Lehigh & Hudson River Railway

Lehigh & Hudson River Railway, Pequest WMA (4/20/2013)

Ever since hiking a snowy network of blazed trails in Pequest WMA back in February, 2010 it's been our intention of heading back to hike the railbed of the old Lehigh & Hudson River Railway which runs through the Pequest WMA.

So today we returned to hike the 4.2-mile stretch (twice). It's hike #20 ("Pequest Fish and WMA") in the book 24 Great Rail-Trails of New Jersey. We parked at the eastern end off Pequest Road in Townsbury and headed west all the way to the impressive abandoned viaduct just east of Route 31. This viaduct carried the now-defunct Delaware, Lackwanna & Western Railroad (D.L. & W.) mainline over both the Pequest River and the L. & H.R.

The first and last thirds of the bed we hiked traverse nice remote terrain with the middle third paralleling Route 46 very closely but the roar of the Pequest River is enough to buffer the sound of the sparse traffic on the road. This pre-Civil War railroad lasted until the 1960s and, according to the book, during World War II Franklin Delano Roosevelt's heavily guarded train from Washington D.C. to Hyde Park was a regular sight on this stretch. Loads (perhaps all) of the original signaling poles are still in place, something quite rare on rail trails, with even the lines still attached in a few spots.

Total distance hiked was 8.4 miles in under 3.5 hours.

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