It was a real honor and rewarding experience to get to guide U.S. Senator Cory Booker on a hike in the Jersey Highlands this weekend, along with NY-NJ Trail Conference Executive Director Joshua Howard.
Besides discussing the history of Pyramid Mountain – from the glacial action, to the Leni-Lenape who lived in the area, to the 1980’s preservation effort – we also enjoyed some fun poses with the famous, almost impossibly balanced Tripod Rock – the focus of an ancient calendar site, with nearby solstice stones.
We got to hike a new trail currently under construction and see the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference AmeriCorps work crew members who are building sustainable trails in the park. We learned that it took about a month of manual work to construct the 16 stone steps we saw, with many more to go. We even had to bushwhack a short distance since the new trail doesn’t yet connect to the rest of the trail network.
If you’re interested in checking out the loop we did and learning some more about the history, click here.
The Winter 2022 edition of the NY-NJ Trail Conference Trail Walker featured a story on the trip:
“On Saturday, the United States Senator from New Jersey met up with Trail Conference Executive Director Josh Howard, Chief Financial Officer Mary Perro, and volunteer Juan Melli for a hike at Pyramid Mountain Natural Historic Area in Morris County…
Josh and Juan kicked off the hike with an introduction to the Trail Conference and info about the park…
Juan and Mary showed Senator Booker how to read blazes, and Juan told him about the techniques he uses to touch up any blazes in need of care.”