Jersey Perimeter End!!!

hey everyone!
I just wanted to reach out and give some details regarding the FINAL JERSEY PERIMETER HIKE!!! This is coming up fast, Sunday November 8th! Further, this Sunday we have Centralia PA, and Nov 1 is the annual Halloween Hike at Sleepy Hollow NY. Details on the meetup group. But for now...
THIS IS IT!!! LAST JERSEY PERIMETER HIKE!!!!
Join us for our biggest, most significant event to date! This hike will be my last in the Perimeter of NJ Series, making me the first person to ever have hiked the entire perimeter of the Garden State!

This has been a fantastic journey of over 1,300 miles from the mountains of the northern perimeter, along countless miles of the Delaware River, bay estuaries, beaches, and urban environs!
The final leg will be between Roebling and Trenton. We will all meet at a state lot in Trenton, near the historic Trent House Museum, the lot with the State Police shanty in the middle of it, across from the Superior Court building. These are the GPS coordinates:
NJ40.212196, -74.764059
I am going to do this entire hike in a suit and tie, and I'm hoping to get many others in the group to "dress up" for this one in the true eccentric Metrotrails style!!!

To get to the starting point, we will walk a half mile from the parking lot where I have secured permission through state police to park, and walk a half mile to the Trenton Hamilton Light Rail station on the River Line. We will take the 8:46 train to Roebling. I posted the meeting time early so that everyone will have the opportunity to buy tickets. They are only $1.50 regular price and less for Seniors.
We should all be able to squeeze onto the river line train.
If things are crowded, you have the option of shuttling to Roebing, OR you can simply meet the group in Roebling at the train station at 9. Just note that there is limited parking at the Roebling Station.

Unlike others, this time I will give extreme details on exactly where we will be going in case anyone needs to intercept.
We will start by walking from the station across the tracks and loop around the development including Peace Street and Amboy Ave. We will turn left on Hornberger Ave and head south to Rt 130 (0.75 mile).
This will by far be the worst section of this hike because we'll have to follow the edge of the highway for a bit. We will keep to the left, and cut off to the side to follow the edge of a cemetery for a bit. We'll follow the road past a motel which may have a view behind it.
We may also step of the road briefly for a side trip on an abandoned road.
We will turn left onto Burlington Road, rt 662 at a fork (about 3 miles in).

Our next point of interest is Fieldsboro, where we'll pass the White Hill Mansion built in 1723. The home played a part in the American Revolution and was visited by famous commanders.
Through Fieldsboro, we will have to try to follow the edges of the streets as best we can. We'll try to get close to the mansion and continue onward closer to the Delaware. We'll likely have to take Union Street to 4th Street out of the village, which becomes Burlington Ave. We can't stay closer to the due to a juvenile detention center. HOWEVER, there will be a bit of a woods section on state land we can hike, an old woods road which in one bit is a little overgrown. Other than that it's okay. We enter the woods at about mile 4.34

After passing beneath Rt 295 at 5.19 miles, we reach Bordentown. From here, the hike gets far more interesting. We'll try to follow the back streets as best we can, and head along the Delaware near the confluence with Crosswicks Creek. Bordentown is a more walkable, historic town.
We will head down hill and reach the Lime Kiln Trail, another nice little pocket park in Bordentown at mile 5.7. A small loop in Bordentown around the boat launch area and Delaware River Memorial Trail along the river brings mileage up to 6.75. At about seven miles we get on the D&R Canal Trail to head across Crosswicks Creek on the rail bridge.

We will make our way to the Delaware and Raritan Canal Trail, which crosses Crosswick's Creek on the railroad bridge. It's a really neat, scenic spot. The first bit of this section will have a couple of little side trips as well, because there are out and backs and the overlook off of the highway we will try to get to.

From here, we head north. The trail turns left immediately after crossing the bridge, then heads over to the former site of D&R Canal Lock #1. We'll turn to the north on the trail, but may take time to explore parallel side trails. One of these WILL take us to the foot bridge over 295 and scenic overlook. We will take this as an out and back, which will be worth it.


Next, we return to the D&R Canal towpath, more undeveloped in this section than the sections to the north that most people are familiar with, and continue to follow it until we are parallel with Lamberton Road.
We reach the towpath again at about mile 8.25.

