Location: 421 East Mountain Road, Hillsborough, NJ
The Sourland Mountain range is 15 miles long and actually spans three counties – Somerset (Montgomery & Hillsborough), Hunterdon (Amwell) and Mercer (Hopewell). The mountain preserve trailhead is located in East Mountain Road and shared between both the Montgomery Township (where I live) and the neighboring Hillsborough Township. The 6,358 acres of the preserve is owned and managed by the Somerset County Park Commission.
For thost that are geologically-inclined, the landscape is comprised of intrusive igneous rocks, primarily basalt. People that love ultimate slow cooker pot roasts can better relate to intrusive basalt. That was you get when nature slow cools hot magma for millions of years until it solidifies. I studied Metallurgy in college and for a few years worked for a company that manufactured furnaces for heat treatment. After you heat a metal or an alloy, say Iron, Steel or Aluminum you can either cool it extremely fast (quench is the technical term for this) or extremely slow or anywhere in-between. Each process alters the propoerties and grain structure of the metal or alloy differently. Cooling slowly gives enough time for the grains in a metal or allow to “grow”. A slow cooled magma is no different. That extra long cooling time (years) forms rocks with large crystals visible to naked eye.
States are divided into counties for administrative and/or political purposes. The state of NJ has 21 counties. Another way of dividing states or even the country as a whole is by its physical geography. Physiography (a portmanteau of the words physical and geography) divides a region bsaed on the surface features of the earth. NJ is divided into 5 distinct provinces based on its geography – Valley and Ridge, Highlands, Piedmont, Inner and Outer Coastal Plains. The boundaries between the provinces is marked by a noticeable change in topography and geography. Obviously, each province’s geology and landform is significantly identifiable and different than the adjoining provinces.
It is interesting to note that the ancient Tamils in India (my ancestors) also had a similar physiographic naming convention.
Kurinji – mountainous areas (Piedmont)
Neithal – Coastal Plains
Marutham – Irrigatable Crop Lands
Mullai – Forests
Palai – Dry Desert Lands
Most of the Somerset county and the Sourland mountain preserve is part of Piedmont. The word Piedmont comes from Latin “pedemontium”, meaning at the foot of the mountains. The Piedmont is a plateau region located in the Eastern United States. It is situated between the Atlantic coastal plain and the main Appalachian Mountains, stretching from New York in the north to central Alabama in the south.
The sedimentary and igneous rock deposits of the Sourland mountains are 150 to 180 million years old and are from the Triassic Age. Land then was covered by the Sea.
The trail is steep, rocky and uneven for the most part. Alternatively, for an easier climb to the view point, you can go around the lake and follow the trail along the Texas Eastern Pipeline. Shown inside a circle is the lookout from where you have a sweeping view of the Montgomery township all the way up to New York City.
There are several name origin stories for Sourland, but none convincing and no consensus. The Park Commission believes that the name could have been derived from “Sorrel Land”. Per this version, when the German farmers first set foot on this area, they could not but un-notice the reddish-brown colored soil. So they named it Sorrel-Land.
The word Sorrel is popularly used in the terms “Sorrel Horse” or “Sorrel Herb”. In both cases the reference is to the reddish brown coat of the horse and the flower. The story sounds plausible, but one thing still nags my mind – Sorrel is not recognized as a German word to mean reddish brown in any of the online literature. My take? The explanation seems specious – superficially plausible, but may actually be incorrect. The part that I do agree with is that the soil is reddish-brown. We can give them the benefit of doubt on this one.
Th ae mountains also go by other names – Neshanic, Zion and Rock Mountain. New Jersey, used to be the land of of the Leni Lenape Indians who called it the Neshanic Mountain. There are other Neshanic references in this area – the Neshanic Station Historic Area and the Neshanic Lane Grist Mill are just a few miles away from Sourland aka Neshanic Mountain.
The history of occupancy starts with the Minsie tribe of the Lenape Indians followed by English settlers and the Dutch. Plenty of Dutch references still remain. The name origins of Harlingen Reformed Church, Harlingen Road, Dutch Harlingen Rd all point to the Harlingen Tract – the official purchase by the Dutch of land in this area.
The Sourland Mountains also played a minor role in the Revolutionary War. Like the “Goat Hill Lookout” in Lambertville, it was used by Washington as a lookout point and to signal the location of the Red Coats.
Post-War, the Sourland Mountains area saw an industrial boom – Sawmills, Gristmills, Blacksmiths, Potteries peppered the area throughout the mountains.
Did you know?
John Hart, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence for New Jersey, owned a plantation on the Sourland Mountain near Hopewell.
The area became famously infamous and gained some unwanted press and notoriety with the Lindbergh kidnapping incident. The Old Lux Farm where the famous aviator’s daughter was kidnapped is located just a few miles away from the Sourland Mountain Preserve.
Apparently there have been numerous murders on the mountain and the place is believed to be haunted. Many have claimed that they have seen ghosts and spirits. I found a few beer bottles. I didn’t find any spirits. They were empty. To be honest, I have not seen any ghosts in my life and I don’t know what they look like. Its quite possible that I encountered them but did not recognize them. The only spooky thing that I noticed was the Creepy Hand shadows trying to grab a tree.
If you hike the mountains in the Winter or early Spring, you will mostly be alone. The forest wears its most depressing looks without any leaves and it is awfully quiet. Startled by your entry, the birds flutter out of their hideouts. Some shriek as they hurry out of sight. I am pretty sure that they are giving me an earful in bird language. On days like these and you can hear the woodpeckers like a jack hammer. And these are not your regular backyard sized ones either. They are enormous almost double the size of the ruby chested ones like the one in the picture below.
When I am hiking alone, I never make detours. I stray from the path only when I see something interesting but even then, not beyond a few yards from the trail and where I can still see the trail markers. Thankfully I have never been lost, and I don’t want to. During one of my hikes I saw huge pawprints. It was not Big foot but I was pretty sure it was a bear and I may have just missed it. A close shave. Hiking alone is a bit of a bore, but I have been told that bears make bad companions.
A few Canadian geese families have taken refuge in the lake at the trail head. New Jersey has had a series of warmer winters in the last few years. They seem to have adjusted to that fact and given up the idea of migrating to its homeland. They have always been legal migrants and we have been okay with that, but it looks like no one told them that squatters are not tolerated.
The lake is also a hangout for a Great Blue Heron. Unlike the Geese that are more social, Herons are in general recluses. The other possibility is that it hates the paparazzi. They have never taken my presence around them lightly. Always eyeing me with a lot of suspicion and shifting uneasily. The sight of the camera is all it takes for it to flip mad. They never leave the scene without giving a piece of their mind. Thank God we humans don’t know bird language. That would have been very embarrassing to be yelled at in public by a bird. That the bird is beautiful would not have offered any solace.
The trail has some very interesting rock formation along the way. An impressive collection of artwork. Enough to warrant a separate post and a name – The Sourland Sculpture Gardens.
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