Shrewsbury River, 6:29AM

Just another old scene from NJ Transit.

Usually, rail commuters are either sleeping or engrossed in their newspapers, and they miss scenes like this.

But… damn.

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Land O’ Lakes

This is Lake Marcia at High Point State Park. Um. It’s a lake. Named after someone called Marcia, probably.

The problem with actual usefully informative posts is that they take a long time to write, and sometimes I don’t have a long time readily available.

Across Deal Lake

Though its boardwalk sustained some damage (I’m told; the cops chased me away when I tried to get a look for myself), the city of Asbury Park is still generally standing. Just a confirmation.

Snow makes everything look pretty

You’d never guess that this whole area was flooded just a week and a half ago! (Actually, I don’t know whether or not Deal Lake flooded. Still, it probably looked a lot worse than it does now.)

The temperature’s been reasonably warm (above freezing, anyway) since Wednesday night’s blizzard, so a lot of the snow has melted already. Which is good.

A lot of places in New Jersey barely got a dusting of snow anyway.

 

On the subject of snow being a pain in the arse, here’s what JCP&L has to say about the power situation:

Late yesterday heavy, wet snow and high winds from the Athena nor’easter resulted in approximately 120,000 additional power outages in the Jersey Central Power & Light service territory. This is in addition to the approximately 149,000 customers who remain without power from Hurricane Sandy.

So Winter Storm Athena almost doubled the number of customers without electricity. Awesome.

But on the bright side, current promises are that most people (except those in devastated shore areas) will have power back by Sunday (November 11). That’s cool. Maybe I can go back to New Providence soon.

Fisher

Though this tiny branch of the Rahway River looks too shallow for any fish to consider swimming in it (to my eyes), fishers in Millburn’s Taylor Park know better.

…I mean, I assume they know what they’re doing. I guess I didn’t actually see anyone catch any fish while I was there, but it would be silly to fish in a fishless stream, wouldn’t it?

Tree sitter

As I was walking through Nomahegan Park, snapping photos here and there, a passing bicyclist saw my camera and gave me a heads-up about “[mutter mutter] in that tree over there!”

Curious, I surveyed the opposite shore of the lake, until I saw what appeared to be a life-sized bronze statue sprawled out in a tree.

As I squinted, the statue moved its arm!

(The bronze color, it turned out, was only a trick of the setting sun interfering with my color perception.)

Lounging in a tree over a lake! What a perfect way to spend a summer weekend, don’t you think?

Egret!

I was surprised to find this snowy egret in Shallcross Pond in Kenilworth. Just, y’know, hangin’ out, four feet from the bike path.

When I got a liiiiiiittle too close, it flew across the pond.

Don’t worry, it came back later! I didn’t scare it off too badly.

Lake house

When Union County purchased the land for Hidden Valley Park, apparently there were some residents living there. Union County probably said, “Hey, we’re trying to build a park here, why don’t we buy your land from you, that’d be great” and the residents said, “WTF? Hell no!”

So there is a resident-shaped hole in Hidden Valley Park, with all kinds of “NO TRESPASSING” “PRIVATE PROPERTY” “NO FISHING” signs all over the place, presumably to dissuade curious hikers (like me) from skulking about and investigating this mysterious house on the lake.

EDIT, 8/31/12: I’ve just discovered— I think this is the Sayre Homestead, and it’s on the National Register of Historic Places!

Sunset 4

Everyone loves a generic sunset over a generic lake!

(This is actually Echo Lake, which I suppose is a very specific lake.)

Duck X-ing

Ducks! At Echo Lake in Mountainside. This is the east end of the lake.

I specify this because Echo Lake is a very long, narrow lake, and it matters.