There is a side path to the left off of the towpath. We will take this and follow it out briefly to Lamberton Road. We will turn right on the road and follow it. The road takes a hard bend to the left, reaches closer to the Delaware River, then turns right, paralleling it.
We pass under Rt 295 again at mile 9.78. We leave the towpath and follow the road at mile 10.19.

We will be able to get closer to the Delaware again after a short while, as there is a trail close to the edge. The trail will go up a ramp, then take us on top of the tunnel that carries the highway beneath!
That is mile 12.1.

We'll continue as close as we can on the waterfront heading north, and we'll reach Waterfront Park South. There are more great views all along the river here, and we should have no problem at all wandering by. We pretty much just stay along the river northbound until we get to where we left off before at Old Warf. We reach Old Warf at about mile 13.5.

From here, it's not legal to follow the edge of the perimeter because of the Superhighways, and we've already done that bit before. The only thing that remains is to walk past the Trent House on the roads, then head directly up to the back of the State Capital Complex.
We will pass right by our cars it we want to put things away or something. It's only a short walk from here to the back of the Capital complex. We will arrive at the capital just shy of fifteen miles (the walk back to the car will be 15).

We will pass the historic Trent House pictured above, then have to cross the parking lots near where we are parked. It is only a short distance under the highway and onto the steps that lead to the fountain and walkway behind the capital building.

We'll take a few photos here, and slowly make our way over to the front of the building where there may be press, not sure exactly what is going to go on at this point.
I have secured permission to use the capital steps within a wide time window and have a permit for this huge group. I am anticipating over 100 people may attend this particular hike.

We have had a lot of media coverage for this hike in the past, and so there may be a lot of that again at this point.
If anyone is able to help me with leadership responsibilities on this one I would appreciate it. It's going to be hard to keep everyone together. Please look over the route ahead of time and be ready for all of the turns!!!

Here is the link to the video from Fox's Chasing News (note wrong date on that):
Have your suit or dress ready and join us for this momentous occasion!!!



NOTE: Those wishing to do an abbreviated version of this hike can join a bit late at the Bordentown Station. Otherwise, you will have to arrange to meet us on the perimeter on your own. Utilize the above description to intercept.
I hope to do a group photo in Bordentown.
Here is a link to the Chasing News broadcast of the hike:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4xKpHSqBVM
Here is a link to the NJ.com interview on the series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgYRsTja6LU
Also, Steve from Driving Jersey on PBS plans to come along and film! Here is a link to the last episode we were on with Driving Jersey:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFm9drWGB2w
If you can come, please do! This is an historic event, and I would love for as many people to attend as possible. I'd really like to have the highest attendance ever on any of my events for this one.
Also, I will be on "Jersey Matters" on METV, WJLP NY and another for Philadelphia area. Stay tuned to the Metrotrails facebook page for updates on that. Video will be shared when it appears on youtube.
Hope to see you all soon!

M'ke Helbing
Metrotrails

Coming Up: End of the Perimeter Hikes and More!!!

Everyone,
We are fast closing in on the end of our Perimeter of NJ series!!
I know many of you are rejoicing in this, because you're sick of all the lower Delaware/Delaware bay stuff, but it's been a really great experience for me. I know some of you will miss going down to that portion of the state. Rest easy, we will return there, but for better hikes without the stipulation that they be on the perimeter, focusing on different points of interest.
The three remaining Jersey Perimeter hikes will be as follows:
9/27: Great Bay Blvd/Tuckerton NJ area missing pieces. This is pleasant road walking and some trails too in the famous maritime town.
10/11: Forked River to Waretown. We already hiked point to point here, but we followed the old railroad bed, Barnegat Branch. We can do an almost entirely different hike closer to the perimeter in this area, and I've been more diligent about that everywhere else throughout the state. I've been sitting on this hike for a while, so we'll finish this one.
11/8: The last one, Roebling to Trenton.
The final hike will meet near the Trent House, in the state lot with state police shanty in the middle.

