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
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