Hike 1624: 9/22/24 Barnegat to Toms River with Heshy Bucholz, Donald McGowan, Dan Asnis, Svetlana ?, Diane Reider, Dan Lurie, Stephen Argentina, Pat ?, Pat's son, and Everen
This next hike would bring us back to the former Barnegat Branch of the Central Railroad of New Jersey.
I had hiked this entire line before. A couple of years apart, I did two series hikes that covered all of the branch between Lakehurst Barnegat.
However, the section between Lakehurst and Toms River I did in early 2010, and the section between Barnegat and Toms River I did in 2012 (hike 614).
It had been so long since I'd done any of this stuff that it was worth doing it all again.
The previous section I'd done with other stuff in my NJ Perimeter series tagged onto the front of it, and this past time we did it, I included the Jersey Central Southern branch, which is also defunct.
That first section ended up being in far worse condition than when we last hiked it in 2010, but this section south of Toms River ended up being far better. Today, almost the entire thing of this section has been developed as a trail.
The first part of the line was established in 1866 as the Toms River Railroad. It extended from the New Jersey Southern Railroad, which became the Central Railroad of New Jersey's Southern Division, to Toms River. It was extended to Waretown in 1872 as the Toms River and Waretown Railroad. It was purchased by the CNJ, and it was transferred to the Toms River and Barnegat Railroad, operated by the CNJ. It was extended to Barnegat about 1893.
Passenger service ended in the 1950s, and freight continued to the 70s. The line south of Toms River was abandoned in 1981, which was what we would be walking.
It is out of service and overgrown from Lakehurst to Toms River, but tracks are in place some of the way to an out of service industrial siding.
The Trail has been developed on the line piece by piece for years, and as of 2024, over 15 miles of Barnegat Branch Trail can be followed, but there's still a bit more work needed.
We met in the morning at our end point, which I planned to be in Toms River at the park and ride where we had ended the previous hike on this line.
The lot was on the corner of Lakehurst Road and just off of the exit on the Garden State Parkway, one of the more convenient lots we've met. The other lot to the south, which I had planned to originally use the previous time, was actually a paid lot, so I wasn't going to use that, although it sits literally along the railroad bed. This lot doesn't add any significant distance though.
We shuttled in as few vehicles as possible south to our starting point in Barnegat, which would be a lot off of Railroad Avenue and Memorial Drive, which has a little island of grass between. This spot is actually part of the right of way of the Tuckerton Railroad, which I'd rather recently finished hiking.
I'd done the Tuckerton line to the south as a piece in the Jersey Perimeter series, and then finally did the section from Whiting to Barnegat in the past couple years.
How exactly the railroad alignments worked out in Barnegat I was not totally sure at the beginning of this hike. I was not sure which was which my previous timing hiking it.
When we parked we were met by our old friend Pat Gilliam, who hadn't' hiked with us much lately, but he brought his young son out, who is about Ev's age, inspired apparently that I had been taking Ev out every weekend.
Pat takes his son out all the time, and teaches him a whole lot, in ways more than I teach Ev because of his areas of expertise.
We got out of the vehicles and walked the Memorial Drive up to the intersection with Bay Avenue. The Jersey Central line used to terminate on this road, just a short distance to the east between an antiques store and the VFW. There's a parking area where the station used to stand.
The Tuckerton Railroad had its station and several other rail related buildings just ahead across Bay Avenue, but none of them are remaining in their original location.
The Tuckerton Railroad was established in 1871, and connected from a three way junction with the Pennsylvania Railroad Atlantic Division and NJ Southern Railroad/Jersey Central in Whiting, down to Bamber, through Lacey, then Waretown and Barnegat on the way to Tuckerton.
Through connections it served shore point tourism, as well as industrial and agricultural uses including peaches and cranberries.
Use declined, and the line was scrapped in 1940.
Today, it is used as an informal trail in many state owned areas, and ATV path in others. To the south of us, some of it goes through Edwin Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge.
We continued straight across and along the right side of the two roads with the island in between. To the right of us, there was a house with a guy sitting out front on the porch. The left side of the house said that it was a Barnegat historic museum, which certainly interested me.