Amazingly, we had very little trouble securing permits. We are permitted to park in the otherwise closed to public portion of the lot with the blessing of NJ State Police, who were absolutely outstanding and among the the nicest we've dealt with for arrangements.
The also gave us permit to congregate right on the steps of the state house with a hundred or so people that show up as well as press. I owe them a debt of thanks for helping me so much with this endeavor.
Once we arrive, an early meeting time of 8:15 has been posted so that we can all get to the station to get tickets, we will take the train south to Roebling and walk back. The first part of the hike may be a little crummy because we have to walk Rt 130 a few miles. From there though, it should be very very interesting.
As an extra treat, my grandfather Eldon Allen, who started me hiking at the age of three, and who still works six and a half days a week as a licensed land surveyor over the age of 80, will be doing this hike with us!!! He can still out hike probably a lot of people less than a quarter his age!
I am still working out further details for the final hike, so expect more notifications with further details as the time nears. The hike is posted on meetup here:
http://www.meetup.com/Metrotrails/events/225388707/
And on facebook here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/986758328043235/
Hope everyone can make it!!!

And for some more interesting happy stuff....
This has been a really fun Summer. I wish we'd have done more mountains and such, but the perimeter thing changed priorities a bit more. I assure everyone that next year will be even greater, and this one wasn't bad!
Among other things, this year marked ten years of the Metrotrails March on Musikfest!
The March on Musikfest was something I started doing in 2005. I of course love doing hikes ending at the famous event, and every year we've managed to do totally different hikes all ending at the event. We still have more trails we've never done that will last us many more years.
In 2005, only two showed up for the hike on the 100 degree day. I was surprised that it didn't generate more interest, but that was what it was sometimes like in those earlier days. By 2006, we had it right.
The first hike was simply Lehigh Canal from Easton to Bethlehem where the festival was happening. In 2006 we took Nor Bath Trail from Northampton to Bath, then south on the former LNE Railroad to Bethlehem. But that wasn't enough. We did another one in 06 on more LNE lines as well as the Lehigh Canal.
In 2007, we had established that the Musikfest hikes were like a big party. Everyone wanted in. It was a guaranteed fun time. That year, we covered the Lehigh Canal similarly to the first one, only starting in Northampton and ending at Musikfest. It was also the first time we tired a night hike into Musikfest. We had a fantastic time and sneaked into a Moody Blues concert...then got kicked out!
In 2008, we went crazy with it and had two hikes, each Sunday of Musikfest. We did one starting in Allentown, then taking some of the canal and such back to the festival. The following week, we put the focus on South Mountain for the first time, an area we still have yet to completely cover.
The addition of Laura Cunningham, Bethlehem Native, to the group helped a lot because we got to see places we didn't know existed. Mr. Buckett moved to Bethlehem and we had legendary tailgating parties under the Hill to Hill Bridge in his party van.
2009 was a major party year, with Buckettcue the same time as Musikfest, concerts we attended, and the hike included more of South Mountain. I did night hikes in the region of Musikfest just so that we could attend it later if we so wished.
August 2010 almost did not happen; fire had destroyed my house just over a week before and nearly claimed my life. I  had just got out of the hospital, having been in intensive care for a full week. I wasn't supposed to walk or strain myself, but I had already missed one week of hiking and couldn't bare any more. We repeated the Lehigh Canal from Northampton to Bethlehem. It was extremely hard for me, but I made it (and had a 103 fever the next day).
In 2011, we did even more south side stuff. I can't get enough of that side of the river because there's just so much, and most outdoors groups focus nothing on the area. The Saucon area and beyond has a lot to see.
Such was the case with 2012. We found even more up there. We were able to visit some favorite spots with overlooks but also cover mostly new ground.
In 2013, we visited the Little Lehigh Greenway, then took to the south side to reach South Bethlehem.
This proved that there was still a huge amount to see when it came to the marches on Musikfest, things we'd never even covered in the least bit.
More craziness ensued when we approached Bethlehem from the south, crazy difficult South Mountain stuff in 2014.
In addition to the regular day hike, the night hikes got even more popular than ever. I repeated the Lehigh Canal from Easton to Washington with a good sized group.
This year, we returned to Little Lehigh Greenway, using the opposite side trails we did on the previous one, which also went very well.

