Hike #1582; New Egypt to East Windsor

Hike #1582; 12/10/23 New Egypt to East Windsor with Jenny Tull, Jaqueline Leon, Diane Reider, Evan "Joe Millionaire" Van Rossum, Serious Sean Dougherty, Dan Asnis, Violet Chen, Professor John DiFiore, and Everen

This next hike would be another point to point, and another where I had to be open to changes based on adverse weather. It was supposed to be an entirely different hike the way I initially planned it, but that became a problem when the weather looked like it was going to be the worst we'd seen in a while.

I planned on a hike meeting at the Walmart in East Windsor, with the idea of starting the trip up in Princeton. I had a plan on a trip that would take us from there through multiple different parks and properties all the way back to East Windsor.

It was one of those trips with the concept term I coined: "pedestrian salad".

This mix or potpourri of different parks would make it a really particularly interesting hike.

The problem with this hike was that it went though one swath of land that I feared might go under water and become a massive wetland. With the amount of rain forecast, and my being unfamiliar with the property led me to consider a last minute change.

I had already hiked just about all of the Union Transportation line in the past, but the majority of it is now well surfaced trail, so it would be easy for us to re-do some of that, add a couple of new things, and still be mostly high and dry in the case of flooding.

Instead of shuttling north to Princeton, we would shuttle south to New Egypt area, or rather Plumstead Township, where I would have us start at Plumstead Recreation Park on Brynmore Road.

We started just walking through the ball field park. We knew that the rain was coming, but for the very start of the day, we'd be dry...at least for a bit.

As usual, we got unpacked, and I started getting things together with Ev's stroller. I went through my mental checklist to make sure I had everything: diapers, sippy bottle (because I had begun trying to ween him off of a regular bottle, and switched style nipples to help with it), wipes, extra drinks, snacks, etc.

As soon as I had the stroller ready to go, Ev was trying to push it by himself. He does this with everything. Ever since he's been able to walk, he tries pushing my shopping carts and such.

I was surprised that Jaqueline, who had recently started dating John, and did her first hike with us the previous week, handled all of those miles, and then came back only a week later.

If that weren't impressive enough, she came out twice in a row on very rainy days!

We passed between two baseball fields, then turned to the right along a parking area. We continued to the north side of the park, and then cut through a line of trees, which brought us out into the parking area for the Plumstead Presbyterian Church.

The parking lot had a collapsing light pole in it. It's surprising something like that is let go in an open parking area.

We continued out to Brindletown Road, turned slightly left, and then reached the foot bridge over Oakford Lake, to Oakford Lake Park

The lake dates back to the 1700s when it was part of the local milling industry. The foot bridge crosses over the modern incarnation of the dam.

In 1895, Edward J. A. Harvey began bringing family and friends to the lake for recreation, which spawned a new culture of swimming, boating, fishing, and other sports on the lake. It became a draw, and concerts and carnivals were held here.

Today, it is the quieter Oakford Lake Park, but is well enjoyed by visitors.

We crossed the foot bridge and got some great views up and downstream on the Crosswicks Creek. 

Lakeview Drive was immediately on the other side of the bridge, and we took a little side trip to the left to visit more of the park infrastructure, which had a little pavilion and a nice boardwalk and dock on the lake.

I stalled the group for a little bit here, because Serious Sean was running behind, and he was going to meet up with us at this point rather than farther ahead.

We got to the dock and walked all the way to the south side. Ev was still walking just about all of this way, and much enjoying it. I wanted him to be sure to get some done before the rain.

We walked out and back on the pathways until Sean pulled up and found parking. I then got Ev into the stroller so that we could all continue to the north a bit.

We came up to Main Street in New Egypt, where on a previous hike I had made the meeting place the New Egypt Marketplace, a grocery store.

The settlement of New Egypt is believe to have been named for the biblical allusion of "going to Egypt for corn". It has been said that Joseph Curtis, Secretary to George Washington, in 1776 was sent to the settlement to retrieve grain for the army, and upon his return, Washington exclaimed "Joseph has been to Egypt and gotten the corn".

Other references state that the town was given the name "Egypt" in 1793, and that it was changed to "New Egypt" after 1801. 

For a time in 1890, the settlement was also known as Timmon's Mill, namesake of the mill operator that time.

We crossed over the Crosswicks Creek on the bridge on Main Street, and then turned to the left on Evergreen Road to head north just a bit.

In a short distance, we came to a parking area to the left, which was at the former site of the railroad crossing of the Crosswicks Creek.

The area is very obscure now, and most would never know that this was a major railroad crossing of a significant line. I walked over to the site so that I could get one of my then and now compilations.

Originally the Pemberton and Highstown Railroad, it was completed for it’s 24-mile length from its two namesakes in 1868. 