I found myself considering bias and peace during the course of the day.
Usually, I would engage with most people about history and whatever, but in the yard of the house with the museum sign, I saw a "Harris/Waltz" political sign.
Even though the guy was sitting right there, I felt that if I started talking to him, that I'd end up in a political argument of some sort, so I decided not to speak to him.
It's really strange to be in a position as a former Democrat, who still withholds a great deal of liberal values, to be one that wouldn't want to engage with someone over this.
However, I have been finding based on my own experiences that this side is the one that is more often angry and offensive than the other.
I always hated Rush Limbaugh and that side of things years ago, but these days I'm seeing more of this anger and open aggression from the side that I always associated with peace and love. I'm not happy about it, but it's what I've observed. It is that side that is always posting online that "if you vote for Trump, I'm not you're friend", or "please delete me immediately". I'm really seeing absolutely no one on the Republican side saying to delete them if they vote for Harris.
Inevitably, these people bring up the pandemic or January 6th, two subjects that have been really close to me, and I find myself getting angry when so many long time friends refuse to listen to what I have to say.
They've subscribed to their notions, and anything contrary, up to and calling their longtime friend a liar, is on the table. If friends treat me this way, how am I to gain enough respect from a stranger? And so, I do not engage.
To the left of us, the historic Tuckerton Railroad's Barnegat Station is now a private home and retains much of its station like look. It was moved just to the side of where it originally stood.
We walked to the end of the street, and the paved trail went off toward the woods, at first on the right of way of what would have been some of the Tuckerton Railroad. The Jersey Central Branch was off to the right, and it would come close very soon.
We passed through a short open area, and then crossed Burr Street at grade. There was a sign here welcoming us to the Barnegat Branch Trail.
The completed sections of the trail when I last walked the whole thing in 2012 had these signs, but an incredible amount more have been added.
The right of way went almost immediately into the woods ahead. The former Tuckerton Railroad bed became apparent parallel in the woods to the left of us while we continued on the trail.
Ev was out of the stroller and walking the entire first part of the hike. He was feeling energetic and just kept moving. Pat's son was in a stroller as well, but it was an older style one with four points of contact rather than three with the pivoting wheel. That type of stroller certainly makes it harder to push it through any segment that might be a little bit more difficult to navigate.
We passed a nice Jersey Central historic marker on the passenger trains that used to operate on this line, which was cool.
After a short distance, there was a side trail to the right that I don't recall seeing the previous time.
The side trail was formerly a rail siding that went to a water tower, and then beyond to the old turntable. It was cleared well with crushed stone surface like the rest of the trail.
There was a good kiosk with information about the old water tower, and an old photo, a bit down the trail. I used the historic photo of the tower to do a then and now history compilation showing the tower site, which during operational days, held 20,000 gallons of water.
By 1950, the old tower was already in pretty bad condition.
We approached the old turntable pit just ahead, and it had been completely cleared somewhat nicely. Ev was still not in the stroller yet, and so he went up and under the railing around the thing, and walked the entire concrete edge of the turntable pit a couple of times.
I think at this point, he knows what we mean when we tell him this used to be a turntable. There were some historic pictures on another excellent sign that showed a photo of a similar old turntable at Tuckerton.
This wasn't the original turntable on the line. The first one was up in Toms River, and that one was abandoned in 1885 after it was already extended farther south.
The next turntable had been at Waretown Junction where the Tuckerton Railroad first came close to this branch, and then that was abandoned when this "new" turntable was created in 1890.
This turntable was the "armstrong" style, meaning it was turned solely on its carefully balanced place by human effort.
The site of the turntable and railroad facilities here is said to have been a village of Lenape people previously.
From here, we headed back over to the main trail again, and continued to the north. Soon, we crossed Rosehill Road. Parallel with us, the Tuckerton Railroad bed is like another trail, although it is not developed as the Barnegat Branch was.
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| Waretown Station |
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| Restroom made to look like Waretown Station |
This area had been home to the Barnegat Glass Works. Souther NJ was well known for its glass production going way back, but this was the only such facility in Ocean County.