We also did yet another successful Lehigh Canal night hike.

There's no sign of running out of locations to explore for the next few years on this one.
Thanks to everyone who's continued to come out and make it such a fun time year after year!
Now....let's make the final Jersey Perimeter one something special.
PS-- also look out for great hikes coming up at Ricketts Glen and the annual Halloween Hike at Sleepy Hollow NY again!

-M'ke

Metrotrails June/July 2015

Hey all!
Things are going really great with all of the hikes, and we have some more good stuff coming up too!
Coming up this Sunday we have a really great local hike that I think everyone will enjoy in Hunterdon County.
Note that this meetup is FREE, however, the event will say $25 on it. This is not necessary to attend the hike, but a donation of that amount will get you a tee shirt and free lunch, which is pretty substantial amount of hot dogs, burgers, and more, as well as drinks, and a tee shirt.
The walk we are doing for the fundraiser as part of the hike is to benefit Common Sense for Animals in Warren County.
In addition to this, the hike will showcase other trails including the Highlands Trail, which was completed across Hunterdon County five years ago, meeting it's goal of connecting the Hudson and Delaware Rivers.
We will also honor the Columbia Trail, which is this year celebrating it's 20th anniversary as a trail. Then, we'll celebrate the five year anniversary of the completion of the Taylor Steelworkers Historic Greenway in High Bridge as well as the Riverfield Preserve. Metrotrails has been involved with the development of three of these four trails, and I used to maintain the Columbia Trail through my former job.
The hike will have many historic sites and some swimming spots, so please do come join us!
Here's what else is coming up:
7/2: Hackettstown area night hike on Morris Canal and more
7/5: Ringwood area loop hike with views and more! More difficult terrain
7/8: Rieglesville/Carpentersville/Phillipsburg area night hike
7/12: Bay Point inland on Delaware Bay, NOW WITH CRUISE! This hike will now begin with an outstanding cruise around the Delaware Bay out of a nearby marina. There will be a small fee for the boat ride at the beginning, and the boat will drop us off at the start of our hike! More details to come.
7/19: Catskill Mountain Railroad train ride and hike! More details to come, but we're going to show Ulster County how excursion lines and hikers can work together for a better future.
7/26: Stow Neck to Alloway Creek; the last full day hike remaining on Delaware Bay. The rest are segments in that area! This is quite a milestone!
Note ahead of time, Sunday November 8th will be the LAST hike in the Jersey Perimeter series! Hope everyone can attend what is sure to be one of the largest events we've ever had!

Talk to you soon!

M'ke H

Metrotrails May 2015

Hello everyone!

Just returned from backpacking vacation, and we have a lot of awesome stuff coming up to share! The hikes have been going great and we're about to kick into high gear with trail work again hopefully soon!
You'll start seeing some trail work days posted again in the very near future as soon as we have good direction regarding what needs to be done. All of the same projects we'd been working on are still open, but had stagnated until decisions could be made on different gov't levels.
We'll also be revisiting some of the trails we've developed as part of night hikes and such to figure out what projects we need to work on next.
If anyone knows of any scout troops or other volunteer groups looking for projects in the Warren County area, I have several good projects ready to be taken on. Projects like signs and waymarkers are beyond what we have been doing to initially open the trails, and are great, sustainable projects for such groups.
The hikes have been very interesting with a lot to see and experience. Thanks to the 3 Guys and a Beer'd Brewery in Lackawanna County for giving us an impromptu tour during our last group hike! We just never know what we are going to find on these trips!

Our main project has still been as of late to complete the NJ Perimeter series. We are nearing that goal more all of the time. There are only four more full day hikes remaining in this series, one almost full day (this Sunday), and several more segments. We've found so many interesting things in these southern bay areas, including the old Bay Side railroad pier, still somewhat extant and pictured above from our last perimeter hike. There are two more full hikes and three partial sections remaining on the Delaware Bay side. On the partial ones, we'll do the couple of mile segments we are missing and then the rest of the trip will be non perimeter interesting stuff I've wanted to see. We've been getting some of these out of the way already, and they've been really fun.

