ABOUT THE PARKS:
Lachenmayr Trail - Readington Township
Cole Road Greenway - Readington Township
DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 40.584161, -74.760477
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| Large parking lot at the Roosevelt Road Practice Ball Field, the northern end of the trail. |
TRAIL MAPS:
Lachenmayr Trail Map - Readington Township
Cole Road Greenway Trail Map - Readington Township
HIKE DISTANCE: 7 miles
THE HIKE:
This hike might be best in the winter because as it stands right now, the overgrowth, especially in the Lachenmayr portion, makes the trails almost impassable, in some cases completely impassable. I almost turned back a few times as I knew we were going through tick infested overgrowth. I am glad I did not because it did get better and there were some spectacular sights but I did bypass the Lachenmayr Trail on the return route and road walked instead, a much better option.
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| From the parking lot walk back out north on Roosevelt Road to the post with the trail markers. |
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| The yellow trail follows along the edge of the field ... |
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| ... passes a bench ... |
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| ... then becomes increasingly difficult to follow. |
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| The only reason I knew where to go was because I could see this bridge. |
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| I was always glad to see a marker post to know I was in the right place. |
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| The orange trail was not going to be happening, |
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| At this creek crossing the bridge was going downstream and there was no getting across without sinking knee deep in mud so I retraced to a different orange I had just passed. |
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| This was much better ... |
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| ... and it met back up with yellow. |
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| Millions of ticks. |
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| Finally the trail runs along a fence and it is no longer overgrown. |
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| An orange loop to the left but I wasn't taking any chances to I stayed with yellow. |
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| Mowed path! |
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| The end of the Lachenmayr Trail at Pine Bank Road. |
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| Yellow continues left on Pine Bank Road... |
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| ... crosses Holland Brook on a bridge (mental note to road walk back on Roosevelt Road going back) ... |
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| ... then turns left into Cole Road Greenway. |
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| After rock hopping across a small creek ... |
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| ... we stayed left on orange through a really pretty area. |
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| Orange meets back up with yellow. |
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| A bench for our break spot at a power cut. |
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| Continuing on nicely mowed path through the power cut. |
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| But yellow veers right into oblivion. |
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| We veered left continuing on the mowed path with no markers which turned out to be orange. |
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| At another bench, left on orange, |
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| Staying left on orange into the woods. |
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| Brodie rudely lunged at the turtle smacking him right on the lips before I realized he was there. |
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| So sorry turtle! Brodie really is rude with wildlife. |
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| Orange comes out of the woods and follows a power cut. |
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| Trust me on this. Turn right at the first yellow marker. |
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| If you continue on orange to the second yellow marker ... |
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| ... this is what yellow turns into. Again. |
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| Looking down yellow had I turned at the first post - nice and clear and open. Sigh. |
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| Keeping straight, we are on white now. The colors are kind of confusing, too. |
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| Coming out of the woods we had to turn right on orange just before the field. |
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| That would be because out in the field white veers left then disappears in Brodie high grass. There are more trails I wanted to do but I had had enough overgrowth so we went back to orange and began retracing. |
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| His services are needed on parts of this trail. |
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| So we are going along through these pretty woods when Brodie starts alerting off to the right. I thought he had seen a deer until I looked closer, zoomed in and saw .... |
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| Red fox kits! |
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| Having lunch :( Somebody is missing a chicken. I hate this part of nature. |
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| There are three kits. |
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| And a parent! |
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| It sounded like a branch crashed down and everyone scattered. As much as I would like to think they all eat plants, it was quite an honor to witness a few moments of their lives. |
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| Coming back out on Pine Bank Road and crossing over to road walk back on Roosevelt Road. |
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| Holland Brook along Roosevelt Road |
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| It was actually a very nice country road walk all the way back to the parking lot. |
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| Brodie loves tick checks. |
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| Drowning their sorrows in rubbing alcohol. I have found more dead ticks when Brodie gets up from napping. At least I know the flea/tick meds I give him are working. Just hate bringing those nasty things home. Must go vacuum now. |
We live on Pine Bank Rd and we are really glad you gave these trails a try, as they are beautiful and as you noted, offer a wonderful intersection with wildlife. We also like mowed and clearly marked trails and spend our own time & money to mow some paths, but the past 12 months with almost endless rain has limited where a tractor with a brush hog can go and not become mired in mud. It's raining buckets again this week. The invasive plants thrive with rain, and quickly choke trails closed with overgrowth. Readington designates this land as "open space" and not "parks" with the difference being only a very small twp budget for maintenance for open space, with much of the work done by volunteers.
ReplyDeleteI truly appreciate your work in maintaining trails and I certainly hope it did not sound like I was complaining. I try to do my part by picking up litter (but there wasn't any!) and by reporting on trails to make more people aware of them. As you said, the rain has been insane. I read something the other day that said "It has only rained twice this spring. Once for 35 days and another time for 45 days." Thanks again and you live in a gorgeous area. Wish I lived closer!
DeleteI shared your blog on this hike with the Readington Twp. officials at the time you originally posted it. (I also tried commenting here at that time under my name, but the comment wasn't accepted for some unknown computer reason, so I'm posting as anonymous.) They greatly appreciated the feedback and were working to correct the conditions you noted. I'd love to share their response with you but it's too long to post here.
ReplyDeleteThe township has just posted an updated interactive map of Readington Twp Equestrian and Hiking trails. https://readingtontwpnj.gov/images/OSAB/Trailheads.pdf
Keep up these great hiking blogs. I really enjoy them, although I can't do these distances since I'm in my late 60s.
connieb
Thanks so much! You can email the response to me if you would like. dvw13 @ comcast . net (remove spaces)
DeleteDaniela