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Author Archives: Chris Casciano
Don’t Miss Spring
Though today is the official first day of Spring, Spring jumped the gun on us for a few weeks. If for some reason you haven’t gotten outside on the trail or walking around a local park, don’t waste much more time — you may miss it.
On Saturday I put in 10 miles on the trails of South Mountain Reservation and saw many signs of Spring — early wildflowers like Lavender or the invasive Lesser Celandine, many chirping birds, and trees pushing out new leaves. Continue reading
Posted in Trip Report
Tagged Essex County, photos, south mountain reservation, Spring, wildflowers
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Our Newest National Park – Paterson Great Falls NHP
Earlier this week New Jersey, in fact the entire country, welcomed our newest National Historic Park, which contains the Great Falls of the Passaic River and surrounding areas of Paterson. Continue reading
A Bit Of Autumn Before Winter
Sitting in the home office, looking out at the cold rain that may be turning to an October snow later in the day and I thought it was timely to share a little bit of the yellow and browns of this season’s short lived Autumn, Photos by Chris Casciano taken in South Mountain Reservation in Millburn, New Jersey. Continue reading
End of Summer Outdoors Events
Been a dull summer filled with all work and no play around here. I’ve snuck in a few short local hikes when I could, but No big trips around the state to report about. Will be trying to rectify that soon, and maybe some of these events will help! REI Opening Paramus Store: 8/26-27 REI has plans to open a few stores in the NY/NJ area in the next year, and August 26-27, 2011 will see the grand opening of their store in Paramus, NJ. Giveaways, t-shirts, and other goodies will be given out, as well as a chance to check out all the shiny new gear. REI Paramus store … Continue reading
Posted in Event
Tagged bay2ocean30, events, freewalkers, hudson river, monmouth county, Morris County, REI, store opening
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NJN Documentary: Rescuing the River “The Raritan”
NJN Public Television and Radio has put their recent documentary on the environmental problems and industrial history of New Jersey’s Raritan River on the web in it’s entirety to watch for free. Rescuing the River: The Raritan is a 60 minute documentary covering the worst and the best of one of the Garden State’s great resources. The Raritan River runs through the center of New Jersey, with upper reaches that are incredibly beautiful, providing a valuable source of water for more than a million people. But industry took hold of the lower Raritan early on and left its mark. This one-hour documentary, narrated by actor Avery Brooks, tells the compelling … Continue reading
Posted in Local News
Tagged documentary, environment, film, fishing, pollution, Raritan River, Raritan Riverkeeper, superfund, water, watershed
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National Trails Day Events in NJ, June 4, 2011
This coming Saturday is National Trails Day and there are many events around New Jersey where you can celebrate your love of the outdoors via guided hikes, joining a trail work crew, or attending a film festival. National Trails Day was started in 1993 by the American Hiking Society and has been held the first Saturday in June ever since as a celebration of our natural surroundings. Here’s a sampling of the events around NJ. Follow @HikeNJ on twitter for updates and other event announcements. Official AHS Events List The motherload of this weekend’s events can be found on the American Hiking Society’s New Jersey Events page. The 20+ events … Continue reading
South Mountain’s 2nd Mayapple Festival in Photos
This past Saturday I spent the day in South Mountain Reservation wandering around the 2nd Annual Mayapple Festival. The day featured 3 separate guided hikes through the park, organized around a festival area at Summit Field that included an art show, live music, an educational booth run by the Essex County Environmental Center, and some other informational booths. All in all, a fun day for people of all ages, and some great weather. Hike 1: Summit Field to Washington Rock The morning started with a early hike out to Washington Rock and the overlook to the south at the Watchungs. The walk wandered a bit covering some unofficial trails and … Continue reading
Two BIG Outdoor Events This Saturday
There are two big events this weekend that should get the attention of both the walking crowd and those speedier trail runners. Saturday, May 21st in the middle of the state is the return of the NJ2NY50—a 50 mile, one day, walk from Metropark to New York City celebrating the East Coast Greenway. In Essex County, there is also the 2nd Annual Mayapple Festival in South Mountain Reservation, featuring much shorter walks around the park trails, but also an ultra-marathon in distances from 100k to a shorter 10mile trail race. NJ2NY50 The NJ2NY50 is a 50 mile walk along the East Coast Greenway and Liberty Water Gap Trails from NJ … Continue reading
Small Parks: Loantaka Brook Reservation
Last weekend I had a nice little bike ride through the densely wooded, paved paths at Morris County’s Loantaka Brook Reservation. Adjacent to Chatham, Harding & Morris, the park is 570 acres and includes 8+ miles of all purposed paved trails, at least 6 miles of dirt hiking trails, a pond, ballfields, and picnic areas. Located near the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge and Lord Stirling Park the terrain is a similar fairly flat roll through woods and wetlands. Park Information For more information on Loantaka Brook Reservation, Direction and Trail Maps see these sites: Morris County Parks Commission’s Loantaka Page NYNJTC’s Loantaka page Listing of Park Entrance Locations Trip … Continue reading
Posted in Guides, Trip Report
Tagged cycling, loantaka brook reservation, Morris County, Morris County Parks, small parks
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Winter Scenes on the Elmdale Trail
Unlike the icy rains today, yesterday started with nothing but blue and sunny skys. In the afternoon I snuck off for a short snowshoeing and photo trip along the Elmdale Trail (blue markers) in South Mountain Reservation starting and finishing from the corner of Glen Ave and Brookside Drive. View the 4 1/3 mile route on RunKeeper. The snow on this less used trail was icy and crusty the whole way, but I only had to break new trail for a short stint around the loop where the markers get a little sketchy without the worn dirt trails to follow. The snow was littered with fallen shards of ice, and … Continue reading
Posted in Trip Report
Tagged elmdale trail, snow, snowshoeing, south mountain reservation
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