"Back Up - Don't Run!": Harrison Mountain and Long Pond Ironworks

Remembering old hikes since I'm laid up with a bum ankle. Today's hike that we'll reminisce about is Harrison Mountain and Long Pond Ironworks in West Milford, New Jersey.

I apologize in advance for the lack of photos in some parts of this post: I think you'll understand why we chose not to take pictures at one point in our hike! 

                We had heard good things about Long Pond Ironworks and we had recently climbed Monk’s Mountain, which is in the area, so we were looking forward to it. Jon made up the route simply by looking at the NJ/NY Trail Conference Map, his first time crafting a route without the help of a guide. We were unsure of what the views were of, what the terrain would be like, but we were game. That morning, as we were getting ready, Liam jumped on me and banged his elbow into my sternum. The pain was intense. For a moment, I considered how I would be able to climb an ascent with an injured sternum, but Liam’s excitement about the hike made those concerns vanish. We packed up and went on our way.

                When we got to the roadside parking at the end of a dead end road, we saw both ends of the loop and chose the lefthand trail. We walked away from the houses, away from the sounds of the road, and started uphill. At first, the climb was easy and rolling, but quickly, the ascent became steep. A few times the words “Who’s great idea was this?” were uttered, but we were determined to not turn around. We had never turned around halfway up a mountain and we weren’t about to then. My chest began to hurt with every breath, intense sharp pain that left me winded. But we pressed on. Our first view was up ahead and as we climbed into the clearing we saw…. Power lines. The view was a power line cut overlooking the reservoir. Liam, who is obsessed with power lines, was jumping for joy, while Jon and I were disappointed. “Maybe there’s another view up ahead. The map shows several stars,” Jon offered. So we went back into the woods and kept pushing uphill. The angle kept getting steeper and steeper. We had to pick our way over fallen trees for that area of the trail was not well maintained. Between two logs I saw it. It looked like a big pile of scat. I didn’t think anything of it – maybe I was wrong. Maybe it was a pile of dirt. Anyway, what makes scat that large? A bear? They usually keep to themselves. We kept going.

                Another clearing was up ahead. This time we had to scramble over rocks, so I put Liam’s helmet on. A friend had recently purchased the helmet for Liam – a bright red skating helmet with a graphic depicting a UFO abducting a cyclist with a backdrop of New York City. Liam loved it because it was red and featured a spaceship and New York City. Every time we are standing on the top of a mountain, he shades his eyes and searches for New York City on the horizon. Many times we don’t see it, but it’s always a goal for him. So this helmet fit the bill on all accounts.

                As we finished scrambling up the rocks, we came to the main view. Another spectacular view of… the power lines. On both sides of us this time. The crackling of the electricity was difficult to hear over. Liam is especially sensitive to sounds, but he enjoyed the buzzing and crackling. “The power lines are saying goodbye!” he said happily as we were leaving the rather disappointing – to us - view. Soon after, we took a break and ate on a large rock. We saw a tiny toad who desperately pretended to be a lump of dirt between two rocks. Liam sat and watched him for a while until the little creature hopped away. At this point, Liam was having an episode of ataxia, but he never lets it stop him. We used to fret over him when he had ataxia and he’d often lie to us, saying that he was fine – while falling everywhere. Now we simply say, “Wear your helmet and be careful.” If it doesn’t hold him back, why should we?

                After our break, we continued on. After climbing a bit further, we started to descend. The trees became more spaced out and dead leaves covered the forest floor. Suddenly Liam started whining. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “I have to – I have to – I have to poop!” he exclaimed, dancing a nervous little dance. So he did his business and this time we were prepared with about 5 baggies and a full roll of toilet paper. After he finished, we heard voices. We soon figured out that they were coming from the reservoir, a ways away from the mountain we were on. Their voices traveled and we felt less alone. Until then, we had seen nobody on the trail. Not even a sign – besides the trail markers – of civilization. We decided to hike over in that direction off-trail (I do not recommend this!) to see if we could find a view. Disappointingly, there was none, but on our way back to the trail, a white object on the ground caught my attention. It was a small snake, white with grey patterning. Since then, I have looked up what it is and it was a juvenile rat snake, but at the time, I was ignorant of its species. Of course, though, nervous as I was, I took a photo and quickly moved on.

                As we continued to descend, paralleling the power line cut, we passed two other hikers and their dogs that were off-leash. Finally – another human out here! While we enjoy solitude, it is nice to see just a couple of other people out there. Maybe it’s our New Jersey conditioning, but being without anyone for miles feels TOO lonesome. We passed the two young men who were going uphill. And then we saw it.

“Bear!” Liam exclaimed.

Where?” I asked excitedly. After a few seconds of Jon and Liam pointing it out, I saw it. An approximately 300 pound black bear walking parallel to us, going in the opposite direction. I made sure that I was loud while I spoke, as to not surprise the bear.

