Hike #1538; 3/26/23 Del Haven to Oxford/Van Nest Gap Anniversary Hike with Matthew Davis, Lucas Davis, Adam Davis, Scott "Tea Biscuit" Helbing, Jennifer Berndt, Chris "Cupcake" Kroschinski, Jack Lowry, Sarah Jones, Serious Sean Dougherty, Evan "Joe Millionaire" Van Rossum, Diane Reider, Brittany Weider, Justin Gurbisz, Robin Deitz, Violet Chen, David Adams, Erica Pensyl, Erica's son ?, Mark Godfrey, Mike Weber, Craig Craig Fredon, Eric Pace, Jim "Mr. Buckett" Mathews, Steve Sanbeg, Daniel Trump, Shane Blische, Scott "Tea Biscuit" Helbing, Jacob Helbing, Jacob's girlfriend, Professor John DiFiore, Russ Nelson, Ewa Magda Nelson, Kirk Rohn, Luke Freselone, and James DeLotto
It was time again for our big anniversary hike, celebrating that first hike that started all of this in March of 1997. I'd pretty much been doing the exact same hike every year with minor changes.
The only changing up that had occurred in the past was during the pandemic, I had a rainy day one on rail trails in Sussex County, but I still did the actual hike on my birthday that week. For the annual hikers' party, I'd changed it up as well in the past, but we always did the old Warren Railroad, Lackawanna main line from Knowlton Township to Washington, or a backwards version of it.
I announced last year that I was going to change it up this year and post something different. I decided that it wouldn't be terribly different, but something I hadn't done in over a decade anyway.
I figured we would instead start in Pennsylvania, across from Belvidere, hike the Tekening Trail system and Lower Mt Bethel Trail system, cross into Belvidere, then head up to the old Lackawanna main to continue on our normal route to Oxford.
In the past, we were able to park at Oxford Central School, or we could park a couple of different places for which we no longer have the ability, so this time I used the new Pequest Wildlife Management Area parking lot in Van Nest Gap on the south side of town, where the hunting supply store used to stand. It had been torn down just before the state lot opened up.
This made it a very convenient meeting point with room for plenty of cars, and we could easily shuttled to Del Haven below Riverton.
Sadly, I did not have my son with me on this one. His mother said I would be too drunk to take care of him, and made alternate plans. It seems like it always happens on the major things. The holiday hike was the last one, and then this, and I couldn't bring him on the 25 year hike last year either.
I was upset about not being able to bring him, but I drowned my sorrows in a barleywine ale called Waiting on a Breakthrough by Springhouse brewery.
It was a pretty easy ride to the starting point. I'd done two hikes starting at this point in the past, at Keifer Field off of Bush Drive in the little Delaware River community of Del Haven.
The Lower Mt Bethel Township trail travels from this point to Riverton at the municipal park there. I'd done hikes through there a couple of times, as night hikes, but two starting there in the past.
The first time was a Kyle Zalinsky Memorial Hike. It was one he and I were going to co-lead together, but he passed before we got the chance to do it. The next time, it was a benefit hike to help Jillane and I after our home burned down in 2010. Jillane was going to host it with the help of my friends that knew the route, but then I was out hiking again within a week of getting out of intensive care, so I ran it.
Once everyone was together, we began walking the route toward Belvidere.
My nephew Jacob was trying to figure out where to join us, and ended up missing some of the coolest stuff on the hike because he figured we would be to Belvidere in no time. Anyone who tried to meet up late to this one was really missing out.
That first part was really easy. One can barely even see the trail where it leaves Keifer Field because it has grassed over so badly. In fact, so has almost all of it where it runs parallel with Del Haven Road.
Pretty soon, the trail crosses the road, and it gives us a little bit of shade along the field edges.
When we reached Rt 611, the trail turns right and parallels it for a while as well. The crushed stone path remains back far enough away from the road that it doesn't really feel like walking a sidewalk, so it's alright.
We continued along this segment until after a farm area it turned out along the edges of fields to the right.
This is a really nice little area because the trail goes over little segments of boardwalk along he way where the runoff from the fields sometimes makes it wet.
The trail soon turned left off of the fields and descended to the Oughoughton Creek. There is no bridge to carry the trail across, but rather concrete cylinders that had been placed in the water as permanent stepping stones. We let everyone get across here, and the trail ascended once more on the other side into a meadow area.
