DT on the AT: New Jersey

There are 74 miles of the Appalachian Trail in New Jersey. Six and a half of these miles are located in Worthington State Forest on a section of the trail that passes by Sunfish Pond.

Last fall, I completed out and back hikes to both Sunfish Pond and Mount Tammany. I intentionally chose to hike this section again for one reason...the red dot trail, which climbs 1250 feet in about 1.5 miles to the summit of Mount Tammany. It kicked my ass! This time I returned, 16 pounds lighter and 50% leaner, ready for the challenge.

Shortly before reaching the summit of Mount Tammany, my GPS indicated that a cache was nearby. I located it without a problem; however, opening it was a different story. After several failed attempts, I re-hid the cache and moved on for the next one.


The trail continued up and up (and up), leveling off at the summit, with a very nice view of Mount Minsi.

I followed the blue trail along the ridge, which eventually led to a fire road. There was another cache just off the fire road, but it was too small to hold the geocoin. The fire road led to a turquoise trail, which wrapped around Sunfish Pond and met up with the Appalachian Trail...and my first contact with people since the start of my journey.

The while blazes of the Appalachian Trail led me back to a very crowded parking lot. After stretching and a quick change I headed home, still needing to move the geocoin to another section of the AT...guess that gives me a reason to visit Maryland and Virginia next weekend.