Hungry Mother State Park (Marion, VA)

ABOUT THE PARK: Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation

TRAIL MAP:
Online Map
Maps available in the park office and throughout the park at trailheads.

DIRECTIONS:
An 8 hour drive from Central New Jersey
I-78 west to I-81 south to Marion, VA exit 47; go one mile on Route 11 toward Marion; turn right on Route 16 north and travel four miles to the park.

ACCOMMODATIONS:
We stayed in cabin 7 on the top of a mountain overlooking the other cabins below which were spaced a nice distance apart from each other. Click here for information on cabin rentals. All cabins are pet-friendly. Our trip was from Saturday, June 19, 2010 to Saturday, June 26, 2010. We hiked a total of 56.5 miles during the week.

Outside of cabin:




Living room/dining room with fireplace and door to covered stone porch:


Kitchen:


Bathroom with shower:


Bedroom with two twin beds:


Bedroom with double bed:


HIKES:
Hikes at Hungry Mother State Park (described below in this post):
Hike 1 - 2 miles - Raider's Run/Old Shawnee Trail
Hike 2 - 4 miles - Molly's Knob & Molly's Vista
Hike 3 - 6 miles - Lake Loop Trail


Day Hikes Outside of Hungry Mother State Park (links to individual posts for each hike):
Jefferson National Forest, VA - Crawfish Valley - 13.5 miles
Grayson Highlands State Park, VA/Mount Rogers - 10.5 miles
Stone Mountain State Park, NC - 9.5 miles
Cumberland Gap National Forest, VA-KY-TN - 9 miles & Wilderness Road State Park, VA - 1 mile

Hike 1 - 2 miles - Raider's Run/Old Shawnee Trail
For the trailhead, park in parking lot P2 across from the restaurant:

Follow Raider's Run to Old Shawnee Trail to the other side of Raider's Run, back to the parking lot for about a 2 mile loop.



There are limited views with foliage, probably better views when leaves are down.


Hike 2 - 4 miles - Molly's Knob & Molly's Vista
Park at the end of Lake Drive. Walk a short distance north (away from the lake) along the road to the Molly's Knob trailhead on the right.

The Legend of Hungry Mother
Legend has it that when the Native Americans destroyed several settlements on the New River south of the park, Molly Marley and her small child were among the survivors taken to the raiders’ base north of the park. They eventually escaped, wandering through the wilderness eating berries. Molly finally collapsed, and her child wandered down a creek until the child found help. The only words the child could utter were "Hungry Mother." The search party arrived at the foot of the mountain where Molly collapsed to find the child's mother dead. Today that mountain is Molly’s Knob, and the stream is Hungry Mother Creek.

Follow the white-blazed Molly's Knob Trail where you will find a nice overlook deck at .5 miles.

If you have had enough uphill walking, you can go back down and call it a day for a 1 mile hike but you will be missing out on a lot. Bring plenty of water so you can keep on going up, up, up... You will catch a couple of views along the way:


At about 1.6 miles, turn left and head up the purple-blazed Molly's Vista Trail.

At the 2 mile point, arrive at the amazing vista:





Simply retrace your steps back to finish - it's all downhill!

Hike 3 - 6 miles - Lake Loop Trail
There are multiple parking lots around the lake and you can start at any of them. Just keep in mind that on the map above a section indicated by an arrow follows the road to connect the loop as the trail does not actually connect. We started at the parking pad at the end of Lake Drive at 6 am just as the sun was rising and started counter clockwise so that we would be on the road side first while there was minimal traffic. Even at that hour of the morning you will run into a few others taking advantage of the peacefulness of the early morning. This is a very easy, mostly flat trail. From that parking area, walk along the road turning left into the parking lot opposite the campground. The trailhead is at the other end of that parking lot. The trail will start out paved, turn to gravel and then dirt on the other side of the dam.









After passing the dam you'll be going through quiet rhododendron tunnels and forests until you connect back up with the lake.


When you reach the split below, if you parked on Lake Drive or walked down from the cabins, turn right towards the parking area. If you parked elsewhere along the lake, take the left trail which will bring you out on the road where you need to walk along Lake Drive to reach the trailhead across from the campground.

Wildcat Ridge Wildlife Management Area (Hibernia/Rockaway, NJ)

ABOUT THE PARK: New Jersey's Great Northwest Skylands (nice history and description)

TRAIL MAP:
I cropped, enlarged and printed all three of these maps and had referred to each of them at one point or another. Could not find one good map of the trails. The best one is the map posted at the Hawk Watch overlook which gives a URL to the map but that no longer works.
http://www.wcrhawkwatch.com/map/wcrtrails.html
http://www.nynjtc.org/trails/farnyhighlands/Farny%20South.jpg
http://www2.jorba.org/images/2/24/Wildcat_LR.jpg

PARKING DIRECTIONS: I-80 to exit 37, north on Route 513 (Green Pond Road) for 2.8 miles, right on Lower Hibernia Road (could have different name or unnamed on maps/GPS), immediate left into Wildcat Ridge parking lot. (Sign was easily visible from Route 513.)

