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March 2010 Blog Posts (8)

Ringwood State Park - 03/27/10

Hiked the Ringwood-Ramapo/Hoeferlin/Pierson Ridge Trails Loop from Skylands Manor. When I arrived at 8:15 am it was a hopping place with several hikers and mountain bikers already there. I had hiked a different section of Ringwood State Park a couple of years ago (by Shepherd Lake) and don't remember hearing the shooting range but this time it was constant gunfire for about the first 2 and last 2 miles of… Continue

Added by Daniela Wagstaff on March 29, 2010 at 9:52pm — No Comments

Ramapo Mtn S.F. - Wanaque Ridge Trail - 3/28/10

Headed over to Ramapo Mountain State Forest to check out a newer trail, Wanaque Ridge, in the western part of the park. We slapped together a route as we went along and ended up only with 7.2 miles, but there was a decent amount of up and down along a pretty rugged trail surface. It was a brrrrisk and dreary day, so we plan to come back to take photos when it's more colorful.…

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Added by njHiking.com on March 28, 2010 at 8:00pm — No Comments

Norvin Green - Lake Sonoma and Overlook Trails

8.1 challenging miles and 70 degrees, sunny and perfect... such a nice change after this crazy winter. We hiked in the northern section of Norvin Green State Forest, located to the southwest of Monksville Reservoir in West Milford. There are two newer (2008-ish I believe) trails there we wanted to check out, Lake Sonoma and Overlook.

This isn't a really long hike but with a decent amount of rugged up/down, several stream crossings, we'd rate it… Continue

Added by njHiking.com on March 23, 2010 at 9:00pm — 1 Comment

Appalachian Trail (Wind Gap, PA) - 03/21/10

This hike is a good choice for NJ hikers if you want some great views, don’t want to drive too terribly far and aren’t in the mood to battle Garden State Parkway/NJ Turnpike/I-80 weekend traffic. From Clark, NJ (GSP exit 135) the drive was 1 hour and 15 minutes to reach the Wind Gap, PA AT parking lot taking I-78 west where traffic tends to be decent on weekends both in the morning and afternoon.… Continue

Added by Daniela Wagstaff on March 22, 2010 at 2:03pm — No Comments

Mount Minsi (Delware Water Gap, PA) - 3/19/2010

I followed the trail as outlined on NJHiking.com's website here except I stayed on the AT out to Tott's Gap for a hike of 9.75 miles. Even though I went on a Friday, it was the first 70-degree weather stretch of the year and the trail from the parking lot up Mount Minsi was a busy place! Heading on to Tott's Gap, however, I did not run into anyone else so for solitude, that was the place to be. The AT out to Tott's Gap runs… Continue

Added by Daniela Wagstaff on March 22, 2010 at 12:57pm — No Comments

Penn State Forest - Oswego Lake and the Pine Plains

We went in search of the Pygmy Pines in a section of the pine barrens called the "Pine Plains" where the trees average 5 feet tall and you can see over tree tops for acres.

We've never hiked Penn State Forest before and didn't know much about it, other than seeing a few pics of the pines, and they are mentioned in both an older (1998) "50 Hikes in NJ" book as well as a 2009 "Hiking in NJ" book and sounded… Continue

Added by njHiking.com on March 7, 2010 at 9:19pm — 1 Comment

Monmouth Battlefield State Park (Manalapan, NJ) - 3/7/2010

I arrived at Monmouth Battlefield State Park at 8 am and it turns out the park does not open until 9 am so the gates were closed. However, there are about 6 parking spots off to the right before the gate where an early morning jogger had parked so I left my car there and walked in. I had picked up a Monmouth Battlefield map a while back while at Cheesequake State Park so fortunately I had one. I never got close enough to… Continue

Added by Daniela Wagstaff on March 7, 2010 at 5:50pm — 1 Comment

Wharton State Forest/Atsion - 3/5/2010

I had previously hiked Wharton State Forest from Batsto so I hiked from Atsion this time. I found the main differences to be that the trails from Batsto follow sand roads too much for my liking but there are a lot of water views. The Atsion trails are virtually all packed sand and pine needle trails through pine forests with minimal sand road but also minimal water views. The 10 mile Atsion hike was… Continue

Added by Daniela Wagstaff on March 6, 2010 at 12:30pm — No Comments