ABOUT THE PARK:
Schick Reserve - Hunterdon County Parks
DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 40.5998, -75.07085
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| Huge parking lot on Little York-Mt. Pleasant Road to accommodate horse trailers. |
TRAIL MAP:
Schick Reserve Trail Map - Hunterdon County Parks
HIKE DISTANCE: 5.9 miles
THE HIKE:
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| There really aren't any trails or defined paths in the field area. |
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| You just continue along the perimeter of the fields. |
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| It's kind of tough going this time of year with cut off stalks sticking up everywhere, even along the sides. That is frost on the field. It was 30 degrees at 7 AM. |
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| Sometimes there is a softer grassy area. |
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| Crossing Schiff Road. |
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| Turn left and follow the edge of the field parallel to the road. |
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| This little downy woodpecker landed right above my head and sat there nicely while I took pictures. |
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| Frozen Fields |
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| In order to make a loop and not keep going in endless circles around fields, we cut through the hedgerows as others apparently had before us. |
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| Hawks everywhere on this hike. |
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| Shawnee has been more stiff lately and tiring faster so she started acupuncture. It seems to agree with her. She was feeling particularly good on this hike. |
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| The first creek crossing. Don't trust the rocks that look like stepping stones. They are not stable at all and thank goodness I wore my waterproof hiking shoes. |
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| When the trail (yes, it is sort of a trail) goes into the woods, a marker. Just one marker. |
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| After that, especially with the heavy leaf drop, follow the old ribbons. |
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| Coming out on to the next field. |
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| Crossing Schick Road to the second parking lot. |
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| A short grassy woods road from the barn to the next field. |
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| Entering the woods at the second trail marker. |
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| This trail through the woods is easier to follow since it is a woods road. |
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| Second creek crossing. |
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| Entering the fields from the woods road. |
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| A horse farm straight ahead. |
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| There was a path into a field shown on the map without a trail line so we took that... |
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| ... to Schick Road and turned left for a short road walk. |
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| Schick Farms |
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| From Shick Road a left back to the fields. This is more along the lines of what I had been expecting for a trail along the fields. |
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| Happy not to be stepping on those cut off stalks. |
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| The parking lot across the field. |
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| A short walk parallel to the road back to the car just in front of that red building. |
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| Just across the road from the parking lot, fresh eggs! I don't eat them but Shawnee does and I am always looking for people with chickens selling eggs like this since I won't buy factory farmed eggs in the store. |
