New Jersey – Blaze To Blaze

Stokes State Forest – Blue Mountain – Red Maple and Appalachian Trails

Trail Map – The Stokes map – though I used the NY NJ Trail Conference map

Hike Distance – 9.01 miles

Trails: Red Maple (Red leaf on white), Brink Road (Shay?), AT (White), Jacob’s Ladder (Blue and White)

Mountain – Blue Mountain

My route:

I haven’t been in this area of NJ i n quite a while, and it was a great day to get out. Leaving the house I could see my breath. I was the first car to pull into the Lake Ashroe parking lot in Stokes State Forest, and the temperature made it to the 60s. It would reach the middle 70s later in the day. I started without the fleece, and that was a wise move.

This hike starts on the Red Maple trail, which skirts a campground before heading into the woods. The campground seemed full when I went by, and has, by far, the best access to the lake.

The trail is single track until it joins a woods road, named Woods Road. From here on out the trail is wide and fairly level. I should note, this section of the trail was infested with mosquitoes. I couldn’t stop or I would be covered by them. It was so bad during this stretch I though of cutting the hike short. Fortunately, it was only this area that was so bad; no other part of the hike had any bugs to speak of.

I made good time in this section, a) because it was wide and flat, and b) the mosquitoes may have carried me off if tried stopping. At one point I passed a large swamp on my right. I crossed over Brink Road (the Shay trail), saw the gate, but didn’t realize that’s where I needed to turn in order to reach the Appalachian Trail. It wasn’t until the Red Maple leaves the woods road and heads off into the woods towards Tillman Ravine that I realized I missed my turn. Fortunately, I had not gone too far.

The section of Brink Road I used to connect to the AT is not long, maybe a half mile. The Brink Road shelter is on this trail and is about a quarter of a mile from the AT. At the junction, I turned right (southbound) to head up Blue Mountain. A steep climb takes you to some rocks, but there’s no view. In the research I did for this trip, I distinctly remember views. A quick look at the map showed a small descent, then climb to another “top.” After coming out of the woods, and walking through the scrub oak, BAM, views all around, though generally looking north, and west into Pennsylvania. It was a clear day, so I could see far.

If you zoom in on the next picture you can see the High Point tower.

I stopped to eat here, and it was really warm in the sun. From this point I retraced my steps back to Brink Road, and proceed to head north on the Appalachian Trail. This walk was atop the ridge, and there would be views to both sides if the foliage wasn’t already on the trees.

Of course, I stopped to sign the trail register.

Continuing north on the AT, I found a small spur trail that lead to a partial view looking into NJ.

I took the Jacob’s Ladder trail back to the Red Maple trail which would lead to my car. Jacob’s Ladder had one section that was pretty steep, descending a large rock slab. Here’s what it looked like looking back up.

There was one tricky stream crossing just before the junction with the Red Maple. At this point I had only seen about four people in total. When I rejoined the Red Maple trail, I started to see many more people. And when I returned to the lot there were many more cars there, though the lot was not entirely full. After changing, I walked over to see what Lake Ashroe looked like. This is just one end.

Ticks: 4 5 (a far cry from the 20+ of two weeks ago.)

Lantern Flies: 0

Blazes:

Hiked: 5/27/2023

I’m not dead yet…

I’m not.

Weather and multiple trips to Michigan have conspired to keep me from getting out as much as I would like. I’ve had a bunch of hikes planned for the weeks where I was not travelling, but weather has been crazy wet around here cancelling everything. It has been a wet and cold spring; which probably doesn’t bode well for the summer. So, WHERE have I been in the last three months?

I was thrilled to snowshoe in the Catskills, enough so that I got a pair. Of course, that just ensured we wouldn’t see snow for the rest of the winter. I used snowshoes on Red Hill Mountain as part of the County Park System’s / New York State’s Firetower challenge. It was definitely a blast, and has changed my perspective on winter hiking completely. Here are two shots from Red Hill:

A couple of weeks later I climbed Slide Mountain in the Catskills. While I was hoping to snowshoe, we only needed microspikes. What a great day, with great weather, and great views.

