All Blog Posts (324)

This hike is kind of far away, 2 1/2 hours out to almost the eastern tip of Long Island from the Goethals Bridge.  But I feel it is worth mentioning since it such a unique hike and there is very little information online about it.  It most definitely warrants a long day trip but only in March or April or in the fall/winter when the summer beach traffic is not an issue - when that happens you'll sit in traffic all day just to get there.  I left at 6:30 am, arrived at 9 am, hiked 12.6 miles…

We've added several pages of South Jersey hikes... an area that often gets overshadowed by north Jersey's rugged hiking.

For hike details, photos and some video check out....

Double Trouble State Park

Easy, sandy trails through pine barrens and around cranberry bogs with views of Cedar Creek and Mill Pond Reservoir.…

Apparently all other hiking venues must have been closed to other hikers this weekend because most every one of them were at Harriman!  Of course, this had to be our first time hiking there and the weekend was our only opportunity to do so.  When DH stopped in at Tents N' Trails in NYC  earlier in the week to pick up a new Harriman NY/NJ Trail Conference map, the salesperson told him he lucked into one of the last few remaining copies they had in stock.  All morning long they'd been…

This is the first time we'd gotten around to checking out Bass River State Forest. We'd always headed to the other Pine Barrens area parks instead, mainly because I'd never had much info on the trails here.

It doesn't appear in any of our hiking books other than a mention in the New Jersey Walk Bookof some short trails, and I'd never…

Headed to Harriman again on yet another unseasonably warm February day. This time is was to Pine Meadow Lake from Kakiat County Park.

This route takes in several view points - along Mountain, SMB and Raccoon Brook Hill trails. Pine Meadow Lake was a lovely break spot as usual and we also decided to take a woods road over to see Lake…

I had never hiked here because the reviews of the trails were not that great and there were not enough trails for me.  There used to be a map that was hard to follow because it did not show colors to match up to the blazing of the trails.  There is a newer map out now which does show the colors of the trails (although not 100% accurate, it's good enough) and it seems the trails have been reblazed.  There are lots of blazes - never had trouble following the trails.  There is also another…

Seeing that the weather on Saturday was suppose to be beautiful (for February anyway) , me and the wife decided we needed to do some hiking this weekend.  I decided on Washingtons Crossing since it was Pres. Day weekend, hoping something might be going on there. So we headed up Friday night, and stayed overnite in Ewing so we could get out Saturday morning. We headed out Sat. morning to Washingtons Crossing SP, and parked at the HQ by Bear Tavern Rd. and walked the Continental Lane the…

Oh Harriman, we adore your wacky place names: Almost Perpendicular, Elbow Brush, Claudius Smith Den... and this moderate to difficult hike takes in all three. [Harriman Trails: A Guide and Historyis a great source for the origin of place names and park history, along with description and mileage charts of every trail in the…

The Woods of Wenonah is a U-shaped wooded area that surrounds the town of Wenonah. It has several short trails, with access paths that lead off into neighborhoods. It's not remote by any means, as houses are visible along most of the route. It's a nice little park though, and we felt the Comey's Lake area was the prettiest part.

If you are in the South…

This hike is about half way between Frenchtown and Lambertville on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River.  If you aren't familiar with this area, you will be amazed at the unexpected terrain.  Tohickon Valley is a deep gorge with amazing vistas that can't be captured adequately in pictures.  This hike is easily overlooked because it traverses Ralph Stover State Park (45 acres with 1 mile of hiking trail) and Tohickon Valley Park, a Bucks County park (612 acres with any hiking…

I was very pleasantly surprised by this hike.  There are the typical packed sand roads of the Pine Barrens through cranberry bogs but most of the red-blazed trail and part of the yellow-blazed trail are designated for foot traffic only.  These are very scenic foot paths through cedar swamps, along canals and rivers and through dense pine forests.  It made for very nice hiking and the constant green of the pine trees infused color into an otherwise dreary day.  There are a lot of swampy areas…

Trails here are super easy - flat, level, packed sand typical of Jersey's Pine Barrens. This park is more of a 'hey let's go for a walk or have a picnic" kinda park and not a remote hiking destination but it's worth a visit. A big highlight of this park is the long section of boardwalk called the Pine Swamp Trail.

The trails are not really blazed, there are…

For our annual New Years Day hike we ended up at Mahlon Dickerson Reservation. Many people had the same idea, whether it was to take advantage of the unusually mild (low-50s) winter day or maybe getting an early start on a New Years resolution to exercise more.

We chose Mahlon because we wanted a moderate loop that we'd mostly done before so we didn't…

Someone told me a while back that somebody told them this was the worst hike they ever did.  So it sat at the bottom of my list for a very long time.  I was going to try it a few months ago but was told that most of the bike path needed to hike the loop was closed because of damage from Irene.  Since I was looking for a no hunting park for yesterday (Saturday) since today (Sunday) is much colder, I figured I'd call to see if the bike path had been reopened.  (There is no hunting allowed in…

We took a little time off around the holidays so of course we needed to get some hikes in. Since it was a weekday we wanted a park that was no-hunting (though it is closed a few days in December) plus we didn't feel like driving far so we decided to hit up Hartshorne Woods Park in Middletown.

It was also forecast to be very cold (like in the mid-30s…

Between the busy holidays and all the mild-weather hiking days, we've gotten a little behind on our hike write-ups!!

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South Mountain Reservation - Hemlock Falls - 12/22/11

With mild weather in the forecast for Jersey – in the mid-50′s in December! – we had to go hiking. Sometimes, you just need to ditch things and go for a…

My dog has Monday chiropractor appointments out in Riverdale - exit 53 off of I-287, smack in the heart of hiking country.  I have taken advantage of that by taking a half day off work and combining her appointment with hiking at some of the smaller parks that I never get to because they are too far away for the amount of trails available.   Today we checked out the new white-blazed trail at Silas Condict Park.  It's only a 3 mile hike but it's a very rugged and scenic trail with huge rock…

We're bummed we weren't able to take advantage of the beautiful weather on Saturday (prior commitments). But Sunday's weather was almost as good albeit a bit more cloudy toward the afternoon where we were in Mendham, NJ at the Schiff Nature Preserve.

Had it not been for reading about this little known (to us) hike on …

Decided on two old friends for New Year's weekend: Ted Stiles Preserve at Baldpate Mountain in Titusville and Wells Mills County Park in Waretown.  

Been there and done them well over a year ago, but…

I usually avoid Ringwood State Park because of the firing range smack in the middle of the hiking trails - listening to incessant gunfire is not my idea of a relaxing day in the woods.  But I figured Christmas Day might be a good option.   Even though the firing range's web site says they are always open, I seriously doubted anyone but me would be there on Christmas Day and I was right.  It was just me, my dog, a ton of birds and a bear.  I would have never seen the bear had he not taken a…