Hike #1550; 5/17/23 Sussex Rail Triangle with Brittany Wieder, Dan Lurie, and Everen
This next hike would be another spur of the moment weekday thing after I was done with errands, heading up to Sussex County to do an easy and relaxing loop hike on abandoned rail beds.
I got in touch with Dan ahead of time to see if he'd be available to do some hiking, since I had this thing planned for his area.
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| On my hike in 2003 |
He seemed kind of bored with the idea of doing this particular rail trail loop, but I had to keep reminding him that I had Ev and the stroller, and so we had to take all of that into consideration before we headed out.
He wanted to try to get through some of the wildlife management areas or something in the area, but a lot of that would be tough to do a lot of mileage on with the stroller.
I asserted that we kind of had to do the rail trail loop, and I picked him up at a place off of Rt 206 near Culvers Inlet. We then backtracked a bit and started our hike in the town of Branchville.
I parked at what seemed to be a rather new state owned parking area right in Branchville, close to where the station used to stand, just to the north of there.
I had taken a photo at just about this point when I hiked through in 2003, but I didn't have it in front of me, so I just took one of close proximity.
The area was well grassed over since 2003, but the rail right of way was pretty obvious.
This was the Sussex Railroad, built to this location in 1869. The line became part of the Delaware, Lackwanna, and Western Railroad system in 1881.
It was once planned that the line would be extended north through to the Delaware River, through Culver's Gap, but it never came to fruition.
We started walking to the south on the right of way to an odd old bridge that has metal ties, but it was not looking easy to get across it, so we opted to follow around the outside of buildings to get there.
We walked by Milk Street Distillery, which wasn't open, under a canopy, and out to Milk Street where we turned left. We then turned left on Mill Street to where the railroad used to cross.
The line almost immediately crossed over Dry Brook, where there is a missing bridge and abutments with one pier all that remain.
We crossed the creek on the road bridge, then turned right to an access up to the railroad bed where we continued walking south under good shade.
Pretty soon, we continued underneath Rt 206. The right of way remained well shaded with just a little bit of ballast to contend with.
I've always loved hiking the Sussex Branch. It's in surprisingly nice shape for walking, especially considering it has been abandoned since 1966. It was the last abandoned of the three different lines we would walk on this particular hike.
We continued to the south directly alongside the Dry Brook for a while, and then moved slightly to the east as we approached the area known as Augusta.
At this point, we reached the former crossing of the Lehigh and New England Railroad, and the former site of the Augusta Station. I did a then and now of this site on a previous trip.
At this point, we turned to the right on the Lehigh and New England to begin following it to the west.
The Lehigh and New England was built through here in 1886, and I think it was the Pennsylvania, Poughkeepsie and Eastern Railroad. It was active under a few different names that eventually became the Lehigh and New England by the 1890s.
This line continued service until late 1961, when it became the second major railroad company in America to completely abandon its system (after the New York, Ontario, and Western in 1957).
I chose to do the loop on the Lehigh and New England to the right first, because it would be earlier in the day, and there was far less shade on the first part of that.
We headed to the west on it, which has a gas line buried beneath it, which has kept it much clearer. The entire right of way was much grassier and open, and we didn't pass many people on it.
There were a few branches and sticks down over the section, but nothing we couldn't lift the stroller over. I didn't want to let Ev out to walk on his own yet, not until we got to an area where there was less grass and such for him to get ticks in.
He'd already gotten ticks plenty of times, and I'd been getting the very tiny ones from work, black legged ticks. Those are the ones that are the carriers of Lyme Disease, and I'm really scared of Ev getting that at an age before he can communicate with me what he's feeling.
We continued out across the Morris Turnpike, where we saw two other cyclists and chatted for a few moments. We then continued ahead, and the Paulins Kill started appearing on the right of us. I considered getting in the water earlier on, but it ended up being a cooler day than anticipated, so I wore an undershirt and long sleeves all day.
There were some nice river and wetland views off to the right, and I noticed the Dames Rockets, the pink, purple, and white flowers of late Spring into Summer, were all showing up here.
Pretty soon, we reached and crossed Kinney Road, which becomes Stagecoach Road, and then continued on the rail bed to the southwest a bit more. The next crossing I believe was once the settlement of Washingtonville, a basically forgotten place down and to the west from Halsey.
