Does anyone know what is currently happening with the extension of the Henry Hudson Trail from Aberdenn/Matawan towards Freehold ? What little information there is on webpages, etc. all seems inconsistent ...... with proposed opening dates spanning a range of years from those already well past to those in the future. Also I have seen mention of court cases, etc. to try and stop this :-( Haven't seen much mention in the local papers although I probably just missed it.
Meanwhile, I went for a bike ride this past Sunday since the weather was so great here and I was riding along the "new" Kozloski Rd/East Freehold Rd between Dutch Lane Rd and NJ 79 when I noticed a newly-paved path alongside the road & heading off into the woods along where the railroad tracks used to go. Followed it north for a little while till it seemed to end just shy of NJ 18 (I ended up cutting through one of the housing developments which left me off on Buckley Rd) .... along the way, there was evidence of some flimsy wooden snow fences intended to block it off from users but they had apparently been knocked down and the occasional "Do Not Use by order of Monmouth County Parks Dept" paper signs were underfoot ----- looked quite a nice trail, and very scenic with the leaves changing bright colors. There were newly-posted yellow-greenish Bike Crossing signs at the couple of side streets it crossed along the way. So from this perspective it seems quite close to opening, but I can't comment on the rest of trail extension.
Yes, I know curiosity killed the cat, etc. but inquiring minds really want to know !!
I heard they were supposed to extend it east and eventually build a bridge to connect it to Sandy Hook...but AFAIK this is speculation. BTW, there is a nice new bike trail that extends from the entrance at Sandy Hook to Ft. Hancock and they might continue it around toward Gunnison Beach.
"JerZ Fox" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
I heard they were supposed to extend it east and eventually build a bridge to connect it to Sandy Hook...but AFAIK this is speculation. BTW, there is a nice new bike trail that extends from the entrance at Sandy Hook to Ft. Hancock and they might continue it around toward Gunnison Beach.
I heard the same thing earlier this year about connecting the current eastern endpoint up with Sandy Hook. Also I think a Google search turned up a couple of newspaper articles related to it (land acquisition, etc.) -- haven't looked lately. That will sure be nice if/when it happens. Those rolling hills on NJ36 between Atlantic Highlands and the existing road bridge can be killers (relatively speaking, of course) compared to the nice limited grade a trail will probably have. Also the auto/truck traffic whizzing by on 36 was a bit close for comfort a couple of times [busy midsummer holiday weekend afternoon with 80+ degree weather], but we made it with no problems. Some people have suggested an alternate route up past Hartshorne (sp?) Park that avoids some of 36 but it looked pretty out of the way to me although maybe I misunderstood what they meant.
When I was on the HH Trail around the beginning of July, I rode from trailhead at Matawan/Aberdeen over to end of trail, then down through the sidestreets around the docks & downtown of Atlantic Highlands (interesting place) and then back over to NJ36 and onward to Sandy Hook. Once I got to Sandy Hook, I rode on the bike trail you mentioned (not officially open yet at that point, but there were lots of people using it that day) as far as it went .... not quite to Ft. Hancock but certainly most of the way from what I could tell. Nice trail but seemed awfully narrow. I'm pretty sure it was opened "officially" not long after that.
