Sterling Forest, Allis to AT out and back, 8.7 miles, 4.5 hours. Mid 80s, cloudy then sunny and humid/hazy.
Wouldn’t recommend this route, traffic noise at parts, trail wasn’t bad, a little overgrown and grassy, just not very scenic. We wanted to get some basic miles in to train for a trip so it met its purpose, but wouldn’t go again. Anyway here’s the info:
From central Jersey: Parkway North, 87 N, 17N to 17A west. Parked at P8 on the NYNJTC Sterling Forest map (#100). Pass the Renaissance Fair, P8 hikers parking on the left, well marked and large; with PortaPotty.
Walk back out the driveway and cross the road to the beginning of the Allis Trail (Blue; co-aligned with Highlands Trail). For the first mile to 1.25 mile the trail is parallel to 17A – and is audible. Trail then veers west slightly away from road.
Then crosses a large utility cut. The blue marker should indicate to go right but doesn’t, and the utility cut must have taken down marked trees because it is TOTALLY not obvious where to go.
Different hike in the same park details on our main Sterling Forest page.
We wandered off to the right checking for a trail and found a woods road marked with pink tape. Then kept going and finally on the other side of the cut, near the road, was a Blue blaze. Climbed up the big hill and went some more and finally found the Blue marker and trail.
Little later, crosses a power line cut where on the way back we saw 3 guys with dirt bikes. Continues, just before the junction with the AT there are two viewpoints but it was sunny and hot and hazy so we didn’t linger.
The Blue ends at the AT while the AT continues with Highland toward the east. We chose to go North on the AT. Basic AT trail, not as overgrown.
A little while later we climbed up a bit of a rocky hill and encountered a guy with his unleashed Rotweiler who was nice. Talked to him for a bit before decided to head back as the next part of the trail was steep downhill to a road, didn’t see much point in continuing.
Was going to have our snack bar when we got to the AT-Blue junction but just as we got there a unleashed Lab was blocking our path and barking and growling like it wanted to eat us.
FINALLY the owner got it to come to her, but it proceeded to pull and gnash at us as we tried to squeak by it on the trail and continued to freak out even after we were out of sight.
Perplexing that people with uncontrollable aggressive animals feel that they can be off leash. We found a rock later to have our snack, the sun was staying out now and it was humid.
Tried a diff way home; 17 thru Ramsey. The first Wendy’s was N and annoying as the drive-thru dumped you onto the highway. There was a nicer one later to try next time. Saved us some tolls and maybe some time with this route.
Wildlife spotted: 1 Deer, 5 Turkeys, 2 Garter snakes, 3 Black Snakes – never run into that many snakes on one trail before.