Blair Creek Preserve



Blair Creek Preserve (2/28/2016)

This beautiful area, at the foot of the Kittatinny Mountains, has been on our list of places to visit for years. But it's been on the backburner because the only trail map available has been the small network of unblazed woods roads on the New York-New Jersey Kittatinny Trail Map #121. After recently discovering a new map on the official site, we decided to head out there today.

It should be noted that this official trail map includes only those trails that are blazed with the distinctive Blair Creek diamond. But there are other woods roads which allow for more extensive exploration. You can see our track here. We parked on the somewhat desolate Fairview Lake Road in a very nice parking area which can probably hold five or six cars. We headed SW on the white trail on the map which is actually blazed blue in the preserve. At the SW tip beware of the unfinished bridge which crosses Blair Creek. It's currently two long logs with no handrails. We skirted across on our butts. Lumber on either side suggests that there's more work to be done here. At the end of blue (at Fairview Lake Road), we took a spur north, climbing, on a trail marked by green pieces of wood (not the official blaze). It continued NE on a lower ridge which paralleled the leg of Fairview Lake Road west of the lake but we didn't go any further, believing it might be private property. Also on this green spur we saw another orange-blazed trail going west along a lower ridge. Returning to the road, we re-entered the preserve and this time took yellow south (both on the map and in the woods). At the SW end the blazing ended (as indicated on the map), but we continued to a spur to Blair Creek and then continued on a woods road heading NE until we met with blue once again and took that back to the car.

Total distance hiked today was 5 miles in 2 hours and 45 minutes.

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