Hike #492 6/20/10
6/20/10 West Milford to Lake Kampfe with Jillane Becker, Amanda Rosenblatt, "Action Adam" Stevens, Even "Joe Millionaire" Van Rossum, Chris Metaxas, Tanya ?, Carol and Rob Creamer, "DJ Ray" Cordts, ?, Katie Smith, Victoria Picarello, Eric Pace, and "Amish Paul" Hassler.
The group at a culvert in Jungle Habitat, West Milford NJ
Wandering thru West Milford
For my next hike, the plan was to hike to Glenwild Ave in Norvin Green State Forest from a starting point in West Milford, at the A&P shopping center where we'd finished and started hikes in the past.
This hike also marked the return of Chris Metaxas whom I hadn't seen in years! In addition, Katie Smith rejoined us for the first part, and she hadn't been out since late Summer 2008.
Starting out, West Milford NJ
We walked right out of the A&P parking lot down the main drag, Rt 513, until we got to Browns Point Park and went left. I hadn't walked through this park yet and wanted to check it out. A trail led into a piece of woods near to the waterfront, then led out to a mowed area with fantastic views of Greenwood Lake.
Brown's Point Park, West Milford NJ.
We continued along the shore of the lake for a bit, then had to turn right away from the lake to Rt 511 heading sort of south.
Brown's Point Park, West Milford NJ
We walked down the road for a ways until we reached Marshall Hill Road where we turned right. They had a weight bench sitting out alongside the road here I guess for sale.
DJ Ray flexing his muscles in West Milford PA
We were only on Marshall Hill briefly and turned left onto Airport Road and headed steeply up hill. Once we reached the top and leveled off, we were almost to the entrance to Jungle Habitat. Once a theme park owned by Warner Bros., it was closed down and used unofficially as a sort of park for years. It was all over Weird NJ, and was recently turned into a piece of State Park. Mountain bikers were given the opportunity to create trails within the new park, and so it was time to include it in a longer distance hike. Jillane and I had come out in 2009 to scout for some of it.
Approaching Jungle Habitat
We went through the main entrance and I had Jillane pick the route to get to notable locations within the park. She took us down hill to the left and then somewhere right I think following the old paved roads that I guess were once part of a safari drive.
In Jungle Habitat, West Milford NJ
We walked up hill and then down in another direction; the roads were like a maze, a big menagerie of twists and turns in seemingly pointless directions. We came out in the huge former parking lot and crossed. I had to wait up for Eric who was running a bit behind the rest of us.
Large parking area at Jungle Habitat, West Milford NJ
When I could see him come out to the giant parking lot I turned left following the others into a little double tunnel culvert.
Culvert in Jungle Habitat
Everyone was waiting there, and we held off to regroup again.
When everyone was together, we moved on along the old road. There was an abandoned building on the left and more little trails and roads breaking off in all directions. We passed an old pond area, the little narrow gauge railroad track, and some sort of cage we could climb in. I think we ended up on the southernmost end of Jungle Habitat because the narrow mountain bike path we were following looped around and started heading back to where we came from. We took whatever route we could to head up hill on the paved roads.
We eventually came to "Rape Hill" as the graffiti read. The walls of the area were completely covered in drawings of nude people in pretty much every sexual position imaginable. An attempt to paint over the art was made, but all of the drawings were still visible under what was put in to cover them. Once we reached the top of a rock outcropping there was a fence blocking the east side of Jungle Habitat's boundary. There was a hole in the fence somewhere, and we used that to get through to where there was a great viewpoint to the east into the state park property. We turned right along the woods road beside the outside of the Jungle Habitat fence work.
Before too long paralleling the fence, DJ Ray, Victoria, and Eric didn't want to go on. They decided to turn back and head to the cars. I didn't argue with them, but if only they'd known that if they kept going a tiny bit further we'd be on an official trail leading down to Katie's car.
I decided we'd have to bushwhack down what was known as Long Hill to get to the Hewitt-Butler Trail. To my great surprise, this trail was at times not even fifty feet from the path along the fence, a direct trail connection could easily be made. We turned left on Hewitt Butler Trail for a bit, then right off of it onto Burnt Meadow Trail.
Burnt Meadow Trail took us down hill a bit with a bit of a view on the way. At the bottom of Long Hill there were a lot of rogue ATV trails on old woods roads, but we kept with the blazes. We only diverted off of them by accident once and I realized it was the wrong way.
We ascended soon to Burnt Meadow Road where Katie left her car. We said goodbye and continued to ascend up Horse Pond Mountain.
