Road Trips and Hike Reports

Yellow Trail Loop ( plot from Alltrails.com ) Posted by Chris 3/19/18 Basics: Length -3.7 miles Elevation gain - 547 feet Nearest city - Lockwood or Flanders, NJ Difficulty - The majority of the trail was covered in snow which made the hike a lot more vigorous than it would have otherwise been The Day: This hike was really a late addition to the day.  We originally thought family was stopping by to visit but their plans changed.  After having breakfast with a friend at the Trolley Shops diner , we came home for the middle part of the day.  We headed out for the hike around 3 pm with minimal enthusiasm and frankly I was more concerned about it being close to home and just long enough to meet our 3 mile minimum for counting as a 2018 hike.  Thankfully, from such indifferent motivations came a really lovely hike.  The scenery was awesome.  The trail was snowy but didn't have a lot of mud and the trail was well blazed and fairly easy to ...

White Square Trail (plot from Alltrails.com) Posted by Chris 3/13/18 Basics: Length -7.5 miles by the time we finished with detours and minor misroutings Elevation gain - 600-700 feet Nearest city - Hillsborough, NJ Difficulty - Absolutely every foot of trail other than the parking lot was covered in either snow, ice or mud.  This took what would have been a moderate hike and made it difficult.  The Alltrails plot we used called it Moderate. The Day: After a speedy breakfast at a bagel place along NJ-31 we had an easy drive to the parking lot for the park.  This 5000 acre park has been on my to-do list for some time and it did not disappoint. The scenery and wilderness feel both surpass what I would expect a few miles from my very industrial and suburban workplace.  When the hike started the snow was all frozen solid and the first mile of the trail was mostly crusty ice.  As the day and hike wore on the snow became gentler and less icy as...

Trail Loop from 50 hikes in New Jersey (Falcon, 2009) Posted by Chris 3/13/18 Basics: Length - ~ 6.9 miles Elevation gain - Minimal Nearest city - Highlands, NJ Difficulty - Conditions (cold, windy) were a little challenging and there was 3/4 of a mile walking on the beach but overall this was an easy hike. The Day: We headed out around 9 am and other than me getting pulled over on NJ-31 (sigh) the trip down was easy on NJ-31, I-78, I-278 and NJ-35.  We grabbed a pre-hike snack at Dunkin' Donuts.  When we arrived at the park it wasn't clear if we would be ok parking where the trail guide suggested since it said 2 hour parking.  Apparently this park is crammed to the max during the summer.  I called the visitors center and they said that parking there should be ok.  It was also very windy and cold at the start of the hike and for the first 1/3 of the miles. Sandy Hook is basically a narrow spit of land with Raritan Bay on one side and th...

Boone trail, Colson trail and Pinnacle Overlook trails Posted by Chris 2/22/18 Basics: Length - 5.6 miles Elevation gain - Estimated total of 800 Nearest city - Middlesboro, KY Difficulty - The Boone and Colson trails were pretty easy other than being muddy.  The trail from the Pinnacle overlook towards Fort McCook was all downhill one way and all uphill on the other. The Day: We weren't sure what we would do today but I was hopeful to make it back to Cumberland Gap which is an interesting area I had driven through when I lived in TN but not since.  So we had a McBreakfast and headed off down US-58 towards the gap.  The first place we stopped was a visitor center off 58 that seemed Daniel Boone focused.  At that point we were really just looking for more information but the weather was amazing, warm and breezy with a nice gentle feeling and there was a trail access there so we decided to dive right in just in case rain or thunder (both possibi...

South Mountains State Park - North Carolina Headquarters trail, Upper Falls trail and others Posted by Chris 2/21/18 Basics: Length - 5 miles Elevation gain - Minimal Nearest city - Morganton, NC Difficulty - Challenging with about 1000 feet of elevation gain.  The Headquarters trail went up non stop the entire 1.9 miles we were on it.  The last trail which led down from the top of the falls was mostly stairs and boulders. The Day: As has happened several times on this trip we had at least a backup plan in the form of an Alltrails map saved for Table Rock.  On the way to the coordinates for that hike we traversed many lovely miles on NC-16 which ran NW out of Charlotte and then when we were on I-40 (only for 25 miles) there were multiple billboards for a visitors center at the exit we were going to be taking anyway (Exit 107) at Morganton and we stopped in to get some more ideas.  The person at the Morganton visitors center had a few ...

Reedy Creek Park - Mecklenburg County Park (Charlotte NC) Various trails Posted by Chris 2/20/18 Basics: Length - We came expecting to follow a guide from alltrails.com but some of the trails used are closed for rehabilitation so our hike ended up being a big grab bag of trail segments totaling 4 miles. Elevation gain - Minimal Nearest city - Charlotte, NC Difficulty - Easy.  These were mostly flat or slightly rambling trails. The Day: We're in Charlotte to visit family so getting a 'qualifying' hike at all is a coup.  We started our day at a really funky bagel shop called Owens Bagels which was great.  The park is probably less than 10 miles from downtown but its a good sized plot of protected land and once we got away from the leaf blower near the entrance it felt convincingly rural.  There are many trails throughout the park and various facilities including a Nature Center, several ponds and Frisbee golf courses.  The stands of tre...

Natural Bridge State Park - VA Cedar Creek Trail and Monacan Trails Posted by Chris 2/20/18 Basics: Length - Cedar Creek Trail was 2 miles in total (trail guide from state doesn't count from the visitors center to the bottom of the stairs) and the Monacan Trail was 3.3 miles Elevation gain - Not stated, maybe 500 feet in total Nearest city - Natural Bridge (Rockbridge County) Difficulty - Moderate.  The Cedar creek trail (which goes under Natural Bridge) is very wide and easy and other than 130 stairs, has few obstacles or challenges.  The Monacan trail had rolling hills and lots of variation in gooting ranging from gravel to muddy. The Day: As you can probably guess from our location in Virginia, we are on a road trip!  This week plus long trip is centered on a Charlotte NC visit of Brian's family but we actually are spending most of our time in Virginia.  Both Brian and I have been to Virginia a few times but I know for me it was either ...