Trail Review: Abram S Hewitt SF, Bearfort Ridge Loop, NJ

Last weekend my husband and I kicked off the hiking season with a great hike in Northern New Jersey. Who knew that Passaic County in NJ was so beautiful!? In the past couple of years Mr. B and I have become pretty avid hikers, and enjoy doing weekend long trips, and strenous hikes. This hike was a perfect way to kick off our season.

Now, even though hiking is a "keeping it young" activity, I have to admit that this hike reminded me a little of my age. I'm not old, but as I get OLDER I find that I'm not as confident of a hiker. I used to jump off rocks more and expect my knees to just catch me, but that's not really the case any more. I find myself being a lot more catious. This post however is not going to revolve around my complex with my age, it's about this awesome trail! I hope those of you who love to hike will really check out this great day hike!

The Abram S Hewitt SF, Beafort Ridge Loop is a trail I found online, and is approximately an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes outside of Manhattan. It's approximately 6.8 miles, and was supposed to take us around 3.5 hours to do, even though it took us more like 5 -6 hours. It's a loop trail with amazing views, lakes, streams, rock scrammbles, and is a ranked at a moderate level. We also came across some great camping spots that we're thinking of going back to some time this summer.

I thought this hike was just challenging enough for us and really had a lot to offer. Check out this view:



Our trail may have varied a bit from what others reviewed online, but we parked across the street from the Greenwood Lake Maria on Lakeside Road, just before the Welcome to New York Sign, and took the following route: blue - yellow - white - orange - yellow - blue. All of the trails were fairly well marked, however I found the orange trail was the least well marked of all the trails. Case in point we found this marker had fallen off it's tree and onto the ground:


Where yellow turns to white we came across Suprise Lake, which of course would have been a suprise had it not been pointed out in all of the reviews and named on the maps as such. It was however very pretty, and it was here that we discovered a very appealing camp site (alebit not for the month of April). From the lake we headed on the white trail to the summit of the mountain, up rock scrambles, towards that beautiful view pictured above. It was a gorgeous clear day and we could even see the Manhattan sky line way in the distance.



Overall, I would highly recommend this trail to anyone!! Here is where I originally found the information, http://www.localhikes.com/Hikes/Abram_s_Hewitt_SF_5602.asp.. Enjoy! SB

What's up with That?

So I've been feeling really good about myself recently. I've been keeping up my work out routine, I've been running in a bunch of races, and eating right. I even made my best time yet in a 5k this past weekend (28:25), and came in 7th in my age group! Then why all of a sudden do I feel like I'm fat and starting to look old and squat?!

I've been a bit photo happy lately with my new camera at hand, and after putting the pictures on my computer, and seeing pictures others have posted, the other day I totally baulked! I look heinous! I'm sure this is very untrue, and my husband would tell me I'm nuts, but the truth is I feel hideous and frumpy! In all fairness, I normally hate myself in pictures, but after I was feeling so good about myself, I'm feeling a little bit let down by what's been captured on film.

Does anyone else feel this way about themselves when looking at pictures? Is it really true that as we get older, our bodies change and just don't agree with us anymore? If I was my best friend (and what I do tell my beautiful best friend because it's true), is that she's crazy, she's gorgeous, it must have been bad lighting, you are just being overly judgemental! But am I really? It's hard to get anyone to tell you the hard honest truth about this subject, and I must admit that when I ask my husband, "peoples bodies just change as they get older," is not the response I'm really looking for.

I work hard, and I mean really hard to keep in shape and be healthy. I will admit my self image is not the healthiest, but I've come a long way as I've grown up with handling my insecurities. I will for example now eat pizza on occasion, and love pasta, and eat bread (no joke), when I used to stay away from all of these things in my former years. So am I just supposed to surrender to my genes, and give in to what is my ultimate fate? Love handles, double chin, wrinkles! Or is there some way to avoid them, and if not avoid them then maybe except them?

What I can't except is that these things are happening already! I'm not even 30 for goodness sakes, aren't I supposed to get a few more years before I look short, fat, and old?!?!?!?! Tell me I'm not the only one going through this! When I run on the treadmill my face jiggles, literally bounces up and down, and I'm not just imagining it! And while someone (a model at my companies photo shoot, that was a great day for my self esteem) told me recently that I look really young, I still feel like I'm starting to look more and more old!

So, if someone could recommend and wrinkle cream, or maybe an article about how to dress for your body, or pose for a picture, or any other things that will help me age a bit more gracefully I would really appreciate it! Because I really don't wish this feeling on anyone, but I really hope I'm not the only one going through it! Here's to wishing you always look young. SB.

