Coming up July 2014

Hey all!
Things have been going great so far this Summer, with all sorts of exploring all over the tri state! We have a lot more great stuff coming up!

Over the past month we have completed much of the section of Long Beach Island I had yet to walk, as well as connected where we left off in Mahwah with Ringwood State Park, filling in more of the gaps in the NJ Perimeter series. For the northern part of the state, little remains. A few tiny pieces are necessary to close the few remaining gas we have  not done there. Over the next month, we'll close in a couple more of them.
The first of those little sections will be Monday, 7/7.
I had long finished the northern edge of the state by foot, but in the past couple of years a section of the Old Mine Road that had been closed to public has been re-opened. I have put together a long and difficult hike that will begin with this section I had yet to do, and then pass through the Walpack Valley, climb the Kittatinny Ridge off trail, then descend off trail and pass through Bear Swamp Wildlife Management Area. This should be a very interesting hike, but definitely not for beginners.
Because I am stuck working the full weekend, our friend Lerch takes the helm for the regular weekend hike this Saturday, check out the rest of our schedule!

Saturday 7/5: Lerch leads a point to point between Knowlton Township and the Delaware Water Gap putting together some of his favorite spots and some of mine. I sent him information on places we've visited and loved on my past hikes including Totts Gap Cave, Upper and Lower Slateford Falls, Slateford Farm, and more. It's tied together with visits to other amazing local places including of course Mt. Minsi.
Lerch has been a regular member of this group for a  year now, but has a long history of hiking and exploring the area that makes him a leadership candidate. He's very into organizing the hikes, and for those of you who know him as crazy Lerch who jumps off bridges, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how well he will manage the group!
Thursday 7/10: I have rescheduled the South Branch of the Raritan night hike due to the storms for next Thursday. This route follows the river closely after meandering through Flemington area, meeting at 3:45 at Clinton A&P.
Saturday and Sunday, 7/12 into 7/13: Finally, we are doing a group camp out! We've got some amazing stuff planned for both Saturday and Sunday, or just Saturday night and Sunday if you wish.
On Saturday, Lerch will be doing some area explorations on and around the Conestoga Trail near out camp site that will include Pequaea Creek, Martic Forge Trestle, and Wind Cave, largest tectonic cave in the eastern US!
On Sunday, we'll leave the camp site and hike the Mason Dixon Trail as well as a few other nearby trails in a generally southbound route to Lock 12 on the former Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal. After this hike, I will have hiked consecutively from the all the other places we've visited to Baltimore. This hike gears us up for an upcoming hike to Washington DC! I will detail more of this after the rest of the schedule.
Saturday 7/19: Although my regular hike is Sunday, join leader William "Guillermo" Fabel for an epic route along the Blue Mountain in PA. He will be hitting some of the most spectacular views the AT has to offer including the Knife Edge, Baer Rocks, Bake Oven Knob, and North and South Trails into Lehigh Gap. An epic hike not to miss if you can make it, and with Guillermo as your leader you'll see outstanding vistas that the average hike along the AT would bypass!
Sunday 7/20: Cape May Loop! This promises to be one of the most interesting shore hikes we've done! We're meeting at Higbee Beach WMA on Sunset Blvd in Cape May, and we'll trace some former industrial site area, an old rail line, and the Cape May canal, as well as the entire beach along to the southern tip, the furthest south we have ever reached on a Metrotrails event (believe it or not, Cape May is farther south than Baltimore!). We'll see the sinking concrete ship, and watch the sunset from Sunset Beach, and we may even do a winery tour!
Sunday, 7/27: An outstanding figure eight loop that will be between Long Pond Ironworks State Park, Sterling Forest, and Monksville Reservoir! This route takes us along rivers, past iron works and furnaces, and to one of my favorite vistas I've ever visited! We'll cover one of those tiny missing pieces of NJ Perimeter along Greenwood Lake as well. Details may change regarding start point. Stay tuned.
Sunday, Aug 3: 9th Annual March on Musikfest Hike! It's hard to believe this tradition has gone on for nine years now! What participants might find hard to believe is that after all this time (often with two of these hikes each year), we still have plenty of ground we have not covered yet! This year's trip will include several points we've never visited before including more of the South Mountain park properties and different stuff on the Saucon greenway, as well as quarries, college campuses, and more!
Sunday, 9/21: Jumping ahead a little bit, I just want to remind everyone of the Common Sense for Animals Walk/Hike. I've put together another new hike stringing together otherwise unconnected parks that should be interesting; the $25 goes to help the no kill animal shelter, and you get a free lunch and CSA tee shirt!
Volunteer Work: Work still progresses with the Warren Highlands Trail. A lot more clearing needs to be done on the Marble Hill system, which I have been working on, but we need to recruit more volunteers. We are awaiting the decision of land management review regarding the next piece of state land we plan to push across on Scott's Mountain on the way to Merril Creek. Once this is approved, the trail will almost immediately be pushed through to Washington. When that time comes, we'll prepare an in depth guide to the trail route that will be presented here and on metrotrails.org

