ABOUT THE PARK:
NOTE: Trails through Camp Jefferson are closed until 5 pm on summer weekdays when camp is in session.
New Trails to Open at Camp Jefferson (Oct 2009) - Jefferson Township
Mahlon Dickerson Reservation - Morris County Parks
DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 40.98022, -74.59913
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| Parking at Camp Jefferson |
TRAIL MAP:
Mahlon Dickerson Reservation Trail Map - Morris County Parks (Only shows Highlands Trail through Camp Jefferson, not Camp Jefferson trails.)
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| My unprofessional rendition of a Camp Jefferson trail map with approximate mileages since there doesn't seen to be a map. |
HIKE DISTANCE: 5.3 miles
THE HIKE:
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| Getting started is a little difficult in the summer. The teal Highlands Trail/yellow trail is supposed to start to the left of the skate park which, as you can see in Dan Balogh's picture from 10/31/2011, it clearly does. Fast forward to 8/2/2015 and the skate park sign is gone, the post with blazes is gone/overgrown and the blazes on that same tree can't be seen from in front of the skate park, which may no longer be a skate park. |
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| Once you make your way through a few feet of overgrowth, you can see the blazes on that tree - almost. |
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| Things clear out a lot then the trail comes out at ... |
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| ... cabins and follows the gravel road. |
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| Here it is joined by the orange trail which ... |
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| ... leaves to the left just before the lake. |
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| Camp Jefferson Lake |
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| The moon at 6 AM. |
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| An open air theater across from... |
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| ... a dock. |
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| It's very pretty and peaceful here at 6 AM. |
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| At the far end of the lake, orange follows a service road... |
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| ... before continuing along the lake as a footpath. |
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| Sunrise at 6:30 AM. |
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| Camp contraptions. |
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| Orange ends back at teal/yellow. |
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| We took the yellow Upper Trail out intending to return on the blue Lower Trail. |
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| The woods are very pretty along the Highlands Trail/yellow trail. |
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| Following along the ridge. |
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| Everything is well marked and clear. |
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| The other end of blue which we will take on the return route. But first... |
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| How to get through the overgrowth in the power cut? Some of this greenery was up to my head! |
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| Stopping for a picture of the view before going in. |
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| Even trusty trail dog Shawnee can't tell which way. If there are blazes, you certainly can't see them. |
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| Impenetrable growth covering walls of boulders on the other side but at long last... |
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| ...we found blazes on the other side. (Shawnee is shaking off because all of that overgrowth was soaking wet.) |
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| And thorny. |
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| Relieved to be on the other side but oh no, we eventually have to go back. We'll worry about that later. |
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| For now, leaving Camp Jefferson and the yellow trail and entering Mahlon Dickerson on just the teal Highlands Trail. |
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| The Highlands Trail crosses a woods road which is the Winona Trail to the right, our return route. |
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| Continuing on the Highlands Trail at the intersection with the Winona Trail. |
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| Another power cut but this one was not nearly as overgrown. |
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| A blaze is obvious in the power cut but you have to climb up to it in order to see... |
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| ... the blazes continuing across and back into the woods. |
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| A creek crossing. |
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| Back across that same power cut further north. |
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| Then a right on the black-on-teal Winona Trail which is a service road. |
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| She gets bored silly on gravel service roads and lags behind to where I think she is getting too hot and/or tired and start worrying about her. |
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| A red eft that apparently does not mind the gravel service road and there were many, many more that I had to be careful not to step on. |
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| Avoiding that icky gravel as much as possible. I agree, though, it's not pleasant to walk on at all. |
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| Two different colors of efts. And the race is on! |
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| Winona Trail |
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| At the end of the Winona Trail, watch for the cairns and Highland Trail blazes on the left. |
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| Retracing on the Highlands Trail. |
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| Not lagging any more and happy to be on a footpath again. |
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| Back at that overgrown power cut. |
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| Fortunately the blazes were at least visible in this direction. |
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| But we still had to hack our way through overgrowth. |
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| Yes, right through this and that was way over Shawnee's head, and taller than my waist. |
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| Almost there... |
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| We made it and entered back into the woods. |
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| It looked somewhat overgrown when we turned left on blue... |
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| ... but it opened up and the trail was pretty clear. |
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| Well, for a while. Then we entered into a mass of Sandy blow downs that were never cleared. |
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| Shawnee was able to slide under the first mass of blow downs but I had to take off my backpack and do the blow down limbo to get under. |
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| Things didn't look so bad until... |
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| ... the trail become completely obliterated by blow downs. In trying to get around the mess, I lost the trail and ended up bushwhacking back up to the Highlands Trail/yellow trail. |
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| Orange joins in then leaves to the right to loop around the lake. |
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| Instead of turning left into the woods and following the trail back through overgrowth to the former skate park, we continued through the camp. Enough overgrowth battling for today! |
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| This leads straight back to the parking area. It's a shame there has not been maintenance on the camp trails because they go through a lovely area and are definitely trails worth having. |
