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Two weeks ago, we hiked the northern-most part of the first leg of this trail which will eventually be
over 40 miles long. Today we returned to hike a bit more.
Using this map,
once again we parked in the lot for the Roland May Eves Mountain Inlet Sanctuary on Northwood Avenue, and headed into the woods using the Lake Hopatcong Connector Trail.
At its end, we turned left and headed south. Almost immediately we heard hunting shots coming from Hudson Farm Club, an exclusive hunting club on the other side of the ridge.
At times we thought that this is how it felt to be on the western front in France during World War I. The volleys seemed endless. There were breaks of a few minutes in
between elongated shooting periods, but the gunfire was nearly constant. As we continued all the way to the northern bank of Bear Pond (not labeled on the official map,
but it's the lake just west of Lakeside Avenue), the sound got louder and louder. It's at Bear Pond where we turned and headed back.
Apparently much of this segment of the trail passes through the private land owned by the hunting club. For that we are, of course, thankful. But I found the contrast in tone of two warning signs on the property a bit surprising. We first passed a New York-New Jersey Trail Conference sign which said:
PRIVATE LAND: The owners have graciously allowed the Highlands Trail to cross their property.
After that truly gracious sign, we came face to face with a Hudson Farms sign which stated:
Thank you for stopping and reading
this sign. By the time you are done reading this sign, every 10 seconds a picture has been taken of you and emailed to the office at the Hudson Farm Club. Thank you and good luck with the trespassing charges. Tearing down this sign will add a vandalism charge. Aside from it being grammatically incorrect, it doesn't quite shout graciously, does it? If you think I'm joking, you can see a photo of the sign in the collection below. The NYNJTC may want to remove the adverb from any future signs they post. Clearly the person who created the sign wasn't having a good day and decided to do nothing to hide that fact. Like last time, the total distance hiked today was 4.2 miles in about two hours and 45 minutes.
(Click on the thumbnail to bring up a bigger image in a pop-up window)
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Photographs and content copyright © Dan Balogh Web design by Dan Balogh |