Thanks for the information on the Erie Mainline Rail Trail Gary. Sounds like the ride from Goshen to Middletown needs some work. How sad hoow this former mainline decayed!
I am thinking the former Newburgh Branch is the way to go! A girlfriend and I completed the trail of the ES-99 / SE 98 EL pool freights on Sunday. It was a pefect day for a ride, we started out from the CNJ Highbridge Station. I have not been in this town since I sat in the cab of a CNJ RS-3 around 1976. The former yard that I knew as a kid is now gravel lot where I parked my car and offloaded the bikes! One thing I did notice is theres one single weed overgrown leg of the Branch to let you know a railroad once operated here.
I highly recomend this ride, it's a nice easy ride all the way to Califon NJ. Crushed stone and an easy grade. Almost as soon as you head North up the Highbridge Branch toward Lake Jct. you enter the senic Lockwood Gorge. There's very little left to let you know the CRR of NJ was here, of course there is a railroad tie here and there. The wonderful tressle still stands in the gorge, it's completly decked and fenced for hikers and bikers today. The little stone Station at Califon still exsists and is operated by the local historical society. (There's a great lunch spot just up the road) Beyond Califone the roadbed slowly becomes a dirt trail, and in Tewksbury there's a secton that runs through a farm that is all grass now. You have to follow the Gas Pipe markers to see where the line used to run! We went about three miles further north, it's worth the ride. We could have gone all the way to Bartley with ease (scene of the Hookerman discovery night a few years ago!) Seems
like most of the branch is intact trail wise other that a short portion or two. All the bridges have been redecked so you can cross them with no problem.
The whole section we covered is now called the "Columbia Trail", I recomend running extra Highbrige to Califon, it's a nice coast back on the slight downgrade through the gorge!
Todd ~
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