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High Point park celebrates winter

| 29 Jan 2018 | 02:09
    Huskies get ready to do their thing
    Huskies get ready to do their thing
    Visitors on ice do some fishing and some curling.
    Visitors on ice do some fishing and some curling.
    PHOTOS BY JANET REDYKEThe High Point monument greets visitors for the Winter Festival held on January 27.
    PHOTOS BY JANET REDYKEThe High Point monument greets visitors for the Winter Festival held on January 27.
    Nick Stefano talks about severe weather.
    Nick Stefano talks about severe weather.
    Visitor Laura Van Boerum of West Milford creates her own mini snowman from remnant snow.
    Visitor Laura Van Boerum of West Milford creates her own mini snowman from remnant snow.
    The High Point Interpretive Center is crowded with visitors celebrating winter.
    The High Point Interpretive Center is crowded with visitors celebrating winter.

WANTAGE — An annual celebration of winter, ice and snow has taken place at High Point State Park for the last several years. Sponsored by the Friends of High Point State Park, the event took place on Saturday, Jan. 27 with both indoor and outdoor activities.
In the park’s cozy Interpretive Center, welcomed by an amazing, warming fireplace, visitors and families gathered for storytime featuring books about nature, animals and the winter season. A sing-a-long by the hearth was also another indoor activity enjoyed by the many visitors. Children were kept entertained and busy with the construction of nature crafts like peanut butter pinecone bird feeders and experiencing a bear den and a nature, tactile Feeley Box.
Nick Stefano, local weatherman, gave a hearth-side talk on his early attraction of weather and temperatures. A native of Paterson, Stefano made reference to an old Pepsi thermometer in his neighborhood that sealed his interest in weather.
“I would check that thermometer constantly and when it snowed I’d be in my glory,” Stefano said.
When he found out that the High Point area received the most snow in New Jersey because of its elevation. Stefano, as a youngster, drew a one- mile radius around High Point, saying “I’m going to live there someday.”
He actually lives about 5,000 feet, less than a mile from High Point. Stefano spoke of weather, records, extreme cold and global warming.
Outside, bundled up visitors were treated to a sled dog demonstration by the New Jersey Sled Dog Club. Groups of three Siberian Huskies happily got to pull a wheeled sled, the usual being six dogs or 16 for the Iditarod Great Race. Also on the outdoor agenda was a guided winter hike, ice fishing and a curling team from Plainfield, N.J. getting visitors interested in the sport which will be included in the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympics in February.