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Great Ny/nj Loop Caches


briansnat

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Palisades Interstate Park, just over the GWB, Polskikrol recently placed two caches --which should be on everyone's list , if you wish to be a Geocacher--and he promises more.

 

Campgaw , Mahwah, NJ --wgrun has placed several newer hides which are described by those who have done them as being classic caches. He is also sponsoring an event shortly.

 

Ramapo Mountain State Forrest

Ramapo County Reservation

 

High Mountain, Wayne NJ, Hike one marked trail each trip--Red one day, yellow, blue

 

weathernowcast is having an evening event on 9/22/10--same place you were on 1/2/10, except that it will be about 60 degrees warmer.

 

These are the close by locales for classic hides and hikes.

Thanks, P.

I need to finish Palisades and get back to the Ramapo area. These are good ones to start with and grab some nice caches.

 

Now that Fall is on its way, I can't wait to get a nice hike through the fall leaves (I know, I know, its still a ways away)

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I did one today. It may be a little close to PA for your taste though...

 

Heres a copy/paste of my thread.

 

I wanted to do another virtual... So I looked around the geocaching map and found one I really wanted to do. One thing I noticed though is that there was a series of caches called "All in the woodland early 1 - 10" All hidden in the same park at around the minimum distance. I thought, "wow I can get a virtual and a power trail." There were a variety of containers, from peanut butter containers, to jam containers, to lock and locks. They were all "barely" in the woods. (most were deep in the woods but along the nature trail... So no bushwhacking) 8 were in the woods 2 were in urban settings all in one giant circle. I found 12 caches, the virtual the 10 letterbox hybrids (The powertrail) and one traditional quite a bit away from the trail.

 

The real reason why i'm typing this is because I had a blast. It would be a shame if the powertrail guidelines kicked in and I couldn't find a series like this... This is the only one within 10 miles from me (Over ten miles driving distance due to the delaware river blocking pennsylvania to new jersey). I think they should put a limit of 20 caches for the powertrail guideline... Because this was just too fun.

 

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Oh, and I got to see one of the 20 built futoro houses EVER! It was amazing... (Picture above)

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Well, summer has been quite hectic with highlights including bagging all 35 Catskills Peaks, completing the Pemi Loop in NH over 3 days of hammock backpacking (while peak bagging 12 out of NH's 48 4000fters), and hiking 100+ miles in the Colorado Plateau area (and placing 2700+ miles on the rental car). Only now am I getting back into some NJ loop hikes.

 

As the days are shorter, have started working on 'urban caching loop hikes' during the weekdays where I pick a few caches, find a parking lot, and then loop my way on foot via some caches. This method saves on gas and wasting time with reparking while maximizing the amount of miles and thereby exercise. The 4th installment I think is post worthy and is a 10.1 mile loop around the Paramus area with 24 caches along the way.

 

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Let me tell you, kicking back a beer afterward was glorious :unsure:

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Norvin Green State Forest

 

Here is a nice 11.2 mile hike done with wjgrun starting at Otter Hole Parking Area. Lots of awesome view points, woods roads to explore (we found 2 huge long iron pipes with nothing else nearby such as foundations, rubble, etc), nice summits to bushwhack, etc.

 

73284972-1c6d-496a-b226-6152e5277cfc.jpg

 

Quite a few caches along this route and I hear there will be 6 new ones popping up soon :(

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Norvin Green State Forest

 

Here is a nice 11.2 mile hike done with wjgrun starting at Otter Hole Parking Area. Lots of awesome view points, woods roads to explore (we found 2 huge long iron pipes with nothing else nearby such as foundations, rubble, etc), nice summits to bushwhack, etc.

 

73284972-1c6d-496a-b226-6152e5277cfc.jpg

 

Quite a few caches along this route and I hear there will be 6 new ones popping up soon :(

 

That's no loop, it looks more like a drunken figure 8.

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Norvin Green State Forest

 

Here is a nice 11.2 mile hike done with wjgrun starting at Otter Hole Parking Area. Lots of awesome view points, woods roads to explore (we found 2 huge long iron pipes with nothing else nearby such as foundations, rubble, etc), nice summits to bushwhack, etc.

