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Thursday, May 6, 2010

New Pond Trail Re-Opened

On May 2nd, 2010, Ken Bitz with Kathy Tabor and Lola Weiss - two long time residents and hiking enthusiasts - spent several hours re-blazing the old Blue trail from the West Shore Drive trail head in Smoke Rise to re-open New Pond Trail.

For the first time since the South Glenn Road construction project [~ 6 years?], Smoke Rise hikers may now hike from Beechwood Lane along old Mountain Road to New Pond to West Shore Drive without obstruction and without going near the South Glenn homes. [See post titled The New Pond Trail.]

[This hike, by the way, will be the one we take for the annual Smoke Rise Days hike in July. More info to follow.]

As Ken said in his email to me: "It was great to be able to re-open the trail!"

Thank you, Ken, Kathy and Lola, for making this possible!

PS: Ken says that Kathy and Lola confirmed the existence of the Bear Mountain Trail in Kinnelon. That's the mountain between Spice Bush and Kinnelon Road that you drive by on the left as you exit the East Gate. Plans are to reopen that trail in late June. Stay tuned for more info.

Happy Hiking!

2 comments:

Jim Child said...

I want to thank all that helped re-open the New Pond Trail. From my current perch in far northern New England I am happy knowing that SR residents are still discovering the wilds in their backyard.

Of course, I do wish today's hikers might have known the New Pond hike my brother I knew in the early '60s. West Shore Dr. pretty much ended where it meets Red Oak Lane behind the Lake. Our Mom used to drop us there and we would hike almost the full length of the Lake before the trail turned west and went back to New Pond.

We would usually "cold camp"; sleeping under an 8x10 tarp strung between trees on the other side of the dam. Camping without a fire meant Mom didn't have to go down to the North Gate and get us a fire permit.

Bill and I would strip down to our skivvies and fish off the dam for hours. We were a LONG way from civilization! :-)

Jim Child
SR Res: 1958-70, 1982(?)-93

CB Whittemore said...

Jim,

A very belated thank you for this comment.

Yes, we continue to explore the wilds... with a few more yet in store [we hope to reopen the trail to Bear Mountain!]

How marvelous about cold camping and not needing a fire permit. Do you by any chance have photos? What a golden childhood. Thanks for sharing these delicious details.

Hope you are well.

Best,
Christine

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