We Got An Offer....

....for 40k under our asking price. Whoo hoo! Our realator prefaced the conversation with "don't shoot the messanger." Well at least someone was interested right? Right.

It's a Girl!!!

One of my closest friends had her first child today, a beautiful baby girl! I'm so sad that I live so far from her, and will have to wait to meet the gorgeous little baby, but I'm so happy for her that I could burst!

I'm trying to be patient and let Mommy, Daddy, and baby rest before I barge in with questions, and it's really hard! I'm so anxious to hear the whole story of the birth and delivery! My friend has been such a great source of pregnancy information, and she really is educated about all things pregnancy and baby.

I will admit that it does edge into my "I feel so old" persuasion that one of my party girl friends is now a Mom, but I'm mostly just excited for this next chapter of our lives. Our little crew is now plus one, and a little girl too so she can be a part of our little girls club!

Wishing all my love, kisses, and heartfelt congratulations to the happy little family! <3 SB

Sellers Blues

With our apartment on the market, I feel like I'm constantly on a roller coaster of home owner emotion. Within a single day I can go from crossing my fingers to get an offer from a perspective buyer, to wishing we could take down our listing and live in our apartment forever. It can get to be quite exhausting!

Something I'm finding frustrating about the whole situation is that it seems like no one is looking! I find myself annoyed that our real estate agent hasn't even shown our apartment a handful of times, and Mr. B has to constantly remind me that the market is slow. I guess the truth is that I love our place so much, that I don't understand why everyone else doesn't love it and want to steal it away!

I also tend to get my hopes up every time our agent calls to say she's bringing someone by. This past weekend a gentleman who had already seen the apartment brought his wife back to see it. They are relocating to the New York area from Korea, and she flew in specifically to see some of the apartments her husband had pre-apporved. Our agent shared that the couple was very interested in our development, and they were pretty much deciding between our unit and another one on the property. So I got hopeful, of course, and now I just feel diappointed because it's probably not going to happen.

Did I mention that I'm also a complete nudge? I'm probably every real estate agents worst nightmare! I email our agent constantly to try to pry some feed back out of her on what people think of our apartment, why more people haven't come to see it, etc. However, I feel it's important to mention that when I appoligized (via email) for being a nudge, she urged me to never feel that way, and always ask her anything I want. Like I really needed the encouragement?

Well, I feel better already! I guess all I needed was a good rant, although it would be nice to get some more solid action on our listing. Perhaps I'm being to over eager though considering our abode has only been on the market for a month? In the end I just hope someone will love it here as much as we do, and that I'll actually be ready to move when the time comes, and they won't have to pry my fingers from the door frame to get me to leave! ;) SB

Little Things That Made Me Smile Recently

*The amazing warm weather!.

*All of the beautiful blooming trees (even though they make my allergies wacko).

*The sun going down later.

*Moe Songs.


*My new camera.

Mudders and Grunters

Every year my husband, some friends, and I run in the Taconic Road Runners Club Annual Mudders and Grunters Race. For those of you who don't already know (and I'm guessing that's most of you), Mudders and Grunters is a 5 mile running race through the muddy woods, and is the oldest course race in NY State. As I've pointed out before, my husband and I are very active people, we run races often, and as per usual we started training for this one a few weeks prior to race time. I don't think anything could have prepared us for what met us at this years race though.

New York and New Jersey have had a lot of flood warnings recently, which those of you in the area can attest to. So this year was one of the muddiest years in the race's history! Not only that, but it was about 30 degrees and flurrying when we arrived to pick up our numbers! Did I mention that part of the course was submerging in a creek (which was more like a river this year)?

Now, I'm an asthmatic, and I'm also extremely hard on myself when it comes to fitness, and it's not always the best combination (a bit of a double edged sword). Especially when the cold is the worst thing for your asthma, and you would never normally sign up for a race that was going to take place when it could be 30 degrees out. So, it would be an understatement to say that this particular Mudders and Grunters was a struggle for me.

Nothing really keeps you young at heart like running through the mud with 300 weirdos, but nothing reminds you of your age more then doing it when it's 30 degrees out, and even though you're in the best shape you've been in in a while you can't run no matter how hard you try! I think next year we may need to find a new tradition, or make a game time decision based on weather. Perhaps though we'll just forget how we said at the end of the race that we're nuts for doing this, and sign up yet again! I guess you'll have to check-in, and find out ;) SB.