Benjamim P. Chadwick established these glassworks at what was known as Picket Field in 1897.
Chadwick sold and the glass works passed through different hands and businesses over the years, to finally close in 1913. The property sold at auction and the place pretty much disappeared by the 1920s.
We were never too far from development in this next section ahead, but it has one of those illusions of seclusion that I love.
We continued on and reached the four lane Barnegat Blvd North. We crossed, and then continued into a pleasant expanse of woods.
Pretty soon, we reached and crossed on the rail bed the Lochiel Creek, a lovely little cedar swamp creek. There was a good path down to it on the right, and Pat and his son went down to play in it. They fell behind a bit at this point because they wanted to stop for a bit longer. Ev was tired and back in the stroller by this point.
"Lochiel" supposedly comes from "Loch Hill" in Scotland, and named for an early landowner's ancestral home.
We continued to the north, and I totally missed the former site of Waretown Junction, which was just to the south of Pancoast Road. I had come through here when I hiked this section of the Tuckerton Railroad a few years ago, but I missed the site then too.
Apparently, the Tuckerton Railroad had a station just close by, and a freight station was located on the Barnegat Branch, near the junction and former turntable site.
Much of the old Tuckerton grade is new along the Greenbriar Oceanaire Community and golf club just to the west. Most of that grade is still passable, and I was able to walk it, but it comes out right by one of the gates into the community closer to the Garden State Parkway.
We went out across Pancoast Road, and I knew the line turned away right by there. I should have thought to look more.
It's interesting that the line down to Tuckerton remained in use later than the original bit from Whiting, I guess via the Barnegat Branch.
We passed through a rather nice expanse of woods again, and then eventually came to a nice open spot with a large restroom building made up to look like an old railroad station, and specifically, probably the Waretown station, although not the exact same shape.
We took a nice break here and used the facilities, and used it as an opportunity to wait for Pat and his son to catch up. I also changed Ev's diaper since there was a garbage can readily available.
Ev was able to get up and run around a lot here without having to follow us on the trail, which was great. He seems to do better on these big trails when we give him the chance to just run around in one spot rather than continue ahead on a wide corridor.
Don and I went over to the weeds nearby, mistakenly thinking that we must have been at the junction site. I wasn't looking at the map very well, and didn't really realize that the Tuckerton Railroad had already moved off at this point. I did earlier see a spot that looked like it could have been a connecting track, but I'm not sure.
We went through weeds looking for what might have been the Waretown Turntable, but we were defnitely in the wrong spot.
When Don saw some sort of depression in the woods on the opposite side from the restroom station, I went in through some of those sharp, green vine thorns and got myself cut up a bit.
I didn't think anything of it, and I wanted to avoid weeds, which is some of the reason why I posted Barnegat Branch, knowing there would be nothing too bad. Still, I managed to get a slight case of the chiggers anyway, which is a sand mite that causes absolutely horrible itching. So I got that the next day and it persisted for over a week.
This had been Don's first hike with us, after having met him a couple of years ago at a Bel Del Railroad presentation put on by Shane Blische. I hit it off with him right away, and we were already familiar with one another through the railroad history circles.
When Don showed up in the morning, he didn't quite understand how the hikes would all work out, and so he planned on riding his bike along with us. When we got to the shuttling part, he decided to forego biking and just hike the entire thing with us, and I'm glad he did because he was really good company.
It's always good to have a friend to nerd out with a bit on railroads.
This restroom building is known as the Country Lane Trailhead, and the grade crossing of Country Lane is very close by.
We had another pleasant walk through woods at this point to the north until we got to the "middle of Waretown" I suppose one could call it. It is actually part of Ocean Township. We next crossed Railroad Avenue, which is where I understand the station used to stand.
Waretown is so named for early settler Abreham Waier, a puritan who arrived here in 1739. He was a Rogineer, who was expelled by the New England Puritans of Connecticut and moved south. The area was also settled by many Quakers.