The Camden and Amboy Railroad bought most of the stock, and so were in control of the line. As such, Pennsylvania Railroad became controller after its future acquisitions.

The Pennsy continued to own the line, but the Union Transportation Company was created to run the line in 1888. This is where the Union Transportation Trail takes its name.

The height of service on the line was around 1910, though another resurgence happened when Fort Dix Air Force Base was constructed and the line was regularly used.

Pennsylvania Railroad resumed operations eventually, but because the Pemberton and Hightstown was not included in Conrail, it continued operations on it’s own when Pennsylvania Railroad went to Conrail.

Passenger service continued until 1931, but could not compete with buses and growing automobile popularity. Freight service continued regularly until construction of the New Jersey Turnpike. 

This severed the line, and the first section south of Highstown was abandoned. In 1977, the railroad could no longer fund it’s operations and NJ Department of Transportation made them close. Other sections of the line were abandoned in sections starting in the 1950s, and all but the section to Fort Dix was abandoned by 1980. 

1977 Chuck Killian

The remaining stub remained in service, but Fort Dix no longer needed coal for it’s operations, and so the remainder of the line to Mt. Holly was abandoned in 1984. Monmouth County Park Commission purchased the first section and opened it as Union Transportation Trail in 2010, with other sections to follow soon after.

I got my then and now, actually one I had already done in the past, but I wasn't sure, using a 1977 shot by Chuck Killian.

Just to the left of the spot where I was getting the photos, there was a box truck parked with two ravens affixed to the rear view mirrors, a skull on the hood, and upon staring at the truck for a few moments, a fake skeleton sitting in the passenger seat. A woman actually came onto the Metrotrails facebook page and commented that this was her husband's truck! I love how this small world connection happens through what I share.

We crossed Evergreen and began walking the right of way to the north. There was actually a brown sign on the edge of the road denoting this as Union Transportation Trail.

The section was complete crap. It was really hard to push the stroller through the briars at the start of this one. I knew it was kind of bad on this side. Ocean County doesn't really keep up with their end of the trail at all, but when it crosses to Monmouth, it is in great shape.

I wasn't sure if they'd completed the surfacing through to this area yet. Clearly they hadn't.

A little ways to the north of Evergreen, off in the woods to the right of the railroad bed, we came upon the remnants of the old turntable. I am pretty sure we didn't notice this the last time I'd been there.

I suppose this turntable was most prominently used after the highway development to the north severed the line up there. It was concrete in construction, and now it is loaded with dumped trash.

It is pretty obscure where it is, and unless you're looking for it, probably in leafless seasons, you would likely miss it.

We continued on ahead from here, and there was a path both to the right, on a slope above the obvious railroad bed, and the railroad bed itself, which still had some railroad ties on it.

I tried to stay on the railroad bed, which was slightly clear, but it was hard with all of the ties. I was pushing against these ties with the stroller, and the wheel in front kept on turning, so I eventually made my way to the upper level that they had obviously mowed.

We continued like this without a whole lot of trouble to Bright Road. Beyond here was the only spot I was at all worried about having changed the hike over. If it had already been raining by this point, I would have changed the route slighty, but I figured we would be okay.

Just ahead, there is a missing bridge over a small tributary of the Crosswicks Creek. The last time we were out, we hiked it from the north, and there was a little wooden foot bridge over a portion of the creek, so crossing it wasn't all that bad.

Unfortunately, there had been quite a few major floods as of late, and when we got there, there was no more bridge to speak of. The right of way on either side was pretty rough and hard to navigate.

I was able to get Ev downhill and to the edge of the creek, but where the bridge was, to the left, was no more. There used to be a little peninsula of land that could be walked around and up without getting wet. Now, it had to be a big jump.

I was a bit concerned with how we were going to handle this. Obviously, I was going to have to take Ev out of the stroller. The first order of business was to get over, and then to get him over safely.

I jumped the thing and made it without getting wet, fortunately, because the water here reeks, and looks like there is sewage in it. 

I had I think it was Joe Millionaire pass Ev off to me while I stood barely at the water's edge on the north side. It was a tough spot, but we got him over there safe. The rest of the group that hopped it were able to walk him up the hill on the other side to the more intact rail grade. Serious Sean helped me with the stroller at this point, handing it over, and then getting it through the brush on the other side.

Ev was panicking a little bit. He seemed to have become a bit possessive of his stroller and was worried it wasn't safe I supposed.

I went around a different way than the others had walked, because of the limitations of the stroller, but once I was through and back up, we were good for the rest of the hike. There would be no more difficult spots from here.

It only barely started to drizzle a bit as soon as we got across to the other side of the bridge site. We really made our well avoiding the promise of rain until the only really technical spot.