Including my favorite sign in the Catskills:

The week after Slide Mountain I traveled with the Park System (again) to Katterskill Falls. This was a great hike, but Katterskill Park just gets too crowded for my taste. The falls were awesome, as were parts of the Escarpment Trail that we hiked. But there were just too many people.

Almost a month later, I traveled to the Millbrook area in order to hike some trails, hike Van Campens Glen, and see Millbrook village. The village was neat. Van Campens Glen and the falls were neat. But stay away from both the Pioneer Trail and the Hamilton Ridge trail. Both trails are massively overgrown, and I stopped counting how many ticks I pulled off at 20. Further, the Watergate area is STILL closed, which means a long road walk back to your car if you parked at the village.

Yesterday, I saw another bear in Harriman, just before the rains came down (again.) No pictures because it happened so fast.

I’m hoping for better weather in the future so I can get out more.

Double Trouble State Park

Park Site

Trail Map

Hike Distance: 5.97 miles

Trails: Sweetwater (orange), Swordens Pond (yellow), Clear Brook (purple), Mill Pond(red)

My Map:

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was cold though, which is ironic because it was in the 60s for the past week. I had planned on going up north but the trails I wanted to hike were closed for the winter. And since this park was relatively close to the house, I decided to check it out.

Double Trouble State Park encompasses an old town and is the site of an ex logging operation and at one time the biggest cranberry bog in the state. There are numerous Atlantic Cedar groves in the park and many of the trails circumvent the numerous cranberry bogs. Much of the water in the creeks is stained red due to the cedars.

Most trails are on wide sandy roads

At one point the Sweetwater trail abuts the Garden State Parkway.

For the most part, the trails are flat; there is almost no elevation gain. My total for the day was 75 feet.

The first body of water I came to on the Sweetwater trail was the Cedar Creek. After checking it out from the bridge, I climbed down some stairs to get a closer look.

There were plenty of smaller creeks undoubtedly used for moving water from the larger creeks.

The first large body of water I came to was the Sweetwater Reservoir. It was much colder on the southern side of bodies of water, as the wind was really howling.

At the top of the Sweetwater Reservoir I made a left onto the Swordens Pond trail. This was more of a “trail” then sand roads.

After walking by the southern end of Platt Reservoir, the Swordens Pond trail makes a loop. I chose to do the loop clockwise. And the trail type changed. Instead of walking on a trail, I was in a ditch. It was as if they made a fire break out of the trail. And, I caught a whiff of what I thought was a campfire.

After walking a few minutes, the smell of campfire became more prolific. It became obvious what I had come across. All around me were the results of fire. It was if someone swept out the forest, clearing the ground of leaves, pine needles, brambles, twigs, etc. It wasn’t until I got home and looked it up, the area had a prescribed burn four days ago.

Half way around the loop I came to Swordens Pond.

The evidence of fire was all around. However, the fire is good. It cleans the forest. All of the sticks, leaves and pine needs add acid to the ground, which would promote the growth of oak trees. This area would be the Oak Barrens if fire didn’t clean the sandy soil every so often.

I came to area where fire did not cross the fire break. Here’s what it looked like on the un-burned side.

Back on the Sweetwater, I continued north. Where the Nature Trail junctioned, the trail went off into a Cedar Grove.

Here’s a shot of the water in Platt Reservoir.

At a large junction there was a sign describing how a large cedar grove was damaged by Hurricane Sandy. Efforts are underway to reclaim the land and repopulate it with Cedar trees.

I took the Clear Brook trail up to where it ends at Cedar Creek. The Clear Brook parallels the trail, but here is what the end of the trail looks like.

At the junction of the Mill Pond trail, there are historic buildings from the town of Double Trouble. Next to me is the packing plant.

I took the Mill Pond Trail up to the Mill Pond Reservoir. At times the return path was twenty feet next to me, across a small creek.

The middle of the trail had great views of the reservoir but were very cold due to the wind.

