"The Spleen Of Darkness"
Wallkill River Hike
by Martin W.
February 26, 2023
(Remotely based on the Joseph Conrad novel - The Heart Of Darkness and later - Frances Ford Coppola's movie "Apocalypse Now). OK, maybe not, but I digress!
On a cold and windy day of the final Sunday in the month of February in the year of our Lord - 2023 (in contrast to the warm and balmy days of most of February), six hardy members of the illustrious and world famous HRCKC set out on an expedition into the wilds of the deep and dark Wallkill River Wildlife "Refuge" (bit of a misnomer) .
The weather forecast had said it would be around 50 degrees - but you know forecasts... it wasn't - more like upper 30's with a stiff wind a'blowin, overcast and damp.
Karen, Diane, Kathleen, Joseph, Dean and myself met at the Sit & Chat Diner (formerly known as the Sussex Queen Diner) at 10:00am. From there we caravaned it up to Oil City Road just over the NY border in the town of Unionville.
Parking at the Oil City Road canoe access of the mighty Wallkill River - where we normally take out on a paddle trip - we started our expedition into the wilds of the Winding Water's Trail in the northern section of the "refuge". The trail itself was nearly flat with one tiny bump - no need for supplemental oxygen or Sherpas.
The trail follows the Wallkill River for about half it's length providing us with some quite nice scenery - a different view than our usual view from the river by boat. The small waterfall was just about runnable with a little skill and the slightly downstream, glacier scoured bedrock where the club has had it's lunch stops when we ran this section in the past was more submerged than when we previously visited. The water level was moderate with the rock ledges also runnable compared to doing "walkies" of the boats which we had to do last time.
We hung around there for a short time to pose for a photo but decided to keep moving since it was cold and windy - no mosquitos in sight! Continuing our hike on the trail which then broke away from the river and headed into the valley's bottom land of rich black soil.
Gadzooks!
We were then attacked by a horde of Viking/pygmy/Mingos/Huns/Berserkers/Visigoths/Crazed Sheepherders from Moonachie/Pissed off Spartans drunk on Boone's Farm Apple Wine/Mongolian vampires with hemorrhoids!
But alas, we managed to avoid a nasty outcome by giving them a cookie and they went away... probably off to plunder and pillage the Holland-American Bakery on Rt. 23.
Alright, that wasn't quite true... but a woodchuck did cross our path once.
(But the hordes of Viking/pygmy/Mingos/Huns/Berserkers/Visigoths/Crazed Sheepherders From Moonachie/Pissed off Spartans drunk on Boone's Farm Apple Wine/Mongolian vampires with hemorrhoids story was more exciting, wasn't it?)
Anyway, looping around and merging back up to the trail's start, we ended our hike on the Winding Water's Trail and moved the cars over to the other parking lot about an eighth of a mile away to the Liberty Loop's trailhead.
Again, the trail was absolutely flat since a portion of it is an old railroad bed converted into a "Rails-To-Trails" and consists of packed gravel. This trail is a little less than 2 miles long. We did see more people here, with two ladies with some very impressive cameras and lenses telling us there is a bald eagle over the field. We did get a glimpse of it, but I didn't have a long lens with me, so no photos from me.
At one point we spotted the infamous "Redneck Campground" across the river. I explained the story behind this 13th Level of Hillbilly Hell to the group and luckily it was completely deserted that day. If the group ever comes on one of our paddling trips on the Wallkill on a summer's day they will experience the sheer horror of it all themselves.
We then finished our journey in the Wallkill River Wildlife "Refuge" back where we started, said our goodbyes and headed back to civilization.
For those intrepid folks who came - a hardy thank you for coming. In a few weeks I'll be running another hike in the "Refuge". Stay tuned.
P.S. Did you know that the Wallkill River, which starts at Lake Mohawk in Sparta, NJ, is one of only two rivers in NJ that flows North! The other is the Millstone River.
Martin