Finishing Ida’s Reign

A few weeks ago, JORBA park rep Kirt Mills met up with the High Tech crew to clean up some of the remaining damaged areas that were leftover from last year’s Hurricane Ida. The first was a fairly benign section of trail that comes right off the Newman’s Lane lot and heads to the white trails. The leftover erosion was unsightly and only getting worse with every rainstorm. A vast improvement can be seen in the 2 images below.

Special thanks in this effort goes out to Paul from High Tech, who donated all the labor, the stone, and the delivery to the park. We cannot thank Paul and the High Tech crew enough for everything they to do make this park a jewel of Central Jersey. Please support one of our biggest sponsors by considering High Tech Landscapes for any work you may need.

Across Newman’s Lane on the blue trail, the bridge on the lower route had never been properly fixed. Instead of 2 disjointed bridge pieces, the trail has moved a bit upstream and now spans just a single bridge. Again, the High Tech crew provided the manpower and helped cut the new trail to the bridge. Below are a few pics of the new layout.

One of the final pieces of the Ida puzzle will be put into place in the coming weeks as the park has approved a reroute around what has come to be known as “the cesspool,” an area that flooded out near the sewage drain, not far off Gilbride on the ballfield set of trails. The township has worked on the area in the past few months, as you can see in the first image below, which is where the trail used to be. The second image is some of what’s to come (less the dog).

Other Yellow Updates

An assortment of other projects on yellow (what is now yellow, pink, and green) were also completed this week as, again, Kirt had the help of the High Tech crew on 2 separate sessions to get this work done. There are too many things to list, so it is best to head on out and ride these trails to see the work that’s been done. Of specific note were fixes to things on the High Tech trail, as well as the IMBA trail. Assorted other yellow trail fixes can be seen in some of the pics as well as by going to the park to check them out.

Monday Funday

If you’re “Rock Curious” but don’t know where to start, MTBNJ has a weekly Monday ride that’s starting the first week in April. You can get more details here. This is an all-inclusive ride, so anyone who wants to see more of the park can check it out. Weekly discussion & updates are posted on that thread.

Additional Info on Chimney Rock/Washington Valley Park

The Trailforks page can be found here, which is a great place to start your journey in this park.

The latest trail conditions discussion can be found on this thread. MTBNJ also has a wiki page about Chimney Rock, So You Want to Ride…

Finally, if you would like to be kept up to date on similar projects and opportunities to volunteer, please sign up for the Chimney Rock/Washington Valley Park mailing list. Just enter your email below: