into St Mark's Park that way. A guy was walking along the side and told us that they'd blocked entry to the park from that street, which seems ridiculous. We had to backtrack to Chandler, and rather than go around for extra distance, we headed northwest, and then turned right on Hussa Street to skip St Mark's Park.
Pretty soon, we crossed Peach Orchard Brook again, and it was tiny here. We then turned left onto a trail into the east side of Peach Orchard Park. It skirted the edge of School #4, and then came out to Dill Avenue.
From here, we crossed over and into the parking lot of the J L Webb building. We started heading around the back of it, because my plan was to go through to the lot of a mini mall.
It looked like it was fenced and gated, and so I started heading back the way we came to find another way through, but some of the group went ahead to find that the gate was not locked, and that we could walk right on through. I was sure glad they did that.
We headed through, and then along the side of the building where we found a chicken place called "Wing it On; Chicken Like a Champ". I'd never eaten at this chain before, and everyone seemed hungry, so we made this our lunch stop.
This was only a small establishment, which had indoor seating, but they clearly didn't want anyone in there. All of the seats were placed upside down on the tables. I just took mine down when I went in, and pulled Ev's stroller up next to me.
Someone else asked if they minded if we took the chairs down, and the guy behind the counter said that he just forgot to take them all down.
I wasn't going to get wings, but they looked to have a pretty good chicken sandwich, so I ordered some of that, and I think I ordered a couple of fingers for Ev to eat along with that.
Ev gets all crazy when we go into places, and he was quite happy to get out of the stroller and ram around. We were literally the only people to stop into the place. I think there were a couple of pick ups for the more than an hour we were in there, but since it was just us, Ev could walk around as much as he wanted.
For the rest of us, moving around was kind of difficult. It was cramped inside, but we made it work.
We had some tasty chicken, and when we were done, we headed out to the north a bit.
Directly across was Carolyn Terrace and an apartment complex with some good sidewalks through it. We passed through that way, and I figured we might find a way into Warinanco Park to the north from here.
This was a Union County park that I don't believe I'd ever gone through before, so I wanted to cover as much of it as we could this time.
In the early 1900s, residents of Union County became concerned that all of the natural lands remaining within its borders were giving way to development. In 1921, the Union County Park Commission was created to address this concern.
At about that time, the land for this park was purchased, and planned out by the famous Olmsted Brothers Landscape Design firm. It was originally named Elizabeth Park.
In 1925, the name of the park was changed to "Warinanco" to honor a prominent native Lenape leader. Warinanco along with another leader named Mattano sold the lands that included the park to the "Elizabethtown Associates" in 1664.
We ascended a bit of a berm on a slight foot path out of the development, and then turned right through the grass at the top of a slope parallel with the Warinanco Park roadway. There were police cars coming through on this road route like crazy. I figured they must have had a police station within the park, but that apparently was not the case. Something must have been going on to see so many of them back to back circling through.
We eventually descended and crossed the vehicle road, and then got on a paved pathway that led over to and around Warinanco Park Lake. We took to the left around the longer interior shore of the lake, which was quite pretty.
When we got to the inside of it, there was a ladder leaning on a tree, which Sean of curse had to climb. I think the thing was there for some sort of ice rescue when needed.
We weaved around the lake some more, and there was a nice stone arch bridge in view across the other side of the lake.
When we got to the northwest side, we took a path to the left, which climbed uphill a bit, and then passed a lovely line of trees and a wide roadway. There was also the Chatfield Garden, which had a fountain in the middle, but no flowers this time of year.
The most impressive thing about this park to me, aside from the scenic lake, was the amount of giant trees. There were a great many Red and Pin Oaks through the park, all of impressive size.
We skirted the Chatfield Garden, headed to the west, and my plan was to then go north out of the park, but I missed a turn. Perhaps I was enamored by a particular grove of giant Oaks in a well shaded part of the park.
This particular grove made me think that, if one wants to stand among giants, one must also be willing to let them grow.
I thought about my work and all of the connections I make in life, and that it only serves me to allow for those around me to grow more productive and successful. I definitely find myself considering that quite a lot lately when there are so many instances of people doing a sub-par job. It's not always easy to allow growth where the conditions are not right.