There is a stone foundation in the slope above the railroad bed there, which I think might have been a station stop, but I'm really not sure if there was one there or not. So many of the station stops in these areas were documented by photographer J. E. Bailey in around 1910, but by that time, some of the station stops had already been eliminated, and this might have been one of those insignificant ones.
We continued across Halsey Road into the woods, and the right of way became much clearer. Shortly after heading in from the road, we let Ev out to walk on his own for a bit.
This wasn't the clearest section we'd be walking for the day, but it wasn't as weedy as what we'd been going through before due to the canopy cover. I also wouldn't have to worry about cyclists plowing him down as badly on the Lehigh and New England stretch, because it gets used the least.
There were also a few washouts that I didn't remember seeing before in this stretch, but overall it was really very nice.
The segment actually parallels rather closely the former New York, Susquehanna, and Western Railroad that we would be following next for a good while. In between us and the other right of way is a pretty much abandoned road known as Spirol Road, which used to apparently be a through road, and almost looks like a rail bed at times.
There are great field views to the right at times, and nice shaded forest. The one thing that is a little alarming on this line is the fact that the bridge carrying the right of way over Plotts Road has absolutely no kind of railing at all.
One just walks or rides onto the bridge, and if they fall or get too close to the edge, there's nothing to lean over, they just fall off. I figured when the state took this over, it would be high priority to put some sort of railing in place, but nothing was ever done.
We continued over the road crossing, and the right of way got more weedy. It was about the worst part of it we'd seen, but it wouldn't last for too long. Pretty soon, we crossed over Junction Road, and continued along just a bit further before there was a path over to the Paulins Kill Valley Trail.
This was the former New York, Susquehanna, and Western Railroad, which has its origins further in the eastern part of the state, and we'd hiked along some of that route just on the previous hike.
The Lehigh and New England originally planned to have its own line across New Jersey entirely, but instead utilized trackage rights over the NYS&W some twenty miles from Hainesburg Junction to Swartswood Junction.
That junction point was just slighlty ahead of where we cut over to the other line. The L&NE used to be kept more clear directly to the former junction site, but no one is maintaining that now.
Some grading was done on the L&NE right of way's own route, and I think I found some of it along the grade we walked on this section, but its hard to say whether that was actually something or not.
Toward the end, the L&NE made up the majority of the traffic on the NYS&W in this stretch, so when it closed in late 1961, the NYS&W didn't have that much reason to keep going anymore. The connection to the Lackawanna in Delaware was also cut.
They had already closed the line from Columbia to the Delaware Water Gap and Stroudsburg in the 1940s, so there was no other significant customers left. The NYS&W ended up getting ripped up in 1962.
The timing for this was pretty good, because the Water Bond Act of 1958 led to the authorization of several reservoirs, including Tocks Island above the Delaware Water Gap, and the former NYS&W was eyed as a potential conduit corridor to carry water. The eventual deauthorization of that project by 1992 led to the creation of the state park along the corridor, administered by Kittatinny Valley State Park.
I love that all three of these trails were not totally overdone with crushed stone and super wide. They're very bucolic settings, and I really hope they stay that way.
We turned hard left on the Paulinskill Valley Trail and began following it on a very gradual up hill, and soon crossed over Plotts Road where we could see the culvert we crossed on the L&NE.
We headed into deep woods, and could see Spirol Road as well as the L&NE below us. We continued ahead, and eventually crossed a power line clearing with a nice view to the north.
From this clearing, we had a really nice view of the High Point Monument on the highest point in the State of New Jersey, 1,803 above sea level.
Soon, we passed through a major, deep rock cut, one of my favorite spots on this trail. It is at this point that the NYS&W sort of leaves the Paulins Kill as we know it in this area, and returns to its headwaters further up. It is almost a deep enough cut to have considered a tunnel, but those are always a pain and a sign of desperation.
Once we were through the cut, off to the right was a private home, followed by a long abandoned house that is slowly collapsing. It had been there since the first time I ever walked this right of way, and only now the roof is bowing out like it is getting ready to collapse.
The place must be very old, but I don't know much else about it.
Just ahead, we approached the old little settlement of Halsey, which had been a station stop on the railroad. I did several then and now compilations of the old station site here in the past.