HIKE DIRECTIONS:
Very nice hike, ran into no other people while on the trails (only at the reservoir).

For the most part, I followed the directions given by NJ Hiking's Four Birds Trail - Wildcat Ridge hike with some modifications on the return route making the hike about 11 miles long. (Battery went dead on my pedometer so guessing at total mileage.)

At the beginning of the hike is the bat cave where you can feel very cold air rushing out of the opening. No bats there this time of year - they return in September.




A little farther along the white-blazed Four Birds trail is an old cemetery off to the right. It was very hard to see from the trail because of foliage but at an intersection with a woods road, I turned right on the woods road and the main entrance to the cemetery was just a short distance ahead. This link contains details on some of the graves in the cemetery.




Return back to the white-blazed Four Birds trail.


At 3.4 miles, turn right at the orange-blazed Hawk Watch trail for a short distance:





The section of map for this hike that is posted at Hawk Watch:


Backtrack to the white-blazed Four Birds trail, turn right and continue on to Split Rock Road.
At 4.7 miles turn right on Split Rock Road, which is a gravel road but does have pretty heavy car traffic heading towards Split Rock Reservoir. There will be a lot of people at the reservoir so if you want to get a quiet view, start looking for paths to the left leading to the reservoir before the bridge. Beyond the bridge at the parking area where there is access to the reservoir, there will be tons of people.


While crossing the bridge at the reservoir on Split Rock Road, we came across this little fellow. Well, maybe not quite so little...



After about 1 mile on Split Rock Road, beyond the bridge and parking lot, turn right on a gravel road that goes into the second power cut. I did not see any blue blazes here for the Split Rock Loop trail so it was very hard to find. If you start up the gravel road, you will soon see blue blazes on a rock where you turn right into the woods, but it's not visible from Split Rock Road.


The views on the blue-blazed Split Rock Loop trail were obstructed by foliage this time of year but it was still an interesting hike through the woods with some neat features.



At about 8 miles at the end of the blue-blazed Split Rock Loop Trail, turn left heading back the way you came on the white-blazed Four Birds trail:


Instead of continuing on the white-blazed Four Birds trail, I turned right on the red-blazed Beaver Pond trail to the pond with two beaver lodges.


At the end of the red-blazed trail, turn left on a yellow-blazed trail. The yellow-blazed trail is overgrown and difficult to follow at times. It is on one map, not the others, but it does exist.



When the yellow trail ends in a gravel parking lot, take the woods road to the right of the orange-blazed trail. (The orange-blazed trail goes out to Hawk Watch.)


Pay close attention for trails intersecting the woods road to find the white-blazed Four Birds Trail. Turn right on the white-blazed trail.

Shortly before arriving back at the parking lot you cross the orange-blazed Hibernia Brook Trail which you might have noticed at the beginning of the hike. This is a loop which passes some ruins. The trail runs close to Route 513 with lots of noise from traffic and lawnmowers. The trail is not on most of the maps and it appears to be more of a mountain bike trail.

Tourne County Park (Morris County, NJ)

ABOUT THE PARK: Morris County Park Commission

TRAIL MAP: Downloadable maps - saw no maps at all available at the park.

PARKING DIRECTIONS:
Boonton Side: From the Morris Country Park Commission website - this area is heavily used and when I was there McCaffrey Lane was being closed off for a 5K race.
Denville Side: McCaffrey Lane is gated in the middle of the park so there is no through traffic to the other side. Instead of turning left from Fanny Road on to McCaffrey Lane, continue straight and turn left on Old Denville Road. The park entrance will be on the left. This parking lot is by the children's play area, is very large and appears to be lightly used.

HIKE DIRECTIONS:
The weather forecast for the weekend was not good with a constant chance of thunderstorms so I wanted a park where I would have a quick out back to the car if needed. Turned out to be a sunny day but terribly hot and humid. Managed to get 9.5 miles in exploring the trails with repeating some trail sections. I was not able to find trail distances online so I measured the ones I was on and will provide approximate trail lengths.


DeCamp Trail to Top of the Tourne - 1.5 mile loop, unmarked


This should be a view of the New York City skyline but with the haze and humidity the skyline was not visible the morning I was there:


Red-Blazed Trail - 3 miles
Appears to be the most heavily used trail in the park




White-Blazed Trail - 1 mile
Not as heavily used as the red-blazed trail.


Along the white-blazed trail there is a sign for Boiling Spring. I turned at the sign and followed the unmarked trail but it kept forking into other unmarked trails not on the map, there were no more signs and I never did find Boiling Spring.


Swamp Trail
Apparently this trail no longer exists as it goes right into the swamp. There is no way to the other side that is supposed to come out on to the red-blazed trail.
Swamp Trail trailhead from white-blazed trail:




Mountain Lakes/Birchwood Trail - umarked - .8 miles (in pink on map)





Unmarked Trails
There are several unmarked trails, more than what is shown on the map, so it is confusing to know exactly where they lead. Although the unmarked trails are well-defined and not overgrown, I did not run into any other people.



LITTER REPORT:
No litter! Noticed most people using reusable water bottles instead of disposable plastic bottled water.