Community Corner

34-Mile Lenape Trail Takes Walkers From Millburn to Newark

34 pictures from third annual FreeWalkers Lenape 34.

If you've ever passed a yellow marker painted on a telephone pole or tree around Essex County, you've been on the Lenape Trail. 

The 34-mile scenic trail starts in Millburn and loops through the county before culminating in Newark. Going the distance was the goal for a couple of dozen walkers — including this Patch editor — on Monday. 

We woke up before dawn, grabbed walking sticks and sturdy shoes and gathered in the Locust Grove entrance at the southern edge of South Mountain Reservation for the third annual Lenape 34, one of several long-distance walks organized by a group called FreeWalkers.

We came from Millburn, Maplewood, Montclair, West Orange, Caldwell, Piscataway, Aberdeen, Stanhope and even the Bronx to experience the trail mapped more than 30 years ago by a local man named Al Kent. The retired trail coordinator set out to connect many of the county's natural resources and points of interest.

The Lenape34 was created to honor Kent for his efforts, explained FreeWalkers founder Paul Kiczek. 

Kiczek, of Morristown, said he was first motivated to walk a long distance as a teenager. That's when he and his friends attempted and failed to finish President John F. Kennedy's challenge to Americans to prove their fitness by walking 50 miles. Now in his sixties, Kiczek has completed Kennedy's challenge many times over, while inspiring others to join him.

For someone who has lived in Essex for more than 25 years, the yellow trail was more than a personal physical challenge, it was a chance to be a tourist in my own territory. On foot, the familiar roads driven on regularly for decades were brand new, and full of surprises. 

Who knew that just off Pompton Avenue in Cedar Grove the Peckman River forms a natural pool known as Devil's Hole, where generations of locals have taken a dip?

Or that a blue heron could be spotted on a pond near West Orange High School feet from busy Pleasant Valley Way? 

From a charming shelter in South Mountain Reservation to a historic tree near the Montclair Golf Course to foot bridges crossing over 280, 23 and the Garden State Parkway, the walk is jam-packed with photo-ops.

Surely, we were a curious sight. As we trekked through town after town we drew reactions from "Wow!" to "Why?" when we described our journey to puzzled onlookers.

I questioned why I was doing this myself, especially around the 20-mile mark. Coming out of Mills Reservation near the Presby Iris Gardens in Montclair, my hips began to ache and burn after walking for nearly 10 hours. 

But why does anyone do anything? To break the routine. To have a good story to tell children and grandchildren. To prove they could do now what they couldn't do as a teenager.

The handful of walkers I personally arrived at Newark Penn Station with well after 9 o'clock accomplished all of the above.

What's next for the FreeWalkers? They will join admirers of John F. Kennedy Jr. to mark the 50th anniversary of his death on Friday, Nov. 22. The 22-mile walk will end at his final resting place in Arlington National Cemetery. Visit freewalkers.org/events/jfkmarch for details.


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