Sutfin Woods Horse Trails



Sutfin Woods Horse Trails, Monmouth Battlefield State Park (6/17/2018)

Three months ago we hiked most of the trails here north of Englishtown Road. Today we returned to hike the Sutfin Woods Horse Trails south of that road, and west of Parsonage Farm, a small network disconnected from most of the rest of the area. Today a re-enactment of the Battle of Monmouth was taking place, something that we didn't know until we arrived, and though we didn't see any of it, we heard the gunshots during most of our short jaunt today.

Like last time, using the map on the second page of this brochure, we parked in the gravel lot south of Sutfin Farm (enough room for about ten cars), and began by crossing Englishtown Road and heading south to the green-dashed path shown on the map (it should be noted that none of the trails are color blazed in this area, though wands appear in many places). We first did the yellow dashed trail loop north of the railroad, and then continued on the green dashed trail west, following the outermost part, passing a small pond before finally heading back to the yellow dashed trail near the railroad. Our intent was to then hike that loop, but the path was so overgrown that we couldn't continue beyond a certain point on the northern leg of that loop. We had to retrace our steps and then attempted to do the rest from the other entrance from green, but that part was even more overgrown. This isn't the most entertaining hike in the area. There are no informative signs, no views, but if you want solitude, you won't meet another soul. And that's why the trails here are so overgrown. Apprently even the horses don't use the horse trails! Oh! And I pulled at least seven ticks off of me, five wood ticks and two deer ticks. So beware of the high grass.

Total distance hiked today was 3.6 miles in just over 2 hours and 20 minutes.

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