The Stonetown Circular Trail starts in Norvin Green State Forest then goes through the North Jersey District Water Supply Commission land, Long Pond Ironworks State Park and Passaic River Coalition's Tory Rocks Preserve. It goes up and down five mountains and is considered the most strenuous hike in New Jersey.
DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 41.07992, -74.30744
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| Parking at Stonetown Recreation Complex. |
TRAIL MAP:
Northern New Jersey Highlands Wyanokies Trail Map 151 - NY NJ Trail Conference
HIKE DISTANCE: 10.8 miles
THE HIKE:
The last time I did this hike was almost 12 years ago. It is referred to as a "butt-kicker" in the book "Take a Hike New York City." The distance is no big deal but the elevation changes and rock scrambles can be grueling, especially towards the end when you have really had enough yet around every bend there is more.
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| Walking out of the Stonetown Recreation Complex. |
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| Right on Stonetown Road a short distance then left just before the guardrail up ahead. |
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| First up Little Windbeam. |
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| The views are incredible any time but especially in the winter when the leaves are down. |
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| Wanaque Reservoir |
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| The summit of Windbeam Mountain. |
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| On to Bear Mountain. |
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| Off of Bear Mountain and on to Board Mountain. |
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| The northern end of Wanaque Reservoir, the Monksville Dam then Monksville Reservoir from Board Mountain. |
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| The trail descends steeply from Board Mountain then crosses a swampy area. |
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| Coming up on Monksville Reservoir. |
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| Hop the guardrail, left on Stonetown Road the cross over to the chain link gate on the right. |
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| The trail now follows a blissfully flat woods road although it was a solid sheet of ice for a good part of the way. |
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| Monksville Reservoir |
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| Up Harrison Mountain. |
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| At the top of Harrison Mountain the Highlands Trail leaves to the right and a spur trail starts to the left. |
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| The Stonetown Circular Trail continues straight ahead even though the red triangle is occasionally missing from the markers. |
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| The second car wreck we passed in the middle of the woods. |
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| Joining in with orange briefly to cross Burnt Meadow Brook on a dirt road bridge. |
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| Going up to Tory Rocks. |
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| Descending Tory Rocks - 2010 and 2022 in the same spot. |
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| At this point we had really had enough. Certainly the trail would not go up those rocks, would it? Oh yes it did. |
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| Nearing the end when the flag on Windbeam Mountain comes into sight. |
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| Yay, the road! |
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| A left on Magee Road then on to Stonetown Road for a nice, smooth road walk. |
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| Right into Stonetown Recreation Complex ... |
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| ... back to the parking lot. |
Good to see Shawnee again!
ReplyDeleteI still miss her every day.
DeleteGreat visual and commentary. Glad to see your hip surgery was successful. Happy Trail. Christine Eberle
ReplyDeleteThanks, Christine. I was quite happy that 12 years older with a replacement hip I was still able to do it. In fact, as I returned to my car, a young guy was getting into his car and pulled up in front of mine. He looked at me and said "Did you do the WHOLE thing?" I said I did and he replied "WOW!" and indicated that his knees couldn't handle the whole loop and he was at least half my age. Now that made my day!
DeleteI know you have some years on me, but your hiking abilities (even after the hip replacement) absolutely AWE me! (And you are a HUGE inspiration for me, and get me excited about parks/trails I've never been to...no matter HOW "hard" they may be!) :-)
DeleteJim
Thanks, Jim. That hip replacement surgery is pretty darned amazing. I had to stop taking drugs the week before surgery and I could barely walk even with a cane. Talk about feeling OLD! The surgeon promised me I would be able to hike again and although it did not seem like it at the time, he spoke the truth!
DeleteThat's a lot of elevation gain for NJ! I remember finding it hard to find places in NJ/NY/CT to train on for elevation gain - unless you go to the Catskills. Where I am now, it's quite mountainous, so easy to find hikes with up to 3,000' gain. So happy about your new hip! My knees are both giving me issues - a year after meniscus surgery I have some pain again in the same knee. Not enough to stop me from hiking though. My doctor put me on diclofenac. I've been working on other things - PT exercises, weight loss, anti-inflammatory foods - in order to not have to take daily pain drugs.
ReplyDeleteOh no not more knee pain! Diclofenac is what I took before surgery and it worked very well. There would have been no hiking up to surgery had it not been for that.
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