Next up, this Sunday we will be covering a bit of the perimeter from Gandy's Beach area. Included are the Delaware Bay areas known as Gandy's Beach, Money Island, and Dyer Cove. We'll start off with some back road and beach walking on the bay, then much of the rest of the hike will be easy back road walking along the estuaries with lots of views.
Good news! I spoke with the Mayor of Downe Township who would like to come out and meet with us, and we'll likely have some media and an interview for local periodicals at the start of this hike!
We'll wander into the town of Newport to connect with what we've done before and retrace some steps, then head east to Glades Wildlife Refuge. There is bonus mileage at the end, but total trip will be only about 13 miles as planned, and all are not obligated to do the whole thing.
May 31...
Is Warren Land Preservation Day! We will be doing an easy three mile hike from the event at Rutherford Hall, at the Allamuchy Exit off of Rt 80 in the morning, then some of the Metrotrails Board members will be present at our table to answer trail and group questions!

In the afternoon, we'll begin a hike into the night. During light hours, we'll cover many of the trails of Allamuchy Mountain State Park including some that will become part of the Warren Highlands Trail, then the Morris Canal Greenway west through Hackettstown to finish in Mansfield.

Looking ahead to June, we'll do the next full Jersey Perimeter hike between Wheaton Island and Stow Neck on the 14th. It brings us to an area where the mileage will be less unpredictable than areas to the south have been.
Then, on June 21, we will finally connect our hikes to the famous Rickett's Glen PA. We, however, we not be focusing only on the waterfalls. The first part will lead us past some of the famous falls, but we'll continue on their less famous trails past lesser falls and descend to the Bowman's Creek. From here, we'll follow the long abandoned Bowman's Creek Branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, which we have been working on as a series for some time. We'll follow it to connect with where we'd left off on it near Noxen. The gorge it passes through is stunningly beautiful.
The last Sunday in June we will have our annual Common Sense For Animals fund raiser hike!
Not only is this event early this year, it is also at a completely different venue.
As a result, this one will include some stuff we've covered on past hikes that are very appropriate to this date.
We will celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the High Bridge Branch becoming a rail trail, as well as the town of Clinton's big anniversary. More to come on this later.

I want to thank everyone for being patient as we complete the NJ Perimeter series.
I understand many of our regular group members are tired of so many perimeter hikes, but they will all be over soon, and the ones remaining will likely be pretty interesting.
Added into the schedule for this Summer additionally are a Catskills trip, another to Caledonia State Park and Michaux State Forest PA, and more.
Stay tuned, because later this year we will have some awesome trips that will include Centralia PA, Gettysburg, Stormville Mountain NY, and plenty more in Jersey including Ringwood, Wawayanda, and Delaware Water Gap.

Hope to see you all out there with us soon!

M'ke

Coming up...

We have lots of interesting stuff coming up!
See our full list of events most easily on www.meetup.com/metrotrails currently

The Jersey Perimeter series is winding down with a planned completion of November 2015.


There will continue to be hikes on Sundays through the end of 2015, with a few other random days and usually a weekly night hike.
Also, please check out and follow our facebook page at www.facebook.com/metrotrails for many interesting posts, trails, and historic pictures!

Metrotrails March '15: 18 Years of Hikes!!!

Hey all

Lots of good stuff coming up as usual....

Coming up on Saturday March 21 is the annual Warren Railroad anniversary hike.
For those who do not know, this group started informally 18 years ago with a hike on the former Warren Railroad from Portland PA to Washington. Now, we do the hike similarly only from Delaware to Washington, usually with a very large group.
This year I have not advertised the hike as heavily as I have in the past. I've been busy arranging the NJ Perimeter hikes we've been working on which has taken a good amount of time, and also I was not sure where we would be having our annual Hikers' Hootenanny.
It's looking like it's going to be at Scotty's Stadium Pub in Washington NJ. We're allowed to bring food, but not drinks in of course.
Tomorrow, Fri 3/13, we will be doing a night hike on the route of the former Spruce Run Turnpike between Clinton and Oxford, meeting at Clinton A&P at 3:45, mostly back road walking, and Sunday we'll be doing  a  NJ perimeter hike between Beverly and Roebling, meeting at the Beverly NJ light rail station at 8:30 am. We'll be doing one more NJ Perimeter trip further south between Dix Willdife Management Area and Bridgeton the following week from the anniversary hike.

