Although out-of-staters don’t particularly know New Jersey for its hiking prowess, the state offers a diverse range of hiking trails and parks that are fitting for those looking for a rocky mountain hike, a beachy shore run or a stroll through flat meadows, which Dawn L. McClennen, co-founder of njHiking.com, is well aware of.
“We don’t have the elevation of something out West but it’s actually quite diverse,” said McClennen, who is from Middlesex County and has been hiking the state for about 20 years. “North Jersey is rugged and then Central is more mild and a little more farmlands. The Pine Barrens are flat and sandy with a lot of diverse trails that butt up against the beach. When you hike up a mountain here, you might see a city skyline.”
Some of the more popular hiking destinations in New Jersey include Northern Green State Forest in Ringwood, Sourland Mountain Preserve in Hillsborough, Cheesequake State Park in Matawan, Wharton State Forest of Hammonton and Belleplain State Forest of Woodbine.
David Dendler, park ranger manager at the Somerset County Park Commission (SCPC), said that the Sourland Mountain Preserve maintains its popularity because of its rugged terrain and accompanying uniqueness as well as its size, with 14 miles of trails over 4,000 acres.
BOISE, Idaho, Aug. 10, 2015–After the successful funding of their first sleeping bag hammock, the couple behind the Bison Bag G1 are back with the next version of their sleeping bag hammock: the Bison Bag G2.
The new polyester design features triple layer insulation ensuring that minimal body heat escapes during overnight adventures. The sleeping bag hammock is rated to 55 degrees Fahrenheit; however, it can be used in lower temperatures, if a sleeping bag pad is used. To keep it simple, the sleeping bag, hammock, carabiners and rope can fit within the included sleeping bag sack.
“We’re so excited to share this with the Kickstarter community and beyond, said Lance Williams, CEO and Founder of Camp Clayborne Outdoor Goods. “There’s been a ton of time and effort we’ve put into designing the Bison Bag, and as a result my camp nights have been leaps and bounds better in a hammock, and so much warmer in a Bison Bag.”
In continuation of a family tradition of long backpacking trips, the husband and wife duo strives to enjoy their outdoor adventures, while traveling as minimally as possible-gone are the tents and poles, sleeping bags and camping pads.
Learn more about the Kickstarter campaign for Bison Bag G2…
Inspired by a love of the outdoors and memories of a 2010 tornado, Girl Scout Alison Campbell organized a team that worked 30 hours this summer clearing 4,250 feet of trail at Old World Wisconsin that had been untouched for five years. The project, which makes the Old Railroad Forest Trail safe to hike once again, was the culmination of Campbell’s Girl Scout Gold Award efforts.
In a brochure created for visitors to Old World Wisconsin, aerial images show the devastation of the EF2 tornado that leveled the wooded parking lot at Old World Wisconsin on July 21, 2010, leaving many hiking trails unsafe for people to use. The Old Railroad Forest Trail looked more like “a jungle rather than a hiking trail,” according to the brochure.
“The fond memories I have for Old World Wisconsin, the fact I want people to take a break from their lives to get out and notice nature, and wanting to fix up the damage that the devastating tornado caused, are what have inspired me to choose this project,” Campbell wrote in her project report.
Although Campbell only expected to finish a third of a mile of the trail, due to her “team’s hard work,” they “worked together and finished the whole trail.”
Sean Longstreet witnessed four days of startled reactions when he backpacked over Piute Pass above Bishop, CA this summer in the Eastern High Sierra. The popular Beaumont school district music instructor was not behaving oddly. He didn’t pick his guitar strings or blow his trumpet as he walked the steep trails. Instead, his companion attracted stares of surprise and reactions of laughter.
Longstreet backpacked with his standard poodle, Hendrix, a calm, friendly dog named after the legendary late rock guitarist. Labs, golden retrievers and shepherd mixes are more typical trail dogs. One thinks of poodles as canines that tread sidewalks sporting painted, manicured nails and wear ribbons in chic, urban neighborhoods such as Little Italy in San Diego. You would expect a poodle to drink Perrier while reposed at a sidewalk cafe, not lapping from a high-mountain lake.
Longstreet noticed people on the trail must have thought the same thing. He said they looked startled when they rounded a corner and spotted a big, light-brown poodle wearing a red backpack filled with dog food. Hendrix was a great conversation starter in the back country. Just about everyone who saw him stopped to chat.
