M'ke's Hikes

Camden Craziness

feeds@yuku.com (sneezehorse) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:42:57 GMT

I've written about some nutty things we've done around the Camden area in the past, but unfortunitely that's now no longer in my forum (I put it on someone elses in the WNJ the Magazine forum), so I will detail my most recent adventure there here...

We had a fantastic walk between Berlin and Woodfern Station. We not only used trails, but visited a sand quarry, a mall with a woman that looked like a lion, a great flea market, and crashed someone's bar be cue! They...

Mercer County Stuff

feeds@yuku.com (sneezehorse) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:30:56 GMT

I just realized that I did not have anything in my own forum on Mercer County. So many of the items I'd posted in the past I just opted to use other threads in the "WNJ The Magazine" forum, then when I get back to an area realize that I have nowhere of my own to put it!

Mercer in the past had always struck me as being a county that was a bit more boring because I'd seen less strange things there than in others, but my most recent hike from Princeton to...

Berks County PA Fringe

feeds@yuku.com (sneezehorse) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:04:19 GMT

Yet another county I've barely begun to scrape the surface on...it does have multitudes of abandoned railroads, some old canals, 18th century iron furnaces, and who knows what else!

I've explored a bit of French Creek State Park recently, as well as Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site. These are popular spots, but what I found strange was that they allowed people into the old furnace. It had a narrow walkway around the oven area itself so it was neat to get really up...

Montgomery County Fringe Weirdness

feeds@yuku.com (sneezehorse) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:36:02 GMT

Another county I'm just beginning to scrape the surface on is Montgomery County in PA.

There seems to be a lot to see there, and I've done some exploring in the Unami Woods nearby, the entire Perkiomen Trail route, as well as most recently Green Lane Resevoir. There has'nt been much yet, but there's been a few abandoned buildings and railroads...

Fringe: St. Anthony's Wilderness

feeds@yuku.com (sneezehorse) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 23:35:02 GMT

Shrouded in mystery is Pennsylvania's St. Anthony's Wilderness. I have many a hiking guide which gives descriptions of the often vague trails in this expanse of land. This fall my girlfriend Jillane and I backpacked a small piece of it to find out what the big deal was all about.

What we found when we arrived were three abandoned town sites, sulfer springs, mining ruins, all disappearing completely. Even in the 1700s I've seen maps that denote this being "St...

Weird Orange County NY

feeds@yuku.com (sneezehorse) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:23:39 GMT

I have only just begun exploring Orange County NY, and at first I thought the only strange thing I'd find was the fact that nothing rhymes with it, but that is quite to the contrary. I don't have many pics ready from up there yet, but I'm going to have more. Does anyone know of anything interesting on any of the abandoned railroads in the area?

The Gunks: Fringe Touring

feeds@yuku.com (sneezehorse) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:26:09 GMT

One of the other series of stuff I've been covering as I head off in every direction is the Shawangunk Ridge, the extension of the Kittatinny Ridge into NY state. I had a bunch of stuff on it posted, probably in the "Last Exit in NJ" posting on the WNJ The Magazine forum, but I can't seem to find it lately, so oh well. The search function's been down on here...

We've found abandoned lead mines, trestles, all sorts of houses, an abandoned asphalt plant,...

Weird Chester County PA Fringe...

feeds@yuku.com (sneezehorse) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:09:02 GMT

In continueing to branch farther out, I have reached into Chester County PA and now have a large enough library of weird places I've visited to throw up a topic...and this place is chock full of them.

Chester PA is actually very VERY much like NJ in it's catalogue of weirdness. It's got caves and abandoned rail tunnels, tons of old abandoned buildings, an abandoned asylum (which a member of my group just got busted for trespassing in) called Pennhurst, and plenty of...

Passaic County Stuff...

feeds@yuku.com (sneezehorse) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:57:17 GMT

We all know Passaic County has quite a lot to offer when it comes to oddities....I have recently begun to explore the area more in depth beyond the railroads and canals which I use as a framework making my way into new areas. This turned out to be ripe with interesting places!

Does anyone know anything about the large complex that burnt down alongside the Passaic River in Paterson? I thought it was part of the Cold gun factory but I could be wrong.

I've also heard good...

Wanaque reservoir cemetery?

feeds@yuku.com (colortheworld) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:36:22 GMT

When I lived in West Milford I used to find this place on various hikes I would take along the reservoir. Now my mother is asking where it is and I cannot recall exactly how to get there! I know we are not supposed to give directions to some places that are illegal but does that also apply to hiking directions?