“Oh, isn’t he cute?” I said in a fawning voice. “You be safe, Mr. Bear! Oh, Liam, your first bear, isn’t that exciting? Okay, let’s go!” I said. As I am always the leader on our hikes, I started to cross a little stream first. Then I saw him out of the corner of my eye. The bear had turned around and was coming towards me!

“Turn around, turn around!” I gasped.

“Why?” Jon asked.

“Just do it! It’s coming back!” We scrambled across the stream and I became intensely worried about how Liam would react. The bear came to the stream and looked as if it would cross.

“Carry me, Daddy!” Liam said anxiously.

“Not now, Liam!” Jon said, his voice shaking.

“Back up, guys! Don’t turn around, don’t run, Liam. Do you understand? Do not run. Face it and back up. And don’t panic!”  We started backing up the hill and soon realized we wouldn’t get very far as the ascent was steep. We started speaking in very loud voices, hoping to scare it away. Liam held my hand and I could feel him shaking. I think I was shaking just as hard.

                Suddenly the bear stood on its hind legs and stared at us. At the time, we were scared by this sudden posture, but when we researched it later, we found that this means a bear is trying to get a better look or smell. A curious bear. But in the moment, we were filled with fear. The bear looked as if it would cross the stream, but evidently decided to continue going forward.

(Note: Not the bear we actually saw - photo from Google Images)

“He’s going towards the path we need!” Jon said. I became acutely aware that my strong husband, my rock, was afraid.

“Then we’ll go straight! If he’s on our path, we’ll go on another path and just have to find our way back!” I said resolutely. Suddenly the bear started to come towards us from the right.

“Go! Go!” I yelled and we jetted towards the path straight ahead of us. As soon as we were far enough away, I turned around to get a sense of where the bear was.

It was standing in the spot we had been when we backed up. If we hadn’t moved when we did, it would have come up to us. We smelled of food. Even bear-proof canisters don’t mask the smell of food and bears can smell food a mile away. They also can remember a food source for years. Perhaps this bear had been fed by people before. The realization that it had been circling us made my blood run cold.  I asked Liam, as we were hurrying away, “Do you still want to go hiking again”

“Yes!” He said, absolutely sure of his answer. “I love hiking!” We started to hear the road ahead of us and houses came into view. We climbed over a guardrail and made it to the road. I have never felt so relieved to see houses and cars in my life. Unfortunately, we were about a mile away – uphill – from our car. What would have taken us a couple of minutes became much longer due to our bear encounter. After climbing the hilly road for a few minutes, Liam and I could walk no further. We stayed by a guard rail by the side of the road while Jon hiked up to our car. Jon made the trek up and brought the car to us. Because it was a busy road, we had to move quickly so we jumped into the car and sped away. Away from Harrison Mountain. And away from the bear.

“I want to keep hiking!” Liam piped up from the backseat.

“What?” I asked in disbelief. I had told him about a ghost town in the Long Pond Ironworks area, so he asked if we could go there.

“I guess so,” I said. At this point, the idea of a haunted iron mine sounded better than a real live 300 pound black bear, so we decided to give it a go.

When we got there to the Long Pond Ironworks ghost town, we parked at the museum parking lot and after a couple of minutes, figured out that the trail went off to the left. We hiked up to the ruins of an 18^th century building foundation. Liam descended the stairs and danced excitedly inside the stonework foundation. He coaxed us down and we all explored the stone ruins. Three women peered down and engaged us in conversation. We were quick to tell them about our bear encounter. One of them gasped in horror. This would be the first of many times we recounted the story to strangers over the next few days and weeks.

We continued on and explored a broken down house from the 1960s – I assumed it was from then based on the 1967 newspaper that had blown outside the house. I peered into the front room that had holes all over the wooden floor. I imagined one of us falling through the floor and ending up seriously injured. So we explored near the threshold and didn’t get too far in. After that, we walked around the outside of the house and took some pictures. A couple of harshly worded political epithets were inscribed on the outside. Good thing Liam can’t read yet!

After passing by a few ruins from the 18^th – 19^th century, we realized that if we had taken the Highlands trail down, we would have seen the furnaces. So we retraced our steps and explored the field in which there were several buildings with 19^th century equipment in them. The walls were partially open which made it possible to reach in and touch the old wood. Liam was entranced by the equipment and buildings. But he was even more excited by the river that ran by them. Every time we come close to water, he asks to put his feet in. So we did. After splashing our feet into the deep water, we left the furnaces, left the ruins, left the 1960s house, and went on our way back to the parking lot. That concluded our great bear run-in and our ghost town adventure.

The next day we purchased bear spray and an air horn at the outdoors store. Just in case.

I have to say – Liam may not listen to us all the time, as most 5 years olds don’t – but when we were in a very serious and potentially dangerous situation, he listened to our every word. We said “back up, don’t turn around” and he listened. We said, “Don’t run” and he listened. We said, “Don’t panic” and he listened. We had discussed bear safety before with him, but I never knew what he would actually do in such a situation. But he came through with flying colors. I am proud of my little man.