Egg Harbor Township Nature Reserve, NJ

ABOUT THE PARK: 

Egg Harbor Township Nature Reserve

Egg Harbor Township Arboretum and Nature Center

DIRECTIONS: 

GPS Coordinates 39.35877, -74.65126

TRAIL MAP: 

Trail Maps - Egg Harbor Township Nature Reserve

There is a lot of information at the above link but none of it seems to be completely accurate or helpful.  What I ended up doing was grabbing the KML file and with an online tool to converted it into a GPX file that I uploaded to GaiaGPS.  That contained 50-some colored segments but it turned out the colors meant nothing.  It was useful, however, in determining where I was and which way to turn.

This is a snapshot of the GPX files uploaded to Gaia.  In reality, there are some posts at intersections and some blazes or markers on trees, but not a lot.  In the woods I only saw a yellow paint blazed trail and a trail with orange discs.  The rest were unmarked. The colors above, other than the blue trail around the lake, mean nothing.

 

HIKE DISTANCES: 

Great Egg Harbor Shared Use Path - 3.4 miles

Egg Harbor Township Nature Reserve - 6.5 miles

Cedar Bridge Tavern Historic Site - 3.5 miles

THE HIKE: 

 My plan was to hike the blue lower lake loop then head over to the trails in the woods then return via the upper lake loop.

Heading to the left of the parking lot ...

... to access the lower lake loop.

The trail loops around and heads back at the power cut.

To the right is the upper trail that we would be returning on at the end.

About half way down the opposite side of the lake we headed up to the arboretum.

Arboretum Parking Lot

There is a network of trails up here in a very small area but not much to see in the winter.

Heading back.

Continuing on the blue lower lake loop.

Back at the parking lot, you have to cross through the lot to the other side to access the upper lake loop.

On the upper lake loop.

Heading into the woods.

Touching back on the upper lake loop briefly before heading back into the woods.

Crossing over the power cut.

At Bayside Road the trail loops back.

Taking the inner loop through the woods.

Back on the outer loop ...

... and crossing back to the other side of the power cut.

On the upper lake loop.

He had better go find himself a hidey hole before this whole area is covered with 20+ inches of snow!

The upper lake loop merges with the lower lake loop shortly before the parking lot.

Just as I entered the parking lot a man heading to the trails threw this down on the ground.  I picked it up and turned to give him the stink eye (when my son was little he would call it "The Look") when he looked at me and actually thanked me.  I walked it out of my way over to the trash can.  

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