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