Unbearably hot. Dry. Lifeless. Those are a few terms that the word “desert” all too often conjures up. While deserts are loved by many wilderness enthusiasts, it’s far too easy for the general public to overlook these areas when thinking about wilderness. No doubt, deserts can be hot and dry, but look a little closer and the life within them is amazingly diverse.
Deserts are defined not by temperature, but by their precipitation-less than ten inches precipitation per year. American deserts range from the Sonoran Desert, the only wild place where the famous saguaro cactus grows; the extreme Mojave Desert, which neighbors several major cities; the Chihuahuan Desert on the New Mexico-Mexico border; and the cooler and moister Great Basin Desert, known as one of the best places to view starry night skies.
Known for their delicate ecosystems, deserts are abundant with wildflowers and succulent plants. Some are home to giant saguaros while others give rise to plains of Joshua trees. They thrive with creatures big and small from tarantulas to desert tortoises to bighorn sheep.
Since the historic Wilderness Act was passed in 1964, some 200 desert wilderness areas have been added to our National Wilderness Preservation System. These desert areas enjoy the highest level of land protection afforded by the federal government, meaning they are protected from road building, energy, off-roading and development of any kind.
Here are but a few that you may enjoy…
In 1899, the Appalachian National Park Association began discussing the concept for a 12,000-square-mile park in parts of North and South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and Tennessee.
During the next century, many individuals, organizations, politicians and nature advocates worked to establish what is now the country’s most visited national park – the Great Smoky Mountains.
National Park Service Director Stephen Mather first voiced support for establishing a national park in the East. In 1927, John D. Rockefeller Jr. designated $5 million as a matching gift and challenged officials in Tennessee and North Carolina to raise an equal amount before Rockefeller released the funds. Five years later, the park’s first superintendent – J. Ross Eakin – and his rangers arrived for work.
At first, Eakin and his rangers acted more like sheriffs in the Wild West. Getting control of the lawlessness, particularly running moonshine through Appalachia, poaching wildlife and squatting, was their primary concern in the first few years.
Every summer, they trek through New York on their way from Georgia to Maine — a scruffy bunch whose determination to hike the entire Appalachian Trail finds them pushing through the Hudson Valley in July and August.
For many, the roughly 2,189-mile trip is the culmination of a dream. Others aren’t sure why they’re doing it. But most know they couldn’t manage the hike without the support of people they encounter along the way. Some local families who live near the trail fill coolers with refreshments and leave them out for hikers.
“We call them trail angels,” said Jim Haggett, chairman of the Dutchess-Putnam Appalachian Trail Management Committee. “It’s sort of serendipitous if you find one of these things. They’re not written up in the guidebooks, and they may not be there from day to day, or week to week, or year to year.”
In Pawling, NY Pete Muroski’s generosity is more predictable. For years, he’s welcomed hikers to Native Landscapes and Garden Center — the Appalachian Trail goes right through the center’s property — where he offers food, electrical outlets, fresh water, mail drop-off and outdoor showers.
Get ready to discover the beautiful trails of Fairfield Glade and Cumberland County, Tennessee. The Cumberland Plateau has some wonderful scenery and now everyone will have the opportunity to get to know it up close and personal.
Registration for the Cumberland Plateau Hiking Trail Marathon kicked off Aug. 1, 2015. Just like a marathon race, this hiking marathon includes 26.2 miles of hiking trails in Fairfield Glade and throughout Cumberland County. Unlike a marathon race, this is not at all competitive. Participants can take their time as they have the whole month of September, a full 30 days, to complete all the trails that make up the marathon route.
Registration is open from Aug. 1 to 31, and the trail hikes can start on Sept. 1, but must be completed by Sept. 30. For those who are not up to the challenge of the full 26.2 miles of hiking, there is the option of completing 13.1 miles and receiving recognition for a half-marathon.
The application form, hiking log, maps and trail descriptions may be picked up at various locations around Crossville, TN or downloaded from the website at www.time2meet.com/marathon.
This event is free to enter and successful marathoners will be awarded a T-shirt, certificate and other prizes at the Fairfield Glade “Hit the Trails” Festival on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2015.
