ABOUT THE PARKS:
Chubb Park - Chester Trails and Parks
Patriots' Path - Chester Trails and Parks
Tanners Brook Preserve - Chester Trails and Parks
DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 40.781867, -74.704023
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| Patriots' Path Parking in Chester, NJ |
TRAIL MAPS:
Chubb Park - Chester Trails and Parks
Patriot's Path and Tanners Brook Preserve - Chester Trails and Parks
Tanners Brook Preserve - Chester Trails and Parks
Patriots' Path West - Morris County Parks Commission
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HIKE DISTANCE: 8.75 miles
THE HIKE:
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| From the parking lot ... |
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| ... the white-blazed Patriots' Path follows a rail bed. |
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| A bridge on the left ... |
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| ... leads to Chubb Park. |
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| We followed the paved path around the lake ... |
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| ... then the main park road straight to ... |
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| ... where it meets up with a red-blazed Patriots' Path spur along the field towards the playground. |
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| The woods road will come out on a paved road with no blazes where we kept right. |
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| There is a path in the power cut that leads back to the white-blazed Patriots' Path where we started but we continued straight through the power cut... |
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| ... following the paved road. |
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| A short distance after the power cut, the blue-blazed Patriots' Path spur crosses over; we turned right. |
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| The blue spur ends up on the rail bed where straight ahead would take us back to our car but that is the way we would be finishing later. |
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| We went to where the blue trail ends and the white-blazed Patriots' Path turns left leaving the rail bed. |
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| The white-blazed Patriots' Path is now a footpath through pretty woods. |
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| Raging waterfalls. |
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| Uh oh. It had rained about 2 inches overnight on top of about 7 inches of recent snow melt so the trail was quite flooded and this bridge was completely under water. |
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| We bushwhacked around to Furnace Road where the Patriots' Path crosses over at the far end of the guardrail. |
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| Entering the Chester Furnace Historical Site which runs through Black River WMA. |
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| There are nice interpretive signs along the way. |
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| The reference map in the kiosk is hard to read and I could not find it online. |
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| The trail passes by several historical ruins. |
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| Central Railroad of New Jersey bridge over the Black River. |
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| Black River |
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| This red-tailed hawk had been sitting atop that snag but as soon as I got him in the viewfinder, he took off with no time for the camera to focus. It did capture that red tail, though! |
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| A gorgeous pine grove. |
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| The trail comes out on to Tanners Brook Road. |
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| It's a short road walk to just beyond where the pavement ends. |
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| The Black River WMA is on the right, the left, where the trail heads, is Tanners Brook Preserve with different hunting regulations. (Hunting is allowed on Sundays in the WMA.) |
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| There had been so many wet and muddy spots that crossing that sunken bridge on the way back might help clean us up a bit. |
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| I did not see it while I was taking this picture but Brodie sure did - a wild turkey in the power cut just out of sight. |
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| The trail climbs up to the top of a hill ... |
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| ... then descends on the other side into more wetness. |
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| Crossing over the golf course path ... |
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| ... then through Palmer Park. (After the hike I saw on the Washington Township web site that dogs are not allowed in any town parks. I saw no signs and there were several other people walking with dogs.) |
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| A paved path around the park. The Patriots' Path continues out the park entrance but we turned left and continued on the paved loop. |
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| After looping around ... |
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| ... retracing on the Patriots' Path. |
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| White-breasted Nuthatch |
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| Now coming up on the sunken bridge where he had bushwhack ..ed around earlier. My feet were already muddy and soaking wet so... |
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| ... over we went in ankle deep and COLD water! |
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| At the rail bed (where blue ended from earlier in the hike) we turned left on the white Patriots' Path. |
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| It's a straight shot ... |
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| ... all the way back to the car. |