And for the camp out...I unfortunately have to work on Saturday, and I won't be making it to the camp site until 7 pm. Fortunately, Lerch has agreed to work out the details for where I am unavailable and he'll be doing an exploratory trip, carpooling everyone to different sites on Saturday.
On Saturday night, we'll eat, swim in Otter Creek, and then be at the site ready to hike first thing in the morning. We plan to have cars spotted at the end point Saturday night with permission of power company who owns Lock 12.
Contact Lerch about meeting up, here is his number: 732 814 5770.
The camp we are using is
I am looking forward to doing future trips like this one, branching out to farther places and arranging hikes and such around it that make the long trip more worth it. We can use our status as a non profit to get discounts and such, which we did on the upcoming Otter Creek/Susquehanna campout.
Branching westward, we connected this site from the Appalachian Trail in Clark's Valley. Through these hikes, we had covered a route on the Appalachian Trail to St. Anthony's Wilderness, from which point a series of trails led to the Horse-Shoe Trail. This trail is a long distance route between Valley Forge PA and the AT at St. Anthony's, another I am near finishing.
The Horse-Shoe Trail connects with the Conestoga Trail, which leads south to the Mason Dixon Trail, connecting at Lock 12, our end point. Lerch will be showing everyone around some of the greatest hits of that trail on Saturday.
The purpose of Metrotrails is to promote these trail systems that are lesser known, and I would like to take the opportunity to describe the Conestoga Trail and why it is so special.

I have always loved "weird" trails. Conestoga Trail is missing from most state maps, as well as most state trail maps. Perhaps it's not recognized by many groups because it involves quite a bit of road walking and many other weird spots.

It breaks off of the Horse-Shoe Trail at a strange spot with only a little sign saying that was the beginning of the system. It heads south on roads beneath the Interstate, then climbs on cement block steps to cross the Hammer Creek on the interstate's bridge. I knew right away this was my kind of trail.

When I was reading about the trail, a site said "If you really want to experience Amish Country, do not take the harried auto tours....hike the Conestoga Trail". Jillane had had an interest in Amish culture, and so this looked like it was perfect.
The character of the trail was ever changing, going from woods to back roads to the edges of cultivated fields.

The trail passed by Speedwell Lake, a former forge site. It then continues down stream parallel with the Hammer Creek. The trail is very much focused around the creeks and rivers, first following the Hammer, then Cocalico, then Conestoga, then Pequaea, then Susquehanna.

Sections of it were well mowed and cared for, while others were really rather overgrown. During times of high water it's necessary to wade sections of the trail. Crossing the roads, it's not uncommon to pass an Amish buggy going by.

The trail makes it's way over some treacherous spots for being in such a rural area, such as the pictured dam on the Hammer Creek, a very narrow walkway not easily navigated. One without good balance would surely fall off into the creek.

It's amazing to see how the most historic structures are retained and built upon, rather than tearing down the old ones to build anew. Following the salmon colored blazes of this trail through these areas is almost like following a secret code. Much of the trail is secluded and other hikers will rarely be seen.