The station used to stand at the next crossing, near where Halsey Road intersects with the old Halsey-Myrtle Grove Road, which used to be a through road. I think it connected to Spirol Road and crossed the Paulins Kill at a long gone bridge.
We continued into a swath of woods again, and then soon crossed Rt 519. There was lovely swamp land to the right, and then we came to an area where more rock outcrops became prominent, as well as some farmlands along the grade.
Angry Erik Brewing is in the area, and I have been wanting to stop and try out what they have, but they were not open again. I keep missing them every time I do this hike.
We crossed over Rt 206 and continued to the east. Dan was not at the speed Brittany and I were, so we would wait for him. He'd been building back to good speed since his sabbatical, and had already lost more weight since the last time I'd seen him about a month earlier.
We continued through more woods, and then soon crossed over Rt 94. We continued to the east for a little while more through woods, and crossed over the Paulins Kill another time, where it makes its way out of the Hyper-Humus swamp lands.
Just ahead, we reached the parking area at Warbasse, where there was once an NYS&W station. We crossed over Warbasse Junction Road, and just beyond came to Warbasse Junction, where we crossed over the Sussex Branch.
This is now where the Liberty-Water Gap Trail as well as 911 National Memorial Trail switch between these two trails.
This actually wasn't a formal junction at this spot, but rather a crossing of the two railroads. However, there were junctions close by. To the right, or south, Franklin Junction was on the Sussex Branch, where the Franklin Branch went up to serve the mines of that area.
We turned left on the Sussex Branch Trail and began following it to the north.
The first bit is a very pleasant wooded area. We let Ev out to walk on his own just before we reached Warbasse, and he was quite happily moving along on his own.
Dan went ahead just a little bit when he caught up, and then decided he was going to call his wife to bring him out, since he still wasn't quite up to where he'd been to do the high mileage.
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| On my hike in 2003 |
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| 2023 |
Soon, we came to Rt 94 and crossed. Ev walked most of this way, and was very determined to go a long distance. We just had to make sure he was okay crossing the roads.
As we headed into Lafayette, there were a lot of decoration things in the lawns to the right along the Paulins Kill. We crossed over Morris Farm Road where the station used to be, and continued around a corner to the west.
There is a really nice section just beyond Lafayette with little ponds on the left side of the right of way, adjacent to Lafayette Pond Park.
Ev was starting to get a little fussy in this area. He plays these games with me where he'll stop and sit down. He doesn't want to get back in the stroller, and he doesn't want to walk, holding anyone's hand or not. He just wants to be picked up and carried, but at this point he was 29 lbs and it gets pretty hard to carry him any distance. When I try to sit him in the stroller, he tries to arch his back and not sit.
I'd given him plenty of diaper changes, so that wasn't the problem. He just tries to work it and see what he can get away with. I've learned to just walk a little further ahead, and as long as there's nothing serious for him to fall over, he'll give up on the whining and run to catch up again.
Usually, Ev is then happy to get back in the stroller, and will even come over and step up to climb in.
The same held true this time, as we walked north from Lafayette. He had spent the entire day without napping, which is abnormal for him. Usually, late morning to noon, he would end up falling asleep. He tries hard not to, because he doesn't want to miss anything, but eventually he just zonks out.
This time, his frustration was coming out while walking, and he didn't want to get in the stroller. He didn't make too much fuss when I did put him in, because he had worked himself to exhaustion.
He was out for a while once I put him in, starting probably about the time we crossed Mudcut Road.
We continued ahead, across Decker Road, and then across the Paulins Kill again, where there have been some really nice plantings along the shorelines as part of wetland restoration projects.
We passed through sections of farmland, and the over the Paulins Kill yet again. Just beyond that, we crossed over Rt 206 again.
After that, we crossed over the Paulins Kill two more times in more areas with pretty wetland restorations and plantings. Just after the second crossing here, we crossed over Augusta Hill Road, and then reached the former crossing with the Lehigh and New England where we had turned earlier in the day.
From there, we just continued the way we came earlier in the day, along the Dry Brook, under 206, and then back into Branchville where we had to take the side streets around to where we were parked on Broad Street again.
It was a really great, relaxing walk with a lot of beautiful stuff to see. I could certainly do this day over and over again.
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