NJ Trail Tracker

[this_is_nascar]

Introducing Trail Tracker - The interactive trails map of New Jersey State Parks, Forests & Historic Sites!

Experience our State Parks like you never have before. Our new trail tacker allows you to track your current location, view trails and points of interest, search for park activities, and download PDF maps before entering an area of limited cell service.

Interested in going hiking in Brendan T Byrne State Forest this weekend? Simply zoom to the park on the map and all of the parks trails will pop up. From there you can click on each trail individually and see how long the trail is, its difficulty rating, surface material, and if activities such as horseback riding or mountain biking are permitted.

If you're out on the trail and are wondering if you are wandering off in the wrong direction, or want to know how much further you have to go, you can easily locate yourself during the "locator" tool.

We hope that this new tool will help you plan all of your future adventures in New Jersey State Parks.

Explore Trail Tacker now by heading to http://spstrailtracker.nj.gov!

#NJStateParks #NJTrailTracker #N
JHiking

https://njdep.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=3a27819e5c724c8b97a3c9dd43fd3d9a

 

[lj762]

Thanks for the link. That's really interesting. It's an ESRI mapping application with a State overlay showing trails. You can click on a trail for details. (Sometimes, though, fill-in-the-blanks from a database doesn't work too well. Joe's Trail at Bass River SF: "color is Unmarked, and is blazed with an Unmarked Unmarked". Not too helpful.)

Also I noticed that the ESRI aerial map background loads fast, but the state overlay is much slower, so often you see the map without the trails.

My biggest complaint from a first look is it fails to properly display overlayed trails - where two different trails follow the same path for a while. It seems to just pick one and show you that one only. For example, look at the Batsto Lake Trails which are 3 loops that share common parts.

And why is Batona only shown as 28.15 miles long? Oh, I see, they broke it into separate pieces. Bass River Batona is 7 miles; Wharton Batona is 28.15 miles, Franklin Parker Preserve Batona is 7.86 miles, and BTB Batona is 9.89 miles. Huh?

 

[Teegate]

They used the same map (overlay) as was used with the MAP but with a few changes that I chided them about back when we were fighting the map.

 

[46er]

Thanks, but I'll stick with Boyd's maps

 

[manumuskin]

I see they have been doing some blazing in Belleplain since I lived over there.I"ve walked all those trails before they were trails,most of the are old sand roads shown on the topos.That is some seriously chiggered country.The Mountain Bike trail has NO for hiking.Are they seriously telling us that we can't walk a trail?That trail passes pretty close to the Benzette Stone shown on the Hartman Map.and another one can be used to access the Ridgeway Stone.

 

[enormiss]

The Mountain Bike trail has NO for hiking.Are they seriously telling us that we can't walk a trail?

They have some major roads listed as no motor vehicles too, hopefully its a work in progress...

 

[dogg57]

They have some major roads listed as no motor vehicles too, hopefully its a work in progress...

In brandywine state park in Delaware ,trails are made for bicycles only and hiking only then share the others together

 

[lj762]

I see they have been doing some blazing in Belleplain since I lived over there.I"ve walked all those trails before they were trails,most of the are old sand roads shown on the topos.That is some seriously chiggered country.The Mountain Bike trail has NO for hiking.Are they seriously telling us that we can't walk a trail?That trail passes pretty close to the Benzette Stone shown on the Hartman Map.and another one can be used to access the Ridgeway Stone.

On the maps, that trail looks seriously twisty/curvey. It's hard to tell, but at least some parts seem to be single-track. Walking on a single-track twisty MTB trail would be considered dangerous, so it would be discouraged. Doesn't mean you aren't allowed to walk, but stay alert and be prepared to jump into the brush if approached by bikes from either direction. I was surprised the first time this happened to me how quiet the bikes coming up behind were. Luckily they were going slow and called out to me.

 

[46er]

Doesn't mean you aren't allowed to walk, but stay alert and be prepared to jump into the brush if approached by bikes from either direction. I was surprised the first time this happened to me how quiet the bikes coming up behind were. Luckily they were going slow and called out to me.

I am pretty sure the parks encourage following the IMBA trail rules on the multi-use trails, although I do not recall ever seeing one of the signs similar to this one. Most Mt bikers know of it as the ones you encountered, but some do not.

 

[lj762]

Yes I've seen signs like that (the triangle part) at Estell Manor (Atlantic County Park). But I'm pretty sure that's for wide trails, sand roads. Mult-use trails. Never for single-track MTB trails. Wharton, for example, does "not recommend" hiking on its MTB trails. So the question is whether the Mountain Bike Trail at Belleplain is multi-use or not, and I think the answer is not.

But remember, they are making these maps up for the 'general public', which includes people who hike forest trails in the summer wearing flip-flops (seen it), or set out on Batona without water on a 95+ degree August day (seen it), etc, etc. I think it's safe to say they aren't really worried about folks like most or all of you here.

 

[manumuskin]

I have a friend from the Poconos area who met me back around 98.He was a Tom brown student like I was and he found me on this forum and PM"ed me.He wanted to learn the barrens since that was Toms stomping grounds and the setting of his books so I met him up by Hedger House and we frequented the barrens for years till he retired and moved to the Florida Panhandle.I remember the first time he showed up for a Tulpehocken Bushwack he showed up in shorts and sandals.I said Dude! You are about to become hamburger! He said why? Tom said he ran the barrens in bare feet.I said yeah and he was a kid!~ I had leather soled feet when i was a kid too but when you work for a living your feet get soft from work boots.Sure enough by days end he was tore up from the floor up!He was tough though and barely whimpered but the damage was visible. The again the next year his memory waxed old and He did it again! Same story.After that his barrens experience kicked in and it was long pants and at least sneakers after that.,Flip flops? I can't even wear flip flops.My big toes are too far from my other toes and they fly off my feet at every step.One trick i do enjoy is to take my shoes off and walk barefoot through wet snow to leave good tracks in heavily visited areas.This freaks people out when they see that in the middle of the woods.I"m good for about two minutes and then on go the woolies and insulated boots;-)

 

[46er]

which includes people who hike forest trails in the summer wearing flip-flops (seen it),

I have seen 'outdoorsy' folks hiking the Beehive trail in Acadia in those things. I always thought they were a politically strategy.