Mount Tammany and Mount Mohican Backpack, November 10-11, 2026, Worthington State Forest/Delaware Water Gap

View to Mount Minsi from Mount Tammany

My hiking year always goes into hiatus for about 6 or 7 weeks come mid-November. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the woods get taken over by the men with guns. I got no interest in being around that. With the shut down dates fast approaching, I decided to do a final backpack trip of the year over a two-day stretch of beautiful fall weather that coincided with the Veterans Day holiday. The plan: A 21-mile out and back with an overnight in the rustic Woodland Cabin at the AMC Mohican Outdoor Center. I'd hiked all of these trails countless times before, but I always find that there is always something new to see. In this instance, it was a good long look at a Black Bear.

Sunfish Pond

I started the trip with the precipitous climb on the Blue Dot Trail from Dunnfield Creek parking area to the summit of Mount Tammany. There were several people on the trail here, as there almost always are, but once I passed the summit and got on the Tammany Fire Road, I had the rest of the day all to myself. I hike to Sunfish Pond so often that I have a "usual spot" for lunch and busted out the camp stove for a hot meal, using up the last of my backpacking fare for the season. The winds had picked up and it got quite chilly, but the lapping of the waves on the shore was pleasant to the ears. And I always have a puffer in the pack.

Mount Mohican, view to the northwest of fog on the Delaware

After lunch, I took the Appalachian Trail through the now-bare trees of Racoon Ridge to the nice vista point on Mount Mohican. This place is known colloquially as "Large Pile of Rocks," but I hate when people use that moniker. Yes, there is a pile of rocks there. It is called a cairn. They are often on mountain tops. I guess the people who call it that are not familiar with the concept. Anyway, I think that name should go away. It's Mount Mohican. It's near the Mohican Outdoor Center, which was originally a Boy Scout camp in the 1930s named for the Mohican nation of indigenous peoples. So let's just call it that... even if this area was actually populated by the Lenni Lenape, not the Mohicans, who lived farther to the north. But oh well.

Dusk on Catfish Pond at the Mohican Outdoor Center

Late in the day with the sun rapidly descending, I made the gentle climb up Copper Mines Trail to its intersection with the AT and surprised a juvenile Black Bear dawdling in a rhododendron thicket just in front of me. I've encountered bears on the trails before and this one did what they always do... scamper off into the brush. But at this time of year, the undergrowth had already died back and the place where I encountered him was a rolling hillside with sparse trees and long sight lines. That meant that I was able to watch him as he bounded away, then stopped to sniff and look around, only to hoof it once again, doing this several times until he finally disappeared down a ravine. It was neat. 

Godspeed, good buddy. Lay low and watch out for the men with guns.

Destination: Mount Tammany and Mount Mohican
Elevation: 1,526 feet and 1,580 feet (3,180 feet gain)
Distance: 21.5 miles roundtrip
Route: Mount Tammany Blue Dot Trail to Mount Tammany Fire Road to Buckwood Trail to Appalachian Trail to Kaiser Trail to Cooper Mines Trail to Mohican Center Road to Appalachian Trail to Dunnfield Creek Trail
Conditions: Partly Sunny to Sunny, 30-60 degrees F
Notable Flora/Fauna: Black Bear, White Tailed Deer

Pinchot Trail Backpack - Big Pine Hill, Stone Tower Summit, November 3-4, 2026, Pinchot State Forest

View to the east from Big Pine Hill observation tower

After a recent backpacking trip on the Thunder Swamp Trail, I resolved to get a couple new pieces of gear in order to lighten my load. First up, a new pack. I've got multiple packs already, including an early-90s L.L. Bean pack that I used for a couple of decades. I also have an Osprey Kestrel 68 liter, which just about fully retired that  L.L. Bean. A Mystery Ranch Scree 32 is my go-to day pack for Adirondack and White Mountain peak bagging, and a well-used, teeny weeny Deuter Speed Lite 10 is the perfect minimalist pack for everything from dog walking to extra-short day treks to trail running. Did I need a new pack? Probably not. Am I glad I got one. Definitely yes.

Open rocks with soaring ravens on Pinchot Trail northeast section

I'm not a gearhead, so was pretty amazed (and flummoxed) by all of the companies making packs these days and all of the options and price points. I decided that it would make the most sense to get something that I don't have -- an ultralight pack -- and I went with an Arc Haul Ultra 70 liter from ZPacks. It's no frills in terms of storage features -- just one big open hole in which you stack your stuff. But when testing it out on an 18-mile backpack loop on the Pinchot Trail, I found it to be light as a feather and super comfortable. I don't know if it's worth the off-the-rails sticker price or if, because of the ultralight materials and construction, it will survive a lot of wear and tear, but it really is a great, well-designed pack.