We continued on up the trail, which was mowed at first, and then all of a sudden became crushed stone surface. There was a "road closed" sign in the middle of the trail in this area, warning of the bridge out, which I thought was funny because there was absolutely no warning of any kind at the other end.

The crushed stone surfacing had ended by this point the last time I was here. At that time, it ended at Millstream Road a bit to the north. On that previous hike, the trail ended, and we had to go up along the first road, and then at Monmouth Road, we had to climb up and over where the road had been filled over, and then back down.

This time, the trail officially passed through a culvert beneath the road. Serious Sean brought a special beer to share this time, a J. W. Lee's Harvest Ale 2001.

This beer had been aging since 2001, and was noted at 11.5% abv. I suspect that since that time, it has probably gotten substantially stronger. It actually tasted very boozy. I loved it.

After the tunnel, we crossed over Millstream Road at grade. It was still only spritzing or sprinkling out. The walking remained to be quite pleasant.

We continued walking to the northeast a bit, and passed through a swath of woods. We crossed over a small bridge over a southern branch of the Lahaway Creek, which is a tributary of the Crosswicks Creek.

We soon crossed Rt 27, Arneytown-Hornerstown Road with a crosswalk. A short distance to the north of there, we reached and crossed the Hornerstown Trestle.

This wooden bridge over the main fork of the Lahaway Creek is a modern decked structure, but actually placed atop the old railroad superstructure. I found that to be pretty amazing because these old wooden structures are often not good enough to carry any weight after so many years abandoned. Eventually, this will probably have to be replaced. I can't believe they didn't do it from the get go.

I remember when this section of trail was first under construction. I was working for Hunterdon County at the time, and assistant park planner Doug Kiovsky had told me about it.

We continued on to the northeast a bit and soon crossed over Forked River Road. There was no bridge o anything, so we had to descend to an angle and come back to the grade beyond.

We continued through more pleasant agricultural land to the north. I demonstrated how a good drink bottle fits perfectly into an empty Pringles container.

We noticed a lot of crows in one area, and Ev was able to identify them and yell "caw". My brother and sister in law had gotten him a little book that has bird photos and the sounds they each make.

We passed a parking area at Jonathan Holmes Road, and continued to the north. A side trail to the left led to Upper Freehold municipal complex.

We continued on and crossed Burlington Path Road, and then into woods to cross Miry Run.

We passed by some new developments, and by that time it had started raining a bit harder. I had to put Ev's cover on his stroller and take it back off a few times, but it started getting worse.

Pretty soon, we reached Davis Station Road. There's no sign of a station having been there today.

North of Davis Station Road, the railroad bed continues north and goes somewhat close to a private farm home. Apparently, there was some trouble at this point, and some deal was made that the trail would not go through here. Instead, it crosses Davis Station Road and turns left parallel with it, and then turns right to follow Forked River Road for a bit to the north. It passes by a traffic circle and follows Sharon Station Road to the north a bit more to a parking area and access point.

We didn't immediately follow this. We cut directly across when we got to the intersection with Forked River Road, and went into a little restaurant called "The Roost", at the Cream Ridge Golf Course.

The last time we'd hiked through, we ate at this place and quite enjoyed it, so we decided to make this our lunch stop this time as well. It was every bit as good as I'd remembered it.

While we were in there, the heaviest downpours of the entire day took place. We had stopped just in time to avoid all of that!

We watched from a side road on the south side of the building as it came pouring down, and then lightened up just before it was time for us to head back out again.

We crossed back over Forked River Road, and the humps of grass back to the trail. The crushed stone surface was not having much puddling, so it was still pleasant.

We continued north, parallel with Sharon Station Road and then past the parking area. We then cut into the woods and gradually made our way back to the railroad bed.

We crossed a bridge over Doctor's Creek, and through lovely farmland. We soon reached and crossed Allentown-Lakewood Road. It continued to be nice farmland and some light industries.

I forget what road it was, but there were some ruins off on the woods to the left of the rail bed at one point. It's sort of a tank farm or something.

Pretty soon, we reached and passed beneath Rt 195 through a culvert. This provided a little shelter from the rain for a bit, but it totally stopped for a time in this vicinity as well.

I was able to take the cover off of Ev's stroller to let him out and walk again for a bit.

We headed north through open fields and soon crossed Rt 524/New Canton-Stone Tavern Road. We crossed directly and into nice farm lands.

When we got close to the farm buildings, we crossed over a stream called the New Sharon Branch, and then a lovely little pond on the left. 

We continued through more open fields, entered more woods, and then crossed a bridge over another branch of the New Sharon Branch, then continued north to the crossing of Herbert Road, where Sharon Station Road has its intersection with it.

Of course, this was the historic site of Sharon Station.

There is a trail parking lot there now, which is probably the former location of the station. I haven't looked it up to check, and it was too rainy and wet for me to do a search at the time.

