Tourne Loop (4x) (Tourne County Park)

Tourne Loop (4x) (Tourne County Park)

Hike Type: Lollipop Loop-Loop-Loop-Loop

Distance: 5.21 miles

Elevation: 1,273 feet

Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes
Hiking Challenges: N/A

The Hike

My trip to the city yesterday was wonderful and led to some... choice decisions afterward that had me getting home this morning (instead of last night)! It was going to be another dreadfully hot, humid day, so I decided my first course of action would to be to hike out my sins and some pent up emotions. It was 83 degrees out when I arrived at 10:00am and there were just a few other cars in the parking lot. The cicadas ushered me in with their scraming (which I actually love), and I was happy to see (and feel) that overall conditions were better. The air was moving and the bugs were subdued. I passed/crossed paths with three people on my first climb and soon was making my way up for lap two! I was almost run over by a mountain biker flying down the trail, though, which was frustrating. 

I was feeling significantly more tired on the third climb as my watch got stuck at 112bpm again, and then I wrung out my shirt at the top of lap three. I passed a friendly couple on my way down - the man said "Hey! Why aren't you huffing and puffing?!" and the woman said "Did you see any bears?!"

I knew the fourth climb was going to be a push, but I was really needing the endorphins, so I pushed on. The cicadas had mostly calmed down by this point, and I slowly made my way to the top! I saw the friendly couple sitting at the top and the woman waved and said "oh you're going twice, eh?" - I told her two was more than enough :-). 

The bugs had officially woken up for the final push, which was a bummer but was also completely fine. There were no cars in the parking lot when I made my way back, and to my DELIGHT I officially had the Local Legend status for both the climb from the parking lot AND NOW also from the bottom!! Afterwards, I went to Wawa for some lunch, showered, and took a solid nap as I figured out how to handle these pent up emotions.

Step-by-Step

- Park on Denville Side of the Tourne. 

- Start hike on Yellow-Dot Trail.

- At terminus, turn left onto Yellow Trail.

- Loop the Yellow Trail as many times as needed.

- When done, turn left onto Yellow-Dot Trail and return to car.

Map of Tourne County Park

Photo Album