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This hike was a blast! We hiked part of the Tamarack Trail about two and a half years ago. At that
time we parked at Johnson Park in Byram Township, crossed Roseville Road and headed west into the woods. This time we parked in the same lot but headed east along the
soccer fields, entering the woods north of the park. Following my friend Daniela's GPS track, also
from 2016, we easily found the eastern entrance of the amazing Roseville Tunnel, hiked west through it and continued along the abandoned railroad bed, deep between the two
high cliffs on either side. We continued until we were northeast of Forest Lake. We had no idea how far it continued, and wanted to do a bit east of the tunnel, so we headed
back through the tunnel a second time, then continued east along the railbed, now high above the surroundings, with beautiful lakes on both sides. We went east until we were
over Buckhorn Street just north of Wolf Lake. The railroad bed continued further east, but we didn't have much time to explore. So we turned back at this point. Back near the tunnel,
instead of heading back to the car, we continued to loop around the tunnel and headed back to the car after that. You can see our track
here.
The 0.2-mile long Roseville Tunnel, also called the "Ice" Tunnel, because of the seemingly perpetual ice inside, was a very cool experience. At the halfway point we were in almost total darkness, unable to see exactly where we were stepping. My iPhone flashlight barely helped, but there was ice all over, on the ground, hanging from the sides, and we heard it falling as we walked. The ties of one of the tracks have been removed, but the ties of the other track remain, some in very good condition. There are also remnants of the rock slide detectors, and fence, near the western end of the tunnel. We wondered why this rail trail isn't featured in any books or websites, given that it's one of the most interesting we have done. The answer is probably the fact that NJ Transit purchased this tract and has plans on reopening it by 2020 for rail service to Andover. Given the problems they've been having with their current service over the past couple of years, that deadline may have slipped because there was no sign of any construction anywhere. Total distance hiked today was 4.7 miles in just under 3 hours.
(Click on the thumbnail to bring up a bigger image in a pop-up window)
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Photographs and content copyright © Dan Balogh Web design by Dan Balogh |