 

73284972-1c6d-496a-b226-6152e5277cfc.jpg

 

Quite a few caches along this route and I hear there will be 6 new ones popping up soon :antenna:

 

That's no loop, it looks more like a drunken figure 8.

 

Looks more like a drunken dragon with fleas...

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That's no loop, it looks more like a drunken figure 8.

 

Alright, I sobered up for Halloween ;) Here is a nice 22.0 mile loop in Ramapo Valley County Reservation and Ringwood State Park.

 

2a41076c-7fdc-4c44-b0db-79f11f5dec00.jpg

 

Any idea if there are any plans to renovate the leantos off the Cooper Union Trail and the Blue Trail (just west of Cannonball Lake)? Presume not, since one cannot camp in these parks :antenna:

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Alright, I sobered up for Halloween :D Here is a nice 22.0 mile loop in Ramapo Valley County Reservation and Ringwood State Park.

Looks like you missed a couple of caches - wuss.

He was running so fast he overshot them :huh:

 

I was actually aware I passed them within 500 feet, however, it was starting to get dark and I have prior given multiple excuses to the park police about being late to the parking lot to leave before dusk. Didnt want to go through that again. Thus, next time I will just do another nice long loop from Skyline Drive to grab the Cannonball series caches and get the other 3 I need which I skipped.

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Alright, I sobered up for Halloween :D Here is a nice 22.0 mile loop in Ramapo Valley County Reservation and Ringwood State Park.

Looks like you missed a couple of caches - wuss.

He was running so fast he overshot them :D

 

I was actually aware I passed them within 500 feet, however, it was starting to get dark and I have prior given multiple excuses to the park police about being late to the parking lot to leave before dusk. Didnt want to go through that again. Thus, next time I will just do another nice long loop from Skyline Drive to grab the Cannonball series caches and get the other 3 I need which I skipped.

 

Apparently I was also within 1 mile of 23$K... unfortunately, I was not the finder on that one :D

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Bear Mountain / Harriman State Park

 

Awesom loop hike covering 16.4 miles with +4,845 elevation gain while visiting the following:

- Bear Mountain

- Fort Clinton / Fort Montgomery

- Popolopen Torne

- Queensboro Lake / Turkey Hill Lake

- West Mountain

 

20c6b2e2-5f96-4614-8f58-53a7af3a3e5a.jpg

 

Started around 630AM and finished around 330PM (parking off Seven Lakes Drive where the 1777W Trail passes) with enough time to beat out the traffic home and have dinner w/ wine and beer :)

 

The following is a trail listing (mentioning the least number without accounting for points of overlap):

- 1777W Trail (Red)

- Appalachian Trail (White)

- Major Welch Trail (Red)

- Appalachian Trail (White)

- AT Bypass (Blue)

- Fort Clinton/Fort Montgomery Trails (Poorly marked on NY/NJ TC Maps.)

- Timp-Torne Trail (Blue)

- Popolopen Gorge (Red)

- Summer Hill Road

- 1779 Trail (Blue)

- Anthony Wayne Trail (White)

- Beechy Bottom Road

- Appalachian Trail (White)

- Timp-Torne Trail (Blue)

- Suffern Bear Mountain Trail (Yellow)

- 1777W Trail (Red)

 

Only found 5 new caches, however, passed many more that I had previously found.

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On a day not so long ago, in the middle of December (prior to the dumping of snow that we've currently received), Waylesswood and I knocked out about 30+ caches in the Hereford MUA (also known as the 909).

 

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There are some good trails (many woods roads, mountain bike trails, and even a hiking trail or two), but we opted to bushwack from cache to cache. The undergrowth wasn't that bad, and the terrain was moderate to light. We utilized three different parking areas to minimize the amount of backtracking, but overall, we still put in about 12 miles (the pic only shows one section of the hike). Obviously, one would not need to take the whole park by storm, but could do parts and pieces of it as time (and legs) permit.

 

We only had one DNF, and the two multis are pretty nicely done (double check the updated coords on Fort Tyrell Multi, as the coords for stage one have been updated within the logs, but not by the owner.

