Black River Park — Attraction in Chester Township

Black River County Park has a lot going for it. It's in a convenient location right off of a county highway and is only a few minutes away from downtown Chester aka a solid handful of post-hike meal options. In terms of the actual hike, you have high quality water features, with the Black River itself and its accompanying rapids the notable highlight, along with one of my all-time favorite hike characteristics - ruins. But the positives are slightly tainted by the lack of overall maintenance, which is a shame.

I came here for a 6.4-mile hike with one of my chums last Saturday. It was a nasty, humid scorcher of a day and predictably we didn't see too many brave souls out there. It was character building at least. For those familiar with the park, we took the blue trail from the mill, which more or less runs parallel to the river, following it up past the environmental center to Pottersville Road, and then took the red trail on the right down to the Black River, meeting up again with the blue trail.

The first part of the hike is in a lower-lying area with a lot of muddy sections, but the park has been pretty accommodating in building a lot of little bridges to get over those parts without getting your feet sopping wet. We're also in the midst of an epic drought, which at least helps for these types of adventures - I've seen it much muddier than this. A significant portion of the trail early on takes place on top of an abandoned railroad bed, and you could see a few ancient wood pilings down the slopes here and there. All of the trail markings here were pretty decent, and you have some pleasant visuals this time of year, including Kay's Pond.

Once you start climbing up toward the environmental center, the trail markings and maintenance begin deteriorating. Both of us are experienced hikers, and we had to stop several times to make sure we were actually on the right trail. There's A LOT of offshoots and obvious places where additional markers should have been painted to steer people in the right direction. As a result, we actually missed the correct path to the environmental center and basically walked parallel to it from a distance in the cornfield. Thankfully there's no tree cover there and it was easy to orient ourselves, but it shouldn't have been an issue at all. Shortly thereafter, we ended up on the wrong part of the red trail for about 10 minutes, which we were able to figure out and retrace easily, but again, the lack of helpful trail markers loomed large. Right around this area (probably not a coincidence), we kept encountering random stretches of 50 feet or so where the path was totally overgrown. It wasn't a huge deal, though we definitely had to spend a little extra time checking for ticks, but these weren't huge areas of need - you could get a county worker to come in here with a weed-wacker and take care of these sections pretty quickly. And it's not clear why the rest of the path WAS maintained. Very strange.

I don't want this to come off as a purely negative diatribe, because there WERE positives. The canine chum situation was one. This is usually a very popular pooch spot but the heat kept most of them away. Thankfully we encountered a delightful, freshly sheared poodle named Toffee who was very accommodating (see attached). The wildlife sightings were solid as well. My eagle-eyed chum noticed a praying mantis on the road, and we met up with a nervous garter snake as well. We've both been here before and romped around in Kay's Ruins before - a remarkably solid foundation still remains there right on the river, and it's an awesome photo opportunity. Especially with the foliage in abundance, the optics are great. Additionally, because of the length of the trails it's easy to do a hike here with decent mileage where you get a legit workout. But this park could take some lessons from nearby Hacklebarney when it comes to making this park a little more hospitable...

We set out here today with the express intent to walk a portion of the Patriot Path from Cooper Gristmill to the Kay's Cottage ruins. The trail is flat for much of the way along the river and quite pretty although it is fraught with roots and rocks and you do need to watch your footing carefully. It would not be good for strollers, etc.

We passed a spillway where we found a father and daughter fishing. There are many postings saying trout stocked waters. You will also pass a fenced off mine.

Where you have to cross from blue to green the trail is marked with a post but its very easy to miss it while watching your footing but be assured black and orange also link with the orange trail you seek.

There were a ton of freshly fallen leaves today which made downhill portions slippery. Hiking boots highly recommended for this trail! Trekking poles could be useful for some as well given the footing.

Kay's cottage ruin is worth finding! Itscharming and beautifully intact! There is also a water spillway here which makes for lovely photos. The map shows a second ruin further down but the orange trail appeared to dissolve into nothingness so we abandoned the search for that one. Instead we set our sights on the higher ruin on the yellow trail.

Its a climto get to this ruin which isnt far from the environmental ed center but its worth seeing. It was an old blast furnace of some sort that im dying to know more about!

Its 1.6 miles between the Kay Center and the Cooper Gristmill. There is a tavern across the street that I have eaten at twice and highly recommend as well. A beautiful day in the woods with fascinating history. Highly...

When you've lived in the area your whole life, driven by it 1,000 times, but never stopped to check it out. Very happy to have found this amazing gem so close to home. From the parking lot walk down to the old Cooper Mill and take the path that takes you through the tunnel under the roadway. Amazing fishing spots. Semi difficult and narrow terrain with wooden planks and stairs to help you get through to a beautiful lake adjacent to the Black River. If you take the trail all the way you will end up at a park on the other side. Beware of ticks. We had our share to pick off us and the dog after...