Tom McGee's Blog

It seemed so long ago that we had a solid foot-and-a-half of snow on the ground here. We even went out looking for places to buy or rent snowshoes, because we thought it would be a fun way to do some winter hiking.

But it was just one warm week ago, and by Sunday there were only a few small patches of snow in the more shadowed sections of our yards. So we forgot about snowshoes and laced up our sneakers and headed out to Mahlon Dickerson Reservation way up in northwestern Morris County, NJ.

M.D.R. offers over 20 miles of all-purpose trails over 3000+ acres of near wilderness. The helpful park map we got at REI outlined some of the better ones. So what did we find when we pulled up in our sneakers?

That’s right, a solid foot of snow over everything. Some of the trails were packed down pretty well, but it was precarious and slow. We centered our attention around frozen-over Saffin Pond, beautiful in the late-afternoon sun.

Having a little fun taking photos of each other taking photos of each other, LF and I walked a little across the Highlands Trail, a large project that will eventually go from the vicinity of Round Valley in Central NJ, up across the southern tier of New York, and into Connecticut. You can see one of the distinctive teal-colored blazes just to her right.

Even so, the snow was melting quickly, running under the footbridge and off to the Rockaway River.

We walked all the way around the pond, part of it on a converted 1866 railroad right-of-way. This runs for a couple of miles through the park, and up out of the north end. Sounds like a good project.

Our theory is, even next weekend there could still be snow on the ground. We can pick up a rental set on the way and head out into the back country. There’s still a whole month of snow season left, so it’s good to have a plan.