Paulinskill Valley Trail: Viaduct to Blairstown Airport

Paulinskill Valley Trail, Viaduct to Blairstown Airport (9/13/2009)

This is one section of hike #3 ("The Paulinskill Valley Trail") in Hiking New Jersey: A Guide to 50 of the Garden State's Greatest Hiking Adventures (1st edition). The entire hike in that book is a 9.5-mile section of the 27.4-mile Paulinskill Valley trail beginning at the massive Paulinskill Viaduct and ending at the parking lot in Kittatinny Valley State Park on Spring Valley Road in Marksboro. It's a shuttle hike requiring two cars. Those with only one car, like us, need to hike this in out-and-back sections. This afternoon we did the western 3.5-mile strip. And it was a total delight.

We first visited the incredible viaduct at street and river level, and then scrambled up the hill on the northern side of the Station Road and walked along the top. The views of Mt. Tammany were amazing, showing its entire length from its western end at the Delaware Water Gap to its eastern tip. After about 1.5 miles of exploring we hit the trail and trekked all the way to Blairstown Airport where we had lunch at the wonderful little Runway Cafe. This was the first time we ever had freshly served veggie burgers and fries on a hike! We then promptly walked a good part of it off by returning to the car 3.5 miles away.

Total distance covered was 8.5 miles in less than 4 hours, including a sit-down lunch.

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