ABOUT THE PARK:
Wildcat Ridge Wildlife Management Area - JORBA
DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 40.931583, -74.485813
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| Parking for about 4 cars along Meriden Road. |
TRAIL MAP:
New Jersey Highlands Trail Map 125 - NYNJ Trail Conference (only shows some of the trails)
Wildcat Ridge WMA - Trailforks
powered by Trailforks.com
HIKE DISTANCE: 10 miles
THE HIKE:
Tropical Storm Isaias had wreaked havoc just a few days earlier and with so many downed trees it was hard to determine where to hike. Then I noticed on Trailforks.com that there had already been trail maintenance performed by JORBA (thanks, JORBA!) on several of the Wildcat Ridge trails so Wildcat Ridge WMA it was! And a bonus - hardly any spider webs, NO biting deer flies and almost no bugs at all, just one mosquito that stalked me briefly and then gave up. It was the first time I have not been bitten by biting flies this summer. (They laugh at Deep Woods OFF.) But it was humid.
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| I started on the unmarked trail at the far end of the pull out parking. Turns out the blue trail I wanted was a short road walk farther but I didn't know that until the end of the hike. |
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| Navigating around on a maze of woods roads with the GPS until ... |
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| ... we met up with the blue-blazed Beach Glen Trail. |
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| As the trail report on Trailforks indicated, downed trees had been cleared! |
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| Left on the red-blazed Meriden Trail. |
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| This trail switchbacks up a steep ascent. |
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| The red trail ends at the white-blazed Four Birds Trail where we turned right. |
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| Looking back at the Meriden Trail that we had just been on. |
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| It was really foggy up here so I wasn't holding out much hope for views at Hawk Watch. |
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| Back in 2010 there was a post here (inset) where the orange trail goes to Hawk Watch but now all that remains are a few boards. |
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| As I expected, coming up on Hawk Watch ... |
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| ... everything was in a cloud. |
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| Heading back on orange to continue on white. |
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| A trail on the left goes to Beaver Pond. |
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| It was right in this area that many years ago I saw my first bear while hiking. He stood on his hind legs to get a better look at me and Shawnee so I started talking and he took off. No bears to be seen on this hike. |
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| A little bit of a foggy view through the trees. |
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| The blazes on this tree confused me for a minute. It looks like blue turns left but it shouldn't turn left here. |
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| When I took a step to the left I could see it was actually the start of the blue trail. Now it made sense! Right on blue. |
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| A teeny view of Splitrock Reservoir through the trees. |
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| As the trail was following along Beaver Brook we encountered one downed tree blocking the trail but it was easy enough to get around to the left. This is not one of the trails that had a report that it had been cleared. |
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| This bridge over Beaver Brook was missing the far end but with the water low it didn't matter. |
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| Beaver Brook |
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| Easy enough to hop down to the ground here and avoid the missing part. |
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| Beaver Brook |
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| Blue joins in the green Richter Mine Trail for a bit. |
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| Blue leaves to the left. |
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| We stayed with blue until it crossed over green again then turned right on green. |
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| Leaving green to the right on the unmarked Old Koehler Road Trail. |
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| A group of three mountain bikers passed us along this stretch, the only others we had seen the entire hike. |
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| Somewhere along this stretch a tree crashed down off trail to our right. There are weak trees still coming down. |
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| More JORBA trail clearing work. |
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| The trail goes through a section of mine tailings. |
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| Since this hike was running longer than planned and I was short on time, I decided to road walk back the last couple of miles. |
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| We headed left to Meriden Road ... |
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| ... where we turned right. |
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| Beaver Brook from Meriden Road |
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| There is a trail that goes to the left heading towards Jonathan Woods and this bridge visible to the left must be that trail. |
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| A little farther along I saw this on the left, presumably where that trail starts (there is another trail on the right into Wildcat Ridge as noted on the Trailforks app) but I could see no evidence of a trail. |
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| A little farther along on the right, another parking area for the start of the red-blazed Meriden Trail. |
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| There was more traffic on this road than I expected but I wasn't the only pedestrian. There were a few joggers also. Only one of the many cars that zoomed past actually slowed down to anything resembling 25 mph. |
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| Ah ha - there on the right the start of the blue Beach Glen Trail that I missed at the beginning ... |
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| ... just up from where I parked. Those other cars were not hikers or mountain bikers, they had just pulled over briefly and left before I did so I was the only one parked there for Wildcat Ridge. |
