GearJunkie's Weekend Warriors

Every week, GearJunkie posts photos from people all over the world having awesome adventures outdoors... and it seems the Outdoor Doula has made the cut!

Check out GearJunkie's Weekend Warriors to see the photo of myself relocating carp from Gunnell Oval! Steve was cropped from the picture... I guess he's just not cut out for a life of fame and fortune.

If you've got pictures from one of your weekend adventures outdoors, send them to pmurphy@gearjunkie.com with name, location and brief captions. They post the best ones every week!

Here's a picture of my biggest fan being really impressed with this:

Day Hike: West Essex Trail

Also check out our West Essex Trail & Abandoned Overbrook Insane Asylum Hike 

from December 2012 here

After Saturday's kayaking adventure through the freshwater Kearny Marsh, Steve and I were planning on enjoying a lazy, video-game and pizza-filled Sunday. Plans quickly changed when my father and I were sipping coffee Sunday morning and discussing all the neat trails in Northern NJ. He was interested in going hiking for the first time in a long time.

It doesn't take much for me to want to grab our gear and head out, and so we all went to the West Essex Trail- our first time all hiking together, and our first time hiking this particular trail. We parked in Verona by the highschool and began what we estimated to be about a 6 mile trek through easy-moderate terrain. What an awesome hike! I hadn't looked into this trail previously so didn't know what to expect.

Realizing we have Fig Newtons in our teeth

Crisis averted.

It started off easy, and pretty much in the backyards of local residents. It was so easy at first that I left my Gandalf-inspired walking stick behind to keep my hands warm in my pockets (this turned out to be a big mistake). 

"Youuuu shalll not paaaasssss"

After crossing 3 streets and a footbridge we came to a crossroads: continue straight on what looked to be more of the same easy, flat, leaf-covered path, or venture upwards to our right, to the treed and rocky hills of the unknown.

We of course choose the unknown. We hiked past a stream and the remains of a small campfire to a very suitable Lunch Rock where we ate sandwiches and chips (not our usual hiking fare, but Dad was in charge of lunch, so potato chips were a given).

We went farther into the woods and saw TWO deer! One was pretty close, and the other was way off in the distance, but still- we saw deer. I'm not entirely sure what it is about coming upon a deer in the woods that makes us so awestruck and giddy, but it really is a special sighting.

See?!?!?!

We hiked along, being careful on the wet rocks and root-ridden path, and decided to turn around once we came up to the Ridge Road crossing. On our way back, Dad was deemed TrailMaster and so Steve and I stopped paying attention to where we were going and just enjoyed the scenery. After about 5 minutes I realized that we hadn't passed a trail marker in awhile. "Yeah," Dad said, "I haven't seen one of those in a looong time. I'm running on instinct!"

The TrailMaster, relieved of his duties

After almost 10 minutes of face-palming and retracing our steps, we made it back to the yellow trail and  trekked the long walk back to the high school. What was so "easy" in the beginning was a lot more difficult after hours of hiking. Once I sat down in the car I wasn't so sure I'd be able to get out once home.

Lesson Learned: Always pay attention to your surroundings! If it had been later in the day and we didn't account for time spent being disoriented, we could have very easily been lost in the darkening hours. Without a flashlight (Lesson Learned #2) we could have been up a creek, pun intended. We should have learned not to put Dad in charge after learning from a family corn maze experience a month ago (this story involves my father leaving the group and walking around the corn maze alone, with no flashlight on, finally escaping the maze an hour and a half after we did. This is where I get it from)

Victorious and dapper at Lunch Rock

On our way home we stopped by the Eagle Rock Reservation, standing at the 9/11 memorial and looking out over The City. Then we somehow got lost in Newark and what felt like 15 hours later, made it home in one piece.

Here are some more photos from our West Essex Trail hike:

"This is an adventure! Anyone can just take 280." 

-My father, still running on instinct as we are 

trapped/lost in Newark

Kayaking the Kearny Marsh

Steve and I, victorious and covered in mud (well.. I was covered in mud, anyway)

Wow. Wowowowowowow. Kayaking the Kearny Marsh (freshwater, access from Gunnell Oval) is an amazing experience. I can't believe we've been in North Jersey for years and hadn't yet discovered it. This Saturday we had perfect kayaking weather- cool, crisp air but warm in the sunshine, not a cloud in the sky, a slight breeze every now and then. Add great company, views of the NYC skyline and tons of birds (and I think I saw a turtle) and you have The Perfect Kayaking Day.

I am so. sore. It feels great!

Steve got to try out his brand new (to him) Pelican Eclipse- it's an awesome kayak. It's wider than mine (an Ocean Kayak Frenzy), has a drink holder in the middle, and there's no need for scupper plugs. It's got a tie-down area in the back for a satchel, extra shirt, or whatever you want to store. You can even cross your legs in it if you wish. Plus the paint scheme is pretty amazing. The Frenzy is more canoe-shaped, curling up in the front and back, while Steve's Pelican has a flatter bottom and top. It also has a rudder, which I suppose is neat but doesn't allow for dragging around.

We definitely need to get Steve a new paddle, though- the one that came with the Pelican (used) is absolutely horrible- it's heavy and messy. It's a bit short, and for some reason absolutely soaks the paddler- all three of us tried it and all of us wound up wet from the knees down; it just rains water down on you when you bring the paddle up and out of the water. The oar is not built for speed, so the paddles aren't curved... and you can't dig into the water with it.

My dad and I use English fiberglass racing paddles, and the difference from Steve's oar is just incredible, both look-wise and performance-wise. Not sure what the brand is... can anyone identify?
(Update: The paddles are by Ainsworth)

 We had a really lovely time paddling through the tighter spaces into the wide-open waters. It was a bit of a trek from the gravel parking area through the reeds, over the train tracks, down the path and into the quicksand mud, but totally worth it.

Can't really tell from this... but Dad was soaked

Getting out of the water proved challenging as Dad ("Ramming Speed") flipped the kayak and wound up drenched from top to bottom in freezing cold marsh water, and I stepped into quickmud up to my knee. All in all, a great day. I'm so excited that Steve has his own kayak now, and all three of us can go exploring together. And what a phenomenal workout and excellent complement to our hiking!

Now all we need are roof racks, a new paddle for Steve, some disposable waterproof cameras to bring with us on our trips from now on (there was no way I was bringing my phone or my camera into the water with me) and some rope to help us get out of the water when we aren't putting in from a pier.

Gunnell Oval: After Hurricane Sandy

This morning I took trip to the Gunnell Oval in Kearny, NJ. Home to soccer fields, baseball diamonds, walking trails and the freshwater Kearny Marsh. This is the park in which Steve, my father and I (and my aunt and uncle at one point) recently spent many hours rescuing trapped fish and relocating them to the marsh. (I'm just waiting on pictures from this experience to be sent to me, and then I'll post about it. It was quite an adventure...) 

Even though in total we relocated about 80 carp, local teenagers we met about 100, a nice lifelong Kearny resident whom I met today relocated approximately 80-90 and the Kearny High School Fishing Club relocated 76, I counted at least 40 dead fish along the road, trapped in puddle-ponds, and squished in the street. It was a pretty gruesome sight, and I'm definitely feeling guilty about not being able to save more. I counted 3 surviving fish in the puddle-pond created by a massive willow tree which was ripped out of the ground during the hurricane. Once the rest of the water evaporates, I'm sure we are going to find a really disturbing amount of additional fish who didn't make it.


In the back of the park there's a little bench and then there were immediate walking trails- you could walk all around the marsh, with great views of the water, fish, all sorts of birds (I've heard that there are owls, woodpeckers, hawks and even bald eagles back there). The storm literally moved the earth and pushed what I'm guessing were floating islands against the shore, creating a new shoreline and completely destroying the walking paths. Steve and I had been contemplating having engagement photos taken back there... but now those very paths don't even exist anymore.

I know there are a lot of people really hurting from the storm- we still have so many without power, let alone without homes. People have lost everything. If you are one of the lucky ones, I encourage you to take a walk to your local park and see if there's anything you can do to help put it back together again- picking up trash, setting a tipped trash can upright, seeing if your community's Parks and Recreation department needs volunteers for any projects. 

During my walk, many people drove through, walked/ran through and some were just parked in their cars, drinking coffee and reading the paper. The Gunnell Oval is a happy place for many residents, a place of solitude and peace. I look forward to spending more time there and doing what I can to clean up and preserve such a beautiful park.

I'll let the photos speak for themselves... 

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
(Margaret Mead, anthropologist)