High Point State Park, NJ - Lusscroft Farm

ABOUT THE PARK:
Lusscroft Farm Trails - Lusscroft Farm

DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 41.24011, -74.68316

Parking at Lusscroft Farm

TRAIL MAP:
Lusscroft Farm Trail Network - Lusscroft Farm

HIKE DISTANCE:  6 miles

THE HIKE:

Sunrise at Lusscroft Farm

We started out walking through the farm area.

This would be about as good as the views got on this hazy, 65-degree day in DECEMBER!

Following this paved road around to the left...

... brought us to an umarked woods road that leads to Brink Pond and ...

... the blue-blazed Americorps Valley Trail.

Brinks Pond

All of the white plastic tubes would have something to do with maple syrup, I believe.

Although the trail crosses over the paved 4-H Trail here, I wanted to stop at the gate house to check out the parking situation a little better.

I was going to park here as it shows pull-out parking on the map but there was no place to pull off to park and walking to it for a better look confirmed that.

The gate house.

Back on blue where there were several brand spanking new bridges.  They even smelled of new wood still.

You can go either right or left on red, they both end up at the same place.  We went left.

These must be the old bridges off of the pink trail, which leads to ...

... open fields.  We just went the short distance to have a look then backtracked to...

... yellow.  So if you can't figure out who to name a trail after, you just name it after everybody.

Yellow leads back to the farm and ...

... Ice Pond.

The brown trail should branch off at the intersection of yellow and green but it was nowhere to be found so we continued to the right along the fence...

... then followed it around to the left ...

... to the Sugar house ...

... where I found the brown trail.

The brown trail ends at Neilson Road where you cross over to...

... the orange Shortcut Trail.

This leads to the blue-blazed Americorps Mountain Trail.

I've seen a tick or two in the snow but never an army marching up both legs in DECEMBER!  Thank goodness I had Deep Woods OFF! with me.  A blast (OK, a dousing) of that and they skedaddled away fast.  Shawnee, fortunately, had none on her.  The K-9 Advantix was apparently doing it's job.

Old stone farm fence.

The blue trail ends at an unmarked woods road which leads to ...

... the yellow trail just before a huge blow down.

Another huge blow down a few steps in on yellow that Shawnee could walk right under.

Shawnee watching my no-so-graceful crawl under on hands and knees.  Note that spot of green in the background...

... no helium balloons for my collection on this hike so a couple of plastic bags will have to do.

Mount McMitchell in the distance.

Back on the orange Shortcut Trail for a short distance.

And surprise!  There is an unmarked trail to the summit of Mount McMitchell that is not on the map.

At the summit of Mount McMitchell!

Again, no winter views on this warm and hazy day.

On the way out, I found the old sign in the leaves.

The yellow Unity Trail.

At the blue Explorer Trail, you can take north or south and make a loop up to the Applachian Trail.

Once at the AT, a sign facing the other way states that were we came from is not the AT. 

On the Appalachian Trail.

And looping around to the other fork of the Explorer Trail.

The pink Nachos Trail...

... has ruins of an old plane crash.

Not much to see from Spanish Overlook with the haze.

There might be some winter views at best on a clear day.

At the second "Steep Hill" sign at the bottom, blue continues to the left.

The pink Tenderfoot Trail leads to ...

... an old spring house.

Continuing on pink ...

... to a sharp right on blue ...

... leads to the very interesting Outlook Lodge.

Retracing on blue and continuing down to ...

... the end at Neilson Road.

A few steps ahead on the other side is the start of the blue Americorps Valley Trail.

We took that back to Brink Pond and looped back around through the farm buildings.

A Christmas picture in front of Turner Mansion.

Glades Wildlife Refuge, NJ - Bald Eagle Trail and Turkey Point

ABOUT THE PARK:
Glades Wildlife Refuge - Natural Lands Trust

DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates for Bald Eagle Trail - 39.26134, -75.12585

No parking lot but parking appears to be off  to the side of the road.

TRAIL MAP:
Glades Wildlife Refuge Trail Map - Natural Lands Trust

HIKE DISTANCES:
All hikes combined with short drives from one to the other - 8.4 miles
Bald Eagle Trail - 1.6 miles
Maple Street Trail - 4 miles
Warfle Farm Trail .7 miles
Tat Star Tail - 2.1 miles

THE HIKE:

Heading out on the Bald Eagle trail on a frosty and foggy morning.

Trails are mowed and easy to follow.

Tons of birds everywhere.

The pond that the trail loops around.

Back at Turkey Point Road.

I drove the short distance from the Bald Eagle Trail to Turkey Point where the road ends.

Shawnee waited patiently in the car (you can see her ears on the back seat) while I climbed the observation tower.  (Those two beer bottles on the left are now in my recycling bin.)

As soon as I looked around from up high, there was a Great Blue Heron nearby on the top of a tree.

Bridge over Weir Creek.

Shawnee came along on the bridge.

Weir Creek

From the other side of the bridge you can access Egg Island WMA and it looked like there was a path but also a ton of garbage so I decided it was not worth getting Shawnee down the steps to explore that side.

The egret still sitting there totally unconcerned about us.

There was a path this side of the bridge so we went a short distance along that - a very short distance before I decided...

... that was a very bad idea.

Driving back on Turkey Point Road, a seagull was sitting on the bridge and never moved when I pulled right up along side of him to take his picture.  I could have reached out the window and touched him.

But this was his reaction when I spoke to him.  Sorry!

Although I saw no bald eagles on the Bald Eagle Trail, before heading home I drove by a PSE&G restoration site nearby that has a trail and boardwalks over the marshes to see if it might be worth another trip back at a later time and there I saw a bald eagle at the end of the boardwalk from the parking lot.

The sun was at a horrible angle and he was pretty far away so even the 35x zoom did not do a very good job.

And here he is taking off.