Sunday, February 19, 2023

Belleplain State Forest, NJ

ABOUT THE PARK: 
Belleplain State Forest - New Jersey State Park Service

DIRECTIONS: 
GPS Coordinates 39.24854, -74.84209
Parking at the state forest office.

TRAIL MAP: 
Belleplain State Forest Trail Map - New Jersey State Park Service


HIKE DISTANCE:  13.2 miles

THE HIKE: 
I hiked the East Creek and Ponds Trails back in December 2010.  This time I extended the hike by adding on some of the pink-blazed mountain bike trails and trails in the Lake Nummy area.
Starting on the red-blazed North Shore Trail to the right of the forest office.
The trail ends at the green-blazed Goosekill Trail where we turned right.  We would be returning from the left.
   Where the green trail ends, right on ...
... the Champion Trail just a few steps to ...
... left on the pink Mountain Bike Trail.
We did not see any mountain bikers at all but did have to deal with the sound of gunfire nearby for the first 2 hours of the hike.  Brodie freaks out over that so it makes for unpleasant hiking for both of us.
I cut off a section by taking an unmarked trail to the left.
Pink joins back in from the right.
Cutting off another section of pink on an old road to ...
... rejoin pink where it crosses over.  This got us out of hearing range of that awful gunfire.  Or they just stopped shooting finally.
Couple of park road crossings along the way.
Pink meets up with the white East Creek Trail where we turned right.
East Creek Trail
At a particularly wet section ...
... a faint path leads to the left to the sand road ...
... then back over to the trail to bypass that section.
Following along East Creek Pond.
East Creek Pond
At a parking lot on Route 347 the trail turns left for a road walk but we crossed over to ...
... the Ponds Trail which leads to Pickle Factory Pond.
When I hiked this back in 2010 the trail was very overgrown.  It was wide open now.
There were a few downed trees to hurdle over and some wet spots to navigate.
Green joins in for a bit ...
... before leaving blue when blue turns left.
Then just after this wet area crossing, about half way to Pickle Factory Pond ...
... the trail floods out completely.
I could find no way around this and the flooding extended up the trail as far as I could see so it was completely impassable, not at all the case back in 2010.  We had no choice but to turn back.
Back at the beginning of the Ponds Trail we crossed over and turned right to continue on the white East Creek Trail.
It's not a pleasant road walk with with lots of traffic zooming by.
East Creek Pond
Someone had told me you can cut off part of the road walk by finding a way over to the cabin drive to the left, which is what we did.
At the drive turn left again towards the cabin then in front of the cabin, turn right ...
... cross the ball field to the far right corner ...
... where there is an unmarked trail that leads to ...
... the East Creek Trail where we turned left.
I had noted back in 2020 that this was a brand new section of boardwalk.  Not so new any more.
At the road just past the maintenance area we turned left on the road, then right ...
... then left again at Lake Nummy towards the beach.
We turned right into the beach area then straight ahead to ...
... the nature trail.
This ends at the green Goosekill Trail where we turned left....
... then right on the red North Shore Trail all the way back to the parking lot.