Maurice River Bicycle and Walking Trail – Millville, NJ

Maurice River Bicycle and Walking Trail – Millville, Cumberland County, NJ
Distance –  miles total
Type – 1.5 miles or so (one way of an out-and-back)
Difficulty:  1 of 10

Website – Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River and Its Tributaries
Open – Dawn to dusk

Terrain – Riverside woods, meadows, and wetlands
Surface – paved and crushed gravel

Trailheads –  39°23’43.73″N,  75° 2’23.50″W (Buck Park trailhead)
39°23’59.43″N,  75° 3’14.33″W (Sharp Street Park trailhead)

Directions –
17 E. Main St. Millville, NJ (CUMaurice River Headquarters, where maps are available.  About a 30 second walk from the trailhead)
Buck Street and East Main Street, Millville, NJ 08332 (Buck Park Trailhead)
Sharp St & Cooper St, Millville, NJ 08332 (Sharp Street Park Trailhead)

Parking – Large lot at Sharp Street Park.  By Buck Park, we parked at the baseball fields on Ware Ave behind the Municipal Building

Parking behind municipal building

Dog friendly? Yes
Stroller friendly? Yes
Benches? Yes

Facilities?: None that I saw

Markings – None, but trail is pretty easy to follow
Map – Can pick up at the CUMaurice River Offices (17 East Main Street, Millville, NJ)

Can pick up a map here

Or click here to see the full map brochure

Rules:

Description –

It was a Friday, and what better way to end the week than to go to a World War II Museum at an old airfield? The obvious answer was to do a hike BEFORE going to that museum, so we decided to try out the Maurice River Bicycle and Walking Trail.  Boy was I glad we did.

We opted to start in the middle of Millville, which required some creative parking at the baseball field behind the municipal building.  We then walked up to Main Street, where we stopped at the Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River and Its Tributaries office and picked up a map.

Can pick up a map here

When you come out of the office, look left and the trail is catty-corner from you across the intersection.

Under that arch.

This arch!

The trail weaves between the benches before reaching the Maurice (pronounced Morris) River, then follows along until it reaches an elevated boardwalk over the river bank.

Say hello to Captain Buck as you pass, founder of Millville.

You’ll then head onto that elevated boardwalk, at least until it reaches the bridge across the river.  Take the bridge across the river.

Joining us for today’s adventure was one of my Scouts, who is a World War II airplane nut.

Once across the bridge, you’ll turn right and continue along the river bank on the trail.  You’ll soon go under the road bridge.

Once across the bridge, a trail will merge in from the left (it comes from the small park on this side of the river).  Just keep following the trail along for 1/3 of a mile until you reach the next bridge.  There are some nice views of the water along the way.

Trail merger.

Some kind of thistle?

It’s a flower time of year.

Once you reach the bridge, the wetlands will come in on the left side, so keep an eye on both sides of the trail for awesome animals.  You’ll cross another bridge in about 1/10 of a mile, than another one 1/10 of a mile after that.  There are six of these bridges along the rest of the way..

Also keep an eye out for the industrial areas of Millville, both present day and the ruins of now-gone factories.

Bridge eating tree.

After the second bridge (which is labeled bridge #5 on the map), the trail curves South, then turns right when it splits (the left split heads up to Mulford Ave).

You should watch the opposite bank here because WE SAW A BALD EAGLE!!!  It was so cool.  So cool.

Bald eagle on that far mud bank.

Seriously, a bald eagle. Darn me for not bringing my real camera.

At the trail split…

You’ll soon reach the third bridge (bridge #4 on the map) and the train turns more wooded and shady, and in places even a bit swampy.  You’ll in short order cross bridges #3 and #2 before reaching another split.  Stay right, the trail left again heads up to a road (this time Main Street).

Left goes to Main Street.

There’s then just one more bridge to cross before emerging at the parking lot at Sharp Street Park.  Follow the trail around the edge of the parking lot, and you’ll have a chance to walk down to a floating dock.

You can also walk up to the sidewalk to check out the Union Lake Dam.

Insert dam joke here.

By now, you’ve done 1 1/2 miles.  Yay!  Which means its time to go right back the way you came.  Keep those eyes out, on the way back we saw turtles, a snowy egret, and more turtles.

In the end, it was a beautiful 3 miles and WE SAW A BALD EAGLE.  The best part was, it was time to go to the Millville Army Air Field Museum!

Nearby:
The Harold Peek Preserve, the Maurice River Bluffs Preserve, the Wheaton Arts Nature Trail, and Menantico Ponds Wildlife Management Area (which we have not visited yet) are all found in Millville. The Millville Army Air Field Museum, which we visited just after this hike, is also in Millville.