Rowan/Gloucester County College Trails – Sewell, NJ

Rowan College at Gloucester County Trails/Gloucester County College Trails – Sewell, Gloucester County, NJ
Distance – about 5 miles total
Type – Large loop with some cut throughs where you can shorten it.
Difficulty: 3 of 10

Website – Rowan College at South Jersey trails page
Open – Sunrise to Sunset.

Terrain – Some hills, woods, and swamps
Surface – dirt with some roots

Trailheads – 39°46’50.55″N, 75° 7’2.20″W

Directions – 1400 Tanyard Rd, Sewell, NJ 08080

Parking – Some large lots, avoid the ones with gates or lists of restricted parking. I (should have) parked in the gravel lot.

Dog friendly? Not sure
Stroller friendly? No
Benches? None
Facilities?: None

Markings – Numbered markers on trees

Map – Link to official map

My track (3 miles):

Description –

So back in September, before my life became OH MY GOSH, HOW IN THE WORLD DOES TEACHING IN PERSON IN A PANDEMIC WHILE ALSO TRYING TO MASTER TECHNOLOGY…

Deep breathes. Deep breathes. I’m okay.

Anyway, back just before the craziest year of work that I’ve ever had, I did a roadside trash pick up. Afterwards I needed a little hike to go with my walking earlier in the day, like you do. I checked my list of places I hadn’t been, and this one was close. Yay!

I headed right over. Parking was a bit weird, and I parked in a place that I realized later was probably a bad idea (parking where this post suggests seems like a better plan) after reflecting on my days of parking at the alma matta Blackwood University.

Anyway, I went in search of the trailhead, noticing they have some strange trees around here.

Crossing the fields behind a building, I spotted the trail.

So into the (thankfully cooler) woods, away I went.

Now these are largely used as mountain biking trails, so the trail curves and there are obstacles in some parts (the kids usually love jumping off of these). I always like walking mountain bike trails, because the twists and turns keep you on your toes.

There are also a lot of little bridges on these trails, and any long time reader of this blog knows what a sucker I am for little bridges.

After a bit, I came to where I probably should have entered the trail system, if I had parked in the lot that made the most sense.

Then I continued roughtly counter-clockwise, entering the part of the trails that skirts Route 55.

Now the beginning of September was probably not the best time for this, with the plant life (TICKS!) and the heat. It was particularly bad when I got out of the shade for short stretches.

I continued to parallel Route 55 until I reached the stream and the culvert in the northeast corner of the trails. This isn’t on the “official” map, but was on my app and the trails were pretty clearly blazed.

The stream was pretty, and the trails finally cut west, although they’d loop back to pretty much on top of where I’d already been soon enough. Yay biking trails on foot!

The trail crossed a wide, grassy cut. I didn’t walk down it, but I realized later I could have if I wasn’t worried about ticks, as the trail would recross it.

Also, I found a balloon.

At some point, I felt like the trails had become the staircases in the Harry Potter books where they kept switching directions on me. At this point, I became a bad trail blogger – following the wrong paths, accidently cutting corners. It was hot and I was tired.