In some places the trail is well maintained, but in others it is only minimally done so. Because the trail traverses so much private land, some land owners will not allow brush or trees to be removed, and so it can make it that much more challenging.

The trail along the edges of fields can often be confusing. All blazes must be watched for or wrong turns could be made. The good thing is that the creek should always be nearby for these sections. They even have blazed farm equipement!

Covered bridges are very common in the area, and the trail passes by and through several of them. There are also occasional Amish farm stands on these back roads. It's great to stop and patronize these places to get a real sense of their way of life.
When the Hammer Creek flows into the Cocalico Creek, Conestoga Trail follows Cocalico mostly on parallel back roads, which are still very pretty.

Nearing Lancaster, it because a sort of suburban sprawl. The trail enters an area of larger homes, and follows developed roads with only a couple of side trips. One follows the "goat herder's highway", a planned and partially built highway one would not even recognize along fields, and then another to a lovely stone viaduct of Pennsylvania Railroad. These sections are quite a lovely break from the otherwise urban area.
The Cocalico Creek flows into Conestoga River just before Lancaster, and so the trail parallels.

In the middle of Lancaster, it becomes a much more developed route, as a paved path close to the Conestoga River. It then passes into Lancaster Central Park.
Despite what one might think, Lancaster Central Park is not a developed urban park, but rather resembles the northern part of the Conestoga Trail through the rural areas as it follows portions of Mill Creek, and along rocky outcrops above Rock Ford.

The route leaves the park and follows several more back roads as it makes it's way south out of Lancaster. It can be brutal in the hottest days of Summer, but otherwise it's quite lovely and has some interesting points including the old Snavely Cemetery.

The worst road walk section is out of New Danville south of Lancaster. It follows a section of road known as Long Lane. While the road has lovely farm views, it is busy and there isn't a good shoulder. It's necessary to walk the edges of fields more.

What makes this portion significant is that it was the original route of the old Native American trail, the original Conestoga Trail, that they used to walk between present day Lancaster and the Susquehanna River. The trail continues back to Conestoga River to follow the back roads for a bit, then cuts off road again for a little while along a tiny creek

The trail follows beautiful back roads from here, through little Conestoga area villages and lovely farm lands. The route heads up hill out of the valley of the Conestoga River and then descends to the edge of the Pequaea Creek, following it via back roads.

The trail finally leaves the roads at Martic Forge, where there is a giant old trestle that Lerch will be showing the group on Saturday. This old Pennsylvania Railroad route is mostly a trail today, one that we will hopefully soon be covering, maybe in the Winter time.

Conestoga Trail continues south along Pequaea Creek, and then follows the right of way of an old trolley line down stream through State Game Lands, quite a lovely section. It eventually passes through Pequaea Campgrounds.

Beyond the Pequaea Camgrounds, it's one of those areas where there are signs that say "no trespassing, residents and Conestoga Trail hikers only"!
The route passes through a backwards little area full of old houses, many abandoned.

The trail passes the confluence of the Pequaea Creek with the Susquehanna and then follows a short section of road up hill. The trail climbs then along the high cliffs above the Susquehanna for the remainder of the distance.

It is in this section that the trail passes Wind Cave, largest tectonic cave in the eastern United States. There are several passages within this cave where a lot of time can be spent. This is another place Lerch plans to bring everyone on Saturday. The climb to it is steep, but worth it.

The trail continues up and down along the slope of the Susquehanna, making difficult ascents and descents in order to cross different tributaries. It also passes through some tight spots of schist outcroppings including Fat Pack Squeeze, pictured above.

There are several overlooks, the best of which are House Rock pictured above, and The Pinnacle, which has parking and a lot of people always wandering around. Both are outstanding, but House Rock is probably the best, not only for it's seclusion but for the nice bends in the river.

Nearing the power plant at Holtwood, the trail make it's way up along Kelly's Run, another scenic tributary and follows it for quite some time. The cliffs are quite high in this deep ravine made of Wissahickon Schist, and the trail emerges at the Holtwood Recreation Area.

