Road Trips and Hike Reports

Whetstone Gulf State Park North and South trails (as guided by 50 hikes in Central NY ) Posted by Chris 4/28/18 Basics: Length - ~ 5 miles Elevation gain - Estimated at 600 feet Nearest city - Lowville, NY Difficulty - Challenging due to conditions The day: We are on a quick road trip to Ottawa.  After an overnight visit in Syracuse (with a memorably delicious meal at Daniella's Steakhouse ) we squeezed in what turned out to be a VERY difficult hike on the way North.  We got out of Syracuse fairly early and the trip to Whetstone was a very soothing quiet mix of lightly traveled I-81 North and NY-177 East and NY-12 South.  We saw the most gargantuan sprawling wind power site either of us had ever seen near Lowville.  It went on for miles and miles in almost every direction.  It was amazing.  We were also (in a different sense of the word) amazed by how there was still some snow on the ground as we got East of I-81.  At times there were considerable little piles of

South Watchung Mountain Primarily the Lenape trail Posted by Chris 4/22/18 Basics: Length - ~ 7 miles Elevation gain - Estimated at 400 feet Nearest city - Vauxhall, NJ Difficulty - Moderate The day: We got this hike from the Hiking New Jersey book. In the book it's called South Mountain and Rahway River loop. We got a relatively early start and headed out on NJ-31 and then I used US-22 all the way East other than a little side trip to Bagels 4 U in Lamington.  Brian had never been to this bagel place and he really enjoyed his raspberry bagel with raspberry cream cheese. When we got to the trail head (about 11:05 am) it was already overflowing with cars.  Or at least it seemed overflowing the way people were parked in the dirt off the side of the driveway etc. There were even more marginally parked cars all over the place by the time we finished.  There were kind of a lot of people milling around at the trail head but thankfully most of them headed over to th

Millbrook Village and VanCampens Glen Orchard, Hamilton Ridge and Pioneer trails  Posted by Chris 4/14/18 Basics: Length - 6.7 miles Elevation gain - Estimated at 700 feet Nearest city - Blairstown, NJ Difficulty - Moderate The day: The weather swung dramatically from cold to warm yesterday and today.  We went from snow flurries earlier this week to above 80 today.  Tomorrow will be much colder but let's just remember today? The hike came from the Hiking New Jersey book which may not be in print any longer.  Despite living very close to the Water Gap we have very effectively ignored the hiking and trails in the Gap until now.  We made One attempt at a hike a few weeks ago off the same road (Old Mine Road) but it was snowy and our resolve wasn't as deep as the snow so we bailed.  Today we went further up Mine Road until the split with Millbrook-Blairstown road and parked at the Millbrook village lot.  An early start meant there was almost no traffic and ju

Perimeter Trail Posted by Chris 4/8/18 Basics: Length -5.1 miles Elevation gain - <150 feet Nearest city -Howell? Difficulty - Low The day: A basic walk around a body of water.  Pluses were the side ponds which are protected wildlife areas that had some geese and swans and the general peaceful feeling of the hike.  The wildlife blind was a nice touch.  We had good drama free drives both ways.  Down by NJ-31 through Trenton and onto I-195 for most of the way.  Came home via US-9 and NJ-18, a few miles on I-287 North and then US-22 West to NJ-31 at Clinton.  It was kind of a long drive for a somewhat mundane hike but we're more willing to do these types of trips this time of year than at high season.  Lunch at Stewarts Root Beer stand near the park was similarly anti climactic. Pics by Brian.

Yellow Trail LoopHighland Cut and Patriots Path Trails ( alltrails alltrails.com plot ) Posted by Chris 4/1/18 Basics: Length -3.2 miles Elevation gain - ~660 feet Nearest city - Long Valley, NJ Difficulty - Moderate The Day: I wasn't impressed with Budd Lake Bagels the first time I went many months ago but today was Easter and I didn't want to waste time driving past what might have been the only open bagel shop in Hackettstown so we stopped at Budd Lake.  It was a better experience than last time but the interior of the restaurant was still a little smokey. I'd been to the same trail head before but I did an out and back along what seemed to be the most popular trails up the hill and along the ridge.  Today's hike went all the way to the top of the hill and then followed the very lightly trafficked red trail along the top of the hill.  Later we ended up paralleling a beautiful creek and even a rolling waterfall below a dam.  The hike may have b