Registration forms are available at Fairfield Glade Community Club on Stonehenge Drive, Cumberland Trail office on Fourth Street in Crossville, Crossville Depot, Visitor’s Center in the Cumberland Mountain State Park and Crossville-Cumberland County Visitor Center—Gateway to the Big South Fork. For additional information about the Hiking Trail Marathon, please contact John Conrad at 931-287-2432 or Mary Jo Paige at 931-707-2167.
“Sputnik” had just emerged from the most remote stretch of the Appalachian Trail – 100 miles of Maine “wilderness” with no stores, towns or even paved roads – when he paused to consider a different ending to the life-changing trek he was about to complete.
Behind him lay 2,170 miles worth of footsteps stretching from Georgia to this spot on Abol Bridge offering two images of Mount Katahdin: one rising out of the forests, and the other reflected in the water of the West Branch of the Penobscot River. Ahead of “Sputnik” – Jesse Metzger’s trail name, chosen by other Appalachian Trail “thru-hikers” because of the Russian appearance of his winter cap – was 10 miles of wooded trail followed by the momentous 5-mile climb to the peak that’s been his destination since Feb. 25.
But Katahdin could be just another mountain to future users of the trail known to legions of hikers as simply “the AT.” Baxter State Park officials, upset with the behavior of a relatively small number of hikers and facing growing challenges accommodating the Katahdin-bound thru-hikers, are pressuring local and national groups affiliated with the AT to address their concerns or potentially find another northern terminus of the trail.
“That would be seen as a very big deal,” Sputnik said while glancing toward the 5,267-foot peak. “It’s quite an icon, as you can see.”
Rio Grande Trail commissioners held their first meeting July 29,2015 to discuss creating a 500-mile recreational route through New Mexico. The task before them won’t be easy or quick. There’s a dizzying array of decisions and tasks to undertake before the trail will become a reality.
It’s so early in the process, the commission has only a bare-bones digital page, housed within the website of the state Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department.
The group agreed it will need money, a robust website, maps of existing trails, routes for new trail segments, a trail coordinator and a whole lot more involvement from tribes, pueblos and the public in order to ultimately build a contiguous trail spanning the length of New Mexico, from the Colorado line to the Texas border.
“The trail will require money from the general fund until it can generate its own revenue,” said Sen. Carlos Cisneros, D-Questa, one of the legislators who will serve as a nonvoting commission member. “We must pursue that vigorously. We should prepare a budget for the Legislative Finance Committee.”
The group can turn to other experienced long-distance trail groups for advice.
Think the Blue Ridge Parkway is beautiful? Well, like many of us, it takes a lot of grooming to look that way.
For the third summer, a group of North Carolina teenagers from ages 16-18 years old have been working hard to improve, restore, and preserve the natural and recreational resources of the Blue Ridge Parkway near Boone and Blowing Rock.
The North Carolina Youth Conservation Corps is in the field for seven weeks (they started June 20 and will finish Aug. 8) through a partnership among the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, the Conservation Trust for North Carolina, and the National Park Service.
The crew is working on trail construction and maintenance, rebuilding historic fencing, invasive plant removal, and facility repairs for the Park Service within the Sandy Flats sub-district between Mileposts 260 and 305. The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation and CTNC are funding the program.
“They go through an application and if they make it through, they are interviewed,” said Jan Pender with the Conservation Trust. “We’re looking for kids who have an interest in being outdoors and feel like they are able to work in a group, outdoors, camping, together, for seven weeks. We’re also looking for kids who have a desire to accomplish something as a group.”
PANTHERTOWN, N.C., July 31, 2015- Nantahala District Ranger, Mike Wilkins, advises everyone that Forest Service road 4673 which accesses the Panthertown hiking trail system from the east side in the Cold Mountain area will be closed beginning Monday morning August 3, 2015 on week days until August 14, 2015 to construct a 9-12 car parking area. The project is a cooperative effort between the Friends of Panthertown and the US Forest Service made possible by a grant provided by the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Division of Parks and Recreation.
For more information contact Assistant Ranger, Bryan Killian at 828-524-6441.
Following a number of deaths in recent years and dozens of rescues, residents of Paradise Valley, Arizona are concerned with hiker safety on the Echo Canyon Trail because of a lack of signage marking the trail and warning of its difficulty.