Just ahead, we reached and crossed Rt 532, Wells Mills Road. On the other side, Trailside Ice Cream and Gardens was right there. I considered getting ice cream there, and I know Ev would have loved some, but I didn't want to spoil he lunch break that was coming up ahead.
There are several strip malls and such along the right of way, and no shortage of anywhere to eat the entire distance, so I wanted to make use of something substantial.
The trailside garden thing was nice, with a little pond and water tower with trough. I think there were coy and other fish in the pond.
We cut into the woods beyond here again, and then approached the crossing of the Waretown Creek. It was in this vicinity that there were historic mills, dating back to the original Abreham Waeir Mill from 1737.
This next section ahead had been a state of change since the first time I walked through on it in 2012.
So many more stores and such have been developed on the left side of Rt 9. I think a couple of them were there when I came through before, but certainly not all.
Soon, we crossed Memorial Drive, and the trail skirted the edge of Rt 9 with a well-delineated paved pathway.
There were signs along the trail through the area about the nearly connective trail systems, such as the Gateway to Lighthouse Center, and Gatway to Wells Mills County Park. These are all things I could easily come back down to the area to do, and probably would be good with the stroller.
The trail rather regularly had some sort of historic marker or neighboring property on a sign along it. It seems like the trail is sort of treated like a scenic byway, with stuff in close proximity regularly featured.
We had one for the Albert Music Hall, which is a bit off of the trail, but has a history of entertainment going back to the 1950s.
We continued through some more trees, and then out to another entrance road crossing to another strip mall. There was a cute tea room building on the left as we went by.
We cut to the left from the weaving trail, and up to the strip mall to stop for some lunch.
We opted to try Bella Pizza, which was pretty good. We mostly ate inside, but some sat outside. It was pretty hot in there, so outside wasn't so bad.
Next to the pizza place was the Oyster Creek Brewing Company. As I love strong beers, I had to go inside and see what kind of stuff they were offering.
I looked through the regular menu list, and there really wasn't anything that I really cared to get. It at first looked like all weak stuff, no more than 7 or 8% abv.
Just as I was getting ready to leave empty handed, I noticed a refrigerator with something really special in it. It was a barrel aged series, and there was a Tennessee Whiskey barrel aged barleywine ale at a whopping 15% abv. I had to have it.
I was quite happy to walk out with this well chilled and exciting brew, but I'd wait a bit before busting it open. Don also went in, but he selected something of a weaker variety.
When we finished eating, Pat and his son had to be heading back, so we did our group shot on the segment of trail adjacent to the parking lot before they headed out.
We passed over the last couple of access lanes to the strip mall, and continued parallel closely to Rt 9 for a bit, past another few businesses.
Some of this had been trail that last time I was out there, but it had come to an abrupt end and road block signs.
Things got a bit more secluded when we passed by a Tractor Supply store on the left. We were still close to Rt 9, but certainly more secluded.
Just then, we approached the old rail bridge over the crossing of the Oyster Creek, which goes out and past the Oyster Creek Nuclear facility.
Opened in late 1969, Oyster Creek was the oldest nuclear power plant in America. It was licensed to continue operation through 2029, but it was announced by Governor Chris Christie and Exelon power in 2010 that the plant would close in 2019. It ended up closing in 2018 as I understand.
Back when I first hiked this in 2012, the rail bridge was in good shape, but it was just railroad tie decking with the spaces between, and large fences blocking entry to it. Our group had to go out to Rt 9 in order to get across this and the next section of the Oyster Creek.
This time, it was neat that we could go clear across, and have developed trail on the other side.
Another odd thing that had happened when we did this in 2012, was that guards from the power plant were just inside the fences at the accesses, and they followed us as we hiked!
We probably looked pretty nuts at the time, because I made that one a special business suit hike, so at least five of us were decked out in full suit and ties.
I stepped up to the highway when we got to the end of the first bridge so that I could get a comparison shot of the old rail bridge with the same one I had taken back in 2012, and I got it pretty close.
We passed ahead through a lovely area of goldenrod bushes, and one of the invasive species of Praying Mantis was climbing on one (the native Carolina Mantis is rarely seen, most of what we see are the invasive species of them).
