Catskills, NY - Dry Brook Ridge

ABOUT THE PARK:

Dry Brook Ridge Wild Forest - New York Department of Environmental Conservation

DIRECTIONS: 

GPS Coordinates 42.07044, -74.57362

Dry Brook Ridge Trailhead Parking - I was the only one actually hiking the ridge.  Everyone else was going the opposite way to the Balsam Lake Mountain fire tower.

TRAIL MAP: 

Dry Brook Ridge Wild Forest Trail Map - New York Department of Environmental Conservation

Central Catksills Trail Map 142 - New York New Jersey Trail Conference

HIKE DISTANCE:  9.9 miles

THE HIKE: 

This hike is two weeks after chemo round 2.  The oncologist was very pleased that I worked my way to hiking in the Catskills after round 1 and encouraged me to continue that so I decided to bump the distance up a bit this time.

Trail access to the ridge is to the right of the kiosk.

Signing in at the register.

Seems a lot of people come this way in error.  There are more notes than what is shown here.

We did the fire tower the last time.  This time it's the ridge and we ran into nobody else the entire hike. The fire tower is the main attraction but I prefer the solitude of the ridge.

Up and down a small mountain.

Dry Brook Ridge Shelter

Now ascending the ridge, steeply at times but never any scrambles.

At the top it's a combination of level and rolling terrain with more mud, some overgrowth and some blow downs but everything still defined, marked and passable.

Passing the Huckleberry Loop which I heard can be quite overgrown - it was at this intersection.

Continuing on the Dry Brook Ridge Trail.

Coming up on the first overlook.

Continuing on to the second overlook, the trail becomes more rugged.

Second overlook, 5 miles out from the parking lot.

Heading back.

Stopping at the shelter to take a break.

Looks like a whole family took shelter here.

Passing back by the trail register.

All those other cars were for the fire tower since I had seen nobody else on the trail at all.

Long Pond Ironworks State Park, NJ - Jungle Habitat 2

ABOUT THE PARK: 

Forgotten N.J. safari park becomes trekking and biking destination for locals - NJ.com

New Jersey unveils first-of-its-kind mountain bike trail at Long Pond Ironworks State Park - News 12 New Jersey

Jungle Habitat Trail Revitalization Project Begins - New York New Jersey Trail Conference

DIRECTIONS: 

GPS Coordinates 41.130102, -74.340938

Large, brand new parking lot.

TRAIL MAP: 

Because this is still a work in progress, might be a good idea to check for updated maps.  I hiked the trail around the parking lot shown as orange but it is currently blazed with old gray markers.

HIKE DISTANCE:  6.2 miles (The track shows 6.5 miles because there was a hiccup in the track recording that went back and forth in a straight line adding .3 miles.)

THE HIKE: 

I labeled this hike as "Jungle Habitat 2" because there are more trails I need to explore and it is the perfect place for me to hike a little over a week after chemo when I have started to get my energy back.  There are dirt and paved trails of various difficulty levels so it's easy to choose which ones work at any given time.  

We started straight beyond the yellow gate on the old road to the huge parking lot.

Just a small view of the very large parking lot.

We turned right then accessed the trail to the right before the full sun caught up with us in the wide open parking lot.  I am supposed to avoid being in full sunlight.

The gray trail that is shown in orange on the map.  It's one of those squiggly mountain bike trails that tend to annoy hikers but I did not mind.  It just felt good to be on a dirt trail.  I only tolerate the paved trail in my local park for my daily walks to build back up to hiking.  Give me dirt any day!

The trail squiggles around the entire parking lot.

An old animal enclosure (otters?) from Jungle Habitat days past.

Not until after circling the parking lot did I start to see orange markers.   This trail is shown as yellow on the map.

Touching on a yellow blazed trail before continuing on an unmarked trail.

A few partial views along the ridge.

Back on orange (yellow on the map).

Red all the way back to the parking lot.

Although the parking lot was quite busy when we finished we hardly ran into anyone until the end of the hike.