Once we got out of the grove and crossed a small tributary on a bridge, I realized we ended up at the Warinanco Sports Center, on the west side of the park, and not so far from where we first entered. I was annoyed at first, but then realized it was an opportunity to see more of the park, and sections of it we may never get to again.
We headed back to the north, this time on a different path, and passed by some more lovely giant trees.
The path then took us along the edge of a Magnolia grove, and then parallel with the vehicle road just south of a ball field. We crossed the road, and then paralleled the turf field on the left side.
The next point of interest I believe was a pavilion with all sorts of exercise equipment under it. We all stopped, and it seemed like each exercise station was taken over by one hiker who began performing whatever movement was instructed.
On this route, we came upon an open restroom, and decided to take a break there for everyone. It was a good stop because I was able to get rid of lots of junk from my stroller as well as relieve myself.
We stood around here for a bit, then continued north on the walkway around the fields, then out to the entrance road, which becomes Park Street.
I had intended to cut through an apartment complex to the right of this, to avoid some more walking directly on road, but I forgot about it and just pushed ahead.
It didn't matter, because we were through this in no time. Park Ave intersected with Grand Avenue, where we crossed and then entered a large parking lot on the other side. We then walked along the sidewalks of a long strip mall as we headed west again.
After the end of the strip mall buildings, we reached Linden Road and turned right.
In about a block, we reached the abandoned former main line of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, one of the oldest sections dating to the 1830s, of the Elizabeth and Somerville Railroad. It had been extended all the way to Somerville by 1841, and by the 1850s it merged with another line to become the Central Railroad of New Jersey.
This particular crossing was once the site of Lorraine Station, part of Roselle Park. I had walked through here once before, back I think in 2005, on a hike that I'd also posted through Appalachian Mountain Club. Trying to bully through on that abandoned line, even though the tracks were still in place, was brutal due to the undergrowth. 
Rick Stotz Collection
This crossing was particularly interesting because it has a very impressive signal bridge. I had everyone wait and regroup while I gave a little history of the area.
We didn't walk any of the right of way this time; we had to continue ahead to Rt 28. We turned slightly right, then crossed at the crosswalk to Colonial Road. I let Ev hit the crossing button, which he loves.
1950 John Dziobko
When I went to post all of the photos from this hike on the Metrotrails page, I was shocked at how may photos I got of this particular Lorrain Station site while still in service.
Paul Carpenito photo
I ended up having to go back a short time later to get now versions of the historic photos, which I've added to this journal entry since they're so cool.
1958 John Dziobko photo
Colonial Road is aptly named, because much of this road system was already in place before American independence.
When we reached the next intersection at Galloping Hill Road, there was an historic marker on the left denoting where the British army had turned on their way to Connecticut Farms Church, where there was a skirmish. That is a church up in Cranford, and the favorite church of my late best friend Kyle Zalinsky.
It is said that a son of General William Crane was bayoneted to death near this location.
We turned to the left, and began making our way uphill on Galloping Hill Road. This was only to Park Avenue where we turned right a bit, then left on Kipling Road, and then left on Shelley Ave.
From here, we would follow Shelley for a long while. We took it northeast across Byron Ave, over a hill and slightly down to cross Magie Ave. At that intersection, it changes names to Conant Ave, and in a short distance, it becomes abandoned and is a trail into the Kennedy Reservation.
Conant Road was once a major through road, all cut off from progress. It is bisected in a development, through Kean University, by Route 82, and by the Elizabeth River, where it would have joined Conant Street on the other side at Conant Park.
The route was quite nice through woods from here. One wouldn't think we were so close to Elizabeth, because it really had the illusion of seclusion.
Eventually, we emerged at the other side of the park, on Lowden Ave. We wet straight across and into a bit of open space on the intersection with Woodland Ave. Conant Street again started up on the other side of Woodland heading into Kean University. Once everyone was caught up, we headed across and onto Conant into the college property.
Kean University started out in Newark in 1855 as the Newark Normal School. In 1937, it became the New Jersey State Teacher's School. In 1958, following the post war boom, and with demands for a more comprehensive curriculum, the school moved to the historic home estate of the Kean, and before that, Livingston family.
