Six Mile Run from Jacques Lane in the Snow

Short hike in deep snow on the Red trail from the Jacques Lane parking area.

Ah, more snow. We decided to hit up Six Mile Run’s Red trail from the Rt. 27 parking lot but arrived to a surprise:

That’s the trail sign way in the back, beyond the pile of plowed snow and broad expanse of unbroken snow. Hunh.

We hadn’t chucked our snowshoes in the car like usual, either. After years of being less than thrilled with them, we decided they were just too basic and tiring to use.

The winter clearance sales this weekend helped us with the decision to buy new snowshoes, but those hadn’t arrived yet.

Of course this purchase has now guaranteed there will be no more significant snowfall in Jersey this season. Or, for the next 3 years.

So for those of you wishing the snow stays away – you’re welcome.

For complete hike info visit our main “Six Mile Run Reservoir” page.

We drove over to the Jacques Lane lot to see if we could hike without post-holing through deep snow.

The snow appeared to be 18″, possibly 24″ in spots, and was not as broken and packed down as much as expected. 

RED at first was fine as snowshoes had packed the trail into a walkable condition with the occasional punch through. Lots of cross country ski tracks as well.

Later, the snowshoe tracks disappeared for a time and we were post-holing for a bit before picking up boot prints. It was OK, but not ideal to pick our way in step with the last hiker.

While following these prints we realized we weren’t heading back on the actual White trail. We hadn’t spotted many blazes at all, and somewhere the tracks had swung right early.

Six Mile Run has a lot of field rows in this area, so there are options to make your own route. We followed the tracks and ended hiking past a few old farm buildings.

Quite a bit of a workout but a beautiful winter day nonetheless.

Miles: 1.6

Wildlife spotted: Lots of birds, tons of animal tracks.

Bonus: We rewarded our effort with tasty falafel sandwiches at Think Grill afterward.