Running the Lenape Trail

After five years of running the short West Essex Trail (2.5 miles of former railroad from Little Falls through Cedar Grove and Verona), I finally began wondering about the yellow blazes on the trees in its southwestern portion. Some online research led me to find that the section is part of a larger entity called the Lenape Trail.

Named after a Native American tribe that once lived in the area, the Lenape Trail is not always, in fact, a trail. Rather, it starts in Newark and winds through Essex County, passing through several parks - sometimes on the roads, sometimes on paths, and sometimes through the woods.

Breaking it up into four separate runs, I tackled the first 13 miles by parking at Brookdale Park in Bloomfield/Montclair and taking a bus to Newark. Starting at Riverfront Park, I worked my way through city streets to beautiful Branch Brook Park. It was there I started following the yellow blazes.

Once out of the north end of the park, the blazes followed some more streets and a few small strips of land between properties in Belleville and Glen Ridge. It was not always easy to navigate - when you run, you can miss the blazes. But eventually, I worked my way into Bloomfield and to Brookdale Park. 

The second leg was from Brookdale Park to Fairview Avenue in Verona. This run took me straight up the little mountain in Montclair, through lots of steep, wooded areas with rough footing, and down around the reservoir in Cedar Grove before hooking up with the West Essex Trail into Verona. At that point, I took a more direct route back to Brookdale via the roads. If you follow one of the online maps of the trail, you can see that this section makes a lot of turns, so following a straight line back to Brookdale made the most sense in order to maximize the forward movement on the trail.
For the third leg, I did an out-and-back from Verona to West Orange, including another difficult stretch. After winding through several Verona side streets, I was faced with another heavily wooded, steep incline with difficult footing through Eagle Rock Reservation. Coming down from the mountain and into West Orange, the trail follows along power lines off of 280 along unkempt terrain - tall, weedy grass with lots of bugs - before landing back on the road in Roseland.

The final stretch is tricky right now because the trail continues to follow the power lines, but the sections are closed due to work by the power company. So I had to find the nearest roads and follow as best as I could until finally meeting up with the official trail again through Becker Park and crossing Eisenhower Parkway, finally ending along Eagle Rock Avenue at the Essex County Environmental Center and the Morris County line (where the Patriots Path begins). Then, of course, I had to turn around and get back, too.

Supposedly, there is a section of the trail that breaks off near Route 280. I was going to cover that in a separate run, but I couldn't find it.

If you run the trail, keep your eyes well peeled for the yellow blazes, but also have a good general idea of where the route is supposed to take you, just in case you miss a turn. Also, be prepared to run around the closed-off section - keep the power lines in sight and know where you need to end up. It is a fun adventure and well worth it the multiple trips if you live in northern New Jersey.