As I was heading back to where I parked using the Mill Pond trail, I noticed some obviously man made stones off the trail. A short spur trail took me to the Crabbe Family Cemetery which was established in 1938. There were some stones with dates going back to the late 1800s on them. And there was a stone with a 2001 date.

Commodore Edward Crabbe purchased the Double Trouble tract in 1903 and established the Double Trouble Company in 1909. His heirs sold the property to the state in 1964.

Just before I reached the car, I looked at some of the other buildings of the town.

Blazes:

Hiked: 2/18/2023

Bass River State Forest – Lake Absegami area

Park Site

Trail map

Hike Distance: 8.75 miles

Trails: Poppy Allen (yellow), Falkinburg (purple), CCC (orange)

My Map:

Average temperature for this hike was around 35 degrees, and the wind was blowing. There were flurries every so often but no accumulation. I did this hike as a figure-eight, sort of. Both loops were hiked clockwise.

Before I started the trail, I checked out Lake Absegami and the beach area. At the time of this writing there is construction on a new pavilion, but it is still possible to walk down to the water. Plans are for the construction to be completed by summer of 2023.

After viewing the lake, it was time to start the hike. By the water, the wind was really whipping, but in the trees, you did not feel it as much. You could hear the wind, sort of like background noise.

Most of the trails were wide, compact sand. In a couple of spots the trail was the loose, deep, sugar sand. And there were some places where you hike on sand roads. There is almost no elevation gain throughout the whole forest, though that is to be expected hiking in the Pine Barrens.

The Poppy Allen trail takes you right alongside a group campsite; that was busy today with a Boy Scout troop. I would later run into the scouts out on a hike. “Poppy” Allen was the first caretaker of Bass River State Forest.

Every so often you hike into Pine tree plantations, where the trees are somewhat growing close together. It was in these biomes where it was the most peaceful.

All the trails in this State Forest were well marked. There are lots of side trails, woods roads, and sand roads; but if you stay on the trail (and keep your map handy) you will not get lost. What I liked especially: Whenever there was a turn, there was a blaze with an arrow telling you which way to turn, and then a blaze immediately after the turn for you to pick up the trail. And all junctions are well blazed.

After turning onto the Faulkinburg trail, the trail sort of parallels the Garden State Parkway. This was one of two places where there is a bit of road noise. The trail actually comes pretty close to the roadway.

Soon enough it cuts back into the woods.

At the big junction of trails (in the center of the figure-eight in my map) is a sign announcing one of the tree plantations. There are many in the forest, all planted by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the early 1930s.

From this junction I jumped on the CCC trail for the western part of my journey. This crosses East Greenbush road. Where it crosses, I was able to get a picture of the Bass River Fire tower and another plantation.

The forest in this section was my favorite of them all. The trees are HUGE. It is extremely quiet and peaceful in this section. I could have sat there for hours, except it was 37 degrees and the wind was blowing. Maybe in the summer. Definitely a magical place.

The trail winds its way towards the Bass River. I did not have a view of the river, but I could see houses lining it. There are some marshy, boggy areas, and that is perfect conditions for a cedar grove.

At the northern part of this loop you will come to ruins of the Civilian Conservation Corps camp.

And just past the ruins you will come to the Forest Fighter Memorial which has signage regarding two major forest fires; and memorializes lost firefighters in those wildfires. I had been to this memorial driving home from Batsto Village.

Coming back to the main junction, I followed the CCC trail back to my car. The trail follows the park road and goes over a small bridge. From the bridge I could see the southern portion of Lake Absegami.

And across the road, I could see where the lake drained into Faulkinburg branch.

I didn’t know that there were campsites here, so I will have to return to check out the camping. Certainly, it won’t be long backpacking, but it is close enough to home to warrant checking out.

Chiggers: NONE, thankfully

Blazes:

Hiked: 1/14/2023

Merrill Creek Reservoir

Park Site

Trail Map

Hike Distance: 7.99 Miles

Trails: Perimeter, Yellow, Blue, Orange

My Map:

I did this hike clockwise. I was the third car in the parking lot (at the visitors center parking lot) but there were many more cars when I finished. Just as I parked it started snowing out, really, just flurries. It would flurry a couple of times on the hike; though there was no accumulation. There were plenty of printed trail maps at the kiosk which I haven’t seen in quite a while.