The trail came up to beside Depues Road, named for the prominent Depue family that settled the area in the early 1700s. It reached the intersection with Depues Ferry Road, which used to be the ferry site that lines up with Foul Rift Road on the other side of the Delaware. The trail crosses the road and then turns right to parallel it somewhat closely.
After a bit of downhill walking, we came out into the parking lot for the Tekening Preserve.
Until recently, this preserve was property of Pennsylvania Power and Light. It was turned over to Lower Mt Bethel Township, but not after the power company had the property logged for whatever they could get out of it.
It was heartbreaking what happened here, because the loop trail in the property had been there for a long time, and was very pleasant, but they removed all but the stuff that was along the trail closest to the river. The removal destroyed natural rock outcroppings and left the area looking like crap and growing over with invasive species.
The word "Tekening" is a Lanape one that supposedly means "in the woods".
We took a little break in the parking area where there are picnic tables and a pavilion. There is also quite an impressive view of the big two cooling towers at the power plant, probably the closest proximity you can ever get to one of those things.
It was build like a nuclear plant, but it never was one. It was coal fired and I understand even that has shut down in favor of gas now.
We continued into the woods, and reached a fork in the trail where we turned right. I didn't see any trail markings, and I thought we were going the right way. It took us across a driveway, and someone went driving by us. They didn't stop us, so I figured it was the right way, but when my phone GPS caught up, we were in totally the wrong place and approaching a private home.
We had to backtrack through woods, to the last intersection, and then continue around the driveway. We weren't supposed to cross it at all.
The trail brought us eventually out along the Delaware River on a nice side hill slope. Our next spot for a break was at a very nice wooden observation platform that overlooks Foul Rift, the most dangerous spot on the Delaware River where it drops many feet in under a mile. I forget how many exactly.
After our break, we continued along the edge of the river atop the cliffs. I explained that the rapids used to be worse, but a General Hoops led an initiative to blast out some of the rocky rapids here to make the river more navigable, and placed iron rings in the sides of the cliffs to assist with upstream traffic.
We continued downstream, which is always a very nice walk, crossed a long wooden foot bridge over a tributary, and continued to where I was expecting to turn inland toward the original parking area for this preserve.
To my surprise, there was an all new trail that continued straight along the river, which I was not at all expecting to come across. I guess this happened as soon as the township took it over. There used to be a connector trail before, but it only broke off to the building that the bridge commission put in several years ago.
The new trail descended for a bit and came out at the end of the ball fields in the Lower Mt Bethel Township Park, then followed the edge of the fields to the north.
We cut into a path along the right side in this stretch, and checked out a collapsed old bungalow house that was there.
Another path continued from the end of the fields, mowed pretty well, so we continued to follow that rather than go to the main parking area for the park.
We emerged on a driveway off of Rt 611, and just cut out to the highway that way. It seemed like an official trail, but I'm not really sure. We crossed the road, turned right, and headed over to cross the Belvidere-Riverton Bridge, opened in 1904 to replace the covered bridge predecessor that was wiped out in the Pumpkin Flood of 1903.
Once we got across the bridge, we continued on the street into town, beneath the Bel Del Railroad bridge along the Pequest River, and stopped in the liquor store for refreshments (I had enough already). We then turned right on Greenwich Street because I planned to stop for sandwiches and drinks at Skoogy's Deli.
I told Tea Biscuit he could make his "proclamation" in the store for the first time in maybe twenty years. He usued to go in and shout "I'm a nudist" inside just randomly, and I would be able to hear it outside.
I don't believe he did it this time.
I grabbed some chocolate milk and a sandwich, and we ate outside the place. We'd been stopping in Skoogy's for many years, and it was now under new management. The guy running the place was still very friendly and told us to visit every time we're in town. He even commented on our facebook posts.
We did our group photo at a new place this time, in front of the Skoogy's sign. We had stopped here on so many hikes going back over twenty years, so it was a great throwback.
Some of the group didn't come to Skoogy's. They stopped at a diner in town, not realizing that's usually like an hour commitment. We had to get moving and they'd have to catch up.
Delotto met up with us at Skoogy's as well, and walked with us for a time after that, but he disappeared at some point after that because I didn't see him too long after we started.
We continued past Country Gate Theatre where I'd done shows in the past (another reason I'd been in Skoogy's so often), and then made the next right on 2nd Street where my grandfather owns a vacant lot on the left, which contains some of the foundation ruins of the old creamery. The Belvidere Station on the Bel Del line also used to stand along the opposite side of 2nd Street. We turned left into the former yard area where the sidings were for some of the industry, and started following the Bel Del line to the south.
