Last month my friends Daniela and Shawnee found this brand new gem
in Hunterdon County near Frenchtown. Currently there are at least seven miles worth of trails with plans to blaze more in adjacent tracts of land. Today we
followed Daniela's track, except we skipped the out-and-back along the trail currently under construction, which was apparently still littered with blow-downs.
Using this map we parked at the southern parking lot and headed west to the stream taking the trail along the stream north until we reached the White trail which we took east to the 0.3 mile mark where we crossed the stream and continued north along Orange. This segment is a bit confusing because there are no blazes and at times (if the farmer's dogs are out in the yard barking their heads off, like today) you feel as if you are trespassing. Just stay outside the fence of the farm and all is well. You may even get a group of goats following you from the other side of the fence, and pass a horse and a pig so busy eating he doesn't even notice you at all. We continued following the path around the perimeter of the field. The map actually shows an Orange path here between mile markers 0.3 and 1.2 but there are no orange blazes nor mile markers on the actual path and the path isn't even mowed in the segment between 0.4 and 0.5. Just stay to the left of the fence and road and you're on the path. At about 1.2 the orange blazes once again begin, and the mile markers, so you will know exactly where you are. We continued on Orange until the end, at the park road (just after 2.6). Then we continued on White west, then north, making a sharp left to skirt another field on an unblazed trail back south all the way back to the car (the map shows two loops unconnected but they actually are connected). Our track is highlighted in yellow here. Total distance hiked today was 4.2 miles in just over 2.5 hours.
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Trailhead |
Heading west... |
...and down |
Our return path |
Green stink bug |
Photographing the stream |
Fiddlehead fern |
|
Eastern Towhee |
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Stream parallels... |
...the trail |
Muddy in parts |
White mile marker |
A very wet White |
Wildflowers |
Wildflowers along bank |
|
Crossing Burke's Run |
On Orange north of the run |
Very interesting stream bed |
Climbing on Orange |
|
|
Horse on farm |
Pig on farm |
Trail skirts the property fence |
Pig oblivious to us |
Tree Swallow staring contest |
View south from top |
Heading east past... |
...hunting blind? |
Farmer's goats |
Tree Swallow |
The goats follow Laura |
View to hills west |
View to farms north |
|
American Kestrel |
Mockingbird |
Hills and barn north |
Hills north |
Descending back into woods |
View to powerline cut north |
Hovering Kestrel |
View to... |
...houses north |
Old fence post |
Steep descent... |
...on slippery slate |
Descending to... |
...Burke's Run |
Laura crossing Burke's Run |
Moth |
Orange mile marker |
Crossing shallow stream |
A critter track |
Shallow stream on slate |
Overhead |
Continuing east on Orange |
Fence lines the trail |
Inviting path |
New bridge |
And a nice... |
...new boardwalk |
Wildflowers |
An elusive cardinal |
|
Hunting blind |
Another shorter boardwalk |
|
Heading west on Orange |
Kiosk on park road |
Large white blazes |
On White before stables |
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Open fields west |
|
|
Heading south |
Kiosk... |
...back at car |
Brown-headed Cowbird |
View from parking area north |
Photographs and content copyright © Dan Balogh Web design by Dan Balogh |