New Silas Condict Park Trail: Bear Mountain, Kinnelon

In case you weren't aware, there's a new trail in town at Silas Condict Park in Kinnelon and it's definitely worth checking out on September 25, 2011 [or on your own]! You'll find it identified as the W trail on the Silas Condict Trail Map, although I refer to it as the Bear Mountain Trail.

Regardless, it represents an approximately 4 mile loop hike and transforms - in my mind - the Silas Condict Park hiking experience and you have the opportunity to check it out via guided tour with one of Morris County Park's talented teacher/naturalists! Here are details:

On Sunday, September 25, 2011, Douglas Vorolieff from Morris County Park Commission will lead a hike along the new Bear Mountain Trail in Silas Condict Park in Kinnelon.

When: September 25, 2011 at 9AM

Where: Meet at the Silas Condict Casino (i.e., the main stone building by the lake).

The Route: Along the W trail through the recently acquired area south of the lake and adjacent to Borough owned properties between Kinnelon Rd and Smoke Rise. This area is about 250 acres.

Description: The trail will take us through parts of Bear Mountain in Kinnelon.

To participate in this hike, you must register. To register, please  call and leave a message at 973 283-2880 or email Ken Bitz at kbitz@optonline.net. 

Note:  no dogs.

Sadly, Emma and I won't be able to participate. However, Ted will be there!

To give you a preview of what to expect, here are photos and my trail map from last December's Morris County Hike a Park a Month event during which we previewed the Bear Mountain Trail. So many participated [~45] that we formed two groups, pictured here.

Here's the trail map with photos. Notice the range of terrain, including a really cool rock formation to squeeze through. It's a fantastic trail!

MCPC hike Silas Condit Park

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Tom Edmunds shared the following as we prepared for the hike last year:

The creators of this route through our recent acquisition in Silas Condict Park (Duncan Douglas, Tom Carr and Ron Luna) will be leading us over a quite challenging and adventuresome trail with great views and a good warming workout fit for the cold we anticipate.

We strongly encourage all to wear good hiking boots as there are several areas where secure footing is advisable. Hiking sticks will also help but be careful of depending on them on smooth rock surfaces. We’ve chosen a direction to hike this loop trail so it will appear to be more downhill than up ----of course you know I sometimes overstate the case.

Don't forget to register! Then, after the hike, let me know what you liked most.

Happy hiking!

Lake Sonoma Orange Trail Hike, Ringwood, NJ

On May 16th, 2010, Ken Bitz organized a terrific hike along the Lake Sonoma Orange Trail in Ringwood, NJ. You can read my original post, titled Orange Trail Hike, Ringwood NJ On 5/16/10, which includes directions and trail description.

In this post, I share with you details on the actual Ringwood, NJ, Lake Sonoma Orange Trail hike we took. This photo above was taken from a magnificent overlook point with our trail guide, standing in the middle....

The 3.4 mile trail [which took us approximatley three hours] included fantastic vistas, several creeks, a waterfall, a submerged mine, a bat cave that the kids checked out, and our first ever geocaching quest for cache sites.

The kids particularly enjoyed exploring the cave below.  Note: if you decide to do this hike, be sure to have in your pack a flashlight or two! Per a sign posted by the cave's mouth, exploring is discouraged during the winter months when the bats hibernate. The bat population, though, has been significantly affected by white-nose syndrome [see USA Today's Biologists head to bunkers to fight bat disease].

Inside the cave!

The Ringwood, NJ, Lake Sonoma Orange Trail Hikers!

Thank you, Kim Parkins, for sharing such marvelous photos! Here is the link to Kim Parkins' Ringwood Hike photo album on Picasa.

To see my photos of Lake Sonoma Orange Trail in Ringwood, NJ, click on this link.

Finally, here is the trail we followed along the Lake Sonoma Orange Trail in Ringwood, NJ!

Lake Sonoma Orange Trail, Ringwood NJ

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Thanks, Ken, for organizing this hike!

