Later I will tell the story of our Ice Age Wanderer.  What I would like you to ponder over first while looking at our ERRATIC is its location!  A fairly short distance from this boulder is Summit Trail, and its name gives you a very clear hint of its location, atop Jenny Jump Mountain.  There are several beautiful overlooks, look east and you are looking down and out over the (1) Pequest Valley.  You will also see (2) Great Meadows or the muck-lands, famous for its black soil.  Looking west from Summit Trail you can see the Delaware Water Gap and the (3) Kittatinny Mountains running north/south along the horizon.  Why are those locations numbered?  They are numbered because they also have stories connected to the Wisconsin Ice Age and its huge glacier!  Let’s put things in perspective, you’re at the overlook enjoying the beautiful views from your HIGH perch!!  If you were to go back in time during the Wisconsin Ice Age you would be under several thousand feet of ICE!!! The numbers:  (1) Pequest Valley was carved out by the ice (2) the great meadows got its black soil from being a lake bottom for millennia after the ice melted and a lake was formed by rock dams called moraines created by the ice.  (3)  Kittatinny Mountains: Sunfish Pond, Catfish Pond and Crater Lake all sit ATOP the mountain, ALL are glacial lakes, created by ice gouging out earth and rock!!  Last but not least, this area of Warren County was the end terminus of the glacier – just imagine standing and looking up at several thousand feet of ice cliff!!

Webster’s Dictionary definition of the word erratic: having no fixed course or purpose: irregular, random, wandering. In geology designating a boulder or rock formation transported some distance from its original source, as by a glacier. Northern New Jersey was covered by a vast glacier during the last ice age, known as the Wisconsin Ice Age. This ice sheet gouged out valleys, formed lakes, created large rock and earthen deposits known as moraines AND also carried huge boulders suspended in the ice sheets which were then left in place when the ice began melting some 20,000 years ago. These wandering boulders are known as an erratic. So, if you come across a large boulder that just doesn’t seem to fit the terrain and literally looks like it just got dropped there – You are probably looking at an erratic.

We all agree Inside Warren is beautiful and I hope this article has given you some interesting and fun talking points that you can pass along about the geological history of our area!

Please visit my Flickr site for photos of ERRATICS – https://www.flickr.com/photos/charliefineran/albums/72157702332518045

Enjoy Your Open Space, Charlie Fineran