We've got more great stuff coming up for the month of June!
There are a lot of great things coming up regarding the planning, development, maintenance, and promotion of the area trail systems...
This Summer, we have some epic hikes planned, and there will be a few changes with how I've been organizing things.
First, all Summer hikes are intended to have swimming spots, or at least somewhere we can get wet. This Summer is no exception. Every hike will have time and places to jump into water!
Next, we will be doing some more high adventure trips in addition to some shorter and long night hikes. The regular Sunday hikes are going to be a bit more extreme than some of the things we've been doing, but not to worry, there are often going to be alternative routes and/or early out points for those who don't want to do the tougher stuff. If you have a question regarding any trip, don't hesitate to ask!
Furthermore, with the great success of the Metrotrails meetup group, I am scaling back on other outside promotion. Most notably, I will not be posting half as many hikes through the NY/NJ/PA Hiking group on Meetup. We've met a lot of amazing people through that group, but some of the hikes I will be posting are not geared toward beginners, and it has been causing some problems. That group is limiting group sizes to 25; while I feel that is a fine number of participants, at least 30% of those who sign up for hikes do not show up. On our anniversary hike this year, we had 75 participants, but 72 who were signed up simply did not show up or un-RSVP'd overnight before the event. Because of this limitation, the knee jerk reaction of people is to sign up for anything posted, whether they plan to go or not. The group is also imposing several other rules I disagree with, and the wordiness of their typical postings is causing people not to read pertinent information posted on my announcements (and other leaders answer questions regarding my hikes, which they know nothing about). Participants have been showing up prepared for five miles, not fifteen, for example.
As a result, I've opted to keep most of the great hikes posted exclusively through Metrotrails. It's time to promote the great things we have going on rather than give the credit to someone else's group. I will occasionally post through that group to bring in more newcomers, as well as to promote hikes that might have low participation because they're out of the way (beach or Jersey Perimeter hikes).
Next, I would like to welcome Dan Lurie officially to our Leadership Team! We've got a great bunch of leaders and co-leaders who have been augmenting the already interesting Metrotrails schedule, and Dan has begun posting some great stuff too. He recently substituted for me while I was backpacking in Maryland with a Goffle Brook/Trolley line hike that looked great.
I'd also like to thank the other leaders in the group for helping out along the way either leading or co-leading. It's great to have talented friends I can depend on in such a capacity!
Of course, there is our schedule of upcoming events...
Here's our schedule:
June 1: High Falls and New Paltz rail beds, canals, and mines! A point to point near New Paltz NY! This is the missing link! After completing this hike, we will have connected other hikes as far north as Amsterdam NY on the Erie Canalway Trail!
June 6: Friday night hike focusing on the new Warren Highlands Trail route, which we'll be pushing through across Warren County!
June 8: Gregg Hudis and Dan Lurie will once again be filling in for me with a hike along rail beds and trails in southern Sussex County near Stanhope (look for the announcement soon).
June 15: Pennsylvania Dutch country hike that begins with a tour of Crystal Cave ($9 per person at group rate). We'll continue to trace an old rail route and back roads.
June 22: Long Beach Island central loop. One of two loop hikes remaining on LBI, and one of 28 remaining to finish the entire perimeter of NJ!
June 29: Ramapo-Ringwood Hike, another of the Jersey Perimeter series, this hike will be very difficult and include both on and off trail from the Mahwah area. It will include a good amount of bushwhacking in addition to the trails.
July 7: An atypical Monday hike, because I am stuck working that Sunday on 4th of July weekend, we will be doing a very difficult twenty mile hike on and off trail in Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area as well as Bear Swamp Wildlife Management Area. This hike is NOT good for beginners!
July 12-13: Tentatively planned Saturday night camp out at Otter Creek on the Susquehanna Railroad with Mason Dixon Trail hike to Lock 12 the following day. This hike is an opportunity for an intro to backpacking. An additional day may be possible. More details to come on this trip.
July 20: Cape May Loop Hike, another in the NJ Perimeter series!
July 27: Wanaque Loop Hike, another in the NJ Perimeter series, and the last of the north border!
Sept 21: Mark your calenders for our Common Sense For Animals fund raiser hike! Details may change, but the trip will be almost entirely different than the one we did last year, and a $25 donation gets all participants lunch and a tee shirt! It's a worthy cause!
In addition to these trips, look out for regular night hikes starting up again very soon! Jersey Perimeter hikes will continue at least once a month until finished.
So what of Planning and Development?
Our biggest project is the Warren Highlands Trail. Developing this trail has been an outstanding experience. Warren County has been a pleasure to deal with all along the way from the Freeholders who support the project, to the Planning Department, Department of Land Preservation, Board of Recreation Commission, and of course volunteers. This week, the Warren County Board of Chosen Freeholders made a Proclamation that June is National Outdoors Month. As Chairman of the Board of Recreation, I was honored to attend and speak about the development of the trail system, as well as do a radio interview about it.
The trail itself is coming along very nicely. In the past month, we have finally completed the trail from the Marble Hill state park property down to Belvidere Road. The trail now follows the old farm road down past the pile of rocks (the remains of the old Harmony Twp School), then turns left into a swath of woods, weaving around a bit. It then reaches Belvidere Rd, and turns left to follow the road for a time.
Soon, the trail turns right into the county owned Geiger Tract. It skirts the edges of the fields, now marked with carsonite posts and on trees. It passes through a swath of woods, crosses a stream, and then follows two more fields before it's current terminus on Stryker's Road at Farmer's Fairgrounds.
As of today, we have been officially given permission for the trail to pass through the Merril Creek Nature Preserve. We have also been given permission to connect the trail on their right of way and through state land to the Hoff-Vanetta Farmstead. This is huge news. I hope to have the trail completed through to Washington by September.
We have scouted other properties beyond Washington for possible acquisition, and have begun discussing land review process to open the trail through state Wildlife Management Area tracts.
Making new connections:
As always, I am continuously branching out to new places, trying to connect everything by foot. As of this Sunday, the furthest north we will have reached will be Amsterdam, NY. The furthest east is part of Long Island at Brooklyn, and the farthest south has been Cape May.
However, this past week Jillane and I nearly connected everything to Baltimore Maryland. One hike on the Mason Dixon Trail remains in order to connect what we covered with previous hikes. We covered 114 miles.
The trip took us from Otter Creek, along the Mason Dixon Trail just north of where I'd last left off to the north, to Druck Valley, then onward to York, PA, now the furthest west we've ever reached. From there, we followed the Northern Central Rail Trail south to Baltimore County, Maryland. We continued south across Baltimore from there.
Just as we will connect the northern reaches of these trips this Sunday, we will connect this with a hike tentatively scheduled for July 13.
Depending how things go, I'd like to post another two day trip in August at the southern Catskills to connect some other stuff. Another trip I have been looking at would connect Harveys Lake PA with Ricketts Glen. I am planning on doing more complicated group trips that will involve camp outs and blocks of motels to travel a bit further away, maybe on a monthly basis. I feel we can improve the diversity of places offered through this group by continuing with these such events everyone can enjoy.
Finally, we still have plenty of large and XL Metrotrails tee shirts for $10 a piece! This helps us to keep the website and Meetup group going!
Thanks everyone who has continued to come out! The trips continue to get better all the time, and I'm blessed to have such a great group of people to affiliate with!
Best Regards
M'ke Helbing
President
Metrotrails
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