Save The Date 2/6/10 Fosterfields Hike

Fosterfields Hike on 2/6/10. Will You Be There?

The Morris County Park Commission next Hike a Park a Month Club group is coming right up. Destination: Fosterfields Living Historic Farm in Morristown. Will you be there?

Here are details. As with all of the MCPC hikes, please do contact Tom Edmunds, the hike organizer, to confirm that you will be participating.

DATE: Saturday, February 6, 2010

WHERE: MCPC Fosterfields Living Historic Farm ( 73 Kahdena Rd, Morris Township)

TIME: Be prepared for a 9AM start

MEETING AT: Far parking area. Visitor center will be opened if you wish to stop there first but you must move back to far parking area for the hike.

OTHER NOTES: The Farm will be holding a Winter’s Day on the Farm event at 12:00 to 4 PM---do join in, there is a small fee. Perfect for kids and grandkids. The theme is From Sap to Syrup.

DIRECTIONS: From Interstate 287

Traveling North: Take Madison Avenue Exit 35 and turn left onto South Street. Proceed WEST to the Center of Morristown. At the Morristown Green look for County Rt. 510 WEST. Turn Right onto 510 WEST (Washington Street) and go one mile. Turn RIGHT onto Kahdena Road. Entrance to Fosterfields is at top of hill on LEFT.

Traveling South: Take Madison Avenue Exit 35 and bear RIGHT onto Rt. 124 WEST, to center of Morristown. Follow above directions.

If you are interested in participating, you MUST contact Tom Edmunds at tomwedmunds@verizon.net.

I'm excited about this hike because Emma and I have visited and really enjoyed the farm. At the same time, we've seen the kind of marvelous discoveries that Tom and Janet McMillan have uncovered for us and have high expectations for what is to come!

We are set to be there and look forward to seeing you, too!

Silas Condict Hike Encounters Smoke Rise Hospitality

Silas Condict Hike Defies Description!

Surprise Encounter With Smoke Rise Neighbor Offering Memorable Hospitality

Many thanks to Tom Edmunds and Janet McMillan from the Morris County Park Commission for putting so much enthusiastic effort into creating a memorable and unexpected Silas Condict hike that led to an encounter with unbeatable Smoke Rise hospitality!

As announced in Saturday 12/5/09 Silas Condict Hike, we met at Silas Condict Park for the last group hike of 2009. Approximately 30 hikers took part, including Silas Condict Trail Adopter Susan Schaechter, Tom and Janet, to hike a recently opened area of the park.

For us, it was a special treat to walk over to the park and visit the fun and interesting Silas Condict Casino where we met up with the group. The Casino building evokes the Roaring Twenties inside as I had hoped. A wooden bar along one side of the room faces a small stage area on the other side and I can imagine bathtub gin being bottled in the back and served at the bar in the front while scenes of 80 years gone by fill the room! There is quite a view with windows giving directly onto the lake. Thank you to MCPC Park Foreman Jim Neill for making the space available to us.

The trail was every bit as spectacular (really) as Tom had promised. A climb to one of the steepest points in the park, down along a temporary trail route that **Janet and Tom had carefully marked and taken a leaf blower to the day before**. Pretty special!

The trail took us along the Pequannock River and the New York, Susquehanna &Western Railroad. Shortly before reaching the North Gate, we climbed back up into the woods, hiking behind the Community Church of Smoke Rise, onto the infamous 'golf ball' trail and back onto the main Silas Condict trail.

Our path in the attached image is faintly highlighted in yellow.

Total distance: approximately 2 miles with lots of ups and downs.

Tom and Janet hope that the trail will soon be added as a new blazed trail offering park goers a respectable loop to hike.

My hike summary doesn't capture the most amazing part of the hike: an encounter with Smoke Rise resident and Silas Condict Park neighbor Harry C. Hicks -- the father of the “golf ball trail” -- who met us behind the Smoke Rise Community Church. At that point, we had no idea what to expect...