My original plan for this hike was actually to go to the old Lackawanna main and include the Manunka Chunk Tunnels, but I decided to change it last minute.
We didn't have nearly as huge a group as we'd had in the past, and it would probably be a more interesting hike for everyone if we just continued east on the former Lehigh and Hudson River Railway. I hadn't done it as anything but a night hike in years, and I was excited at the prospect as well. Since I didn't have Ev and the stroller, anything rough about it was not going to be an issue.
We crossed over 4th Street, and I pointed out on the left toward a house off of Spring Street where the original Lehigh and Hudson River Railway had its northbound connection to the Bel Del.
It's pretty obscure now, right along a yard. We continued a bit further south along a bit of a cut, and then came to the junction where the more recently used southbound connection of the same line used to be. It was abandoned in 1986, and the switch was still in place into the 2000s.
We turned hard left and began following that line, with tracks still in place but overgrown for a ways.
It was double tracked once in this area, and only the one to the right, which is at a higher elevation is obvious. The ATV path that follows it is pretty deeply rutted, but passable.
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| An old spare rail holder in Belvidere |
As we reached where Greenwich Street/Belvidere Road crosses over it on a bridge, we paused and I pointed out where the wye came together, where the northbound connection was made from the Bel Del that we had seen just a bit earlier.
Also at this point, Russ, Ewa, and Kirk I think joined back up with us. They cut the corner we had been walking by taking Greenwich Street to the rail crossing.
We continued a little ahead from here, and then passed the two old yellow hopper cars that had been parked on a piece of track to the left since before the line was abandoned.
This was the approach to the station and yard. When I first started doing group hikes on the section, there were no trees growing through those cars, but they are now in forest.
Pretty soon, we came to the end of Mansfield Street, which was part of the old Phillipsburg-Belvidere Road, prior to Greenwich Street being the main street into town. The Mansfield Street Belvidere Station also used to stand at this crossing. Surprisingly, this station still exists, but it was moved downhill slightly and farther east in the yard where it is still used as an office for a propane facility or something.
The location was also site of a coaling trestle on the north side. I noted this time that some of the remains of the structure had collapsed since last I was out there, which was a couple of years.
To continue, we had to come out to the road, walk it only a short distance, and then turn to the right again onto an ATV path. I pointed out where the grade crossing used to be as we walked.
The rail yard still has a couple of overgrown tracks, and we were walking between them. We continued past the old station building, which I pointed out, and then further into the yard where there is one building standing off to the left. After that, the tracks all of a sudden end, and we re-enter the woods. We noted spare rail holders along the left side of the yard, where section gangs or gandy dancers would pick them up to replace broken rail sections when necessary.
Just a little past this site we reached the bridge across the Pophandusing Brook. There used to be ties on this until maybe a decade ago, and then they were all removed. Now, it is only four I-beams to cross, or otherwise one must take a path down to the left and wade the brook, and follow another path back up the other side.
It's really not a hard one to cross at all, but some of the group went around and did the water crossing anyway. I went back and forth across the thing without a problem.
Once we were all across the bridge, we continued walking, and the railroad bed becomes less recognizable as such. It used to be really clear through this area, but it's growing in quite a lot.
We continued out around a fence that's been there for years, and then reached the age restricted community outside of Belvidere near Hazen.
Through the community, which was built in 2000 through 2003, pretty close to where the railroad went has a stone and chip trail built on it. I think the railroad is railbanked because it was abandoned after 1982 when that movement started. To the east of here, one of the farms does not have clear title to the railroad, I think because of railbanking, so I think they were forced to acknowledge the railroad and put the path through the development.
The path stays on the right of way directly at first, but then requires a jog to the left or right across Victoria Drive, Kensington Circle, Stafford Lane, Weybourne Lane, and Kensington Circle again. After that, it regains the original railroad bed.
I had everyone wait before getting out to the crossing of Rt 623 near Hazen. I didn't want to cause a scene crossing the road to the property across the street.
Once everyone was together though, we crossed over and entered the tree line on the railroad bed, which is still cleared as an ATV trail for a while just ahead.
We continued on this until it opened up into a very large field. The right of way had been tilled many times over, but still didn't grow anything because of all of the black cinder dirt.