The Pine Barrens

feeds@yuku.com (sneezehorse) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:42:05 GMT

If you're from NJ, and especially if you are a WNJ fan, it seems everyone has this fascination with the Pine Barrens. While it is beautiful and interesting, I've always found it to get rather stale and boring. Searching for the Jersey Devil has never been my cup of tea. I prefer the more tangeable pieces of history forgotten, and other interesting oddities, as well as the nature aspect. I do plan on some more trips down there, and maybe someone may have some info to pass along to...

The Kittatinnies...

feeds@yuku.com (sneezehorse) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:37:04 GMT

There was a great posting started by hxcdanny on the magazine forum which I contributed quite a lot to entitled "Last Exit in NJ". It's one of the areas I am more familiar with than almost anybody. Within that posting, I contributed quite a many pictures and tidbits of info which I'm not really into reposting because it took so much time, but if you want to see all of it follow this link: http://theweirdusmessageboard.yuku.com/topic/1003?page=1

Still, I have tons...

Morris County Meanderings

feeds@yuku.com (sneezehorse) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:38:04 GMT

As many of you may very well know I do spend a great deal of time in Morris County, in my opinion one of the weirdest and most diverse counties in the state. I'm continueing to explore that area, but figure it needs a place on my forum. I've done a great deal of sharing some of the places I've visited on threads within the WNJ The Magazine section, and rather than repost all of the pulp I've put into those threads I'll save this for new stuff and simply refer readers to...

NYC Fringe

feeds@yuku.com (sneezehorse) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:48:09 GMT

New York City is full of all sorts of crazy weirdness, and it could totally merit it's own magazine for certain...I am planning a trip which will be in part of northern Manhattan next week, so does anyone know of anything that would be cool to visit directly opposite the GW Bridge?

Here's a couple weird tidbits as well: That freedom tower they were going to build at the WTC site...well apparently it got turned down, and it was sold instead to a developer up by Rockafeller...

Warren County Highlands

feeds@yuku.com (sneezehorse) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 19:34:54 GMT

I can't believe that there's not a good topic on here that's just devoted to Warren County...there's more here than almost anywhere! I put up the Warren Railroad one which has justification for it's own place, but the rest of Warren is fantastic. The only thing I ever hear about with Warren is the KKK...which I have personally seen. Right next to the "Welcome to Oxford" sign they had a fund raiser one time in full garb...interesting to say the least...

Middlesex Stuff?

feeds@yuku.com (sneezehorse) — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 18:08:34 GMT

I'm looking at doing some hikes through Middlesex County, trying to follow many of the different greenways along the rivers such as the Rahway and such...I've found a lot of awesome stuff so far, but does anyone have any other recommendations?

There is an awesome pipe on the south side of the Rahway River (which I think is the border, I forget) which you can walk long over a meadow for example...

Union County Oddities...

feeds@yuku.com (sneezehorse) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:32:45 GMT

I did a search and could'nt find a post completely dovoted to Union County as well!

There are plenty of weird things there...old bridges, cemetaries like the famous one in Linden, and abandoned original Merck building I think it is...

What I do want to know though, is there a way to walk around the east side of the Newark Airport out of Union County? I'm trying to walk the state's perimeter with most interesting route closest to the waterfront. Is there anything...

On The Fringe in Bucks County PA...

feeds@yuku.com (sneezehorse) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:13:55 GMT

Yet another great location for fringe area stuff. I was reading the 49 other states forums and saw Bucks County for UFO sightings on there and it triggered my memory of all sorts of stuff I've found. I have some particularly fun stories from it, but one in particular...

I'm on the steering committee extending the Highlands Trail beyond the Delaware into PA, and I've led many scouting trips, many of which are in Bucks County. The route originally planned (but later...

Strange Somerset

feeds@yuku.com (sneezehorse) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:28:14 GMT

There's a hell of a lot more interesting stuff in Somerset County than the Devil's Tree...and amazingly that's all I ever hear about really!

Did anyone here ever get to the Duke Estate before they began dismantling the "Gardens of the World"? I tried to get in, and we even bribed them with cash, to no avail.

One of my buddies made a video detailing our last trip, a big loop between Somerville, Bridgewater, and Martinsville. We did 19.5 miles! I'll...

Hudson

feeds@yuku.com (sneezehorse) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:27:25 GMT

Hello all...

I'm continueing a series of hikes to walk the Hudson waterfront, beginning with Jersey City...I want to walk the waterfront on both the east and west sides to make for a loop on my next one. I've explored a lot of it, including the entire route of the Liberty-Water Gap Trail, but does any one have any recommendations for anyplace on the peninsula south of Liberty State Park?

There are a lot of interesting places there I can share, old churches, stuff...