Timber harvest clearing near trail descent to Painter Creek

For this Pinchot trip, I took advantage of a two-day stretch of nice early November weather with highs in the 60s and lows around 40. Because it was a weekday, I was pleased to find the parking area totally empty at my 10 a.m. arrival time. Other than a trail maintenance crew that I heard, but did not see, I had the entire 18 mile route all to myself. All in all, it was a pleasant day out and I rolled into my campsite in the far northwestern corner of the forest at about 3 p.m. leaving plenty of time for camp chores before the early sunset due to the recent time change. It was a great site on rolling hill terrain, next to the babbling stream, with plenty of dry, fallen wood for a campfire and in a pretty little knoll of piney woods. The only downside, I soon found, was that Wilkes Barre-Scranton International Airport was close enough that the droning engines of innumerable retiree-filled, Florida-bound planes effectively ruined the peacefulness of the woods.  

Painter Creek campsite

But when the noise finally ceased around midnight, a Barred Owl decided to visit camp and called his "Who Cooks for You, Who Cooks for You All" from a tree limb directly above my tent for about five minutes before setting off into the night. 

Now that's the sound that I was hoping for.

Destination: Pinchot Trail Backpack - Big Pine Hill, Stone Tower Summit
Elevation: 2,261 feet and 2,068 feet (1,655 feet gain)
Distance: 18.2 miles roundtrip
Route: Counterclockwise hourglass loop, Boundary Line Trail, to Frank Gantz, to Pine Hill Trail, to Pinchot Trail
Conditions: Partly Sunny to Sunny, 40-60 degrees F
Notable Flora/Fauna: Common Ravens, Barred Owl

High Point Loop, October 28, 2026, High Point State Park

View to High Point

Although 40 states have higher highest-elevation points, New Jersey isn't totally flat. The northwestern "highlands" are home to the Kittantinny Mountains, the forested ridges of which afford the opportunity to piece together undulating section hikes with decent elevation gain. Not Adirondack- or White Mountain-level gain, but hey, at least it's not Florida. Opting to burn a vacation day midweek, I recently set off on a 15 mile, 2,000-foot-gain hike that incorporated the highest spot in New Jersey, aptly named High Point. You can actually drive a car to within a few feet of the summit, but that's definitely not the best way to visit High Point. Hiking north on the Appalachian Trail from Deckertown Turnpike is.

Autumn sunrise on the Appalachian Trail

I got up at 4 a.m. sharp to make the 2 hour drive to the trailhead, arriving before the sun came up. The Appalachian Trail runs along this ridge and there are many east-facing viewpoints. I caught a splendid sunrise just 10 minutes into the hike. Using a combination of the AT and the Iris Trail, I made it to Lake Rutherford while it was still basked in early morning light and took a second breakfast break on its pretty western shore. My entire hike was inside the boundaries of High Point State Park, which unfortunately has quite a number of auto roads both traversing the park and leading to various parking lots, camping areas and other attractions. I did my best to follow a route that stayed away from the asphalt, hoping to avoid people as much as possible. The fact that it was a weekday also helped. With the exception of one super-large field trip of some 30 smiling teenagers, I didn't see anyone the entire six and a half hours out.

Lake Rutherford

There's a huge obelisk memorial to military veterans on New Jersey's highest spot, which is kind of unfortunate. Honoring people like my World War II vet grandfather is great, but why put it in the middle of one of the state's best natural areas? On this autumn weekday, however, the place was eerily abandoned and I had the 360 degree views from the stone viewing platform all to myself. After leaving the high point, I crossed the empty parking lot and took the Monument Trail along the ridge all the way to the New York State line, where a short spur trail abruptly ends at private land and a no trespassing sign. From there, I doubled back and pieced together a route that passed Steeny Kill Lake and its two rustic cabins and then got on the Mashipacong Trail to Sawmill Pond. The campground there was also deserted at this time of year. 

View to the southwest, from the lonely Pitch Pine atop the Blue Dot Trail

 
I realized that it was 11:30 a.m. and I had not had a break since 8, so found a nice boulder in the woods for a lengthy lunch that involved busting out the camp stove and using up some of my backpacking fare. For some reason, I F&#$-ed up the measurements and wound up with breakfast scramble soup, but consumed it nonetheless. I definitely needed to recharge because the Blue Dot Trail leading east from the pond goes straight up the rocky ridge, with hand-over-hand bouldering needed to reach the top and its compelling reward of a decent vista point. 

Thank goodness it was the off season. In mid-summer, the campers would have been on this neat little trail in droves. 

Peak: High Point 
Elevation: 1,803 feet (Gain: 2,107 feet)
Distance: 15.6 miles roundtrip
Route: Iris Trail, to Appalachian Trail, to Monument Trail, to Steeny Kill Trail, to Mashipacong Trail, to Blue Dot Trail, to Appalachian Trail, to Iris Trail 
Conditions: Party sunny, 60 degrees F
Notable Flora/Fauna: Common Ravens, White-tailed Deer