We turned slightly right at Couger Hall, and someone was making jokes about cougars, then took a sidewalk over to a walkway called the Cougar Walk, adjacent to the building and then others.
This main walkway took us to the east, through the campus, and then to a large parking area adjacent to the Vaugh-Eames Hall. We turned to the right at this building, along the sidewalks, and then got to another walkway through grass on the north side of the parking lot.
To the north, just across Rt 82/Morris Avenue, was the famous Liberty Hall and arboretum.
The original 14-room Georgian style homestead was built in 1772 as the country home of William Livingston, first Governor of New Jersey under the new United States of America. He served from August 1776 until 1790.
The building had substantial additions built in 1789 and in 1870.
Other notables from the Livingston family and Kean Dynasty called Liberty Hall home.
Peter Kean purchased the land in trust for Susan Livingston Kean, niece of William Livingston, in 1811. The Kean family held the home until Mary Alice Kean motivated the restoration of the building as a museum.
Such notables as George and Martha Washington, Lewis Morris, and the Marquis de Lafayette were entertained here. It has been designated a National Historic Landmark since 1972.
We contnued along a walkway to the east, parallel with the highway, passed the North Avenue Academic Builing, and I hoped to get across North Avenue, and then across 82. However, there was another big fence in the way (the fence theme of this hike was getting pretty old by this time).
We had to go to the right, all the way out to the vehicle entrance to this campus.
We came out to North Ave, crossed on the crosswalk, and entered another park area where we came to the Trotters Branch of the Elizabeth River. One foot path continued downstream along the Trotters Branch, and another went left to cross the small stream on a prefabricated bridge.
I pushed Ev over the bridge and checked out an historic map that showed some of the old properties of the area. Serious Sean decided he wanted to see if he could get through on the foot path, cross the stream, and catch us ahead.
The trail took us from the stream through Phil Rizzuto Park, and then back out to Morris Avenue across from the campus and fence we were stuck behind before.
We reached and crossed over the road, and then continued along North Avenue for a bit.
There was a very old building to the left that looked to be vacant, and I think was on the Livingston/Kean property. The old map of the area labels a house in this vicinity being one of George Belusise. North Ave once terminated at Trotter's Mill on the Elizabeth River.
We continued ahead a bit more, and then turned to the right through grass, parallel with the Elizabeth River, through Ursino Park.
It was a wide, grassy section of land, and we headed uphill rather steeply onto a grassy flood protection berm. We continued along the top of that, and Diane pointed out a handsome, big opossum walking along a tree limb to the right. I stopped and photographed him a few times before we moved on.
Serious Sean appeared out of nowhere onto the berm just a bit ahead of us. He managed to get through after a couple of steep sptots on the brook, and accessed us from Trotter Lane.
The flood berm was a sort of informal trail for a bit. It led us out to parallel with Trotter Lane, and we eventually had to descend and reach the road because the berm gave way to a sort of dam.
We continued ahead, and my original plan was to continue across the bridge over the Elizabeth River, at the former historic site of Trotter's Bridge, but then I figured we should try to ge to the railroad station more quickly. We knew about when the next train would come, and we didn't want to miss it being so close.
Rather than cross, which looks like it would have been nice, we went straight on Parker Road. It turned ninety degrees, turned away from the Elizabeth River, and headed out to Morris Ave where we would turn to the left toward the railroad station.
When we reached the left turn for Morris Ave, a guy in a pickup truck with his dog frantically moving back and forth caught Ev's attention, and he was waving and saying hi to them.
We continued into town on the street for a bit, and when I saw that we were doing so well that we'd be waiting when we got to the station, I decided to step inside the Burger King on the way to get Ev some chicken nuggets. I think I also got a double cheeseburger or something.
Ev ate just about all of the nuggests, starting with one or two right away.
We left the place and headed into town, where there was a downright silly sign with misspellings. One of them read "costumers only" instead of customers, not responsible for "looses", and "subjected to move your car at any time".
We continued down Morris toward the station, and the handsome old Jersey Central station with the clock tower came into good view.
