I haven’t written in a long time but I am still out on the trails.
I will be leading the following hikes in Rockaway Township:
- Nov 20 2011 from the boat launch lot on SplitRock road, 10AM start 3-4 hours on the trails with lunch on the trail. A UCHC (http://www.uchc.nynjtc.org/ ) hike, I am a substitute leader
- 9 Feb 2012 — Copperas Mountain South, Rockaway Township, 10AM at Egbert Lake parking. About 4 hours with lunch on the trail, A UCHC hike.
- 12 Feb 2012 — Copperas Mountain South, Rockaway Township,
10AM at Egbert Lake parking. About 4 hours with lunch on the trail, A IHC hike.
- 22 Feb 2012 —Lake Ames, Rockaway Township,
10AM at the playground (RT Castle) on Lake Ames, 2 hr hike with gentle ups & downs. UCHC hike.

I am interested in information on the Split Rock land tract, circa 1800 and the history of Durham Pond, when was it first built and when was it modified to its current configuration. I am also interested in when Major George W Farny acquired lands around Durham Pond and when his estate sold lands to Winnebago around 1941. If you have knowledge about the above please share with me.

Greenpond Golf Course

The Golf Course was acquired by Morris County with Green Acres funds a couple of years ago. The county has not decided how it should be utilized yet. The parking lot is open and you can walk around it. I believe that there is a part of this property that goes to Valley road and therefore connects with the Wildcat Ridge WMA.

Greenpond GC, former

Norway Park Vicinity

Norway park is a Rockaway Township park on the site of the Nor-Bu Lodge, Lake Telemark ski jump (circa 1948).

Norway Park

Rockaway Townships Blazed Trails,10/7/08

NOTE: per a 10/7/08 conversation with Rockaway Parks & Recreation Chief RT does NOT maintain any trails.

1 – MOUNT HOPE HISTORICAL PARK, http://www.morrisparks.net/aspparks/mhmain.asp
Property Owner & Trail Maintainer: Morris County Parks Commission

2 – FARNY HIGHLANDS TRAIL NETWORK, there are several landowners in the Rockaway Township part of this region, e.g., NJ DEP Wildcat Ridge WMA, Farny State Park, access easement from Jersey City, Newark Watershed, Rockaway Township, Morris County Park Commission,
Overview: (http://www.mtnlakes.org/Environment/farny.htm)
Marked up topo map(s):
· Southern End Map
· Middle Map
· Northern End Map
a) Wildcat Ridge WMA Trails in the vicinity of the Hawk Watch - http://f.vanderburgh.home.att.net/imap/wcrtrails.html . The NJ DEP site for this area is @ http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/pdf/wmamaps/wildcat_ridge_so.pdf
- The WHITE Trail is part of the Four Birds Trail and the Blue trail is part of the Split Rock Loop Trail. Both of these trails are maintained by the http://www.nynjtc.org/ and are described in the NJ Walk book published by the NYNJTC.
- The other blazed trails on this map are the YELLOW trail that goes out to Graffiti Rock and the RED, ORANGE & YELLOW trails that in conjunction with the White trail make a loop hike to the Hawk Watch. I do not know who maintains these trails.
- What looks like black trails are woods roads & are unblazed.
b) Trails in the vicinity of Splitrock Reservoir - http://f.vanderburgh.home.att.net/imap2/sr-trails.html
- The WHITE & BLUE trails are parts of the Four Birds Trail and the Split Rock Loop Trail.
- There are several BLAZED Trails covered by this map not shown on the map:
1 - There is a YELLOW connector trail from the parking area in Farny State Park on Timberbrook road that goes to the Four Birds Trail. It is west of and parallel to Timberbrook road.
2 - The Four Birds trails has a bypass for its portion that goes over the Timberbrook Lake dam. It uses Timberbrook road north to the Wharton & Northern rail bed and then west to where the Four Birds Trail crosses the W&N.
3 – Winnebago road is blazed red from the Scout Reservation to Misty Pond. The scout reservation does not want hikers using its property.
4 – There is a LAVENDER blazed trail west of the Four Birds trail that goes from Splitrock road to Camp Marcella or Winnebago. There is a connector trail (YELLOW) off of it to Camp Lewis. The Camp Lewis trail, my guess would have been done by them. The Lavender trail, my guess would have been done by both BSA camps. When on the Lavender trail you do not see white blazes and when on the white trail you do not see lavender blazes. There are several spots where there are woods roads that can be used to go from one trail to another to make loop hikes.
3 – Miscellaneous
a) White blazed trail at Craigmeur (http://www.craigmeur.com/ ). It uses part of a woods road that goes to Notch road & the Four Birds Trail. It is blazed from the water slide to the stream. Blazed & maintained by Craigmeur. This would make a good additional trail head to access the Greenpond Mountain part of the Four Birds trail.
b) RED blazed trail that starts on Snake Hill road just west of Lake Ames parking area. This trail follows Hibernia brook until it leaves the woods road & goes to a private house south of Lake Telemark. Unknown origin.
c) White Blazed trail from the former site of the Hudsonia Girl Scout Camp to the Lake Telemark – Oreland junction woods road. This trail is being worked on but the blazing is ancient. Unknown origin.

Independence Day weekend 2008

The Ford-Faesch house was open for visitors this past Independence Day weekend. To learn more about the Ford-Faesch house visit the "Historical Society of the Rockaways" web site @ http://historic-rockaways.org/faesch.htm

Ford-Faesch House 080705

The next time the Ford-Faesch house is scheduled to be open to visitors is 23 August 2008. This is the same day as Wharton's Canal day festival. If you are attending that then you can take a free bus, provided by Morris County to Mt Hope. The county will have the Mt Hope Methodist Church open for visitors and the Ford-Faesch house is directly across the street.

Easy Diggin Day @ Mt Hope Quarry

June 21,22 the NJ Chapter of Easy Diggin had an open house at Tilcon's Mt Hope Quarry. This is the site of the historic Mt Hope (New Leonard mine) complex. This was the deepest iron mine shaft in the US. In the 1970s it was considered for pumped storage facility for electricity; in times of high electricity demand the mine shafts would be flooded to generate electricity and when demand was low the water would be pumped out of the mine into Mt hope lake. One of the environmental impediments for this project where the unique habitat for mute swans - see the photo.

easy diggin day 2008

Snake Hill Road loop

This walk is a loop trail that begins and ends on Snake Hill road. A good place to park is Lake Ames also called the RT Castle Playground. The trail meets snake hill road about 100' West of the bridge on Snake Hill road and again about 1 mile further west. The trail is about 3 miles long. If you start at the Lake Ames end just follow the woods road left. It begins as a red blazed trail whcih early on crosses Hibernia brook (a stream that feeds Lake Ames) and the back again. If you do not like to cross streams just bushwhack until the trail returns. Later on there a three side trails on the right including the Red Blazed trail- ignore these and just bear left. On this walk you will pass the DENMARK mine.

Snakehill road loop