Linda Frank's Blog (12)

New Year's Eve day some were preparing to watch the ball drop in Times Square.  But we were preparing to snowshoe while watching some snowflakes drop at High Point.  It didn't snow that day, but it did on New Year's Day.  Shoeing in the snow (unless we're talking blizzard conditions) always enhances the experience for us.  Then again...a bright, winter-blue sky sunny day is nothing to shake a snowshoe at. :)

Arrived at the High Point X-Country Nordic Center around 9:00am on Monday.…

Continue

Those of you who've hiked Harriman after Sandy came through and been past the 'infamous' Times Square junction know what it looks like there.  While there's destruction and felled trees strewn over & around nearly all the trails, it just seemed particularly significant to see this popular crossroad in its unrecognizable state.

In the Times Square area, this tree had been growing on top of a rock slab for heaven knows how long.  How many years since that slab had seen the light of…

Continue

Hiked three days at Harriman over Thanksgiving holiday. Each hike took about 1/3 longer due to maneuvering blowdown damage. 

So many blows to ramble up, over, through, under and bushwacks around that it really chewed into our time.  In a very dark sense, however, it made for a much more challenging hike what with having to figure out not only how to get back on trail, but in many cases figuring out where the trail was in the first place!

On this particular hike…

Continue

We did Daniela Wagstaff's Silvermine Lake/Turkey Hill Lake Loop Hike last Sunday.  Great hike, but problems w/blazes and trail conditions.

On our return route at the junction of Long Path & Popolopen Gorge Trail (going toward Turkey Hill Lake) we totally missed a left turn blaze on the (Red) Popolopen Gorge Trail. Or more likely, the double-blazes weren't there…

Continue

This warning at the foot of The Giant Stairs (trail) which skirts the Palisades Cliffs along the Hudson River is an understatement. 

We've done some bouldering and similar rock assaults as this one, but never over such a prolonged distance or precariously close to sheer drop offs - some w/vertigo-inducing distances to the rocks below or the river's edge.  …

Continue

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…

Continue

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 …

Continue

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…

Continue

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.…

Continue

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…

Continue

We've been trying to take as much advantage of the cooler, breezier, sunnier and (dare I say: less rainy) conditions these past few weekends.  So we took our pent-up energy & enthusiasm to Mahlon Dickerson and Jenny Jump a couple of weeks ago.  We'd done the northern section of Jenny a few weeks before that when the mosquitoes were in prehistoric mode. Ugh!  With better weather conditions finally at hand we decided to return and do the "extended" lower section, which amounted to… Continue

Like many other Jersey hikers here, we're also in an "elevation-challenged" area which requires us to travel at least a good hour (preferably 1-1/2hrs.) to hike above sea level. :(  But that hasn't stopped us from ferreting out as many hikes as possible that afford some good elevation changes, views and some challenging trails, too, and are within an hour's drive time. 

Hartshorne Woods in…

Continue