We crossed over two entrance roads to more of the Oyster Creek facility, and then reached the second bridge.
This one was decked much like the first one, with similar views of the creek below. By this point, I was really glad I chose to do this hike, because things were so much different.
This was like an almost completely different hike from what I'd experienced in the past.
A sign soon welcomed us to the watershed of the South Branch of the Forked River.
The trail remained close to Rt 9, crossed Beach Blvd, and then came to a sign denoting that this was roughly the site of Ostrum Station.
This was a flag stop that was established on the line in 1888. A new station building was erected there in 1896, just a small shelter structure, and the stop was discontinued in 1927. We continued north from this general station stop site, and crossed over Old Shore Road. A driveway paralleled the trail for a bit.
The rail bed shifted away from Rt 9 a bit (thankfully), and pretty soon we reached the Middle Branch of the Forked River.
The South Branch of the Forked River joins the Oyster Creek near the second bridge around the power plant a bit earlier.
The view downstream wasn't all that special, with the Rt 9 bridge, but to the west, it was quite beautiful, with the river opening up into a large lake.
Once on the other side of the bridge, there was a nice dock out onto the water on the left. We walked out onto it. The bridge we had crossed here was in place before, but I don't think this section had been formally developed as a trail yet. It was just a reasonably clear right of way in 2012.
We continued north and soon crossed Parkers Point Blvd. In a short bit, we crossed over Taylor Lane, and passed through residential areas.
There was an historic marker for Barnegat Pines, a lakefront community developed here in 1927.
Next, we crossed over Lakeside Drive South, and approached the Lower Lake, an impoundment of the North Branch of the Forked River.
When we did this in 2012, it was sort of already park land, and clear, but it wasn't a crushed stone trail yet. In the middle of Lower Lake, there was a wooden bridge on where the railroad bridge had been, maybe decked on the original bridge.
This time, it was a regular rail trail bridge with hand rails and all, when the predecessor had none.
This area had more signs along it also. More about the equipment operated on the Jersey Central, and more on other nearby sites such as Forked River Marina.
This spot had some beautiful views of the lakes. The area had historically been the site of at least two saw mills and one grist mill.
We headed to the north side, to where Mill Street and Railroad Avenue came together. This would have been the historic site of the Forked River railroad station.
I understand that there was an original small wooden station at this site, and that it was replaced by a larger one that served passengers and freight in about 1893. It would have been just to the right after coming off of the the causeway over Lower Lake/Mill Pond.
We continued walking to the north, through a swath of grassy land between Station Ave and Railroad Ave where the tracks had been.
We crossed over another Station Drive, and then paralleled Railroad Avenue East for a bit. The trail was right beside the road for this next stretch.
Soon, we approached a learning center, a parking lot, and then Lacey Road. We crossed Lacey Road directly, and then continued parallel with Railroad Ave on new trail developed right beside the road.
The area of Forked River apparently once had many posh hotels, and there was an historic marker on them, with photos of what they looked like, and the fact that President Woodrow Wilson had visited.
The trail followed right beside the road for a bit, until we got to the crossing of Musket Road, and then it was an independent path again. The section wasn't terrible, as it had split rail fence along it too.
Despite the fact that we were now in a much more suburban setting, this next section felt both more secluded and more rustic.
Unlike the rest of the trail, this bit was not resurfaced. it was basically an unimproved sand surface for quite a while, although it seems as though that is to change very soon.
As we continued on, there was an excavator parked along the track bed. This was reportedly because that was the last bit of the trail to be developed. Fortunately, we didn't need it to be done to finish.
We continued north to and across Haines Street. Again, on the other side the trail was not complete. It was just a double tire track sandy route, but still clear and pleasant.
After a long and seemingly endless amount of historic markers, this next section was bare and mostly pretty quiet.
There was a wide open meadow to the right, which I figure must not have always been that, but there were no signs about what had been there before. I'm sure there was probably something, but I haven't gotten to looking it up yet.
We continued to reach Camelot Court, where Railroad Avenue continues straight ahead. The right of way continued just inside the trees to the left of the road.