From the visitors center lot, I walked down to the boat ramp. One boat was on the water fishing. There is a bulletin board of all the large fish taken from the reservoir.

If you are hiking clockwise, the path will be wide, flat, and mostly crushed stone. For this whole portion of the hike there are great views of the reservoir – for much of the time you are no further than 20 yards from the water’s edge.

While walking the Perimeter trail, there are convenient markers that tell you how far you have walked.

The first dike I came to was the SE Dike. I was not prepared for crossing the dikes and dams. All of the hiking is in the woods, except for the dikes and dams. While crossing the dikes and dams you will be exposed to the wind, and it was pretty cold. And because of that, I typically just kept crossing and didn’t stop for too long. I did take this picture looking across the reservoir.

After taking this picture, a shadow started covering me. I looked up to see a bald eagle heading towards me. It was the first bald eagle I would see (I saw a second about an hour later) and those birds are big. He flew off into the trees. I didn’t know it at the time, there are numerous eagle nesting areas throughout the reservoir.

The dam is much larger than the dikes, and looking down the land-side of the dam, it drops pretty far. There was a stairway that headed down, but it was closed off – and I doubt I would have tried it – it is a steep stairwell.

Here’s a view off the dam looking southwest.

A little further down the dam I could see something swimming towards the rocks. I thought it was a beaver, but the tail was too skinny. It came to the edge, scrambled up some of the rocks, then saw me. He would dart in and out of the rocks playing hide and seek. I finally got a picture. It’s zoomed in, so not the best. But you can see an otter in front of a horizontal log.

After crossing the dam, the trail heads off into the woods and becomes more of a traditional trail. The trail moves further away from the reservoir but at times comes close to a road. Fortunately, there are not many cars zooming along.

There’s a nice “beach” to stop at.

After you pass the parking lot that connects to Fox Farm Road, the Perimeter trail joins with the Warren Highlands Trail. You will stay on this trail until the parking lot for the Inlet / Outlet Tower.

Just before I took the next picture I would see another eagle flying off towards the center of the reservoir.

There are numerous areas throughout the reservoir where there are stands of pine trees.

After crossing a footbridge I decided to veer away from the reservoir and explore some of the other trails and ruins. When you get to the “colored” trails, you will find signs and maps at every trail junction. You shouldn’t get lost in this area of the park.

I veered off on the orange trail that parallels the Upper Merrill Creek.

This section of the park is very damp and muddy. Further, the little bridges over the wetter sections were treacherously slippery. I thank the Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops that installed the bridges, but they were treacherous today.

Here’s a picture of the ruins of the Upper Beers Farm.

Further down the Blue trail, are ruins of the Lime Kiln.

As I traveled down the Blue trail, I came across ruins of the Spring House.

Finally, as I got closer to the Visitors Center, I came across a stand of real large pine trees. It was dark and really quiet and had a great view of the water.

This is a great park to hike. There are a couple of hills, but nothing terribly steep or for too long. The northwest section of the park has more traditional trails and it is in this section that you will find more rocks. I thoroughly loved seeing the eagles and to see an otter, I’ve read that snow geese migrate here and are a great site to see as well.

Blazes:

Hiked: 1/7/2023

Hartshorne Woods – Command Loop, Grand Tour, Cuesta Ridge

Park Site

Trail Map

Hike Distance: 3.59 Miles

Trails: Command Loop, Grand Tour, Cuesta Ridge

My Map:

This was a quick one, as I didn’t plan on getting out this week. There are not a lot of pictures, either, because this was so short. The day was perfect as it was mid-70s and dry, no humidity. I got to the trailhead early, and there were still many cars, and I found there to be many bikes on the trail. The lot was almost full upon my return.

I had been to the Eastern side of the park a couple of weeks ago and the Rocky Point trail was still more or less still a trail. This week I was in the middle of the park and the trails were less hiking trails and more bike trails.