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On a day not so long ago, in the middle of December (prior to the dumping of snow that we've currently received), Waylesswood and I knocked out about 30+ caches in the Hereford MUA (also known as the 909).

 

I never heard of Hereford MUA before ... the only thing I associate with Hereford is a bovine life form that produces juicy steaks :). But Google Maps helped, and I found out that this MUA is to the North of I-84. I'm still hiking/backpacking/mopping up caches to the south of that line. But once the 2ft snow is gone or going, if anyone wants to repeat Waylesswood's and Brian's loop on a weekend, let me know!

 

-d

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Wawayanda State Park & Abram S Hewitt State Forest

 

Have hiked many times in both Wawayanda State Park & Abram S Hewitt State Forest but have never been able to connect the dots mentally. So, we decided to do a massive loop hike which ended up being 20.0 miles and routed to go over 3 of the NJ1K: Boulder Pine Peak, Bearfort Mountain North, and Bearfort Mountain. As it would so happen, found out we had been to these peaks a few times already before in the course of various geocaching escapades. Nevertheless, for those who are in shape, insane, and enjoy peakbagging / geocaching, I would recommend this loop. We started late at 11AM and finished a little after 8PM by means of headlamp.

 

4a2e39ae-f5fa-4c6e-b56e-a4979d7e4333.jpg

 

Trails Used

- Old Coal (Red)

- Unmarked Trail (used as single track for mountain biking it would appear)

- Banker (Green)

- Cedar Swamp (Blue)

- Double Pond (Yellow)

- Hoeferlin (Blue)

- Appalachian Trail

- Ernest Walker (Yellow)

- Unmarked Trail (woods road used by hunters and possibly ATVers)

- Bearfort Ridge (White)

- Terrace Pond North (Blue)

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who would the we be?

 

You missed one of the peaks as you walked by on the way to bolder pine peak. Under the a of boulder pine peak is another of the highest, I have a cache at the high point called a path to no where.

 

Actually logged that cache on 02/28/2009. Also, the high point you reference is not official as per NJ1K (http://nj1k.org/list/). I remember that ridge being quite lovely near your cache.

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who would the we be?

 

The 'we' would generally include ThirstyMick and myself (as was the case with this hike). However, it does also include wjgrun at times when he forgets how unforgiving my pace can be and lapses in his judgement and sanity by actually showing up at the trailhead parking.

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who would the we be?

 

The 'we' would generally include ThirstyMick and myself (as was the case with this hike). However, it does also include wjgrun at times when he forgets how unforgiving my pace can be and lapses in his judgement and sanity by actually showing up at the trailhead parking.

 

Which is why the "we" never includes BrianSnat.

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Capture.JPG 5 of us did this loop last weekend at Brian Lubbert's 5th Vernal Equinox picnic (we missed seeing some of you!) Some of it was in NY.

Until we got to the Tri States Marker I was remarking how nice the terrain was, hills but no rocks scrambles. Famous last words!

Anyway we did something like 25 caches along the way (last one was the Tri State Marker cache, none after that)

Tracks2.jpgTracks.jpg

Edited by hallycat
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Newark Watershed & Farny State Park

 

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A really nice loop hike which allows for grabbing 19 caches (if you dont bother solving any puzzles) and 3 NJ1K peaks: Green Pond Mountain, Mount Newfoundland, and Buck Mountain (Kinnelon). Ended up covering 23.2 miles and seeing absolutely no bears. Just saw some deer and bobcat scat. Did get to cross a nice beaver dam! Of course, the views were tremendous with blue bird skies. I saw the lenticular clouds on Friday and knew its gonna be nice and clear, albeit windy and cold. For those less ambitious, this hike can be split at where I parked and be done across 2 different days.

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Glad you enjoyed your hike! And especially happy that you enjoyed finding 11 of our caches!! They may not get found too often, but we think the area is beautiful. Glad to hear that you did as well.

 

Absolutely! Kicking myself in the rear for not shelling the 12$ permit fee earlier. Newark Watershed area ranks up there in my NJ book with Abram Hewitt State Forest and Wawayanda (Terrace Pond).

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