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| 2012 |
This was the toughest part we had to get through of the entire hike because there were a few trees down over it.
The rougher trail continued to the north just a little bit further, to Cedar Avenue.
Beyond that point, the trail started back up again with the improved surface.
The trail skirted the edge of William Hebrew Park, and just ahead, we came upon a really cool railroad pump car on a piece of fenced in track on display.
Hand cars were an important part of railroad maintenance from about 1850 to about 1910. After that, they were mostly replaced by self-propelled vehicles including those often referred to as speeders.
Ev climbed through the fence to get on the machine, and it was just too cute to stop him.
There was another historic marker about hand cars, speeders, and an odd sail car at this point. I'd never heard the story before, but apparently they tried to run a small rail car by sail on an abandoned spur of the Tuckerton Railroad at its southern terminus. Quite interesting.
Railroad Avenue turns away from the rail bed in this area, and there is a driveway that closely parallels the trail just ahead.
There was apparently once a station at this location, and I did see it on the map, but I don't know anything else about it.
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| Original Forked River Station |
It was probably just a flag stop, and I have not seen any photos of it. I suppose it might have been called Cedar Creek Station, because we were getting pretty close to that creek.
We continued on the trail ahead, into a deeper wooded expanse, and soon came to the crossing of the Cedar Creek.
I had crossed this bridge a few times before, but never like this. The old wooden trestle was always an interesting point, because it was rough, it had been set ablaze, and it was just ties.
Even more interesting than all of that was the fact that this wooden beam trestle stood like a tower around all of the land around it.
The Cedar Creek apparently floods pretty badly, and so the railroad fill at either side of the structure had washed away badly over all of these years, leaving the trestle standing taller than everything around it.
In order to cross this bridge, we used to have to climb up one side, and then back down the other again, which was so abnormal for bridges like this, but we loved it.
It is also a great swimming spot because the Cedar Creek is insanely deep just below it.
The one time we went out there, on part of a NJ Perimeter hike as a side trip, Dan had tried to ford the stream in cold weather. It ended up being way over his head by the edges of the piers and he started floating down the stream. I had to jump in and fish him out!
We were both totally soaked, but it was a fun one for the museum of memories.
I need to do more hikes through this area. The Cedar Creek flows out of Double Trouble State Park, and I have still never led a group hike there yet. It would be easy to connect.
The Cedar Creek makes up the boundary between Lacey Township and Berkeley Township.
It was crazy to see how they had done the bridge up at this location. It seems that some of the upper infrastructure of the original railroad bridge was completely removed, but the entire lower section with supports remains in place.
There is a prefabricated metal bridge that sits probably higher than the original rail bridge did, and carries the trail over the creek, without touching the old railroad pilings.
Each side has a good ramp up to the top to get across easily. Ev was out of the stroller and running back and forth across the bridge. I decided to make this a break spot, so I could run around myself and get then and now comparisons using mostly my previous photos from 2012.
I had so many of these photos from that first time I crossed it, and so I tried to emulate all of them as best I could. I put Ev in some of the positions that other friends in the past had been standing in all those years ago, which I love.
I also went down and got in the water, which is supposed to be totally illegal now. They even put cameras up facing the creek in this area, so I guess it got pretty bad.
After a good long break, we continued to the north through some more woodland expanse, and eventually came out to an area of more neighborhoods.
The trail was in a cut through this area, which had galvanized railings through it like we see on major highways.
I'm not exactly sure why they'd do this oddball thing. Maybe it is because of collapsing sand from the sides down into the railroad cut. More likely, it could be to keep ATVs from coming down the slopes from adjacent undeveloped lands onto the railroad bed.
The right of way was parallel with Princeton Avenue to the left, and a big sandy expanse to the right.
At this point, we were in Berkeley Township heading toward the little settlement of Pinewald, which also has a rather interesting history.
The developed trail took us north into town and across Serpentine Drive. The history signs resumed, welcoming us again to the Barnegat Branch Trail, and then another of the "Gateway to Double Trouble", which is just a little over two miles away. Double Trouble State Park is supposedly named for two dams breaking during flood conditions years ago. I can't remember exactly, but I'll be reading into it further when I finally get around to doing a hike through it.