The last time I was here I noticed the prevalence of invasive plants. I guessed Kudzu, but I think it is actually Porcelain-berry, which is in the grape family. I saw the berries, I’ve heard they’re edible, but I’ve heard they don’t taste like much.

Part way up the Grand Tour, I could see what looked like devastation in the distance. Eventually, I came to sign explaining what was going on. In early 2022, the park service, along with the US Forest Service and the New Jersey Invasive Species Strike Team, started to remove invasive species in Hartshorne Woods. Specifically, the groups were targeting Porcelain-berry, Multiflora Rose, and Japanese Knotweed. The plan is to thoroughly clear the invasive species, then replant.

It was nice to get back on forested trails.

Eventually, I turned onto the Cuesta Ridge trail and headed back to the car.

Ticks: 0

Spotted Lanternflies: 0

Blazes:

Hiked: 8/14/2022

Musconetcong Gorge Preserve

Park Site

Trail Map

Hike Distance: 7.56 miles

Trails: Orange, Blue, Yellow, White, and some unmarked trails

My Map:

It was a gorgeous day, getting into the mid 80s. I wore pants with zip off legs thinking if it got too hot, I could take the legs off. However, it rained a little last night, and the Orange trail was wet, and overgrown. I’m glad I left the legs on.

After parking, I hiked the Orange trail as an out and back. Before 519, it’s a nice trail, well maintained.

After crossing 519, there are stretches of the trail that are extremely overgrown. And there were numerous spider webs crossing the trail; I felt like Indy going after the idol.

There are a couple of spots where the trail opens up.

The trail ends while passing a cornfield just by a road. The Highlands Trail keeps going, but I was not cutting through the overgrowth. There was a nice view, and a great breeze by the cornfield.

Back at my car, I jumped on the Yellow Trail (which is part of the Highlands Trail as well.) This trail climbed to the top of a ridge and followed the ridge for a while. It was much easier to move with a day pack on as opposed to the backpacking pack.

Like last week, there were a lot of wineberries out. This time, I channeled my inner bear, and gorged when I saw ripe berries. Last week would have been the mother lode though.

The first stream crossing is Scout Run, which had lots of water flowing through.

All throughout the ridge top I saw toads scurrying about and made sure not to step on them.

The highest point on the ridge will have a great view once the leaves are off the trees.

I followed the Yellow trail until the next stream crossing at Pine Run. Instead of crossing, I took the White (?) trail down to the old rail bed.

This trail is not on the map. And the trail is pretty much straight down to the base of the gorge, with lots of rocks. When I came to the base, there was yellow caution tape closing off the trail going up. There was no tape at the top preventing anyone from coming down. Here’s a shot looking up, the picture doesn’t do the steepness justice. You can see the yellow caution tape to the right.

Walking on the old rail bed was pleasant. There were plenty of wineberries, and the trail was pretty flat and smooth.

After a few minutes I could hear people down in the Musconetcong river. There were loud yells, and then a crash. I found a small spur trail that headed in that direction, it had one steep section I sort of slid down. The trail came out at a dam, where people were using the dam as a water slide to go down and fall into a big pool. There was enough water that kayaks were going down as well. I would have loved to have tried it, but I had no idea the dam was here and I wasn’t getting soaked without a good way to dry off. I watched one kayak go down, and it was awesome.

Someone at the dam suggested I take an old trail that split a stream and the river back towards the car. It would go by the old paper mill and factory, so I changed my plans and followed that path.

The stream on the left was really nice, and supposedly had fish.

The trail went over a small set of falls where the stream fell towards the river.

I passed the paper mill in the woods and found the old abandoned factory.

However, I was now off trail and needed to find my way back. I found a small spur trail that looked like it would head back towards the trail to the car. Sure enough, I found the trail I was looking for, but I had to cross an old rickety dam first in order to reach the marked trail.

Eventually I found my way back to the car. Coming back, I’m packing for swimming and sliding down the dam.

