Wildcat Ridge – 6 miles.

Started at boat launch parking with Bri, Tracy & Bela. (Compost toilet). Walked up road and picked up trail… criss crossed several I don’t remember. Rerouted because of a bear sighting by the Hawk watch people…

NJ Hiking Highlands

8.7 Miles. Basic north Jersey trail, less rocky though. Nice challeging trail, not a lot to look at while hiking, but passed a bat cave, an old cemetary, and a hawk watch and turned around at a resevoir.

Parking: Exit 37 from Route 80 to Green Pond Rd (513), right onto Lower Hibernia Road. Small lot is on left as you turn in, no facilities. There are two gas stations as you get onto 513, the one on the left has bathrooms (and a mountain dew vending machine) and the one on the right appeared closed.

Route: Not far from the lot is a split, take the right up to check out the bat cave then you can backtrack or cut thru to pick up the WHITE trail. (there is also a woods road which is less interesting and more direct). The cemetary is on the right, not right on the trail and we missed it on the way there – saw it on the way back while on the woods road. WHITE follows around and crosses the road then heads southeast.

A junction with yellow would take you to Graffiti Rock but we headed northeast, still on white, to the Hawkwatch area. Several people were counting the hawk migration there, did not see too many though. Continued on WHITE, eventually making it to Split Rock Resevoir. Walked .5 miles over the bridge to the boat launch area where there was a composting toilet. The resevoir is a nice spot to have a break/snack. Went back to WHITE and followed to RED to Beaver Pond, which was not very scenic. Continued RED and ended up at a parking lot. Supposedly there are bathrooms, we did not look for them.

Took the YELLOW connector trail which was barely visible and very very hard to follow, overgrown and was nearly bushwhacking. Ended up at another parking lot and opted for the woods road because it was becoming a long day. Saw the cemetary on the way back, old, overgrown and creepy, graves in the 1800’s. Trails are confusing at spots, we ended up back on WHITE instead of one of the roads.

Trail map can be found here.

NJ Hiking Highlands

287 to 206N to Route 80 at exit 25. Follow International Drive around and bear right at the light. Follow to T-intersection, parking directly ahead. About an hour from Central NJ. Composting toilet (nice, TP and sanitizer). Trail maps. Sussex Trail bike trail is here as well. Most trails in this park are multiuse. Did 6.5 miles.

Follwed Sussex trail up a little bit, then turned left onto WHITE. This is “unmarked”. As well as a RED “unmarked” we saw later on (not on trail map). Followed up and around and picked up YELLOW “Pebble Loop” (not on map either – ?) Followed up and around, steep and rocky. Bikers actually followed us up. When we reached an intersection with the TEAL DIAMOND Highland Trail we took that down a hard-to-follow not used trail. Went down over boulders, looped round then headed back up toward parking lot.

Eventually hit a dirt road, WHITE. Stopped for a snack on a huge boulder conveniently placed next to the trail. As soon as we left another group arrived and did the same thing. Kept on the Highland Trail, crossed the RED and continued up and down. Rather challenging. A few stream crossings on rocks. At the crest of a hill we crossed RED again a dirt road. Then further we ended up on the Sussex Trail with a small waterfall, bench and wide stream crossing on huge flat rocks.

Immediately in a pine forest once crossing the Sussex Trail. Followed the twisting, rocky, rolling path eventually passed several stone walls and ended up at a road in a residential area with a pull out for a few cars, no porta pot. Retraced our steps back to Sussex and followed it back, passing a day camp and lake.

NJ Hiking Highlands Highlands Trail