We continued across Central Blvd, and through the swath of woods between community streets, then crossed over Maryland Avenue.
Some 300 acres of land were set aside in 1887 by a group of ex army and navy officers between the Pine and Cedar Creeks, as a retirement community for Civil War veterans. The station stop was established here in 1888.
The Barnegat Park Company went into receivership in 1892 amidst charges of fraud. Most of the buildings were destroyed in a suspicious fire in October of 1893. The affiliated Pines Hotel burned in 1895.
There are apparently a few buildings remaining from this time, because the comments I got on my facebook posts about this had people claiming to live in some of the few that remained.
The entire area is apparently now known as Pinewald. One of the only bits of resort that still remains in this area is the Royal Pines Hotel. This one was not built until after the stock market crash, in 1929. The hotel was sold between 1932 and 1934, and eventually became a hospital. Today, it's a nursing home.
I didn't see the building, or notice it if it was in close enough proximity as we went by.
There's just a parking lot where the site was now apparently. We continued north from here.
Pretty soon, the right of way came very close to Railroad Avenue heading out Pinewald, close to the settlement of Bayville which is just a little bit to the east.
There was a long stretch along the road with another historic marker about a wastewater pumping station.
When I had hiked this in the past, the trail didn't go all the way through. It was just beside the road, and then technically we had to trespass on the right of way ahead past Empire Blended Products.
For years, this had been a missing bit of the trail to the north.
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However, just this year, a little bit before I planned out this hike, it turns out the property was secured and the trail was completed all the way through.
My plan had been that we would go to the east a little bit and follow ATV trails through the property an we'd get back to the railroad bed when we were well beyond the industry building.
The trail deviates from the railroad bed just a bit. It is marked from the end of Railroad Avenue to the right, across and along Segle Avenue just a bit, then across it and into the sandy landscape.
The trail goes back and then turnes to the left a bit, and then makes its way over closer to the industrial building, but remains separate by way of a split rail fence.
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| 1964 W. J. Coxey photo |
We continued north just a bit, and went into more of an expanse again.
This area is apparently known as Quail Run, and the industry back in the day was a sand company known as the New Jersey Pulverizing Company, which was rail served.
The right of way stayed a bit away from the edge of the building, but some of it was a shady lane that looked to be a rail grade. It might have been a sort of bypass siding in the past, I'm not sure.
Pretty soon, the trail returned at an obvious point to the original railroad bed and continued to the north.
Here, some of the group was getting well ahead of me because I had slowed up to get a then and now history compilation with the industry.
As the others walked farther ahead, I think it was only Diane, Ev, and I that were near to the back of the group while the others were walking onward.
I knew there was a very large body of water, a sand quarrying pond, just barely to the west of us, and I wanted to see it. They would all miss it who went ahead.
It was only a tiny distance. We went over a slight knoll, and there was this absolutely beautiful body of water out there.
I couldn't resist; I had to get in it, if only just briefly. It was quite refreshing and deep. I would love to hit this spot again on a good Summer day, if I can get away with it. It's only a matter of time before people discover it and likely ruin it. I imagine they'll erect fences around it.
After the good dip, we headed back out to the trail again and to the north. We hadn't stopped for too very long, but no one was in sight anymore.
The new section of trail is apparently not very well known, because there was literally no one on it.
We continued to the north, and soon came out to Railroad Avenue in Beachwood.
We crossed over Mizzen Avenue and the trail was paved for a little bit, then came to another section of Railroad Avenue right beside us again.
The trail just continued north along this stretch with the road to the left.
This was a good, long stretch of trail directly beside Railroad Avenue, often in the shade. It continued like this all the way to the crossing of Rt 9.
Rt 9 was not just any highway crossing. This was the point where the Pennsylvania Railroad's Atlantic Division crossed the Barnegat Branch. Rt 9 has been constructed over most of the right of way here.
The rail line was built in sections by different companies, and became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system in 1878. It connected Camden NJ to Bay Head, with other connections along the way.