We continued to the north, then entered woods and crossed over the East Branch of the Assunpink Creek. This whole section was part of Assunpink Wildlife Management Area in the woods ahead.

It wasn't too long from there before we crossed over the main branch of the Assunpink Creek.

This was very near to the end of the trail. In only a short distance, we reached Old York Road.

Here, the railroad right of way goes ahead onto private property. I had actually hiked that in the past, from the other end. From this end, there were definite signs reading "not part of the trail", and "no trespassing", with a gate over it. That last time we had followed it, it was an innocent thing. I had thought the entire right of way had been bought.

Not only that, walking south on it, we got onto it at the Working Dog Winery and there were no signs saying to keep off. For that matter, Google maps showed it as if it was a public trail.

I suppose most people would not be trying to follow it from that end, so they probably didn't feel the need to post it. We ended up going over that fence that time.

I wasn't going to attempt that again, and it was not part of my plan to. I had hoped that maybe by some miracle they had put the trail through on this section, but I wasn't counting on it. I planned on a road walk from here out and around to the east.

We turned right on Old York Road, and continued along the shoulder heading north. Some of the time this was alright, because there were fences at farms with animals set back a bit from the road.

For me, this was the worst part of the hike, but it wasn't all that terrible. It was wet, and my rain coat was soaking through a bit, but Ev was happy and dry and we weren't totally miserable.

I hurried ahead of the rest of the group and tried to enjoy the section.

Along the way, we passed by a handsome old white farm house on the left, with a God Bless America sign in front of it. The building was apparently built in 1910, but it has a look of a much older style than that.

Sharon Station

We crossed the intersection with Windsor-Perrineville Road, and continued north up the ramp to cross the New Jersey Turnpike on a bridge. It was getting dark, and looked eerie and interesting.

I waited with Ev for the rest of the group on the middle of the bridge watching traffic.

This route was first planned as two separate highways, Route 100 from New Brunswick east, and Route 300 from New Brunswick west to the Delaware Memorial Bridge.

Originally planned as a toll free road, the state did not have the funds to complete it and little work was done under those original designations. The New Jersey Turnpike Authority was created in 1948 to finish the job, and it opened in 1951 as a single Highway.

It has been extended for a total of 117 miles, and is the sixth busiest toll road in America.

Once everyone was caught up, we descended from the crossing, and reached the intersection with Pemberton Lane.

We turned to the left, and then immediately left again on a dead end street, the earlier route of Old York Road.

The Turnpike Park Pathway breaks off from this road on the right and heads into the woods.

I had never been on this part of it before, but it was the next leg of the hike I'd planned. It was getting dark, and I wasn't planning on having to search for it in those conditions, but we did okay.

It would have been easy to miss this turn for sure, because it just looks like a private driveway until we got back there to the actual parking area and trail.

This was just sort of a gravel path through the woods. Not quite like a road, but not as easy as it could have been. Also, there were more trails there than what were shown on Google Maps.

We ended up taking a right fork at some point, which was more of a foot path, while the main one shown on Google was closer to the power line clearing. I had to get a hand living Ev and the stroller over a fallen tree, but overall, this was a pleasant route.

It was totally dark by the time we got into these woods, but the trails were easy enough. For the second week in a row, it felt to me like I was back to doing the night hikes again. I really loved the feeling of it.

The trail emerged from the woods to prominent ambient light from a development to our right. It then came to the edge of a scenic little pond. We followed along the left side of the pond, then descended from it to a sort of circular pathway of pavement, which had obviously been there longer than the path we followed to connect with it.

We turned onto this trail and continued to the north into Woods Road Community Park.

We reached and turned right on Woods Road. The old Union Transportation used to cross Woods Road just to the west, at the edge of the park from where we walked out, but we wouldn't see any of that even if we had decided to walk that way due to the dark.

We reached Conover Road and turned right, and then immediately left onto Sussex Lane. There is one little piece of development trail I want to do in this area, but there was no time to do that this trip.

The road weaved around to the west a bit, and then after the last house on the right, we crossed where the Union Transportation used to go. The land to the north is mostly undeveloped and could probably one day be made more of the trail, but not sure how likely that ever is to happen.

The road weaved to the north again and reached Rembrandt Way, where we turned to the left. This road too weaved to the north and reached Hickory Corner Road. We turned to the left there, and it brought us to the rear entrance to the Walmart lot.

We continued along the edge of the lot, and soon enough came to our cars at the bend closer to Rt 130.

The rain was never too terrible, but I was glad that we chose the route that we had done. It might have been really difficult if we'd taken the other direction because of the amount of mud and uncertainty.

I got a ride back to my car down in Plumstead Township, and we were able to get safely home.

I would simply take the hike that we'd originally planned for this date and reschedule it for a more weather-appropriate weekend. Always plenty more to look foward to.