ABOUT THE PARK:
Jenny Jump State Forest - NJ Department of Environmental Protection
DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates for Jenny Jump Trail Parking 40.912126, -74.925036View Larger Map
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| Keep right at park sign then almost immediately turn right on the gravel drive with picnic tables to the right. |
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| Large parking lot at end of gravel drive. |
TRAIL MAPS:
Jenny Jump State Forest Trail Map - NY/NJ Trail Conference
HIKE DISTANCE:
Ghost Lake - 5.40 miles
Jenny Jump Trail to views - 3.2 miles
PEAK BAGGING:
Jenny Jump Mountain #1 - New Jersey 1K Club
Jenny Jump Mountain - Peakery.com
THE HIKE:
From the parking lot, walk back out to the road, turn left, then right at the intersection following the sign to the park office. Keep right at the fork with the park office on the left. Pass a couple of cabins and a stone restroom building on the left. The trailhead for the red-blazed Swamp Trail and yellow blazed Summit Trail is straight ahead. There is also a parking lot on the right to park at if you want to skip the Jenny Jump Trail portion.
Stay on the yellow Summit Trail and watch for side trails to multiple views along the ridge.
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| View east of farm fields flooded by Hurricane Irene a week earlier. |
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| View west of the Delaware Water Gap. |
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| At the end of the yellow-blazed Summit Trail, turn right on the turquoise-blazed Ghost Lake Trail. |
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| A side trail on the right leads to a view at an old foundation. |
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| Large blowdown .2 miles from Ghost Lake. Park has it on their "to do" list (they have cleaned up A LOT of Irene damage over the past week) but you can get around/under the blowdown to the right. |
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| Ghost Lake |
From Ghost Lake backtrack on the turquoise-blazed Ghost Lake Trail staying on as the yellow-blazed Summit Trail merges in from the left, all the way to where it ends at a road. Turn left on the road then right on the white-blazed Orchard Trail.
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| Orchard Trail |
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| To the right of the Orchard Trail, a pretty field with a view of the Delaware Water Gap. |
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| A blowdown on the Orchard Trail from Hurricane Irene, also on the park's "to do" list. We were able to climb right through this one so it was not quite as dense as it looks in the picture. |
The blue-blazed Jenny Jump Trail starts at the opposite end of the parking lot.
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| Blowdown at .15 mile. |
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| Wet section (passable) at .3 mile |
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| Dangling limb at .55 mile but appears to be hung up on another branch. |
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| Blowdown with blaze at .7 mile. |
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| Blowdown at .75 mile. |
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| Blowdown at .8 mile |
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| At a seasonal view at 1.25 miles a map shows where you are. |
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| Blowdown at 1.3 miles. |
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| Large rotten log blowdown across side trail to view - a little tricky to climb over because it is mushy but it's doable. |
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| End of side trail at view. |
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| View of the Delaware Water Gap. |
You might want to check if these people have produce for sale. Make a right out of the parking lot and drive a short distance up the hill. It will be on the right. If there is produce available there should be a table out at the road with a sign.
