Diary of a Macman

That map is pretty damn off, but what they are calling mountainside park is mills reservation, and their boundries are way off. See the cedar grove reservoir? that's actually a Newark reservoir (here's something you didn't want to know, that is TREATED water, it flows out of that lake and right to Newark faucets. GROSS! The treatment plant is 20 miles up 23)
you can ride/job whatever around the north side of that lake, there is a trail, across ridge road and head towards those railroad tracks. Those haven't been tracks in 100 years though. There are trails all along those tracks, and if you follow the track it will lead you across 23 (using a trail bridge, pretty cool) and some scenic waterfalls and river. Keep going and you have to bang a right on an unmarked trail towards the end that goes through a pine forrest. Just east of your waypoint there. That trail leads to an abandoned parking lot on Fairview ave (Fairview ave will be closed tues-thurs for the next month, DO NOT GO TO HILLTOP ON TUE-THUR in FEB, HUNTING!)

Go across the street and you'll find an abandoned road winding up a hill. That leads to the top of hilltop. There are a bunch of trails you can take also that lead to the top. Wander around up there. I have Hilltop 100% mapped out if you are interested. As well as 90% of mills, 100% of EagleRock and 90% of South Mountain (I need to verify 1 more quadrant via GPS tracks).
 
gtluke said:
That map is pretty damn off, but what they are calling mountainside park is mills reservation, and their boundries are way off. See the cedar grove reservoir? that's actually a Newark reservoir (here's something you didn't want to know, that is TREATED water, it flows out of that lake and right to Newark faucets. GROSS! The treatment plant is 20 miles up 23)
you can ride/job whatever around the north side of that lake, there is a trail, across ridge road and head towards those railroad tracks. Those haven't been tracks in 100 years though. There are trails all along those tracks, and if you follow the track it will lead you across 23 (using a trail bridge, pretty cool) and some scenic waterfalls and river. Keep going and you have to bang a right on an unmarked trail towards the end that goes through a pine forrest. Just east of your waypoint there. That trail leads to an abandoned parking lot on Fairview ave (Fairview ave will be closed tues-thurs for the next month, DO NOT GO TO HILLTOP ON TUE-THUR in FEB, HUNTING!)

Go across the street and you'll find an abandoned road winding up a hill. That leads to the top of hilltop. There are a bunch of trails you can take also that lead to the top. Wander around up there. I have Hilltop 100% mapped out if you are interested. As well as 90% of mills, 100% of EagleRock and 90% of South Mountain (I need to verify 1 more quadrant via GPS tracks).
Click to expand...

luke - actually that IS Mountainside Park (tennis courts, springtime flowers on the hillside); it's Mills that isn't named at all.

Yes, that is gross!
 
I think then that Mountainside only exists on the east side of Highland Ave then? From that larger half of the park to Highland ave, that's a sheer rock cliff all the way down to the road.
 
FYI - Yesterday during a Hilltop > Gregory Woods (Newark Res) > Mills ride we encountered a Essex County Sherriff while coming around the reservoir. We played it cool and thought he would pass but he slowed down and trailed us all the way to the Mills lot....we continued down to Highland and came back up the cliff.
 
Damn
I wonder where their jurisdiction allows them to harass you. Just in the Essex County parks? Or Gregory Woods? (who owns that anyway?) Or that powerline and Newark easement, no idea who owns that land.
 
gtluke said:
I think then that Mountainside only exists on the east side of Highland Ave then? From that larger half of the park to Highland ave, that's a sheer rock cliff all the way down to the road.
Click to expand...

You might be right.
I know it's Mountainside between No. Mountain and Highland; don't know what that little fringe is...

carry on...
 
essex county

the last map was from delorme, here's the mytopo (free) map for comparison

15493.jpg


with all the trails in essex county, i don't feel so bad that I probably got shut out of the franklin lakes tri this year. see I decided to mail in the registration and go to fudrucker today instead of driving up to the wyckoff y, now I hear the race will be sold out by 3pm tues feb 2

instead i need to compile a few weigh points and check out some of these essex county trails. last year a cyclist near me said he likes to check out different places each year. brookdale on up for 2010:popcorn:
 
this is the most accurate map you are going to find:
http://www.opencyclemap.org/
I'm working on it, slowly. SoMo is in there and a lot of the Lenape Trail (Lenape Trail maps don't exist)
I'll throw hilltop in there this week.
That map gets updated every Friday night IIRC
 
here's line map of the area in question courtesy of nj/ny trail conference

Map_entire.jpg



Established in 1982, the Lenape Trail links a dozen county and municipal parks, a rail trail, the Patriots' Path, historic areas, and other landmarks along a 34-mile route in Essex County. The trail was a joint undertaking of the Sierra Club and the Essex County Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs.
Trails Overview:
The Lenape Trail [yellow] basically goes in a great arch from Military Park in Newark west to West Essex Park, an undeveloped largely wooded wetland along the Passaic River. Its northwestern terminus is at Bloomfield Avenue near the Essex Mall at the intersection of Passaic Avenue. A southern branch leads to South Mountain Reservation. Some of the trail is routed along power lines and residential streets, but it also passes through wooded Branch Brook Park, Eagle Rock Reservation and South Mountain Reservation. It is a unique trail through one of the most densely populated counties in the United States. A helpful if sketchy trail map is available at: http://lenapetrail.org/files/Map_entire.jpg
Directions:

Given the nature of the Lenape Trail, access points are available throughout the route. Major parks traversed by the trail include Branch Brook Park, Eagle Rock Reservation and South Mountain Reservation.
Click to expand...
 
Yeah I've seen that, it's really really really off. See where it has that proposed piece? I got sick of waiting and built that trail myself.

Here's Hilltop, 100%
You can use this link and back out and see the actual Lenape Trail too. Everything on there is GPS tracked, so it's completely accurate.
This will be sent to the opencyclingmaps topo maps friday night, this one updates in real time, the topo is only once a week.
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=40.84617&lon=-74.24496&zoom=15&layers=B000FTF
 
i went to hilliptop 1.5 yrs ago .. i must have missed something cause i didn't find much and just ran into dead-ends
 
Most of the trails were added last year. There aren't many, you really need to link it up with the other parks
 
That one is decent, but I still can't figure out how to cross 280 up in east hanover. Under the bridge where 280 goes over the river? That whole forest is under 3 feet of water right now.
 
dwight d

I'm not sure of the area in question, but in roseland there are a few corporate complexes w/woods connecting. i think eisenhower and eagle rock traverse 280 if the trail are too muddy
 
I don't think anyone is taking care of the Lenape trail. There is a section up in Livingston that is EMBARRASING. Sections in South Orange are so overgrown you can't walk through too.

Livingston section:
Someone took some white corregated plastic and tore it in pieces and nailed the little pieces to the trees, every tree, on both sides. It's not even remotely a trail after that bridge. You can't walk it at all here, you are just walking through th woods. Ridiculous.
750939121_JeMUZ-L.jpg
 
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