[...] inspires the public and trail enthusiasts nationwide to seek out their favorite trails to discover, learn about, and celebrate trails while participating in educational exhibits, trail dedications, gear demonstrations, instructional workshops and trail work projects.

I encourage everyone across the state to find a local trail [or not so local trail] and enjoy the parkland, and maybe see something new, or find a work crew and help give back a little. If you’re looking for a local event to meet other people, or maybe find a guide for a trail you’re unfamiliar with here are a few of note:

• Parsippany: guided hikes, bike rides & trail maintenance opportunities at Central Park
• Millbrook Village: Hike to Save The Delaware Water Gap sponsored by the NJ Sierra Club
• Oaklyn: REI Marlton sponsored trail cleanup in Saddler’s Woods
• Morris County: I previously posted about the film festival Friday: Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival
• Ocean County: 3mile hike in Cattus Island County Park
• Bear Mountain, NY: Celebrate the reconstruction of the
  original section of the Appalachian Trail!, NY-NJ Trail Conference’s event with activities, guest speakers, music and more
• More at: AHS National Trails Day New Jersey Listing

If you’re hosting or know of an event this weekend that I didn’t mention please leave some information and a link in the comments section of this post.

And if you’re looking for more to do outdoors this summe check out the article The great Morris outdoors: 10 local activities you need to try this summer in the Daily Record for some ideas.

Friday evening, June 4th 2010, the Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival will make a stop at Mendham’s Schiff Nature Preserve and show a selection of films from this year’s film festival which took place in January. Highlights of the night’s films include a summary cut of PBS’s National Parks: This is America series and films of local interest including Legacy of the Land a film about the Schiff natural Lands Trust narrated by Bill Moyers with busic by Moby and GrowTown Motown about building a Morristown community garden. Get full list of films, location information and ticket info.

Tickets for the event, which begins at 5:30PM, begin at $15.50 though additional donations towards the Schiff Lands Trust are encouraged and can be purchased online at the the event’s website. BaseCamp Adventure Outfitters of Basking Ridge and other local vendors are sponsoring the event and showing off their wares.

EDIT: Apologies to South Jersey, but I hadn’t initially noticed that the Film Festival’s following stop is June 11 from 6:00PM – 10:00PM at The Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor, NJ. Tickets are $25 with proceeds going to The Wetlands Institute. Here’s all the information.

And don’t forget two events celebrating the outdoors and NJ’s great parks this upcoming Saturday, May 22nd — South Mountain Reservation’s Mayapple Festival and The Big Walk.

Finally, if you’re an outdoor organization in New Jersey looking for coverage of your hikes or events chase me down at @HikeNJ on Twitter or leave a comment here with information.

Sponsored by the South Mountain Conservancy and the Essex County Parks Department this one day event is at South Mountain Reservation in New Jersey (Hike NJ SMR Park Info Page) the festival has something for everyone — from an ultra-marathon to walks through the new wildflower preserve to an ultimate frisbee game. Most activities will take place or originate in the Summit Field area located off of South Orange Ave. (Map).

The following info was taken from SOMOCON’s email newsletter:

Events Overview

• Art Show and exhibits – Summit Field, 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
• Nature Creative Writing Session – Summit Field, 2:30.
• Ultra-marathon – Locust Grove, 6:00 a.m. -10:00 p.m.
• Special Hikes – originating at Summit Field — 10:00, 12:00, 1:30, 2:00

Organized Hike Schedule

• 10 a.m. to 11:30: Washington Rock by a different route: We will walk at a moderate pace on some seldom used trails to and from Washington Rock, having a tour of some of the sites there and monuments. Meet at the south end of the Summit Field picnic area.
• 12:00 to 1:30: Quick Stroll to the Falls: A medium paced stroll using part of the newly extended red dot trail and a new section of the Lenape to Hemlock Falls. Meet at the south end of the Summit Field picnic area.
• 1:30 p.m. to 3: Origins of the Park Historical Tour: Meet at Bramhall Terrace overlooking NYC to see areas related to the founding of the park in 1895 and the years immediately after as well as some old, abandoned mines where Maplewoodians of the early 1800′s hoped to find copper.
• 2:00 to 3:00: The Wildflower and Forest Preserve: Join Tricia Zimic for a tour of the new trails in the Wildflower and Forest Preserve. Meet at the south end of the Summit Field picnic area.

I’m not able to attend, but if you do make it out I’d love to hear from you here about how it went & what you enjoyed about the first year of this event, so come back and leave a comment or link your photos!

On Sunday May 23, 2010 hikers and long distance walkers from around the area will take part in a free one day 50 mile walk — The NJ2NY50 — along the East Coast Greenway from the Metro Park rail station in Edison, NJ and northeast through green spaces and suburban and urban communities winding up in midtown Manhattan.

Organized by the East Coast Greenway Alliance and other civic and pedestrian minded groups the event intends to highlight recreation areas, commuting alternatives and a small part of the 3,000 mile multi-use East Coast Greenway trail system.

For more information on the walk’s route, registration or pre event trial walks or activities see http://www.nj2ny50.org/, and be sure to check the East Coast Greenway site for more information on the trail system that goes from Key West, Florida up the coast to Canada. Both can also be found on Twitter at @NJ2NY50 and @ECGreenway.

