2018 - Hike 15 - April 22nd - South Watchung Mountain
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 the flat trail along the river whereas our trail guide sent us out the other end of the lot and up the Lenape trail. Most of the hike was on the Yellow blazed Lenape trail with a few of the last miles on the white blazed trail that hugs the river.
We both enjoyed this trail and I was tickled that it didn't FEEL like there were a zillion people around even though there were people all over compared to a typical hike we would choose. Most people seemed to be walking the broad paved roads but our guide had us on the yellow blazed trail most of the way.
Pics mostly from Brian. There was a series of little doll or elf houses of some sort along what for us was the last mile of the hike. The big building pictured was apparently a brick making factory complete with a water connection to the dammed up river. There wasn't a lot of color and the few water features had a lot of people at them so there aren't as many photos as their might otherwise have been.
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 the flat trail along the river whereas our trail guide sent us out the other end of the lot and up the Lenape trail. Most of the hike was on the Yellow blazed Lenape trail with a few of the last miles on the white blazed trail that hugs the river.
We both enjoyed this trail and I was tickled that it didn't FEEL like there were a zillion people around even though there were people all over compared to a typical hike we would choose. Most people seemed to be walking the broad paved roads but our guide had us on the yellow blazed trail most of the way.
Pics mostly from Brian. There was a series of little doll or elf houses of some sort along what for us was the last mile of the hike. The big building pictured was apparently a brick making factory complete with a water connection to the dammed up river. There wasn't a lot of color and the few water features had a lot of people at them so there aren't as many photos as their might otherwise have been.
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