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.
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| 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.
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| Heading to the left of the parking lot ... |
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| ... to access the lower lake loop. |
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| The trail loops around and heads back at the power cut. |
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| To the right is the upper trail that we would be returning on at the end. |
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| About half way down the opposite side of the lake we headed up to the arboretum. |
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| Arboretum Parking Lot |
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| There is a network of trails up here in a very small area but not much to see in the winter. |
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| Heading back. |
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| Continuing on the blue lower lake loop. |
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| Back at the parking lot, you have to cross through the lot to the other side to access the upper lake loop. |
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| On the upper lake loop. |
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| Heading into the woods. |
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| Touching back on the upper lake loop briefly before heading back into the woods. |
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| Crossing over the power cut. |
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| At Bayside Road the trail loops back. |
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| Taking the inner loop through the woods. |
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| Back on the outer loop ... |
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| ... and crossing back to the other side of the power cut. |
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| On the upper lake loop. |
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| He had better go find himself a hidey hole before this whole area is covered with 20+ inches of snow! |
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| The upper lake loop merges with the lower lake loop shortly before the parking lot. |
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| 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. |
Hey Daniela -- awesome to have you back to my neck of the woods (more so here than Cedar Hill Tavern)! Loved your pix; I have pretty much been on all the trails (including the woods, of course)...but to say the map provided at the park is "outdated" is an understatement for sure! I guess the trails are pretty much spot on, but the color-coding/blazing needs some *serious* updating...especially in the woods! (At one time, there were simply a bunch of orange discs on the trees; and I guess there still pretty much is, but it seems to me they are more of a "series" of trails. I was indeed excited when I first noticed the specific yellow blazes, but it seems they need to be redone, as some are fading, and it's not obvious in some parts where the trail goes (or that that the trail continues across the power cut in both areas!) Seems like you caught the lower trail on a good day, as there have been times where portions were flooded out, and I had to climb up to the Brown (Upper) Trail to finish out the loop.
ReplyDeleteBut all in all, this is a wonderful gem of a place, which I believe has been around since 2017, and I discovered it via Mike/South Jersey Trails blog...and it is certainly a (seemingly) perpetual work in progress, but I hope sometime to see more (and updated) blazing of the woods trails! Great pix (as always), and great job "catching" that guy who threw the Wawa cup on the ground...like, really?? (Unfortunately, I'm going to guess that his "thank you" was totally sarcastic. 😣 )
Look forward to your next batch of pix...hopefully any snow we get will be shorter-lived than last month! (BTW -- loved the "snowcrete" description in the Cedar Bridge Tavern adventure...couldn't think of a better one-term description myself!!)
Jim
Hey Jim! Don't you know I was thinking about you the entire day yesterday when I was in your neck of the woods!
DeleteThe "thank you" actually did not sound sarcastic, more embarrassed, probably because he waited until I had my back to him to throw it down and did not expect me to turn around and catch him red-handed.
I can't take credit for "snowcrete". I saw it mentioned somewhere the other day and when I Googled it, it is actually a word that yes, perfectly describes what had been on the ground since what, mid January?