by Daniel Santacruz

Rule No. 1: Wear hiking boots.

Rule No. 2: Drink lots of water.

If you hike the Appalachian Trial to Sunfish Pond wearing sneakers, in violation of Rule No. 1, guaranteed your feet will be sore for days.

But you will also remember the stunning views of mountains, valleys, clear streams and pristine Sunfish Pond.

The New Jersey leg of the Appalachian Trial — it measures some 72 miles — runs from the Delaware Water Gap to High Point State Park, at the northwestern corner of the state.

The easiest way to get there is to take Route 80 West to the last exit in New Jersey, at  Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Stop at the Kittatinny Point Visitor Center to get brochures if you need them, then drive a few feet to the Dunnfield parking lot to leave your car.

You will be in Worthington State Forest, where 10 trails of varying length, altitude and difficulty connect to the Appalachian itself. One path climbs 700 feet in two miles. If you are out of shape, rest as often as you need — and follow Rule No. 2.

The actual Appalachian Trail takes you up to Sunfish Pond. The hike is almost four miles long and climbs 1,000 feet. It takes about four hours, up and back — which is considered moderate and good for inexperienced hikers. The terrain is rocky in some locations and you need to navigate the stones carefully to avoid spraining an ankle (that’s when you’ll regret not following Rule No. 1).  

Getting to Sunfish Pond is the highlight. It’s a glacial lake of pristine waters that invites sweaty hikers to dive in. There are no signs forbidding swimming.

If you still have energy, circle the lake. The left shore is strenuous, with boulders that make walking extremely difficult and a path about a foot wide. The right shore offers a smooth, flat surface. From any angle the pond offers beautiful vistas. There is deer and bear in the area.

Measuring more than 2,175 miles, the Appalachian Trail was completed in 1937 and stretches through 14 states between Georgia and Maine. There are official sites at the National Park Service and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, and a guide to the New Jersey section.

Next time, NJ My Way contributor Daniel Santacruz  will remember the hiking boots.

By Daniel Santacruz

Just a few yards from the junction of routes 80 and 95, at a former dumpsite where household garbage and tons of debris from the construction of the highways some 40 years ago ended up, lies one of the state’s best kept environmental secrets.

It’s the 46-acre Teaneck Creek Conservancy — a hidden world for nature watching and quiet meditation.

Its main feature is the Turtle Peace Labyrinth, designed by eco-artist Ariane Burgess and built from concrete rubble as a tribute to the Lenape Indians, who once lived in the area.

Shaped in the form of giant turtle, the labyrinth is a path of stones that circles inward. The designer intended it to be conducive for mediation. Start at the T-stone on the perimeter, walk toward the center, sit down there for as long as you want, then retrace your steps.

The park is ideal for bird watching. Chunks of discarded concrete were transformed into milestones that indicate the distances traveled by seven migrating birds (common redpoll, common yellowthroat, rose-breasted grosbeak, red knot, dark-eyed junco, American goldfinch and osprey) that stop there on their journeys between the Artic Circle and South America.

There are also three trails, several bridges — the most recent, measuring six feet long, was inaugurated three weeks ago — and outdoor art exhibits.

Start your tour at one of the three entrances (Fyke Lane, Puffin Way or Frank Burr Boulevard), but don’t expect to find picnic tables or marked trails. It’s just raw nature. A tour won’t last more than two hours, including a leisurely stop at the labyrinth. The park is open to the public from dawn to dusk all year round and there is no fee.

Teaneck Creek Conservancy is a project of the Puffin Foundation, also located in Teaneck. It offers ecological programs and art classes for both children and adults.

“That looked like a Savannah,” Scott Barnes said. “The Grasshopper is going to fly up like a helicopter.”

And so it did, bursting straight up then dropping down over a grassy meadow in Sandy Hook. But this was no insect. Barnes, senior naturalist for the New Jersey Audubon Society’s Sandy Hook Bird Observatory, was talking about two uncommon species of sparrow that the group he led was trying to identify during this weekend’s World Series of Birding.

“I never knew birds until about ten years ago, when I went on a bird watching trip in Sandy Hook,” said Georgia Dempster, a member of Barnes’ group. “It was cold, a February day, but we saw lots of ducks and they didn’t fly away.”

It was an inside joke for birders, who know it gets a lot harder than just sitting ducks. Like that Grasshopper Sparrow, most birds stay out of sight. Working your skills to identify the species, and the easy camaraderie of being outdoors with fellow lovers of feathered beings, is what makes birding fun.

Barnes’ group moved from the meadow to a salt marsh to a bay to a beach, visiting diverse habitats to see different species. Or hear them: identifying an unseen bird by sound counts too. Click here to watch Scott Barnes call out a Barred Owl.

At the World Series of Birding, the fun helps fund environmental non-profits. More than 1,000 birders from across the United States, Europe and Asia were in New Jersey for the event (the cardinal rule is that each bird must be sighted from the Garden State); they or their corporate sponsors pledged a donation for each bird a group identified over the 24-hour period starting midnight Friday. The WSB has raised $8 million for bird conservation since it was founded 25 years ago by noted author and birder Pete Dunne, director of the Cape May Bird Observatory.

This year’s winning group, Nikon Lagerhead Shrikes, totaled 229 species, seven more than the two runners-up but short of the record 231 set in 2003. Birders altogether spotted a cumulative 271 species, just one shy of the record from 2004.

Barnes’ group of about 30 people had an easygoing philosophy. They stayed within the confines of the Sandy Hook peninsula (serious competitors start in the forests of northern New Jersey and work their way down to Cape May) and birded “only” from dawn to dusk. Lunch was leisurely, too.

But even then people picked up their binoculars in between bites of their sandwiches. The group ended up with 117 species including the Osprey in the photo. They had pledged a buck a bird. That’s about $3,500 for bird conservation. Not a bad haul for birders who spent a day out in the field, doing what they love to do.

Saturday morning, two large deer, startled by the sound of the porch door opening, leaped one after another from behind the garbage shed. They rushed across the driveway and joined the herd of eight or so that was feasting on the lawn.

On Thanksgiving, a big bear cub clung to a tree high above a busy local road, photographed by neighbors as drivers underneath sped to dinner. 
 
Last week, we reported multiple sightings of a mountain lion—who’d apparently killed a neighbor’s cat in Kinnelon (www.njmyway.com/content/view/300/77).

A few months back a scarred and angry looking coyote, the color of tree bark and big as a Labrador, skulked by the window stalking a squirrel. Often at dawn and dusk, we hear
yips from the woods across the road. There are some 3,000 coyotes in the state.

Has anyone told our un-tamed neighbors that this is New Jersey? Not a nature preserve, but the wealthy land of supranoburban cul de sacs, crowned with malls, boarded by boardwalks, connected by deer-slaying, SUV-laden highways?  

There is no fence between the thousands of acres of Highlands to the west, and the developments that press against these wooded hills. The more we live with deer, bears, coyotes and maybe even mountain lions, they more they live with us. It’s easier to plunder a pizza box or maul a domestic cat than to hunt down running prey.

The debate over the fate of this wilderness frontier is bubbling again as the New Jersey Highlands Council releases its revised plans for managing the huge tract of undeveloped land (http://tinyurl.com/35ze2rm). Should we be allowed to slice further into the woods, building bigger homes on still larger lots?     

Who would you rather have, as your neighbors?