I usually have to pump myself up to go over to Abram Hewitt; even for legit North Jersey hikes,…read moreit's super out of the way (at least 20 minutes from Route 23, with minimal post-hike eating options) and there's no way to avoid having to walk on the shoulder of a busy state highway for at least 15 seconds - and often significantly more if you don't get there before literally two other cars. This particular hike I did on Saturday IS one of my favorites though and a strong recommend. You can see in the attached pictures that despite a dreary day, the optics here are pretty fantastic. You have to earn the view, and when the sun actually decides to show up, it's arguably a top two or three optic in NJ.
Yesterday I did about a 7-mile hike along the Bearfort RIdge, from the trailhead on the Warwick Turnpike, up the western side of the Bearfort Ridge Trail before making a left onto the Ernest Walter Trail before connecting up with the almighty AT for a few moments, then hopping onto the blue State Line Trail before reconnecting with Ernest Walter to the Greenwood Lake overlook before going south to hook up again with the Bearfort Ridge Trail (this time on its eastern side) back to the trailhead. The whole journey took about 4 1/2 hours for me, which includes moseying along for a while and a snack break at the overlook.
The parking situation is rough; it's a huge reason you can't say this is an unequivocally positive hiking experience. There's a very small parking area on the shoulder of the Warwick Turnpike that can fit three cars. That's it. There's no signage to speak of, so unless you see one or two other cars there for context, it's not even clear you're allowed to park there for a few hours. Further down Warwick going toward Greenwood Lake, there's a bigger shoulder on the other side of the road that can probably fit 10 more cars but again, no signage and parking there requires you to walk alongside Warwick for a solid few minutes with not a lot of space to avoid vehicular traffic. Not pleasant, and I think they probably could figure out a way to make this much more hospitable for hikers. There's also no port-a-potty at any point in this hike, so I'd stop at the Dunkin or something in the downtown West Milford area beforehand.
This is definitely not an easy hike, but the toughest part to me is the first half hour, where you're scaling up the ridge. I prefer to get the rough stuff over at the beginning as a warmup, but it's a fairly steep climb. Once up on the ridge, you're not really doing much more in the way of significant inclines (though there is more up and down, especially on the yellow trail where you have some legit scrambling), but the terrain is VERY rocky/rough, which is to be expected. It's a lot of outcroppings and hopping from one rock formation to the next. The final 2.5 miles or so on the Bearfort is comparatively easy; it's basically just a woods road, and the most annoying part of it was the bug situation, which was nastier than usual with some recent rain. I had some sweat-resistant Off, but it barely made a dent.
By far the best part of this hike is the overlook area on yellow that has viewpoints going up and down the length of Greenwood Lake. The eastern side where Sterling State Forest is has some decent eye candy as well, but this is the gold standard because there's minimal foliage on the rock outcroppings; you can just on the boulders and see everything in front of you. There's no way to get up there without doing the work so it tends not to be as crowded as some of the nearby vistas in the area; an added bonus.
The trail maintenance and markings are very solid and easy to find for the most part; they were either freshly painted on rocks/trees or actual physical markers nailed down (there's probably an official term for those). The blue trail has a few issues where it's super easy to lose your way because there's more than one possible option to turn onto; an extra rock cairn or two could go a long way here. Unfortunately due to the weather the canine chum situation was nonexistent, and so were the wildlife sightings. I saw/heard a few squirrels, but nothing to write home about.
If this one is on your list, I'd recommend getting there early so you're literally one of the first three cars. Otherwise, your warmup is going to consist of exhaust fumes and sadness. Very cool hike though if you can make the time.