Heading up Horse Pond Mountain on Burnt Meadow Trail
It got quite steep heading up, and the vegetation on top became sparse. Where the trail intersected with the Highlands Trail, there was no view. I knew it was only a very short distance to the vista on Horse Pond Mountain, and that it was one of the most spectacular views in the state. Hardly anyone wanted to go except for myself, Joe Millionaire, Action Adam, and Amanda. The rest of the group used the time to take a break.
Fantastic view from Horse Pond Mountain in the Wyanokies.
The view was as spectacular as ever, with the dramatic bend in Monksville Resevoir below. This view is always worth the trip.
Action Adam and Joe Millionaire on top of Horse Pond Mountain in the Wyanokies
Amanda came out to the view as the three of us were turning back. We took a little bit more time and then continued south on the Highlands Trail. We followed the Highlands Trail south from Horse Pond Mountain only to the right turn off onto Stonetown Circular Trail from the top of Harrison Mountain.
We followed this trail along more of a ridge type terrain which was a bit easier heading south. We passed an old car and crossed a power line as I recall, then descended to Burnt Meadow Road yet again further south. Somewhere in this vicinity we turned right off the coaligned road and trail onto a new trail to the right, part of the new Lake Sonoma Trail system being put in by the NYNJ Trail Conference.
The new trail was nice and easy to follow. It ascended and descended little hills in the region, and showcased some nice rock outcroppings, but I really didn't know what to expect from it. Fortunately I was carrying my phone and had plenty of power for GPS so I could figure out where we were going. Our circuitous route led us to where other trails branched off, and I think one was called Lookout Rock Trail. We continued straight on the one we were following which soon led us to the beautiful Lake Sonoma. The south side of this natural lake was incredible, with a rock outcropping in the middle. Hardly anyone knew about this place yet, and we took this opportunity to take a swim. Action Adam, Amanda, and I were the first ones in, and Jillane soon followed. We swam out to the rock outcropping and walked along that. After the girls were out Action Adam and I swam across to the other shore of the lake where there were more rock outcropping cliffs. We carefully climbed up to the top of them. We were both thinking the same thing, that it looked like we could pretty safely jump off the top of them into the lake. I went first, and it was perfect. Adam followed me and we jumped off a few times before swimming back to the outcropping island.
We were amazed that no one else in the group wanted to take a dip. It was absolutely amazing.
Break at Lake Sonoma in the Wyanokies
Once we'd all gotten out and dried a bit, we continued back the same way we came to the last trail junction and turned right. The trail took us through woodlands for quite a while before it terminated on the Hewitt-Butler Trail again. We turned left on the HB Trail and descended slightly on some rocks to reach the beautiful Manaticut Point where we could see south to some of the homes below.
Manaticut Point in the Wyanokies
We descended very steeply on the HB Trail to a creek in the valley below. We crossed and stayed on the HB Trail. Another trail, pink blazed I think, turned off along the way. We didn't know it, but we could've used that as our next connector route.
Once we reached West Brook Road, hardly anyone in the group wanted to continue onward. Everyone cut out early except for Jillane, Amanda, Action Adam, and I. DJ Ray I believe was coming back to get everyone.
The four of us walked up the road to the right and then looked for the beginning of the Camp Wyanokie Trail. We couldn't find it at first, but we soon did, as it followed the creek to the left on the other side of West Brook Road.
The trail was easy enough to follow but not as well blazed as some of the others. It was down in the valley below some houses. It continued along the stream until it came out at the pond at the scout camp. There was no one around, and so we used this opportunity to take another swim. We had a nice long break, but probably longer than we should have taken since the sun was going down.
Pond at Camp Wyanokie
The trail came out on Snake Den Road, the road through the camp, and followed it for a bit. Below there, the "Camp Wyanokie" trail on old maps is sometimes called "Mine Trail". It makes me wonder where and what this mine was.
The trail turned off of the road a bit further down, now called the Wyanokie Circular Trail. We passed the "Bill Monroe Loop" on the left with no time to do it, and there were a lot of other trail junctions. I don't remember how we got through them all honestly, all remember was that it was getting dark fast and I needed to find the easiest way out. The route I found meant getting on the Wyanokie Crest Trail and heading south directly to where we were parked, a small pull off lot right above Lake Kampfe on Glenwild Ave.
It seemed like forever, and on the Wyanokie Crest Trail we had a hard time trying to find blazes. Action Adam and Amanda got far ahead of Jillane and I, and there were some wet areas to get over. When we got to them the trail became a bit obscure with no treadway. We had to struggle to see the blazes.
Fortunately, we were able to get out to the road without too much a problem. I had to call Joe Millionaire to come and pick us up at the end. Other than the crazy dark ending, this was an excellent hike!
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