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 follow. I won't go

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 we gained altitude.  Th

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 the Atlantic Ocean