This is walk #14 ("The Sussex Branch Rail Trail") in
History Walks in New Jersey. The entire Sussex Branch
rail trail is about 21 miles long (with plans of future expansion) but today we did the the southern four miles as an out-and-back. Basically we covered the section
between Waterloo and Andover (almost) which served the Andover mines, bringing iron ore south to Waterloo, where it was then placed on boats in the Morris Canal,
heading for the furnaces of Pennsylvania.
We started at the southern end of the trail at Waterloo Road, and followed it north past the lovely Jefferson Lake, then Cranberry Lake, crossing over the Morris and Sussex Turnpike atop the "Hole in the Wall" (the first bridge indicated here north of Cranberry Lake), before turning back just after the second bridge and before the Lackawanna Cutoff. Just after the second bridge, I noticed a clear path climbing to the west of the rail path. Interested, I decided to head in for a look. To my surprise, in no more than 0.1 mile I came upon a well-graded trail adjacent to another defunct railroad, this one with the ties still there! (See the last photo in the 10th row.) I have no idea what railroad this was. There is no indication of it on any map I have seen, and yet the path adjacent to it was as well graded as the Sussex path. We had lunch atop a wonderful rocky overlook at the northern part of Cranberry Lake, before logging the last of our 8 miles.
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Near the southern terminus |
The rail trail |
Railroad remains? |
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Approaching Jefferson Lake |
Lady and the lake |
Beautiful reflections |
Lotus plants in lake |
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[Photo by Laura] |
Lake wild flowers |
Culvert at northwestern tip |
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More railroad remains |
Waterfall on Long Path |
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Another culvert |
Swamp |
Iron ore? |
Beautiful green path |
Huge culvert |
A mine on the Iron Mine Trail |
Looking through the culvert |
Swamp on Iron Mine trail |
[Photo by Laura] |
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They blasted through this |
Dragonfly |
Cranberry Lake |
Wildflowers ... |
... on the bank |
Pedestrian bridge over lake |
Rail bed north of lake |
Atop the "Hole in the Wall" |
On the second bridge |
Remaining ties of unknown railroad |
Granite cut on Route 206 |
Cranberry Lake |
View of lake looking south |
Our lunch spot! |
At our lunch spot |
Cranberry Lake |
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Lake wild flowers |
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Shells in the lake |
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At the boat launch |
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Boats on the bank |
Damn |
Water level marker |
Golden rod |
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Fisherman |
Rail trail south of lake |
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Beautiful shaded path |
Heron in Jefferson Lake |
He flew to the rocks |
And dried himself off |
Jefferson Lake |
Lake plants |
Lotus plants |
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Photographs and content copyright © Dan Balogh Web design by Dan Balogh |