HIKE SUMMARY:
Ghost Lake:
[ 0.00] Walk out of parking lot, turn left on road, then turn right heading towards park office at the park sign; at park office keep right following sign for shelters 1-8 and camp sites 9-11
[ 0.20] Restrooms in stone building on left; trailhead for Summit/Swamp Trails straight ahead; turn left on yellow and red-blazed Summit/Swamp Trails
[ 0.35] At fork keep left (blazes do not indicate which fork to take); short distance ahead turn right on yellow Summit Trail when red Swamp Trail goes left
[ 0.50] At fork keep right on short side trail to view
[ 0.65] Short side trail on right to view and another shortly after
[ 0.90] View to left
[ 0.95] Keep straight on Summit Trail when Spring Trail crosses over
[ 1.35] Right on turquoise-blazed Ghost Lake Trail when Summit Trail ends
[ 1.90] Woods road to right goes to view at old foundation
[ 2.60] Ghost Lake
[ 3.00] Back track on Ghost Lake Trail after exploring Ghost Lake
[ 3.60] Woods road to left goes to view at old foundation
[ 4.15] Yellow-blazed Summit Trail joins in from left; keep straight on yellow/turquoise
[ 4.40] Turn left on paved road when yellow/turquoise trail ends
[ 4.50] Turn right on white-blazed Orchard Trail (trailhead sign is on left by a bench)
[ 4.65] Short side trail to right to meadow with view of Delaware Water Gap
[ 5.00] Orchard Trail joins gravel road
[ 5.15] Keep right at the fork
[ 5.25] Orchard Trail ends at paved State Park Road, turn left then keep right at fork at park sign
[ 5.40] Turn right on gravel road at picnic area back to parking lot
Jenny Jump Trail:
[ 0.00] Begin at trailhead at the far end of parking lot
[ 0.10] Cross creek
[ 0.95] Cross over woods road
[ 1.25] Seasonal view
[ 1.55] Right at fork on side trail to view; retrace
[ 1.85] Seasonal view
[ 2.15] Cross over woods road
[ 3.00] At fork keep left on blue when white goes right (white not on map)
[ 3.10] Cross creek
[ 3.20] Back at parking lot
Nice to know there's more to Jenny Jump (mileage wise) than I was led to believe. Encourages me to finally put this one on my "to-do" list once the mosquitoes decide to give us all a break. :( BTW: Any particular reason you opted not to do the Jenny Jump Trail, if you don't mind sharing?
ReplyDeleteI seem to have heard/read somewhere that there were plans to expand the trails in the near future. Any truth to that, do you know?
Thanks again, Daniela, for yet another great description and informative report on the post-Irene conditions for this trail.
Linda,
ReplyDeleteI had never hiked at Jenny Jump before either since there weren't enough trails to warrant the trip. But now with the brand new Jenny Jump Trail, there is plenty, in fact probably two hikes worth unless you can do a shuttle because the 6-mile Jenny Jump Trail would have to be an out-and-back in addition to the original trails at either end. I did notice that the Jenny Jump Trail starts out blazed in blue then all of a sudden there are blue/white blazes and that continues beyond the point where I turned around. On the return trip I noticed the white trail leaves to the right about .2 miles from the end of the Jenny Jump Trail. This trail is not on the map. Perhaps another new trail with even more options? Maybe the trail conference will update the map at some point with that white-blazed trail.
I turned around after 1.55 miles on the Jenny Jump Trail because from that point on it went downhill and that far into the hike I wasn't really in the mood to climb back up the hill. Additionally, I was getting kind of anxious to get home and wash off the 5 layers of Deep Woods OFF, I had really had it with mosquitoes ignoring the OFF (they were biting under the rims of my glasses!) and I was getting pretty tired. For almost all of the 9 miles total that I hiked I had been flicking branches away with my trekking pole and bending down to pick up the larger ones and toss them aside - much more exhausting than hiking through without stopping every few feet. Oh, and the climbing over and crawling under bigger blowdowns - knew I had to do those all over again on the way back so had to save some energy for that! But it was a nice hike with some really nice views that would have been even better on a less hazy and humid day.
Daniela
I've admired your tenacity, adventurous spirit and dedication to detail ever since I encountered you on NJHiking and lucked into your blog from there. It doesn't surprise me in the least that you headed out on a trail this past weekend in spite the almost 'given' that you'd encounter possibly treacherous post-Irene conditions. Nor does it surprise me that you'd do whatever you could to make it a little safer not just for yourself, but more likely, for others.
ReplyDeleteYou deserved not only a breather and a good, long, cooling, Deet-removing shower but I hope you also revived yourself w/a good dose of ice cream as well.
I, on the other hand, wimped out and opted for more secure footing by doing the Barnegat Branch Trail. 6.2 miles out and back and more of a good long walk than a true hike. But we'd never walked it before, and it got us outside at least. Not really "ice cream worthy", so we settled on frozen yogurt. :)
Linda