Harry made a cryptic phone call [something about 30 hikers rather than the original 17 expected], before leading us along the trail and through a gate into his property. You see us all assembled around a pond in the photo above. From there, he invited us INTO his house - all 30 of us! - where his wife Marnie graciously offered us her famous Christmas Hot Cider Punch made from only the best fresh spices and ---only she knows.

[Emma being an enthusiastic consumer of Christmas cheer sweet-talked Marnie into a tour of her beautifully decorated living room; she also met Barna the 18 year old cat.]

Thank you, Marnie, Harry and Barna, for sharing your hospitality!

The last 1000 feet back to the main trail of Silas Condict took us along the 'golf ball trail' so-named because it is whimsically marked off by golf balls - which, by the way, are easier to spot than many trail markers are.

One last note about the morning. As soon as we stepped back onto the main trail, it started to snow.

What a memorable hike, from beginning to end and all points in between!

[Below you'll find my trail file. Unfortunately, I lost GPS contact for a good portion. However, between the hike map image above and the trail file, you can guesstimate the actual trail.]

Silas Condict Hike

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Here is the slideshow of my photos from the Silas Condict Hike.

2010 Morris County Park Commission Hikes

Janet, Russ Nee and Tom are planning 2010 hikes starting with a rather loosely scheduled hike for January on the 9th at Lewis Morris Park (meeting at the Sunrise Lake boathouse). For more information, please do contact Tom Edmunds [tedmunds@morrisparks.net] directly.

The Kinnelon Critter File: Mountain Lion or Large Bobcat?

One recent dark rainy Smoke Rise evening, we had a visitor to our porch.  Although silent, our visitor left tracks that looked both familiar and eerily different...

So different that I ran for my camera and called to my husband to get a tape measure.

Our three domestic cats were inside, fast asleep.  

 

The tracks impressed us.  No claws meant that these weren't dog tracks.  We checked, although we knew from having seen our own cats' footprints that these were feline.

Furthermore, the only prints were at the top of the porch which meant that the animal had jumped up rather than taken the steps as a dog would have.   

Their size was truly impressive.  From the bottom of the pad to the opposite toe, these tracks measured 3 inches each.  Not your average house kitty cat paw print size, which is closer to .5 to 3/4 of an inch.  What could this visitor be?

Mountain Lion paw print courtesy of iStockphoto

I consulted the animal track reference books from the Pyramid Mountain Park visitors' center. The characteristic scallop at the rear of the main pad and the radial toe placement indicated that the most relevant and closest animal - per the guide - was either Bobcat or Mountain Lion... three inches being at the very top of the range for a bobcat, and just a little small for a mature mountain lion.

Per our daughter's classmate's dad, we learned that mountain lions have been spotted in the area, one possibly even on the soccer field.

Interestingly, last weekend's 9/28/08 New York Times article titled The Preservationists' Trails by Christopher Brooks refers to bears and an elusive bobcat, but no mountain lion in the Pyramid Mountain Park vicinity.  It's still definitely worth a read.

For example, did you know that Pyramid Mountain Park encompasses more than 20 miles of trails "encompassing two significant hilltops [i.e., Pyramid Mountain and Turkey Mountain] and some of the most impressive boulder fields and glacial debris in the region, this park is hard to beat."

At the same time, I was stunned to learn that the park almost never came to be. A touch over 20 years ago, both mountains were ear-marked to be quarried - similar to what you see at exit 52 of 287 South.

Imagine losing such gems as Bear Rock and Tripod Rock, two huge boulders — "granite erratics left behind by the retreating Wisconsin glacier some 20,000 years ago" — that lie alongside the trial on the Pyramid Mountain side. And, on the Turkey Mountain side, trails pass by the remains of mid-19th century quarries, "the great birding by Botts Pond, which is frequented by indigo buntings, scarlet tanagers and various warblers, there is a crackling waterfall that drops about a dozen feet and a couple of atmospheric cabin ruins (festooned in spring with colorful columbine) atop the namesake peak.