I don't really have a lot to report in terms of trail planning and work. We've done about all we can do at Port Murray Preserve for the time being opening the new Morris Canal Trail, and we'll return to Musconetcong River Watershed Association soon to finish with the orange trail there. Warren Highlands Trail's route is improving, but we are at a complete stand still because of issues with state land and private encroachments.

I'm going to refrain from posting any more of the schedule of  hikes right now because everything is now subject to change. Issues at my job may force my departure, in which case there could be changes a couple of weekends. Either way, things should still remain as scheduled for now. I've already told the job there are events scheduled through November, and the NJ Perimeter Series has even been posted in Star Ledger. Rest assured that the hikes will not be ending; it is because of these volunteer activities that I got a government job to begin with, and in over eight  years of park employment I've not had to cancel any hikes for work. The current proposal has me working weekends to host only 1 to 2 hikes per month on weekend days I'd have off.
I'm rather confident things will work out, because if I leave the current job all my work on Warren Highlands Trail will stop completely. I'll keep updated as situation develops.

In April, there will be two more Jersey Perimeter related trips and others to be announced.

Hope to see you all soon

M'ke

Metrotrails Feb 2015

Hello everyone!

I trust we are surviving the Winter quite well...so far we've done alright, keeping with great hikes and having a lot of newcomers join in!
I feel that this year again, we've had greater attendance during Winter months than ever before, which is amazing considering this improvement last year!

We have several things coming up I'd like to share with everyone, after which we will have oru schedule for the remainder of February...
We had a great combined effort with the Freewalkers, Shorewalkers, and other groups on one of our NJ Perimeter hikes, and found them to be the best affiliated groups we've ever partnered with for a hike!
They were not all fans of the sort of plan as we go attitude that we often have on these hikes (we do not scout hikes ahead of time, explore as we go), and the fact that we don't often hand out maps any more ahead of time were differences not everyone liked, but overall I had a fantastic time talking to members of the groups.
While on that topic, I'd like to clarify why I stopped handing out maps to people:
I've had issues with people trying to find their own route, arranging for what they believe to be "shortcuts" based on maps, and much of the group trust and follow them. These insisted mutinies by members of groups have gotten them in trouble positions which need to be avoided. If someone needs an early out, we can help to arrange for that. On one occasion, a hiker insisted on following a parallel road shown on a map, despite my pleas not to, and in the middle of winter had to wade across a body of water to re-join the group. Too many times being questioned by the groups and having dangerous split ups have forced me to stop the practice of handing out maps in some instances.
The Perimeter of NJ hike series is on it's home stretch!!!
We've had absolutely wonderful participation on the remaining hikes. There are only about five more full hikes in the Delaware Bay area, and three on the Lower Delaware area! There are no more than nine full section hikes, then several more that only a portion of the day hike will be NJ Perimeter.
We will return to South Jersey for a number of hikes this Summer which will include some areas we've already been, filling in gaps we missed, but the hikes will be more interesting in that they will not be only NJ Perimeter. We still plan to complete the NJ Perimeter by the end of 2015. We've gotten some good press here (most different articles use the same photo):
http://www.lehighvall...­
And here...
http://www.nj.com/war...­
And through Rails to Trails:
http://www.railstotra...­
We've also had past articles like this:
http://thesandpaper.v...­

So obviously things are going very well with regard to the Perimeter hikes!

In terms of our trail work and planning, Matt Davis and I are back at the top with Warren County as well...I'm Chairman of the Board of Rec for another year, and Matt is Vice Chair. We're making a lot of great things happen in Warren with new trail development and planning.

