ABOUT THE PARK:
DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 40.33039, -74.13979
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| One of many parking lots, crazy busy on a nice weekend later in the day. |
TRAIL MAP:
HIKE DISTANCE: 9.6 miles
THE HIKE:
I generally avoid popular parks like this because they get so crowded but with arriving around 7 AM and sticking to dirt trails (90% of the people will be on the paved trail) I managed to not run into too many other people. LOTS of dog walkers so it can be really annoying having to constantly manage a reactive dog. On the up side, there are only a few hunting days which had already happened and I needed a no hunting option closer to home on a Saturday so this was it.
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| Starting off by looping around the Woodland Trail and Misty Walk which start to the left of the picnic shelter. |
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| Coming off of the Woodland Trail, straight would be back to the parking lot but an unmarked trail to the left leads past the picnic shelter ... |
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| ... to the Reservoir Loop on the left. I would be making this into a longer loop by combining it with the Marlu Trail. |
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| Swimming River Reservoir |
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| The Reservoir Loop turns left at the Marlu Lake parking lot. We would be returning that way later but for now, straight ... |
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| ... to the Marlu Trail. That actually goes to the right but to the left is another trail closer to the lake. |
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| It connects back to the Marlu Trail so that is the way we went. |
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| Marlu Lake |
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| Back on the Marlu Trail ... |
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| ... along the edges of fields. |
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| When the Marlu Trail meets up with the paved trail, left ... |
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| ... over the bridge. |
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| Just the other side of the bridge, left on the Reservoir Loop. |
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| Crossing over the paved trail staying with the Reservoir Loop. It also turns left here back to that parking lot but we'd be doing that later. |
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| Balloon #4 of 2022. |
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| Balloon #5 of 2022. |
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| The Reservoir Trail, according to the map, turns right before hitting the paved path. I did not see the turn but this is the way I wanted to go anyway. Right on the paved path a short distance... |
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| ... then right before the bridge to retrace the section we had done previously when we had come off of the bridge from the other direction. |
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| I am glad we came this way again because I took an unmarked side path down to the lake which turned out to be a really nice and scenic path along the lake for quite a while ... |
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| ... before coming back out on the Reservoir Loop. |
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| Now back at the paved trail turning left towards the Marlu Lake parking lot. |
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| Just before the parking lot, right on the Reservoir Loop to retrace all the way back. |
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| Where there were only a handful of cars in the lot at 7 AM, it was now completely packed. |