The original trail route beyond this point was closed during a power plant construction, and must now be a road walk out toward Norman Wood Bridge. The trail descends on the road to cross the Susquehanna River on Norman Wood with more outstanding views.

At the other side, Conestoga Trail descends into Lock 12 recreation area to the lock itself, and ends at a parking area along the Mason Dixon Trail.
This is there area where Lerch is arranging for cars to be left on Saturday as well, that way we'll be able to just get up on Sunday morning and hike without having to worry about a car shuttle.

Just south of this point on the Mason-Dixon Trail is Peavine Island, an outstanding and historic island out in the middle of the river. Given the time, we will head out and explore the island when we are finished with the rest of the hike.

Following this next hike, the only portions left to hike of the Mason-Dixon Trail are from Perryville Maryland to Iron Hill just south of Newark DE, and the section from Black Gut area at Three Mile Island west to the Appalachian Trail at Wiskey Springs. This too we may end up finishing in about a year. There are more opportunities for group camping trips out of Gifford Pinchot State Park along that route. There's sure to be more great things coming up!

If anyone has any further questions feel free to contact me at 908 343 8374 or Lerch at 732 814 5770!
Regards

M'ke H

June 2014 Hikes and Events!

Hey everybody!
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

Coming Up, May 2014

Hey everyone!

We have a lot of great stuff coming up as we prepare for the Summer!

First off, this message is being sent to both my mailing list that I've maintained since 1998, as well as the newer meetup ones. For those of you who are not already on Meetup.com, you might find it easier to have a look at our meetup group page for further details on what's coming up and make plans accordingly. It's free to use and a great resource.

For this posting, I'll details some of what is coming up, and then give a little background on where else we're going, and why...

After this week's Lehigh Gap hike, we will shift full swing into hikes that are intended to have swimming spots. These will continue through September.
May 11: After having a night hike the previous Thursday, we'll make the Jersey Perimeter hike for the month of May another missing beach section. We'll be doing a loop in Brigantine, which is one of the sections we passed by last Summer while working our way toward Cape May.

May 17: We'll try to get some trail work trips in there, but May 17th, Saturday, is Warren County Land Preservation Day. I will be leading a four mile loop around White Lake Natural Resource Area and discuss the geology, history, and ecology of this very special place I once called home. I'll then be manning the Metrotrails table at the event tent to answer your local trail questions. Canoes and kayaks will also be available free!

May 18: I will be departing for my annual Spring backpack trip with Jillane, and so for the two weekends I will be gone, I leave the weekly Metrotrails group hikes in the able hands of a couple of my friends.

For the first Sunday, join my good friend and long time Metrotrails member William "Guillermo" Fabel as he leads the group through some of the known and unknown parts of the Hamburg area Blue Mountain.

May 25: Filling in for me on this occasion will be Dan Lurie, prominent leader among the NJ Nomads and regular long distance hiker. Dan has been a part of the Metrotrails family for well over a year now, and has already organized some amazing hikes with the group.

This one looks to be no exception, a route that pieces together parks including Goffle Brook, an old trolley line, Glen Rock, and much more. This is an area that even I have not yet covered in all of my travels! Sure to be good!

6/1: I return from my backpacking trip to lead the final connector I've been working toward between New Paltz and High Falls, New York, which will include an amazing abandoned rail line, the old Delaware and Hudson Canal, and incredible old mines.
I'll elaborate more on the connectivity soon, read on....

6/8 I will again be doing a weekend trip with Jillane for her birthday, and so Gregg Hudis, long time Metrotrails member and leader through other groups, including NYNJ Trail Conference (he maintains Four Birds Trail), will take the lead once again!
His hike has not yet been posted, but watch the schedule for what he has coming up. I'm certain it will be great!

6/15: I return to host a trip to Crystal Cave in PA, as well as some back roads and abandoned railroads moving on with a series I have not re-visited since July of 2007!