Ticks: 0

Blazes:

Hiked: 7/30/2022

Backpacking Round Valley Recreation Area

Park Site

Trail Map

Hike Distance: 14 Miles

Trails: Cushetunk (red), Campground (yellow on the map, but I never saw a blaze.)

My map:

A note on my map. You can see at the top left, the recording stopped. I don’t know if that was due to my phone (likely) or AllTrails (also likely.) This is the second time this has happened where I’ve had an incomplete map.

I had decided to take the Cushetunk trail as far as I could to my campsite, 73, then take the Campground trail back to the Cushetunk to hike out. There were a couple of spots where I questioned life’s decisions; one going up Cushetunk mountain. It didn’t stop going up – and it was only 833 feet. The other spot was the return trip, there are some stairs by the construction work at the dam. It wasn’t that bad, it’s just that it was 90, and I had done 11 or so miles at that point.

After a half mile into the hike there is a great overlook of the reservoir, right across from the ranger station.

All of the trails were lined with Wineberries. I didn’t know at the time that they are edible (they are) but I should have known when I saw people at the beginning of the trail picking bags full of them. They were all over the place. I should have sampled. I didn’t see bears this weekend, but bears could have gotten fat on the amount of wineberries I saw.

The Cushetunk trail diverts around ongoing construction around the dam. The trail comes across Hannon – Saurland pond. There are tons of signs telling you not to swim. EVEN with the heat of the hike, you couldn’t pay me to jump in this pond.

The reservoir, sure, I jumped in that.

There’s a stretch of the Cushetunk trail that follows a rock wall.

Eventually I came to a gate on the Cushetunk trail, and I had to jump on the Campground trail; which was my plan to get to the campsite.

Before setting up camp, I took a walk down to the water.

As usual, since I haven’t figured out panoramas, or how to stitch the pictures together, you’ll have to make do. The three pictures are left-to-right, of the reservoir.

Here’s the “trail” back to the campsite.

There was plenty of shade, and a constant breeze which kept the temperatures down.

My view of the reservoir from camp.

Before bed, I walked down to the reservoir to see the sun set. Other campers did as well. I could have stayed longer to capture the red sky, but I wanted to make sure I could get back to camp.

I woke up cold, it was 69 in the morning, with the breeze blowing.

I decided to start hiking back while the sun was not yet over the ridge. Here’s a shot of the Campground trail.

Eventually, though, the sun would come out blazing. It was already 90 when I got back to my car just after 10 in the morning.

This was a lot of fun, there were a lot of lessons learned. I would definitely do it again, though I wouldn’t take the full Cushetunk trail, and I would get a camp site early on the Campground trail.

Ticks: 0

Lantern Flies: 5 (all dead – I saw more, but they fly fast.)

Blazes:

Hiked: 7/23-24/2022

Hartshorne Woods – Rocky Point and Battery Loop

Park Site

Trail Map

Hike Distance: 5.74 miles

Trails: Rocky Point, Battery Loop, Black Fish Cove

My Map:

I last hiked this section of the park in 2016. I hiked the western side of the park in 2018. And what’s weird, all three times that I’ve hiked this park have been in the second week of July. My rationale this time was simply ease. I wasn’t planning on hiking today, but found the time, so I didn’t want to drive far.

I like the county park system, I’m not a fan of the trails in the parks; with the exception of Hartshorne Woods. And there have been great changes since I was last on this side of the park six years ago. For one, money has been spent to upgrade and make the part nicer and easier to get around. One example sits next to the trail kiosk; there is a stand to fix bikes, including an air pump. True, the park sees many mountain bikes, but it’s a nice touch to have a stand to fix bikes when needed. Further, (on this side of the park) the Rocky Point trail is really the only non-paved trail and it actually had blazes. Granted, with the number of bikes using the trail, you don’t have to worry about getting lost. I walked by restrooms, but I don’t know if the building was open.

My plan was to hike Rocky Point, and then hike Battery Loop, which I did not hike six years ago.

