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On August 16th, the Washington Township Land Trust opened Mill Pond Park to the public with a trail walk highlighting an Eagle Scout trail project.
Sunday was clear and quite warm.
Approximately 30 to 35 people walked the park, enjoying views
of the South Branch of the Raritan River, the Obadiah LaTourette
Grist Mill and the local flora and fauna.
The trail system includes
the Eagle Scout trail project, the Ghost Walk trail, the Meadow
trail and the Mill Pond trail. Hikers were surprised and pleased
to see that this amount of open space exists in the center of
Long Valley.
 Bryan Dickson approached the Land
Trust looking for possible ideas that would be acceptable for
his Eagle Scout project. He walked the park property with Land
Trust trustees and settled on trail creation/improvement. The
scope of the project encompassed improving and extending an existing
trail, installing ‘bridges’ over wet areas, identifying and labeling specimen trees, and installing trail markers. He also supervised the clearing of brush and undergrowth from under a massive Ash tree and in the Helen Andrews Memorial Garden area under a Swamp White Oak tree.
The Land Trust has owned approximately 8 acres
of property associated with the Obadiah LaTourette Grist Mill
since 1991. Trails were cut and semi-maintained but were unavailable
to the public as the land had no public access point.
In 2007, 16+ acres from Welsh Farms were donated to the Land
Trust by Ray Rice and Toll Brothers.
Columbia Trail crosses a
section of this property giving public access for the first time.
In addition to the scout trail, a trail crosses a tributary of
Electric Brook into a meadow that had a prior life as a Christmas
tree farm. The trail meanders south to the former mill pond giving
the hiker a rear view of the mill and the mill pond dam.
The trails are open to the public. You can
access them by walking east on Columbia Trail at Schooley’s Mt. Road. Cross Fairview Ave then continue across a small bridge. Turn right and walk along the tree line.
You can continue south until you see a post
with a trail marker or you can go west on a cut trail that will
cross the tributary of Electric Brook. Follow the trail through
our ‘ghost walk’, a meadow and on to the mill. We hope you enjoy this part of Long Valley.
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