We have some great stuff coming up, the first and foremost of which is the Annual Warren Railroad hike and Hikers' Hootenanny!
This year we are trying something different; for the first time since 2003 we are running the Warren Railroad hike backwards. We are chopping a little off the end and putting it to the start to actually trace more of the right of way.
We will be meeting at Smitty's Store at 8:45, liquor store and deli we have stopped at on these hikes every year since we started. They have graciously given us permission to park cars at their location. Use the area to the left of the store and let's keep everyone together as not to take up too much room. We'll then shuttle to our start point to the south. The hike will end at Delaware, where we will have dinner at the Jagerstein Biergarten, which is just up the road from Smitty's. The following advert for the hike gives some of the details:
Everyone can get food and drinks at Smitty's for the hike while we wait for everyone to get together.
After the hike, the Biergarten has graciously given us a lowered price for dinners. $15 will cover your choice of one of three dinners noted above, and there will be bread and butter, salad, and soup out to take at the door. They have also given us permission to have live music, which is great! I'm sure this is going to be an awesome time!
If possible, it will make it much easier if you bring $15 cash rather than try to pay with card at the Biergarten. Usually the entrees are a bit more, so they really gave us a good deal.
This will be the twentieth annual Warren Railroad hike, and 19 years since the first hike. As we head into our twentieth year with this group, there are going to be a lot of exciting things planned.
Everyone should also grab a copy of the latest issue of Weird NJ, in which Mark Moran wrote a very nice article on the NJ Perimeter series, with layout by Mark Sceurman, always awesome!
Aside from all of this craziness upon us, we have a lot of other really great stuff coming up over the course of the next month!
The night hikes have been going great, typically on Thursdays.
The next Sunday hikes we have planned will be pretty interesting as well.
4/3 Looking at an interesting route well out into Pennsylvania, perhaps Tuscarora Trail
4/10 Appalachian Trail and more in the first Connecticut section, Kent CT!
4/17 To be announced
4/24 911 Memorial Trail Part 4 and Morris Canal Part 2
4/29-5/1 Ricketts Glen Campout Weekend!
As usual, we will do a few hikes branching out in farther directions like we try to do, but we'll also have some good more local stuff. In that, we have the September 11th National Memorial Trail and the Morris Canal Greenway. Things are looking great on both these series, and the first three have been very well attended despite poor weather forecast on some.
The
first hike took us on the "alternate", from the World Trade Center
north to the George Washington Bridge. The official route uses the water
taxi, but if one wants to actually walk it, it's necessary today to use
the GW. 
The
second hike in the series was also very well attended, heading down the
Hudson River Waterfront Walkway to Hoboken. We just completed the first
"official" trail route hike, which went just as well across Jersey
City.At this time, we also utilized the Morris Canal Greenway for the first section. The March and April hikes are loops with the 911 route and Morris Canal, but the series splits in May. It continues to get more interesting from here!
We have also recently covered the Mason Dixon Trail from Elk Neck Maryland to Newark, Delaware. The official 911 Trail's designated route is on highways, both to the north and the south of the existing Mason-Dixon Trail footpath. That is fine for cyclists, but no one wants to walk paved highway for fifteen plus miles, so we followed the footpath which goes directly between the two designated 911 Trail routes, and it was absolutely beautiful and very diverse!
We'll
continue to do more sections of these long trails with the hopes of
completing them. There are a few hikes left on the Mason Dixon Trail,
but we also have nearly completed the Horse-Shoe Trail, which connects
Philadelphia by way of Valley Forge to St. Anthony's Wilderness on the
Appalachian Trail. There are only two more hikes remaining and that
trail will be complete! We hope to finish that this Summer as well.Keep your eyes open for more posted hikes coming very soon on our schedule. The dates have pretty much been decided on many hikes that are all set through January of 2017 and beyond.
Hope to see you all on Saturday, if not very very soon! Lots of good stuff coming up!!
-M'ke
President
Metrotrails
908 343 8374
