December 2011 Blog Posts (6)

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…

This park is on the newer Jersey Highlands Trails map but there is also a map on the township web site and a free map on the NY/NJ Trail Conference site.  Parking lot coordinates: 40.971152,…

Like my life isn't busy enough without trying to wedge out more computer time to search and research hikes, I figure since I don't Facebook, Tweet, or whatever other venues are out there to share whether I purchased a new broom or sneezed that day, I decided to combine a little of two of my favorite things:  writing and writing about hiking.

If anyone is interested or even if you're not but just want to placate this old hiker, check it out.  Be warned: I don't do short writing.…

After a few weekend obligations and my nagging cold kept us from getting in any hikes other than a couple jaunts at Cheesequake, we were happy to get back out this weekend.

Since we were dog-sitting in south Jersey we took advantage of having lodging only about a half hour from Belleplain.

This park is in the Pine Barrens... so it's all endless pine and Atlantic white cedar – quite different from the north part of NJ. It's also flat as a pancake so the hiking is…

This past weekend was too good to pass up making the most of both days.  Sunday we drove up to Sterling Forest (leaving before dawn to get the most of the shorter daylight hours). 

We'd never been to Sterling before so a stop at the excellently-staffed and extremely helpful Visitors'  Center was well worth the extra time. We were also most grateful for the personal highlights as well as precautions for the various trails from one of the park's rangers accentuated by the Center's…

If you look at the upper right corner of the North Jersey Trails Map 116, there is a little park just over the NY state line called Cascade Lake Park.  Apparently it is a newer park that not much has been done with until fairly recently.  There is an online map from 2006 but it is outdated and it took me a while to figure it out.  Turns out the map shows woods roads that are blazed sporadically with old, faded blazes.  I could not find a few of the trails but that could have been due to poor…