Unfortunately, I will be out of town that weekend, but if you are one of the urban hikers that weekend good luck and please report back here how it went!

Lesser celadine

This waxy yellow flower can be seen in many spots in the valley near the water, runoff or muddy areas. The above photo was taken right off the parking area. Wikipedia entry for Lesser celadine.

Yellow Trout-Lily

Trout lilies are my favorite spring wildflower to photograph. On this walk I didn’t see any of the yellow flowers blooming yet, but the familiar leaves were popping up out of the moss all around the park. Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center page on Trout Liliy.

Cypress Spurge

Not quite at peak yet, the cypress spurge in the exposed rocky basalt areas near the top of Washington Rock has begun making an appearance. Wikipedia entry for Cypress Spurge.

Periwinkle

The crocus have died back, but there’s still some purple to be found in the viney Periwinkle flower. Periwinkle info at USDA Plants.

Identification

I’m the last person that would consider myself an export on identification of wildflowers [or trees, or birds or anything else]. I was able to i.d. these spring flowers by three resources — The great reference book Wildflowers ( Northeastern/North-central North America) by Peterson Field Guides, asking for help of experts on the internets in forums like Flickr’s ID Please group which has 5800 people all helping each other identify things, and repeated sightings. If you’re not sure what you’re looking at wile on a trail, take a photo and then look it up when you get back. File that away for later reference.

It’s important to stay safe and be aware of various hunting seasons and activities before going hiking or backpacking. NJ hunting schedules and regulations can be found at the NJ Division of Fish & Wildlife web site and the NY-NJ Trail Conference often posts hunting location and hunting season notices.

NOTE: The above map and route was made with RunKeeper Pro, a GPS based activity monitor for the iPhone.

One of the nice things about the trails in South Mountain is that its easy to orient yourself based on the slope of the ridge and the nearby roads making it difficult to be lost for long and easy to wander from trail to trail. This is just what I did once I crossed South Orange Avenue into the northern half of the park. Jumping from the green trail markers to orange back to green as the terrain or pretty wintery scenes caught my fancy. Finally coming back to the yellow [Lenape] and white trail markers for the walk back to the Locust Grove lot in Millburn along the water.

For the first day of the new year the traffic on the trails was light and peaceful. The usual mix of families and dog walkers stuck to the areas around Hemlock Falls, the Dog park, and the larger parking areas, but the trails felt like they were all mine. A wonderful way to kick off a fresh year.

How did you spend this first weekend of the 2010?

Follow us at @HikeNJ

While the Hike New Jersey web site is intended as a reference site, sprinkled with news and trip reports, I’ve been using @HikeNJ on Twitter is a more active way to pull together news and other info of interest to locals who like to enjoy the parks around the state and the outdoors in general. Aside from my own trip reports, photos and general chattyness there are a few Twitter Lists I’ve started curating:

• @HikeNJ/hiking-gear – A collection of outdoor gear retailers and manufacturers like @Campmor, @BlackDiamondUSA & @thenorthface
• @HikeNJ/outdoor-organizations – Non-Profits and other trail and park services dedicated to protecting land and the environment like @NatlParkService, @NYNJTrailConf and @nature_org
• @HikeNJ/new-jersey-news – General news feeds from up and down the Garden State including updates from @StarLedger, @AsburyParkPress and @HeraldNews

I look forward to hearing from you and keeping a conversation about hiking in this great state going.

With the fall foliage at near peak in Essex County and rainstorms moving through Friday and Saturday I spent Sunday afternoon with a couple of photographer friends and wandering around the waterfalls in South Mountain Reservation. Autumn colors seemed to be near peak, so if you’ve got the urge to go out and see the bright reds, yellows and oranges the northeast has to offer the next week or so is the time to do it! It was just a short walk so there isn’t much to recap, but wandering around the falls did yield some nice images. Enjoy!

Photos Above: 1. Hemlock Falls 2. The crowd at the base of Hemlock Falls enjoying the sunny afternoon 3. An isolated line of water at Black Rock Falls 4. Pine Trees and peak foliage from above the basalt formations 5.  Bronze leaves against the basalt walls. Photo Credits [all]: Chris Casciano

Hike Details

This is a short walk, hardly considered a hike, but one that is quite popular with parents with children who just want to expose their kids to nature and the waterfalls as well as anyone who just has a short time to spend outside. Starting at the parking lot on the eastbound side of South Orange Avenue [or the Tulip Springs Parking Lot on Cherry Lane then a walk over the pedestrian bridge] make the first left along the road at the sign and intersection with the Rahway trail [white markers]. The road follows a small stream fed by the falls on your right, keep walking and you’ll soon see first Black Rock Falls on your left and then Hemlock Falls and the basalt cliffs at the end of the road. Total distance: about 1 mile depending on where you explore. Terrain: flat road leading to scrambling on basalt cliffs above falls.

Scenic Overlooks in South Mountain Reservation

As I was  prepping this little trip report I saw that a guide to the overlooks in the park was published by local news site Patch. Walk in the Park: Scenic Reservation Overlooks is a good overview of the best views  from along this part of Watchung ridge of the city skyline, the Hudson River and other local sights.