Just think, all of this only 35 miles from midtown Manhattan, New York City! That's what makes this part of Northern New Jersey so very magical, including the Kinnelon critters.

Added 10/6/08 - I've just come across these other references:

+ From The New York Times, Deer Draw Cougars Ever Eastward, dated 11/12/2002 by Blaine Harden

+ Commenting on that article, Cronaca with copious commentary from New Jersey-ites...

+ The Eastern Cougar Foundation's site page on Beyond Sightings to Sign.

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Monarch Butterflies in Pyramid Mountain Park

I'm fascinated with butterflies. Even more so with Monarch Butterflies that manage the unthinkable every year with a 2,000 to 3,000 mile migration.

Imagine a creature as delicate and ephemeral as a butterfly traveling the distance from Mexico to various parts of the United States and Canada and back again.  Every year.  

No other insect undertakes as long a migration.

Monarch butterflies make their way  back to their 'overwintering grounds' in Central Mexico [more specifically the Oyamel fir forest] in September and October.  Hence the recent Meet a Monarch Butterfly Festival  at the Pyramid Mountain Natural Historic area in Montville Township in Morris County, NJ - as well as many other areas around the country as reported in USA Today in an article titled "Catch the monarch on its migratory path."

The Daily Record reported on the Pyramid Mountain event in Imaginations aflutter at butterfly festival; Hands-on Kinnelon event teaches visitors about Monarchs' life cycles which my daughter and I attended.  It was fascinating.

From the press release, I learned the following: "Weighing only half a gram, monarch butterflies travel up to 80 miles a day to cover a dangerous 2,000-mile journey to Mexico."

We missed the butterfly tagging demonstration during which trained naturalists attach tiny numbered tags onto the wings of the adult monarchs, immediately before releasing them to begin their journey.  I presume they use a tooth pick...

However, we did enjoy a tour [actually several] of the butterfly garden immediately next to the Visitor Center. There, we saw a monarch caterpillar in a "J" position about to enter into the pupa phase and turn into  a chrysalis [see photo above left].  We saw several chrysalis further along and even returned the following day to admire a newly emerged monarch [see below].

Critical to the survival of monarchs is the milkweed plant.

Monarchs only lay eggs on milkweed plants.  The milkweed also protects the insect in its butterfly stage as the acidic milkweed 'milk' that the caterpillar eats voraciously is toxic to many animals.

No surprise, the Native Plant Society of New Jersey had displays and information about the benefits of a multitude of native New Jersey plants, including milkweed. Note: the NPSNJ website offers lists of native plants by county.

I came across milkweed for the first time during a walk last summer and fell in love with the sweet smell and the intense flowers. When I noticed that I could purchase seeds, I did so and we plan to sow them next weekend.

For the record, I purchased Swamp Milkweed [Asclepias incarnata], Butterfly Weed [Asclepias tuberosa] and Common Milkweed [Asclepias syriaca].

I came across this article titled Monarch butterfly: Color protects it from predatory birds which lists details on the monarch butterfly.  Pay special attention to the life cycle section [also check out the Wikipedia article referenced above].

Other sites I discovered:
+ Inner clock may lead monarch butterflies

+ KidZone information on the Monarch butterfly with terrific pictures and monarch-related kid activities.

+ And, you can help track the monarch butterfly migration each fall and spring by becoming a member of this site - Journey North: Monarch Butterfly Migration - and reporting your observations.

Although this is the third year of the Meet a Monarch Butterfly Festival, this was our first visit.  I doubt it will be our last, though.  There's too much that's marvelous about these insects.

By the way, at the Pyramid Mountain visitors' center, you can sign up to receive email updates on the scheduled hikes and programs.  That's how I learned  about the Festival.

I can't wait to plant our milkweed seeds and eventually welcome monarch butterflies to our yard.

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