When I started, there was a dark rain cloud over the park. I wasn’t worried about rain as the rain was supposed to hold off until much later. At times it was pretty dark and with the trees real close it felt darker than normal.

The eastern side of the park is made up of the grounds of the former Navesink Military Reservation. While the batteries are the main attraction, there are other buildings and relics leftover from when the area was an active base.

The Rocky Point trail parallels the shore of the Shrewsbury and Navesink Rivers, though most of the time you are a hundred feet or so above the rivers. One part of the Rocky Point trail wanders by one of the old Fire Control Sites. I only approached to take a picture, I couldn’t tell if the building was accessible. My guess is not.

The sun peeked in and out for most of the hike, though came out for good at the end.

There were a couple of nice views of Sea Bright, that probably are nicer when the leaves are off the trees.

The trail walks above the rivers, and there are unmarked trails people have made to get down to the water. With erosion, some of those trails have become dangerous.

I took the quarter-mile long Black Fish Cove trail down to the pier. There are signs warning of a steep incline, but it really isn’t that bad. The pier looks out over the Navesink river. Take these next three pictures and stitch them left to right for a “panoramic” view of the Navesink River from the pier.

In the woods I found this hatch. I have no idea what it is, it’s not listed on any maps I have.

After finishing the Rocky Point trail, I dropped my trekking poles off at the car, as the Battery Loop trail is paved. I had never hiked the trail, and I was interested in the history.

Another tree swallowed by Kudzu.

The first battery I came to was Battery 219, which originally housed a 6-inch gun. The battery was not open.

The Battery Loop trail was lined with a bumper crop of Common Mugwort.

The main attraction on the Battery Loop trail is Battery Lewis, which originally held 16-inch guns. The original guns are long gone.

Here’s a shot looking down corridor between the two casements. Powder rooms, ammunition rooms and the electrical generators were housed down there. Apparently, there are tours on the weekends, but later in the day. I’ll have to do that once.

Since the original guns are gone, the County Park System was able to get a 16-inch gun from the battleship New Jersey. The original guns in the casement were 64 feet long, the New Jersey’s gun is 68 feet long. It’s huge. The shell could reach waters off Point Pleasant. The Navesink Military Reservation was built as an auxiliary to Fort Hancock on Sandy Hook. Two sites worth reading are:

- - - - The Monmouth County Park System official history
      - Battery Lewis Restoration

I took a walk down the trail downrange from the guns and hiked the Battery loop back to my car.

I like the improvements that have been made in Hartshorne Woods. I plan on coming back again and hiking some of the trails in the center of the park that I haven’t hiked.

Ticks: 0

Blazes:

Hiked: 7/16/2022

Garret Mountain Reservation

Park Site

Trail Map

Hike Distance: 3.1 miles

Trails: Yellow

My Map:

I should have gone out on Saturday but the weather called for storms all day. It didn’t rain here. But I didn’t hike. I know I won’t get out for a couple of weeks, so I picked Garret Mountain Reservation to hike. It was a gorgeous sunny day, and pulling into the park, there were 100s of people all walking the road. It was packed.

I walked the yellow trail, which essentially parallels the road, but is off in the “woods.” The nice thing about the yellow trail is that I left all the people on the road. This was the first park I had seen horses on trail in quite a while.

I walked counter-clockwise, so my first landmark would be Barbour’s pond.

The other good thing about Garret Mountain Reservation is the Yellow trail keeps you off the pavement.

I did not actually summit Garret Mountain, as the trail follows the road around the park. Further, access to Lambert Castle was blocked off, and I would have like to have visit; even if I could not go inside.

There was plenty of deer; probably too many. Lots of chipmunks making noise too.

Heading north on the eastern side of the park had some gorgeous views, mostly because it was early and not hazy yet.

The observation tower grounds were open, but you could not climb the tower.

Garret Mountain Reservation is a nice park. I could not begin to pick up litter, there was far too much. There is plenty of road noise, and you will hear many planes as well. But, for a short jaunt, this was a nice destination.

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For a brief stretch the Morris Canal Greenway is on the yellow trail

Hiked: 7/4/2022