This was another line that we had hiked quite a lot in series, all the way from Camden through to this point. The tracks are still in place from Camden through this point, within view of the Beachwood water tower, and east to where the Ocean Gate Draw used to be.
The Ocean Gate Draw Bridge was a huge crossing of the Barnegat Bay to the barrier islands.
The bridge was partially destroyed by fire in December of 1946, and the rail line was petitioned for abandonment in 1948. Removal of the rails began on Island Beach starting in 1949.
The tracks are pretty much in place as far as Mt Holly, and then are gone from there to the east. This line was such a straight shot across the state, it is amazing to me that it was let go, although I can understand the bridge across the Barnegat Bay would be a huge issue for maintenance.
To the west, this line passes through Whiting, where we had started the hike the previous time we did the Barnegat Branch to the north, because it was such a major connection spot.
The New Jersey Southern Railroad, which became the Central Railroad of New Jersey's Southern Division, passed through there, and the Tuckerton Railroad began there.
It amazes me how much rail infrastructure we'd covered through this entire area.
There is a little park with a pavilion in it directly across Rt 9 from where the rail bed hit it. From there, the trail continued across, and then parallel with Central Way to the north.
This might have been the earliest bit of the entire Barnegat Branch that was turned into a trail. It was just a sort of paved walkway put alongside the road.
Halliard Avenue turned to the right, and the paved trail continued just a short distance ahead to the intersection of Ivy Way, Atlantic City Blvd, Admiral Ave, and Flint Ave.
The railroad right of way continued to the north along Atlantic City Blvd, and the welcome to Beachwood sign was probably right in the middle of the railroad bed.
There was a sidewalk alongside the highway at this point, but nothing was designated as Barnegat Branch Trail, and no signs were in place to state that this had been the railroad bed.
The sidewalk disappeared when we got to where a bridge had carried the rail line over a cove and a part of the Toms River known as Jake's Branch.
Wooden framework of the former bridge base was evident at this point.
We crossed this on the highway, and then passed some businesses just ahead. It was more sidewalk with no railroad evidence.
Just ahead, there used to be some sidings and spurs from this line to serve local industries. The waterfront was directly to the right on the Toms River, opening widely up into the Barnegat Bay.
Atlantic City Blvd and Herflicker Blvd separated in this area, and this was where the Toms River station building used to stand.
I understand the structure was abandoned and burned down at some point, maybe in the 70s.
We crossed the Toms River on Herflicker Blvd, and then there was a bit of paved trail that went to the left on the old railroad grade, but then abruptly stopped.
This might be indication of future intent to extend the trail a bit further.
We skirted a parking lot and soon crossed Irons Street on the railroad bed.
The rest of the group left the railroad bed by this point and continued walking directly to the commuter lot, but I was still going to continue walking the rail bed west.
The railroad bed is still very passable, easy and clear, used as an access for businesses, from Irons Street all the way to Highland Parkway South.
I had already walked this section before, for the first time back on a snowy day in early 2010. This bit wasn't that much different than it looked back then.
The only major difference was when we came to Highland Parkway South, where the bridge is still intact that carries the Garden State Parkway over the rail bed. It is now blocked off by a gate and chan link fence, which we used to be able to go right through to the next bridge that is missing.
We used to be able to continue walking by crossing a large pipe over it just to the south of the former rail bridge site.
When we reached the Parkway underpass, we turned right on Highland Parkway S, which took us to the north toward Lakehurst Road.
We headed out to Lakehurst Road and turned left, then climbed up and over the Parkway with a bit of a view to the south. We then weaved around and right back into the lot where we had met in the morning to conclude the hike.
I don't remember, but I think maybe Dan was behind us possibly for the last bit of this, but he did manage to get back in reasonable time.
I got a ride back down to my van in Barnegat to conclude the hike in good time. I was very happy I'd chosen this great walk for this weekend, because it felt like the right place and an adequate close to the Summer season, even if I was the only one to take the dip. The familiarity and changes made it so much more rewarding in a different way than most of my hikes, so this was good and special.
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