New Jersey 1K Club

Windbeam Mountain

The day was gray and the woods were very quiet. The Mountain stood cold, covered with a light dusting of snow. It was a slow and steady ascent to the sub summit, upon which the trail travels down into a small valley, and then a final climb for the peak. The dirt path opens to the crown of the mountain top, with big boulders and short pine trees. The wind was low, and not one animal in sight. The views left me with a sense of inspiration and calmness. 10/10

Mount Newfoundland

I hiked here while exploring this portion of the Newark Watershed.

Hasenclever Hill

We parked at ringwood manor and took the yellow blazed Hasenclever Iron Trail. After passing under some power lines, we turned right following the recently rerouted section of the Hasenclever Iron Trail along a utility road (the old closed portion of the trail goes left at the intersection and goes past the Peter’s Mine superfund site). The new section of trail passes Hope Mine which is up a side trail to the left of the road. After passing the mine, we followed the yellow trail for another half mile and turned right onto an unmarked trail. We followed this trail until we lost it and bushwhacked our way up to the summit of Hasenclever Hill easily finding the large Boulder that marks the summit. We then went West following the park regulation signs and pale yellow blazing that mark the state line border and this lead us to the large rocky outcrop of the Black Rock Lookout point which did not disappoint! Even though it was Sunday, we saw a few hunters on the NJ side, so wear bright colors when hiking in hunting season especially since this hike involves bushwhacking and skirting the NY border where I think hunting is allowed every day of the week in season. I should have been wearing brighter clothes and had some orange on my dog as well, but thankfully we made it back the way we came without any issues. The unmarked trail portions of this hike would most likely be very overgrown in the summer.

Dunker Mountain

I hiked to the summit via a short detour while on hike of Highlands Trail between Holland Mountain Road and Paradise Road.

Jenny Jump Mountain 1

This is bear country, take caution. Hiked the summit trail to multiple viewpoints including the peak, followed by a descent to the swamp trail which loops back to the trailhead. Weather was excellent with bright clear skies. The mountain valley was covered in golden yellow leaves. 10/10

Bearfort Lookout

We parked at P1N (there’s literally only room for one or two cars) and took the Fire Tower Ridge trail to the summit and the Fire Tower West trail back. The fire tower was cool and this hike is very flat for it being on the 1000foot list! It is fairly overgrown for a majority of the hike, but me and my two hiking buddies didn’t have any ticks. Our dog had about 5 that we were able to find but he likes to walk through tall grass and he sticks his whole head into shrubs just to get a good sniff so it wasn’t surprising. There was a fresh pile of bear scat right in the middle of the trail at one point but we never saw it’s depositor thankfully. Last month we parked at P4 to try to get to the fire tower via the Two Brooks trail but we turned around at the foot bridge because the mosquitos were terrible. I’ve never had to abandon a hike before and we were even wearing bug repellent. Since it was cooler today, there were no mosquitos and we only saw one other person the whole hike. A hidden gem, definitely worth the price of the permit on beautiful weekend days when other places would be packed!

Windbeam Mountain

Difficult trek with steep incline. Countless switchbacks to ascend the mountain. Made it to the false summit- unable to attain highest peak. Very cold and ran out of daylight, will return for second attempt.

Wyanokie Torne

I started at the small parking area on Glenwild Ave where the Wyanokie Crest trail starts because the parking areas near the Otter Hole were packed. I took this trail followed by a woods road to the left to meet the Hewitt-Butler trail. Then I crossed the road, continued on this trail, did the figure 8, crossed the road again and returned the way I came. The hike was very nice, not overgrown and very quite except near the Otter Hole. I didn’t find the trail to the stone living room (I also didn’t really look for it) but I could hear through the trees that it was already occupied by a large group anyway. I will have to come back again and find it!

Wyanokie Torne

I started at the small parking area on Glenwild Ave where the Wyanokie Crest trail starts because the parking areas near the Otter Hole were packed. I took this trail followed by a woods road to the left to meet the Hewitt-Butler trail. Then I crossed the road, continued on this trail, did the figure 8, crossed the road again and returned the way I came. The hike was very nice, not overgrown and very quite except near the Otter Hole. I didn’t find the trail to the stone living room (I also didn’t really look for it) but I could hear through the trees that it was already occupied by a large group anyway. I will have to come back again and find it!

Hasenclever Hill

Parked at Ringwood Manor and followed the Hasenclever Iron Trail west. The trail was rerouted in 2020 around the north side of Hope Mountain through the col between Hope Mountain and Hasenclever Hill. While descending the west side of the col between Hope Mountain and Hasenclever Hill we followed a well defined ATV track which climes the south side of Hasenclever Hill. A heard path off of the ATV track leads to the top of the eastern peak of Hasencvever Hill, which is the summit. On top there is a large boulder and a view looking east towards Blue Lake. We then bushwhacked west along the top of the Hasenclever Hill ridge for ~1/3 mile to reach the west peak. This is where the Black Rock viewpoint is located, which is probably one of the best viewpoints in the NJ Highlands*. The view looks south and the Ramapo Mountains, Windbeam Mountain, the Wyanokies, Long Hill, the Monksville Resevoir, Bearfort Mountain, and Big Beech Mountain can be seen. A well defined woods road (this woods road is not marked on the NYNJTC Map (at least not the 2012 edition)) descends northwest and links with Beech Road in Sterling State Forest. We then followed woods roads to the south of Hasenclever Hills marked on the NYNJTC map to link back up with the Hasenclever Iron Trail and head back to Ringwood Manor. The total trip was around 7 miles I think.
*the Black Rock is technically in NY but the entirety of the view is of NJ.