We'll close out June with more Jersey Perimeter, another beach hike loop the 22nd, this time at Long Beach Island, and one up by Ringwood on the 29th.

In other news, we have just completed clearing and marking the Warren Highlands Trail out of the Marble Hill properties.  Hikers can now follow the teal rectangle Warren Highlands Trail blazes from the Free Bridge in Phillipsburg all the way across Marble Hill and out to Belvidere Road, then out to the Geiger Tract where blazing currently ends. I will continue to work on this over the next month, and scouting hikes will resume on next properties. Two meetings next week will help to determine some of the next moves.

In the media, the latest article featuring Metrotrails comes from the Times-Leader, top newspaper for the Scranton/Wilkes Barre area. We were fortunate to be joined by Mary Therese Biebel , a reporter with the Times Leader, as well as photographer Peter G. Wilcox who took some amazing photos on this, his second hike with us.
The article can be read here:
http://www.timesleader.com/news/features/1309170/A-hike-with-Mike
Soon, we'll be in the Ocean Signal, as it is re-launched with an article by Erik Weber. He's going to give us some PR on the Jersey Perimeter series.

The hikes themselves have been awesome.

As in the beginning, I am constantly trying to connect each hike we've done with ones we've previously done. There have been a couple of occasions where there has been a hike that did not connect, but I work very quickly to connect it. That becomes a priority.
I had an issue with connectivity last year regarding the backpacking trip I took in September. I didn't know how far we would make it, or how I could connect it with everything else.
I had spent years exploring the Kittatinny Mountains in NJ, and it's extension, the Blue Mountain out into Pennsylvania, but as that range continues north out of NJ, it becomes known as the Shawangunk Ridge. I'd begun covering the ridge there in the same way I had in NJ and PA, with loops where possible, constantly working further north.

The Shawangunk Ridge Trail and the Long Path became the northbound route along the ridge. We explored amazing places like Basha Kill Wildlife Management Area, the D&H Canal, and the old Port Jervis Branch of the NY, Ontario, and Western Railroad bed.

At every turn, we were exploring more abandoned places, more old rail lines, more back woods trails. With each trip, the Metrotrails world got larger.
The Long Path continues north of Wurtsboro on the ridge, and when it reaches the town of Cragsmoor, it changes character to being even more open and rocky.

We continued on to explore more of the Gunks and the Long Path, with Sam's Point Preserve, the ice caves, and more in a few more loop hikes.
We had some truly outstanding trips exploring waterfalls, more ice caves, old berry picker villages, and some of the most far reaching vistas we'd ever seen.

We had in 2013 finally reached well into Minnewaska State Forest Preserve and were covering a lot of interesting stuff there. The Long Path continues north from there on it's journey toward the Adirondaks, and Jillane and I followed it down to the D&H Canal, which we used for a loop once again. We otherwise covered some other trails to the north of there.
In September, we started off in Sharon Springs, a forgotten little northern Catskills town where we spent a day exploring old resorts.

We hiked out of the beautiful northern foot hills to the Catskills and out into the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor. Our route included back roads and a few small park lands until we reached the little town of Canajoharie, where the Erie Canalway Trail passes through. We then got on that trail and followed it eastbound, along the Mohawk River.

We continued east to where the trail ended, and the farthest north we reached on the entire trip was the town of Amsterdam. We camped at some amazing spots, some convenient spots, and utilized the Erie Canalway Trail, as well as back roads and abandoned railroad rights of way.

Along the way, we learned a lot about the area and it's rich history.
We continued easy to where the Long Path passed over the Mohawk River. It follows the Erie Canalway Trail for a time. We turned onto the Long Path and followed it south for a while, and it seemed like this would be the only way I could connect what we were doing with everything else we had done. But that would take a very very long time.

We turned off of the Long Path and returned to the Erie Canalway Trail by way of back roads, then hiked in to the town of Schenectady. From here, we had limited time left, and the plan was to get to Albany so that we could take a bus back from there.
We headed south following a lot of roads, but we were still able to explore a few preserves along the way.

