Mahlon Dickerson Reservation Conditions

Rode the WMA yesterday afternoon... The usual wet stuff that had almost dried up is wet again . Easy enough to ride through , the ground in most spots is firm underneath .

And yes the railbed is as wet as it has been all year .

Tim , 25 degrees is to chilly for me . I was happy with upper 40's yesterday afternoon.
 
Stocky said:
Rode the WMA yesterday afternoon... The usual wet stuff that had almost dried up is wet again . Easy enough to ride through , the ground in most spots is firm underneath .

And yes the railbed is as wet as it has been all year .

Tim , 25 degrees is to chilly for me . I was happy with upper 40's yesterday afternoon.
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25 isn't bad. I've found I'm okay down to 17...then breathing the cold air starts messing with me. At 25, I just need to worry about my feet...I should get some winter shoes :D
 
Fogerson said:
25 isn't bad. I've found I'm okay down to 17...then breathing the cold air starts messing with me. At 25, I just need to worry about my feet...I should get some winter shoes :D
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We hadn't ridden in about 2 weeks , the ride was welcomed and the chill was as well . First time out this year in tights . I also used my warmer gloves .

I've never had winter shoes , just can't justify it for the few times I'll venture out when it's that cold . I'd rather spend the $300 on new skates ( and I did ) than on winter shoes .

I didn't realize that The WMA is supposed to be off limits to us during hunting season ... but I guess that makes sense for obvious safety reasons.
 
Rode the South side today , first time in maybe a year . As you guys know we usually stick to the North side and and The WMA.

The Wall and Stone Gate are in great shape .
Question , and I think this was discussed a long time ago . Half way through Stone Gate , there's the big ledge of rock covered in moss . I thought this was off limits to riding ..... No touchy the moss .....
Someone , literally cleared a path through the moss in order to ride down the big rock face and basically use it as a go around for the very technical section that's there to the right .

Was this done illegally ?
 
Stocky said:
Rode the South side today , first time in maybe a year . As you guys know we usually stick to the North side and and The WMA.

The Wall and Stone Gate are in great shape .
Question , and I think this was discussed a long time ago . Half way through Stone Gate , there's the big ledge of rock covered in moss . I thought this was off limits to riding ..... No touchy the moss .....
Someone , literally cleared a path through the moss in order to ride down the big rock face and basically use it as a go around for the very technical section that's there to the right .

Was this done illegally ?
Click to expand...

That is illegal. Sigh....
 
Stocky said:
Someone , literally cleared a path through the moss in order to ride down the big rock face
Click to expand...

Fogerson said:
That is illegal. Sigh....
Click to expand...

I rode stone gate for the first time on Saturday and rode through the "moss cut". I found it odd, and thought it would be a fair bit of work to maintain. Finding out that it's illegal and not the real line makes a lot of sense now.
 
Fogerson said:
That is illegal. Sigh....
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holy hell, i rode that last time i was there. the way that part of the the trail flows now goes right into it...the right (as in the fun part up 'n over the rocks) looks like it's re-routed.

it did strike me as fantastically odd that you and steve would make a trail going right across a fragile ecosystem and endangered moss. :D
 
rlb said:
I rode stone gate for the first time on Saturday and rode through the "moss cut". I found it odd, and thought it would be a fair bit of work to maintain. Finding out that it's illegal and not the real line makes a lot of sense now.
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ok, so i wasn't the only one. the real trail, which is really cool and technical, goes to the right around that rock.

tim, if you haven't been up there you have to see this. it seriously looks like someone took a shovel and scraped the moss.
 
bonefishjake said:
ok, so i wasn't the only one. the real trail, which is really cool and technical, goes to the right around that rock.
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FWIW it's not like the rest of stone gate is straight out of Allaire or Six Mile...why try to poach a smooth section into a trail that's pretty technical to begin with?
 
rlb said:
FWIW it's not like the rest of stone gate is straight out of Allaire or Six Mile...why try to poach a smooth section into a trail that's pretty technical to begin with?
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my guess is, that section of trail is just *a little* too difficult for some people (more likely ONE person) so they cleared a little work around. it's fantastically selfish to do something like that and that person should get kicked in the junk.
 
bonefishjake said:
ok, so i wasn't the only one. the real trail, which is really cool and technical, goes to the right around that rock.

tim, if you haven't been up there you have to see this. it seriously looks like someone took a shovel and scraped the moss.
Click to expand...

It has been a few weeks, but I may not have noticed, I'm lining myself up to go over the tree, then the hard left onto the rocks...

Somebody actually scrapped off the moss? Sigh...

bonefishjake said:
my guess is, that section of trail is just *a little* too difficult for some people (more likely ONE person) so they cleared a little work around. it's fantastically selfish to do something like that and that person should get kicked in the junk.
Click to expand...

It is a very slow speed maneuver followed by a little bit of a hairy roll off the rock (like, if you fall, it will *really* hurt). I've done it a million times, but sometimes don't make it myself. I can get why some folks want to avoid it, but it is 20 feet and easy to walk. But nooo! Somebody has to hack up the most controversial bit of trail in North Jersey. Brilliant, just brilliant.

Maybe I can get up there this weekend and close it off, again.
 
That stretch has been open for a while. We continually tried to close it, but some d bag keeps reopening. They scrapped off our trail markers and painted their own.
 
I don't think this is actively happening now. It has been going on for years, like since when Sean was around. We kind of gave up for a while as priorities shifted to the Wall reroute.
 
Well Boyz

Did anybody here get involved in the parks reblazing of Mahlon?

I did, and personally mounted the blazes which the park provided, on the Cascade trail. (The nail-ons were made by local Boy Scouts.)

The park officially decided to De-blaze the Yellow w/ Black trail and reblaze the Yellow trail to include the Stone Gate trail as you see it now, going over the mossy rock.

As a current Adopt-A-Trail volunteer I can say that I was impressed to see the number of other volunteers that responded to the parks invitation to help on the Re-Blazing of the trail system. I don't recall seeing anybody from this board there. And a big thanks to Janet for coming out both days to provide blazing materials as well as supervise and direct the re-blaze project. (I won't pass the D.B. comment onto her though.)

Incidentally, this is first hand information. Hope this helps ya'll.

And..... Current conditions somewhere between fair and Friggen Fantastic!
 
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Hi Strat,
Are you saying that the mossy rock is legal now? That'd shock me knowing some of the history I know.
 
And for the record, the blazing db comment goes back a few years and has nothing to do with the reblazing park wide.
 
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