Hi Everyone and Happy Spring!!!! I think we were all surprised and more than a little perturbed to have the first days of Spring marked by yet more snow this season. I'm super ready for Spring at this point myself, even though I absolutely love playing in the snow. I've had so much of it to play in this year so I'm really ready for the different but also fun stuff that warmer weather brings, especially swimming. My Mom has been eyeing prospects for a new pool for me, a good solid tough one, given that I destroyed the one I had last year with my somewhat overly exuberant (I will admit) playtime moves.
As you may know, we are big enthusiasts for our local rail trail system and we spend quite a bit of time on both the Sussex Branch Trail and the Paulinskill Valley Trail all throughout the year. Because of the wintry precipitation we've been experiencing so often this March, the conditions of the southern sections of the Paulinskill Valley Trail are currently much more favorable compared with the Sussex Branch trail so we have been doing all of our running on these clearer trail sections. The Paulinskill Valley Trail is 27 miles long and crosses through both Sussex and Warren counties. The trail is a former railway that was first purchased by the City of Newark for a possible water conduit after it was abandoned by the New York, Susquehanna & Western ("NYS&W") Railroad in 1962. The NYS&W Railroad was formed by a merger of several smaller railway companies that linked coal fields in Pennsylvania to the industrial centers of the New York–New Jersey metropolitan area and the company's commuter service cars actually served as a prototype for New Jersey Transit's present-day Midtown Direct service! After the City of Newark's plans for the railway trail fell through, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection ("DEP") announced its plan to purchase the trail in 1985 and despite some public and political resistance initially, support for converting the railway into a multi-use trail was overwhelming enough that the State of New Jersey authorized the DEP to purchase the trail. Since then, the trail has been immensely enjoyed by hikers, bikers, horse-back riders, cross country skiers, joggers, fishermen, hunters, and canoeists alike. My peeps and I are most definitely some of the trails most avid fans!!!
With lots of love and the sloppiest of puppy kisses,
Piper, The Rescue Mutt