The handsome station was built in 1893, and the CNJ has been abandoned through here to where we crossed it before since I think 1986.
The station is currently undergoing some sort of restoration, and has been since we did the holiday hike over a year prior.
We continued to a crosswalk and turned to the right, parallel with the stone viaduct that carries the former Pennsylvania Railroad over the former CNJ.
There was a set of stairs that led up to the elevated platform that everyone mostly took, but I had to push Ev up to the elevator to make it easier. Koshek went with me for that ride as well. He did pretty great for his first time out with the group.
We got up to the platform with plenty of time to spare, but we still hurried to get our tickets from the machine.
While on the platform, it took a while for our train to arrive. The track is straight as an arrow, and so we saw the lights of those coming ahead from a log distance away.
Several went by us from both directions while we were there, and when I saw one approaching from enough distance, I let Ev know to look for it. He watched very intently at each train that went by, sometimes very cutely with a chicken nugget stuck in his mouth.
It was nice being on the platform, and waiting for a train to approach. Ev watched with anticipation each time. I could tell he was going to be into trains at least at some point in his life. I suppose all children are at some point. I certainly was, and that evolved into the history of transportation.
There were good views of the downtown of Elizabeth from this platform as well.
When our train finally arrived, it was easy to board because it is one of those handicap accessible platforms. I just rolled the stroller on, and pulled it to the side when everyone else went by. None of the conductors gave us a hard time about having it there, and they didn't collect any of our tickets either, so we'd have them to use again another time if we wanted.
The ride was incredibly short, and we were back at the Linden Station. We got off the train, descended to Wood Ave, and began walking back toward Strike Sound.
It was again great to have Jack and Serious Sean there to tell us about what they'd seen over the years, both working and growing up there.
Sean pointed out what bars were there, and some tall buildings adjacent to the station on Linden Ave Jack pointed out where not even there only a few years ago.
As we passed by John Russel Wheeler Park on the right, I remembered passing through it on a hike years prior, and reminded Jacka bout going through it. We actually had a group shot in there, along the Morses Creek.
At the time, so much of this area was so dijointed to me. It didn't make a whole lot of sense until I walked more of it and had a better frame of reference, so this was a great refresher.
We soon reached Rt 1 and 9, and continued on Wood Avenue on the other side. Lots more reminiscing with Sean and Jack ensued over this route, which was really cool to hear.
As I listened to the recollections, especially from Sean since he grew up there, it made me think of all of the years everyone spent with me recalling my own past along the rights of way close to my home. It's always nice when I can give someone else the opportunity to do the same thing with their own areas.
When we had gotten off the train, it started to precipitate just a bit. The forecast called for some of that in the late afternoon, and we only caught the tail end of it. It was never so bad that I even had to put Ev's stroller cover on. I just pulled the top over him somewhat, and it was never too bad. It really worked out great that we had just about finished the hike by the time any of this started.
We crossed over the Morses Creek once more, as it was just starting to get dark, and continued on Wood Avenue out to the Johnny Prince Bayway Diner, and turned left on 21st Street, which brougth us right back to Strike Sound to finish out the day.
Some of the group headed inside and hung out with Jack and Sarah for a while, which was really nice.
We got to have some leftover food from the party the night before, and sat around on the sofas and such in the front room chatting about life, and art, expression, while Ev got to be free of the stroller to run back and forth through the office between each of us happily.
It ended up just being Jack, Sarah, Koshek, and myself when everyone else left.
It was such a nice time; I really didn't even want to leave to go home. The freezing rain turned to regular rain, but it was still going to take me a while to get home, so I soon decided to depart in order to be as safe as possible.
I was so glad to have this opportunity all come together. We had a really enjoyable hike, and a great celebration for Jack, of his career, surrounded by friends who love him and what he contributes to all of our lives with his talent, humor, and friendship.
Jack is not the kind that will ever retire in the way we picture it. His is truly a retirement to celebrate, because it means he's going to be having a lot more fun with less stress, while he's youthful and can truly enjoy it to its fullest.
Hopefully it means we get to see more of him, and we'll all get to share more in his good times.
No comments:
Post a Comment