A hike up one edge of wildfire burnout operations in NJ

A friend and I went for a hike the other day on the Douglas Trail in the Worthington State Forest in NJ. We accessed the trail from the Douglas Parking Area on Old Mine Rd. tThe other end of the trail terminates on the Ridge (1,100 ft climb over 1.7 miles) at the Appalachian Trail (AT) about 6/10 of a mile west of Sunfish Pond. 

We were about half way up the trail when I saw evidence of burning operations. We continued to follow the burned area on the left side of the trail as we hiked up the Douglas Trail to the Appalachian Trail. When we reached the AT we turned left, continuing to follow the burn area until we turned around after a five or ten minute hike along the AT. Because these burning operations  -- burned ground and underbrush, some scorching on lower tree trunks -- were only on one side of the trail and because the Douglas Trail terminates at the Appalachian Trail about 6/10 of a mile west of Sunfish Pond, I suspect that what I was looking at may have been the back burning operations used to control the Sunfish Pond Fire. We did not hike to Sunfish Pond, our goal was the ridge and we did that.

I suspect that this burn area was shown in the aerial photo that I posted with this article.

As I understand it when first reported the fire was about five acres, soon growing to twenty acres. Back-firing operations were used by fire fighters to bring the fire under control brought the final acreage burned up to about 250 acres. Go here to see reports on the Wildland Fire Hotlist forums about the fire, the report I am referring to is the first report posted.

Back firing or burn out operations are used by wildland firefighters to indirectly attack the fire. Wildland firefighters start from natural or constructed fire breaks. Examples are old fire control lines, hiking trails, woods roads and the like. In this case the wildland fire fighters intentionally burn the fuels between these "fire breaks" and the perimeter of the active fire. In some cases, these fire breaks may be a distance from the active edge of the fire. The idea is to burn the fuels so the fire can eventually be contained.

I was unable to find a good hiking map of this ridge (sometimes known as the Kittatinny Ridge) at the Delaware Water Gap in NJ. However, the image from google earth with the topological maps from the USGS gives you an idea of the terrain. I was able to pinpoint the parking area by going here and plotted that point on google earth. With the help of my paper hiking maps of the Kittatinny Ridge from the NY-NJ Trail Conference (2005 edition) and a conversation with someone at the Worthington State Forest I was able to approximate where the Douglas Trail joins the Appalachian Trail. The Douglas Trail climbs the ridge through a series of switch backs. 

I am attaching a couple of photos of the area that I think may have been a part of these backfiring operations for the Sunfish Pond Fire. I took the first two photos on my way up the Douglas Trail. The last photo is taken on the way down.