Just Published!

Entirely digitally-produced

The New York-New Jersey Trail Conference announces publication of its new first-edition hiking map to Sterling Forest's Trails.

Developed using the most sophisticated technology available, this map will guide you along hiking trails traversing over 20,000 acres of mountainous cliffs, lakes, and marshes of parklands in this popular hiking area of southern Orange County, NY - just 33 miles from New York City.

Magnificently-detailed, shaded relief background accentuates the vertical dimensions of Sterling Forest State Park's Highlands. This professional quality, 5-color map printed on waterproof, tearproof TyvekJ  take you to the trail systemCto celebrate the successful culmination of the 15-year preservation effortCinitiated by the NY-NJ Trail Conference.

The Sterling Forest Trails map is the latest addition to the Trail Conference's acclaimed stable of hiking publications.

Trail Conference President Gary Haugland notes: "For many years, our maps have been the standard for easy to read, colorful, informative and indestructible maps of trails in the parklands and preserved open spaces of northern New Jersey and southern New York. As essential for hikers as boots and water bottles, the richly detailed maps are also popular with hunters, fishermen, bird-watchers and other lovers of the outdoors."

Sterling Forest Trails features the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, NY-NJ Highlands, Sterling Ridge, Allis, Indian Hill Loop, and Jennings Hollow trails. The map also includes trails on the land contiguous to Sterling Forest State Park: Harriman, Long Pond Ironworks, and Ringwood state parks, Wanaque Wildlife Management Area, Abram S. Hewitt State Forest, Warwick=s Cascade Lake Park, and Passaic County Park.

All-digital production

Sterling Forest Trails also marks the start of a new generationCall digitally producedC of Conference published topographic hiking maps.

Unique to this map series is an elevation coded color shaded-relief of the Sterling Forest State Park area and Universal Transverse Mercator coordinates suitable for use with a Global Positioning Ssystem unit. The shaded relief background accentuates the vertical dimension, making it easier to visualize the rugged character of the area. Technical know-howCand computer wizardryCwas used to incorporate digital data from the US Geological Survey and New York State Department of Transportation into the base map.

Like previously published Trail Conference maps, Sterling Forest Trails is printed on waterproof, tearproof TyvekJ. On top of the shaded relief background, the map shows familiar features of interest to users of public lands: marked trails, woods roads, parking areas, access points, mountain viewpoints, mines, streams, ponds, wetlands, latitude, and longitude. With the exception of its printing, Sterling Forest Trails was produced totally by volunteersCwho did all the cartography, trail surveying, computerized data collection, and the text and design of the map back.

A portion of the map is in color at the top of this page.

Concludes Gary Haugland: "We are grateful to the many volunteers who contributed their time and expertise to not only produce another beautiful Trail Conference map, but to inaugurate and test cutting edge mapping technologies in the process. We look forward to updating all our maps using these new tools to bring the finest quality hiking maps to users of public lands."

Available from the NY-NJ Trail Conference by mail or in-office sale, Sterling Forest Trails map sells for $7.95 plus $.80 postage. (New York State residents must also add applicable sales tax.) NY-NJ Trail Conference, 156 Ramapo Valley Road, Mahwah, NJ 07430. It will also be available in stores that carry outdoor equipment, bookstores, state park information centers. The Trail Conference member price is $5.95. 

For further information, contact the Trail Conference office, (201) 512-9348