Mahlon Dickerson Pine Swamp

Pine Swamp, Mahlon Dickerson Reservation (4/27/2013)

We have hiked in this beautiful area at least twice in the past, the most recent time being September, 2009. But we have always focused on the southern and central parts of the park, never getting much further north than Morris County's vista-less high point. Today we decided to head back and cover the majority of trails in the northern part by following Hike #20 ("Mahlon Dickerson Reservation") in the book 50 Hikes in New Jersey (3rd Edition).

Something I noticed almost immediately was that there are many new trails blazed in this part of the park, trails that are not mentioned in the book nor which appear on the 2011 edition of the New York-New Jersey Trail Map #126 (Jersey Highlands Trails Central North Region). Ironically, they do appear on the new official park map, a surprise since the reverse is usually true with the government being years behind. Wanting to explore a bit, we did take part of the newly-blazed Purple trail which leads to a nice view over the roofs of the Jefferson Middle and High Schools. We also added an extra spur to Headley Overlook, something the book suggests to those who still have energy after the hike described.

Total distance hiked today was about 5.7 miles in just under 3 hours.

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