I understand there was an attempt to put this field into farmland preservation, but the unclear title to the railroad bed ended up messing it up. The surrounding farm is the Unangst farm; they don't realize it, but they're distant cousins to me as I am descended through my maternal grandmother from the first Unangst to come to America, who lived in the area of Morgan Hill south of Easton Pennsylvania.
We continued across the wide open field section, which is always an incredibly pleasant walk. If this is ever made into an official trail, I fear they'd ruin it with too much delineation and weeds would grow around the edges. I really like it as it is, but who knows how long it will be like that for. If the land is not preserved, it could go to a developer at basically any time.
We continued out of the field area and into a slight cut, then skirted the quarry area as we neared Bridgeville. Just before reaching the through girder bridge that carried the line over Rt 519, the right of way is obliterated by tilled farmland and only one line of trees remains. On the other side of the road, the fill has been bulldozed away and is now part of a junkyard.
This area is a spot of some issues because there is state park land beyond the junkyard, but it is now inaccessible except from Buttzville. We used to access it by way of the old Edison Road bridge, but the bridge was demolished by Warren County without consideration for the park land on the other side.
We skirted the field and headed out to Rt 519, then turned left beneath the girder bridge. We reached the stone arch bridge over the Pequest River, crossed, and then turned right on Titman Road at the Warren County Road Department building, which is an historic stone building for which I do not know the original use.
Titman Road took us past the turn on old Edison Road where the bridge is gone, then continued out to Rt 46 along the Pequest River. At that point, there is a visible old eel weir in the river.
My grandfather told me these were called "eel wracks" when I was little. Whatever the terminology is, it is possible that this is the most prominent example of native American habitation we have in our area, as there are stories that these were built by the the native people to catch eels before colonists used them.
We continued along 46 for just a little bit to Hot Dog Johnny's. Mark and Mike Weber and their other friend cut out early when we got to Bridgeville and went back toward Manunka Chunk.
We hung out at Hot Dog Johnny's for a while and ate a couple of dogs Jen got me, and it was a nice time hanging out for a bit. The weather was nice, it wasn't too hot out, and everyone was in high spirits.
It's always great when we go to Johnny's because we're part of an enormous line going in, but no one really minds.
We headed from Johnny's along Rt 46 eastbound briefly, then went up the slope on the side road to reach the old Lackawanna Railroad's main line eastbound.
The side road is built over it a bit, and then its obliterated in an old tennis court and in a dumping area next to a an industry to Green Pond Road. Beyond Green Pond Road, it's a good ATV path parallel with the Buttzville Cemetery.
We continued beyond the cemetery and then into a bit of a cut where some of the first flowers of spring were seen along the left side. It had been so unseasonably warm, it was not so much of a surprise.
We continued along a shelf behind homes up above Rt 46, and then reached the spot where the abandoned service station once plowed away the railroad shelf, and we had to go uphill to the left to continue on the ATV path above the right of way. We descended once again to it, and then headed down to Rt 46 where the bridge once spanned for the railroad before it was abandoned in 1970.
We dashed across Rt 46, which is right by the traffic light. NJDOT has no pedestrian signs placed at this crossing, which I think has something to do with me, because they only went up after the planned route of the Warren Highlands Trail was published online planning to use the crossing, and after I started seriously criticizing NJDOT for the planned rock wall debacle at the Delaware Water Gap.
Whatever the case, it is now another bigger issue than it was before.
From here, we headed uphill on the slope to the top of the Pequest Viaduct, a three arch span over the Pequest River as well as the Lehigh and Hudson River Railway, which crossed the Pequest at the exact same spot below.
Just to the east, the Lehigh and Oxford broke off of the L&HR and traveled south to the iron mines near present day Oxford Tilcon quarry.
The bridge we crossed appears to be made of concrete, but it is my belief that it is actually the original stone bridge beneath all of the concrete, which was placed on it. There are no photos of construction or capping with concrete, and when that took place it was still the main line.
They couldn't rip out a major bridge and put in a new one without interruption of traffic unless they put it directly next to the original bridge. The topography does not appear that this was the case at all, so it is probably the original bridge.
The section ahead passes through Pequest Wildlife Management Area, and it is among the most lovely sections of the entire right of way to walk. It is clear, black cinder dirt base, and it goes on a shelf high above the Pequest and the Lehigh and Hudson line. The two rail lines can be used for loops that I enjoy doing when I only have a little bit of time.
