Pennington Loop Nature Trail - NJ Trails Association
DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 40.33294, -74.78492
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| Parking at Kunkel Park |
TRAIL MAP:
Pennington Loop Nature Trail Map - NJ Trails Association
Note that the trail colors indicated on the map are incorrect. There is only one blue-blazed trail as shown below. The rest of the trails (yellow and orange) exist but are unmarked. There is no green trail, it is marked in blue.
HIKE DISTANCE: 3.4 miles
Hiked together with Woosamonsa Ridge Preserve - 2.6 miles (10 mile drive)
THE HIKE:
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| From the parking lot, a grand entrance to the Pennington Loop Trail. |
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| The trail starts out unmarked. |
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| After rock hopping a creek ... |
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| ... the blue-blazed Pennington Loop Trail begins. I kept to the right to go around counterclockwise. |
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| Coming up on ... |
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| ... Baldwin Lake. I crossed the dam on the right ... |
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| ... to it's end on the other side of the lake ... |
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| ... then retraced to continue on into Baldwin Lake WMA at the sign on the left. A short distance in blue turns left (would be coming back to that later) and to the right is the woods road along the lake. |
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| Wood Ducks |
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| At one point a fox darted across the trail right in front of me, too fast to snap a shot. On the return route I saw him go around a bend up ahead and missed that, too. |
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| The woods road along Baldwin Lake comes out on Main Street at a parking area. |
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| To form a loop you can presumably turn left then into the residential area to come back out on the blue trail but I prefer the woods so I retraced. |
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| The parking lot consists of a turn around loop and I would guess you park on the grass to the left? There would only be room for a couple of cars. The Kunkel Park lot was a much better choice. |
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| At the intersection with blue with the dam on the left, I turned right to continue on blue. |
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| What is shown as a yellow trail on the map (actually unmarked) is to the left. It is not as well-defined as blue but it doesn't go near the residential area so I turned left. |
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| It's passable, just a lot more narrow. |
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| This trail comes back out on blue where I turned left. |
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| After rock hopping back across the creek I stayed left on unmarked heading back to Kunkel Park. |
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| Stony Brook, pretty dry at this time. |
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| A grand exit from the trail back into Kunkel Park. |
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| Right across the grass back to the parking lot. |
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| I don't eat eggs but heading to Woosamonsa Ridge Preserve I passed a couple of egg stands. My son prefers free range farm eggs so I bought a couple of cartons for him since I had a cooler in the car. |
