ABOUT THE PARK:
DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 41.157558, -74.367454
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Parking at one of the three pullouts at 7 AM.
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All three pullouts packed at 1 PM.
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TRAIL MAP:
PEAK BAGGING:
HIKE DISTANCE: 7.1 miles
THE HIKE:
When I hiked here in years past I hardly ever ran into anyone. That has all changed. I ran into nobody on the new pink-blazed West Ridge Trail and the southern part of the green-blazed Bearfort Ridge Loop parallel to Warwick Turnpike. But the yellow Ernest Walter Trail and the green Bearfort Ridge Loop Trail heading south from Surprise Lake, wow, I have never seen so many LARGE groups of people on hiking trails. The constant chatter carries quite a distance and is annoying. There was no trail etiquette and Brodie and I had to just dive off trail into sticker bushes to maintain social distancing each and every time which was every few minutes it seemed. One woman actually kept following me as we kept backing away off trail. I had to tell her to stop following me, that I was trying to get away from her and the trail was in the other direction. Although a gorgeous hike, the crowds made it not so pleasant. Lesson learned: Don't do this hike on a gorgeous weekend. It is now very, very popular.
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From this pullout, walk back east along Warwick Turnpike to the end of the pullout.
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Hop the guardrail. Brodie had to vault over it, too, with assistance because it's pretty high. He did not fit under.
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Almost right away, a bridge over ...
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Green Brook
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We were on the blue/green Bearfort Ridge Connector.
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When blue/green ends, left on green. We would be returning from the right.
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Hazy New York City skyline early in the morning.
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Left on the new pink-blazed West Ridge Trail.
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Looks like this was a green-blazed trail long ago.
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I had been looking for the summit of Bearfort Mountain North which is a few yards off trail. After just passing the point where it should have been I turned around to see a faint trail to the right of the pink trail.
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It involved a little bit of bushwhacking but there is the cairn at the summit.
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Pink ends at the yellow Ernest Walter Trail.
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We parked ourselves on a rock off trail waiting for the source of incessant chatter to pass us by. Here is where we started running into people almost nonstop.
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Right on yellow.
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There is one particularly difficult scramble that Brodie was terrified of and it took some battling with him to get him going up in the right direction because he kept wanting to go down. Once I got him headed up he scrambled on up the rest of the way.
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This is looking back down from the top of the vertical scramble.
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A trail on the left ...
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... leads to views of West Pond.
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Green joins in from the right. Had we not turned on to pink, this is where we would have been joining yellow.
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Crowds at Surprise Lake.
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I managed to find a socially distanced spot for a quick shot then we got the heck out of there.
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Retracing a little bit on yellow/green then staying left on green which is the eastern side of the Bearfort Ridge Loop.
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Downy Woodpecker
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Dark-eyed Junco
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No idea what this is. There was one on the other side also with a jacket on it but nobody around.
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More large groups heading up and not getting near far enough off the trail. Only 3 had masks on as did I. I hurried along as far to the left as I could get. I am always the one to go way off trail and let groups past but this group was not moving.
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Green ends here but starts to the right; we turned right.
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Left on blue/green retracing from the beginning of the hike.
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Back over that awful guardrail. It's not easy getting a dog over that and I remember struggling with it with Shawnee.
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