While we were walking some of the home stretch on the shelf, Matt's two sons were impressively keeping up great. He says he had to carry Lucas a lot of the way, but he still handled it really well. Lucas I think was only 7 at the time, and he was asking questions like why they didn't use the Concord Jets anymore.
Pretty soon, we reached the former junction with the Pequest Furnace Railroad, which was a spur that went out to the Pequest Furnace and made connection with the Lehigh and Hudson River Railway beyond. The Lackawanna line turned to the right and passed through the deep Pequest Cut.
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| Lucas, Adam, and Matt |
It is my opinion that the original Warren Railroad probably did not pass through this cut. I think the Pequest Furnace Railroad is the original, and that it probably circumnavigated the rocky spit of land that comes out, because there was a path of very little resistance to come through, and the Pequest Furnace Railroad used to connect on either side of the cut.
We got through the cut, passed the large cinder piles that were associated with Pequest Furnace and the other junction with the furnace railroad, crossed high over the Furnace Brook, and then continued under the power line and out to Pequest Road.
At this point, Erica's son Ryan showed up with his car to pick up her other son. I'd remembered him from when he was really little, so seeing him actually driving was really a trip. It was even more of a trip that my nephey Jacob was hiking with his girlfriend.
Ryan pulled out and continued down the road and Erica continued with the rest of us toward Oxford, but when Jacob and his girlfriend got to the road, after they'd been dragging behind a bit, they had just missed Ryan. I think they stayed there and called him back to pick them up.
We headed into the woods from there and continued to Lower Denmark Road. The rail right of way is grown in and properties off of Pequest Road are encroaching on it. I wish the right of way would have been preserved through there, because we could get on it no problem back when I started doing the hikes.
I chatted with Erica on the road walk about her brother Verdon, who had worked with me for state park service for a while, but then got involved in some trouble and ended up leaving without fighting for the job. He'd not been doing so well somewhat recently, but was not particularly unhealthy.
Very sadly, Verdon, or "Bud" as many of us knew him, passed away a couple of months later from a massive heart attack, potentially related to having recently gotten a vaccination. It is all very frustrating and upsetting.
We continued out to Rt 31, and then basically walked that to the end, as well as a couple of brief side streets. I pointed out where the Oxford Iron Mines Railroad used to cross the highway, and noticed where the houses that sit so close to the highway might disappear in the near future because they sit so close to the highway lanes.
I pointed out to everyone where the original 1856 to 1862 Warren Railroad used to go across where the highway is now, abandoned after the completion of the tunnel in 1862. Some of the right of way is recognizable, and at this time, they had been cutting trees off of it adjacent to the highway.
Just ahead, there's a house on the right that's been vacant for some time. I imagine it will probably be demolished some time in the near future.
Pretty soon, the area on the left widened into the gravel lot and "Welcome to Oxford" sign. I pointed out where the old railroad came through, and showed everyone the wye in the back, where I assume helper engines used to connect for travel over and around the mountains. Afterall, this was nearly the peak reached by the old Warren Railroad prior to the tunnel.
There was also a sort of concrete thing with a hatch near the middle, which I think is the old air shaft associated with the tunnel. I fear that the tunnel will soon collapse and take some of the surface with it, perhaps some of Rt 31. I got it into the NJ Herald, but it didn't seem to go anywhere.
We soon got back to the cars, and I hung out for a little bit to chat with a few of the folks there.
Rich Pace and his girlfriend drove by and said hello, and I forgot to mention that we saw them first thing in the morning while we were meeting as well, so it was neat to see him.
Justyna Davis showed up to pick up Adam and Lucas, and both were in high spirits from the day, although they both looked tired. They did an impressive job walking all that way.
I said hello to Justyna and mentioned how impressed I was that Lucas was asking such complicated questions one wouldn't expect of a seven year old. She assured me "Oh, your
son will be the same way, you'll see."
That was rather encouraging to hear. I hope little Ev is curious and thoughtful in the way that Matt and Justyna's sons are.
For our after-hike dinner since we were done within reasonable time, we went to the Draught House in Washington, probably for the last time it would be known as simply that name. Dave English as I understood had given it up or sold it or something, and it would become known as Angry Dad's Draught House. I haven't tried it since, but I've heard it wasn't as good as it used to be.
It was a really great day to be out, something very different than we'd been used to, but still the kind of celebration I'd want to share with friends, and I was happy we did it this way.
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