Detailed hike info and directions on our Wharton State Forest: Batsto White Trail page.

Opted for a hike in the Pine Barrens, somewhere with little snow left on the ground and some green on the trees. Temperatures were around 25 degrees but it really wasn’t that bad once you got moving.

4.1 miles + about a mile walking around the Village - Easy terrain. Mostly level, packed dirt and some softer sand (frozen solid today), occasional roots, very minimal elevation change. There was some hard-packed snow/ice on the trail, about 40% of the route, in patches.

Route: White Trail, from the back end of the visitor center parking lot. Trails are well marked and very easy to follow, pick up a detailed trail map at the kiosk outside the visitor center. There are other routes here of varying length, including the Batona Trail. Read more…

NJ Hiking Pine Barrens Easy Hike, Historical, South NJ, Winter Hike

Lots of snow so far this winter, so we’ve been doing some short snowy hikes, which I’ve put in this one post.

12/31/10 – On New Year’s Eve we did a short hike at the Delaware & Raritan Canal State Park, starting at Rocky Hill and headed south. The towpath is very flat and great for snowshoe and cross-country, but the path was worn enough to get by with nothing, although I opted for a little traction help from YakTrax.

The snow got deeper the further we went, as people hadn’t gone that far. Without snowshoes, it was getting too difficult so we turned around.

1/1/11 – We always take a hike on New Year’s Day, it’s such a great way to start the new year. We needed a hike that was nearby as we had something to do that night… so off to Cheesequake State Park we went… Read more…

NJ Hiking NJ General Winter Hike

Complete hike details, photos, and video on our Merrill Creek Reservoir page.

We didn’t have time for a long or far away hike this weekend so we decided to try out Merrill Creek Reservoir in Washington, NJ. It’s about 50-60 minutes from central NJ (New Brunswich-ish area). It’s a nice park with easy hiking, well marked trails, and a very nice visitor center. There are some ruins of farm buildings along the trails near the visitor center.

Directions: 287 to 78W to exit 4, then meander through back roads… Get the detailed directions on the Merrill Creek site. Also, there is a trail map there.

6.7 miles. Trail surface is mostly easy, with some rocks/roots in areas. The end of the loop we did was very flat – mostly level dirt or gravel.

You could make the hike .9 miles longer if you added on the orange trail loop, and perhaps added a bit more if you overlapped some trail portions around the visitor center… but otherwise, that’s all the trail here.

ROUTE: RED – BLUE – YELLOW – BLACK.  We started from behind the visitor center and took trails that hugged the reservoir, then picked up the Perimeter Trail (BLACK). The trails are very well marked, and at intersections there were plaques with “you are here” maps.

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NJ Hiking NJ General Central NJ, Easy Hike

Decided to head over to Harriman on a gorgeous nice day (mid 60′s, partly sunny in November!). Just picked a parking area and slapped together a route on the drive up; Harriman is great for that. This route include Tom Jones Mountain, Parker Cabin Mountain, Claudius Smith Den, Sebago Lake and Skenonta Lake.

8.4 miles. Moderate-difficult with some steep rocky ups/downs along Ramapo-Dunderberg. Nice views along this section. After Claudius Smith Den the trail is more even, with an easy woods road near Lake Skenonta.

Map: #118 of the Harriman Trails map set is highly recommended – there is such an extensive network of trails in Harriman that you really should have the Trail Conference map with you. Note: many of the trails here use shapes as well as colors: WHITE BAR, a RED DOT on WHITE, a BLUE V, etc. The trail colors are listed on the map, but just as RED or BLUE. The trails themselves are well marked, but you do need to pay attention at intersections because there can be multiple routes to chose from.

The associated guidebook, Harriman Trails: A Guide and History, is also very useful in determining trail distances when putting routes together. Each trail in the park is listed in GREAT detail.

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NJ Hiking Harriman/Bear Mtn Moderate, Viewpoint

Complete hike details, photos, and video on our Best Hikes in NJ: Apshawa Preserve page.

We’d been saving this park for a Saturday during hunting season (no-hunting here). A longish route can’t really be done, but the trails are typical Jersey Highlands (up-n-down-up-n-down) so they give you a workout anyway. Really enjoyed the trails at this park in West Milford, very pretty… overlooks, Butler Reservoir, waterfalls.

Directions and a park map can be found here. There were no paper maps in the kiosk, and no bathroom. (gas stations on Rt 23 best bet).

About 6.4 miles. We did a loop around the perimeter of the park, so we missed a few interior sections of trail. We also took the WHITE trail out beyond the Preserve, until we ran out of markers, then backtracked….

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NJ Hiking Highlands