One of those residents, Ryan Wooddy, can’t help but notice when rental cars are parked at the Echo Canyon trailhead near his Paradise Valley home — which he says is often. Driving through the lot on a recent day, he makes a mental tally of the out-of-state license plates: California (check). Nevada (check). Washington (check).
The rental cars at Echo Canyon are emblematic of what Wooddy says is an intractable problem here: novice hikers taking on the extremely challenging trail. Many of those visitors come unprepared and struggle during the Camelback Mountain hike, especially in Arizona’s hot summer months. More than a few become stranded. Wooddy and others who live near the trail say more needs to be done. They propose adding signs marking trails or passing legislation that would penalize reckless hikers, similar to the state’s Stupid Motorist Law.
Echo Canyon Trail saw 154 rescues from 2010 to 2013, more than any other trail in Phoenix. Some attribute the figure to the trail’s heavy traffic as well as its difficulty, which increases the risk of heatstroke and injury.
Wouldn’t it be great if your kids begged to go on a hike instead of playing video games or going to the mall? There are ways to encourage their love for the outdoors and as they develop more of a comfort level in nature, you may find them coming up with new plans to head out a trail.
If you’re looking for a place to start, Jennifer Pharr Davis has some practical tips. She’s an avid hiker and has completed the Appalachian Trail three times. On her last trek in 2011, she clocked what was then the fastest thru-hike on the AT, finishing in 46 days, 11 hours and 20 minutes.
But she says that’s old news. She’s most proud of her continuing efforts to keep her 2 1/2-year-old daughter engaged with the natural world. “For the first two years of her life, we hiked in all 50 states,” said Davis. “We combined it with a book tour. For us, it was a statement that adventure doesn’t have to stop because you became a parent.”
Jen has some great tips for getting your kids interested, and keeping them interested…
Great Smoky Mountains National Park says more than 4.3 million people visited between January and June, an 8 percent increase from the first half of 2014.
The park is the most visited of the national parks. More than 1 million people visited in May, the most for May since the National Park Service began tracking monthly visitation in 1979.
Visitation increased 26 percent at the Oconaluftee entrance near Cherokee, North Carolina.
More than 100,000 people camped in one of the park’s nine campgrounds, an increase of 14 percent from last year, and more than 55,000 camped in the park’s backcountry, a 12 percent increase from 2014.
The park had its busiest year in 14 years last year, when 10 million visited, including the most October visitors in 27 years.
The most popular trekking trail in Nepal escaped damage during April’s devastating earthquake and is safe for hikers to return, an assessment team said. Kit Miyamoto of the California-based engineering firm Miyamoto International assessed the 125 miles of trekking trails around Mount Annapurna, and said that the only hazards were found at three spots and appeared to predate the quake.
Only about 3 percent of the accommodations on the trail were damaged by the April 25 earthquake. That quake, coupled with another in May, killed nearly 9,000 people. Nepal is hoping visitors will return in September, when tourist season begins.
Tulsi Prasad Gautam of Nepal’s Tourism Department said the assessment would help bring back trekkers, and it would be easier for them to get travel insurance — a major concern for people planning their trip to Nepal.
The trail around Mount Annapurna gets about 115,000 foreign trekkers, which is about 60 percent of all hikers who travel to Nepal every year.
The team is also assessing the route on the foothills of Mount Everest, and expects to complete work in two weeks.
This summer has brought extreme temperatures to many U.S. states. Human hikers know that it’s important to carry enough water, wear loose-fitting clothes and wear a wide-brimmed hat when venturing out in temperatures that have been getting up to 100 degrees.
But what about their canine companions? They don’t have the same options to shield them against the heat; all they can do is to follow wherever they are led. Sometimes this can have deadly consequences.
The symptoms of an overheated dog include: Skin that is hot to the touch, heavy panting, excessive thirst, inability to move, salivation. In the worst cases, this can progress to vomiting, diarrhea, loss of coordination and unconsciousness.
Prevent these early signs of overheating from even happening by taking these steps…
I am Jeff Clark, founder of Internet Brothers, producer of this blog, and passionate about hiking. I live in Western NC near the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests are just out my door, so the content will focus on these areas, but let me know what you would like to see on the site. 
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