Schoolhouse Trail

Schoolhouse Trail, Montgomery Township (5/15/2016)

This is the first of two areas we visited today in Central New Jersey. It's also one of the oddest. Using this map, we parked near the soccer fields of Montgomery Middle School and then headed south along the paved road into the forest. There are no blazes in this area, but the trail is visible most of the time. We first headed south, crossing the first large bridge, to the one-room schoolhouse from the 1800s. Behind the school is a nature trail. We saw one blaze but not more, nor did we see a clear path so we headed back to the boardwalk. Along the way, interpretive signs for the planets (yes!) are placed along the trail. We continued along the out-and-back north of Black Brook, though couldn't get as far as the map because of overgrowth. We backtracked and then headed east along the path south of the brook, which skims some huge soccer fields before continuing along the back of houses eventually reaching Opposum Road. Here we turned back and returned to the car.

Total distance hiked was 2.5 miles in just over one hour.

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