Detailed hike info and directions on our Woods of Wenonah page.

We decided to check out this small park as part of our South Jersey Sampler – we were in the area for some post-holiday gatherings, so we had hiked Estelle Manor the day before, spent the night in Williamstown, and hit Wenonah on the way to the Turnpike.

The Woods of Wenonah is a U-shaped wooded area that surrounds the town of Wenonah. It has several short trails, with access paths that lead off into neighborhoods. It’s not remote by any means, as houses are visible along most of the route. It’s a nice little park though, and we felt the Comey’s Lake area was the prettiest part. Read more…

NJ Hiking NJ General Moderate, South NJ

Detailed hike info on our Hartshorne Woods page.

We took a little time off around the holidays so of course we needed to get some hikes in. Since it was a weekday we wanted a park that was no-hunting (though it is closed a few days in December) plus we didn’t feel like driving far so we decided to hit up Hartshorne Woods Park in Middletown.

It was also forecast to be very cold (like in the mid-30s brr) so we wanted a park we could bail on if we had enough. Of course, the forecast for the next day changed from rain to the 50s as we were heading out the door. Ah, well.

We knew it was a long time since we’d been to this park, but until I couldn’t find an entry in our Trail Blog (which goes back to 2006) I didn’t realize how long. I had to root through our photos to discover we’d last been in 2003. Yikes.

It’s a very nice park but we had found the multi-use trails a nuisance – not that the bike riders were anything but polite – we just prefer to hike without the possibility of a bike whizzing ’round the corner, so we had put the park on a back burner. Even on a chilly Thursday we saw a handful of bike riders, so imagine on a warm weekend. Read more…

NJ Hiking NJ General Central NJ, Historical, Moderate, Viewpoint

Complete hike details found on the South Mountain Reservation page.

With mild weather in the forecast for Jersey – in the mid-50′s in December! – we had to go hiking. Sometimes, you just need to ditch things and go for a hike.

Our compromise was heading to a park under an hour away, where we could get a moderate hike in while leaving the rest of the afternoon open to attempt to be mildly productive. We’d been saving South Mountain Reservation for just such a situation.

This park is similar to Watchung Reservation and northern Jersey terrain, moderate, somewhat rocky trails. It’s also surrounded closely by development and has some traffic noise so it does not have the remote feeling that many of northwestern NJ’s trails do. It is unfortunately marred by graffiti on some rocks near streams as well as around Hemlock Falls.

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NJ Hiking NJ General Essex, Historical, Moderate, Waterfall

Complete hike details found on the Jenny Jump Trail page.

When we were last at Jenny Jump we nearly got carted off by swarms of mosquitoes. So when a windy Saturday was forecasted we thought it would be a prime time to go back and check out the Jenny Jump Trail (even a gentle breeze usually thwarts mosquitoes).

Not sure how long this trail has been around or if it’s technically ‘open’ quite yet, but it was well blazed and even had nice “you are here” map plaques throughout the trail. There were a lot of thorns crossing the path… so wear long pants unless you’d like to rival my impressive collection of calf scratches (I need to accept that the weather is changing and I should retire my fave hiking knee pants until spring)

The first view on the map isn’t much, but the second is a very nice view of the Delaware Water Gap. If you’ve ever hiked to the summit of either Mt. Minsi or Mt. Tammany you can see where you were. To this viewpoint and back would make a nice easy 3.4 mile roundtrip hike. Read more…

NJ Hiking NJ General Moderate, Viewpoint

I’d read that Cheesequake State Park had taken a decent hit from Irene. So after spending our prior weekend getting our basement back in order, and spending the weekend before that bailing it out by hand when the power was out for days… it was time to get out for a quick hike.

There were lots of down trees visible throughout, but the park staff had already done a terrific job cleaning up the trails. In fact, it looked like many had been raked clear because there was so much debris that the trail would be hard to follow otherwise.

One large section of boardwalk was totally moved to the side, but the area itself wasn’t wet (it usually is). And other areas that are soggy on a good day, were no problem to pass. A lot of sand had been washed into these areas, and it had the effect of actually making the areas easier to cross. We had expected to see flooded areas and destroyed boardwalks/bridges, but even the normally wet areas around Hooks Creek Lake were fine.

5-ish miles, roughly… we didn’t take the GPS as we’ve been there soooo many times.

Route: YELLOW – walk around Hooks Creek Lake (not blazed) – walk across beach/playground to crabbing bridge -  Perrine Road (a dirt woods road) – BLUE around Perrine Pond – BLUE/Perrine Road – RIGHT on GREEN – GREEN back to lot

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NJ Hiking NJ General Easy Hike