Our backpacking trip ended at the SUNY college in Albany. The bus picked us up from there and took us directly back to NJ.
After the trip, I became obsessed with connecting this with everything else I'd done. I didn't know enough about the area, and I wanted to feel the physical connection, how it all fit, in part so that I could appreciate it more.
One night soon after the trip, while looking at Google Earth, I thought back to when I was in high school. The year was 1997, and I had finished my first couple twenty mile day hikes. We completed Hike #1, twenty miles, in 7.5 hours. Multiplied by three, that is 22.5 hours, so in theory, I thought, I should be able to walk sixty miles in one day. I started trolling my friends to see who might be interested in trying. There was initial interest, but no one ever truly stepped up and said they would do it.

There are so many things we leave undone in life, and for me, this was one of them. I knew I could do it, and I had sort of accepted that no one would ever try it with me.
When I saw that Albany was roughly sixty miles north of Kingston, the idea struck me. From Kingston, it would be very easy to connect with everything I've ever done before by way of existing trails, and they would be good hikes. Between Albany and Kingston looked to be a lot of back roads and not as interesting, and much of it would be fine to do in the dark. If I could get someone to join me, I could attempt both my sixty mile day hike and connect where I left off in Albany with Kingston! I was greatly surprised and honored to have Tom Vorrius, Matt Davis, Justin Gurbisz and Dan Lurie all sign on to join me for this venture.
We started off at the SUNY college, where Jillane and I had left off, and began heading south. I looked over the maps to no end, trying to find interesting routes to walk through, but without a lot that would impede us. The Hudson River has a great deal of private land, and much fewer trails than in other areas, so we focused on the more direct route south. Rail lines and such helped us to cut corners.

When we reached mile 40, Justin, Dan, and Matt were all hurting pretty badly, as were Tom and I, but Tom and I plowed ahead faster when the others started to slow down. The hike was great fun until this point. Everything after forty was agony. That was in the town of Catskill.
The others told me they were throwing in the towel, having covered 47 miles. Tom and I kicked up the pace and walked a dark section of long road along quarries that was still pretty even after dark.
We continued south through Saugerties, and we kept ourselves moving. My Arizona iced tea was freezing as we walked, the bottoms of my feet were raw. The new shoes I'd brought already had one sole fall off.
I knew just about when we'd hit mile 60, and somehow I was just about spot on. I shook Tom's hand and congratulated him, we'd succeeded and reached Kingston. We continued to walk from here back to the bust station. On the way, we crossed the abandoned Ulster and Delaware Railroad, and I pointed out to Tom that that would be one of the hikes coming up, I wanted to walk it.
We completed 63.4 miles in 23.5 hours. It was quite an accomplishment, and I could not walk for a day.
Connecting these hikes was now within reach. The next section we covered started us on the Shawangunk Ridge in Minnewaska, and led us on a route to New Paltz, mostly on trails the entire time, but also utilizing a little bit of road. From New Paltz, rail and canal trails lead directly to Kingston.

In March 2014, we returned to Kingston. We hiked the abandoned Ulster and Delaware Railroad to the O&W Rail Trail, the old Port Jervis Branch we had covered further to the south. The right of way is almost entirely a trail now, which led us all the way to High Falls on the Rondhout Creek.
Only one more hike is necessary to connect where we had left off in New Paltz to the south to High Falls where we left off from the north.  This hike will take place on Sunday, June 1!

So what of that Long Path connection? It would certainly have been the better route? Well we're still working on that as well. We covered a good section over Table and Peekamoose Mountains last Summer, and prior to that I had already covered everything up to Woodland Valley to the north of there. This June, on National Trails Day, new sections of the Long Path (9.5 miles!) will open to Phoenicia, eliminating what was a road walk! To the south, another road walk section has already been changed to a dirt road, and a new trail section is to be opened very soon to eliminate the rest of it. This may end up as a Metrotrails two day group trip over the Summer.
Hope to see you all out there with us soon!

M'ke
President
Metrotrails