While we're dealing with political issues with the Warren Highlands Trail, we have focused efforts on the Morris Canal Greenway at Port Murray Preserve, and cut back much brush on the new towpath trail section, as well as created a new footpath which circumvents a piece of private land!
We will be planning a grand opening in the Autumn for the preserve, which promises to be something spectacular. This is absolutely one of the nicest canal trail sections in the state of NJ.
NEXT....
We just had a State Trails Committee Meeting down in Assunpink where I agreed to ask all of you which GPS programs all of you use to track the trails we hike.
We need to figure out a good plan for a future app for NJ's trails. As everyone knows, I am personally not a big fan of any of the apps, and so let's hear from all of you what you think works best! E mail me at sneezehorse@hotmail.com

ALSO:
We want to see more production of Driving Jersey, the show on PBS which we were showcased on this past year! There's footage for more episodes, and we'd love to do more with them and see more...but PBS and NJTV will need to hear it!
Take a few moments and send in your comments on the show here:
http://www.njtvonline...­

MORE....
Our contacts with our friends in Ulster County NJ and constant commentary on the Catskill Mountain Railroad, former Ulster and Delaware Corridor which were the subject of several of our 2014 hikes has paid off at least to a degree! Ulster Exec Mike Hein has agreed to allow the rails to stay in place at least for the first section from Kingston to Hurley Mountain. There is no denying the economic value the tourist rail line has to Ulster, and more importantly, it keeps history alive.
What would we like to see happen?
The tracks should be left in on the entire corridor. A rail with trail use is the best option, because we cannot support destruction of existing sustainable public transportation infrastructure.
I have continued to post suggestions and photos to their local papers and Facebook Pages. Still, they remove my respectful posts and suggestions and close comment periods when good and valid points are brought up. Most recently, Ulster County Trails Advisory Committee's page posted that they are not an official government page, contradicting the name of the page itself. When I remarked that this was a contradictory statement, that a government official acknowledging themselves as such and attempting to sway public perception through sensorship is illegal; then that I'd like to see a rail with trail plan, and shared a concept, I asked not to be blocked. My photo comment was deleted within thirty seconds. They placed a comment that reads "A rule, unless consistently applied, is not a rule". The same group told me it was a "rule" that these rail trails must be eight feet wide. I continued to post photos of narrower rail trails and quoted Ulster County Trails Advisory Committee directly regarding the rule. I have now been approached by a television reporter wishing to do a piece on the controversial trail issue.
You can see the post they made and discussion on the All Aboard for Ashokan Page on Facebook. I urge everyone to look at this page.
https://www.facebook....­

As a trail advocate, I find it embarrassing that those who might be my comrades would be so insistent on destroying this infrastructure in favor of a single use, and in such a way that it will basically be another highway. I find it more embarrassing that they need to try to sway public perception by deletion of perfectly respectful suggestions on public forums.

We appreciate that the Rails To Trails Conservancy Page does not edit contrary opinions to rail trail development. There is no denying absolute benefit of these multi use paths, and were the basis of the earliest Metrotrails events.
We only hope that continued development is not at the cost of existing, useful trail infrastructure like what is going on with the two lines in NY state. Government officials are deleting comments, telling lies, and attempting to sway public opinion through controlled social media perception.
Although it is not the fault of RTC, the negative press due to the actions of Ulster County politicians is negatively effecting public perception of the rails to trails movement. We would like to see a rail with trail plan in Ulster County, and we hope Rails to Trails Conservancy can take a stance, or at least let public know RTC is not out to destroy existing rail lines in favor of trails only.

Finally, let's move on to schedule of hikes!!!

Mon 2/16: Pochuck Mountain to Franklin, meet at Franklin Shop Rite, 8:30 to snow trudge!
Tues 2/17: Metrotrails monthly meeting at Townsquare Diner, Wharton NJ 6 pm
Fri 2/20: To Be announced night hike, 3:45 pm
Sun 2/22: Newport to Dix WMA NJ NJ Perimeter, meeting at Dix WMA 8:30.
Fri 2/27: To be announced night hike
Sun 3/1: Harrisburg to Royalton area. Meet 8:30 at Swatara Creek/Susquehanna Riv.
Fri 3/6: Spruce Run Turnpike Night Hike; meet at Shop Rite in Clinton NJ 3:45 pm
Sun 3/8: Pennington to Trenton, meeting at Old Warf, Trenton, 8:30 am.
Sun 3/15: Delaware River; Beverly North, meet 8:30, Beverly light rail station.
Sat 3/21: 18 Year Anniversary Warren Railroad  hike, details to come!


Hope everyone can join us very soon!

M'ke Helbing
President
Metrotrails