Stephens State Park Conditions

pedals

Well-Known Member
Didn't go into Tilcon Lake, but parked up the road and started into pink by the tracks. Surprisingly the trails were very clean (just leaves) and wetness was only in a few select spots. Really nice--rode mainly upper Stephens then down into pink.There's work being done along the power lines. Lots of cutting back, and the puddles on the trails there were terrible.
 

HiFiGuy

Well-Known Member
Rode thru tilcon lake area today and it was very wet, deep puddles, in the usual spots, like the rocky overflow section and the part of the trail at the back of the lake. The rest of the trails as you mentioned were in good shape.
 

rlb

Well-Known Member
Rode Stephen's today and conditions were great. There were some small muddy patches here and there but I'd venture to guess those are the "always wet" spots anyway. There are tons of twigs and branches down, I bent a spoke today :(

The Tilcon Lake overflow is still flooded, I opted to turn around and avoid wet feet 5 minutes into my ride. Also don't forget the bug spray the ticks are still tickin. I was trying to forgo it but I found 4 on me (think I picked them up under the power lines on the north end of pink).
 

onetracker

Well-Known Member
Updated Stephens SP conditions?

Anyone ride the trails at Stephens since the storm? Conditions report? Thx.
 

mattybfat

The Opinion Police
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Anyone ride the trails at Stephens since the storm? Conditions report? Thx.

I still have snow that i see which in turn has been melting, we ended up with 18" so I would say things maybe pretty shity and waterloo road was still closed as of yesterday. Top that off with major tree damage and you got an epic fail of an attempt to ride trails up here...
 

Reggie

Formerly ReggieHammond
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Rode Stephens today; with the exception of some wet leaves here and there, the trails are in perfect conditions. Typical wet areas are present and stream crossings are a bit higher than normal.

A HUGE thank you to the volunteers that cleared up the mess. It looked like there was a lot to clean up.
 

jackx

Well-Known Member
Rode Stephen's today in the late afternoon, when the temperature was perfect!

I started from the bottom of SSP road and took the old road 6/10 mile down to the ranger station, and this old road probably had the most downed trees I saw in the park. The creek was running a bit high across the road and so someone had put small logs down to ride over.

In the rest of the park, the trails were in pretty good condition, albeit a bit challenging sometimes to always follow the trail with all the leaves. The dirt bikes were out there today, and they were tearing up the fallen leaves on the trails. However, in this case, it was somewhat helpful.

I saw a lot of evidence of chain saw activity in other areas, so many thanks to all clearing the fallen branches!!
 

pedals

Well-Known Member
Rode Stephens today. Went from Tilcon Lake.---wet -no surprise--under tressle and up, up, up to mulch pit. Went across road and that's where things got ugly. Just so bad that there was no going around and through. It was as if a tornado went in and just created havoc. We turned and made the left down through mulch and into the trail, which comes out to power lines, which have been clear cut --leaving many branches to get caught in wheels along with huge puddles.Wish I had known to avoid all this. That's why I'm posting here. We made our way up and into green and back.I think the rest of SSP is pretty good from much awesome TM.
 
12-27

Rode today.. Pretty darn good in general.

Skipped Tilcon (it's bad) went up Kinney rd to banjo house and left. Right up to rail bed to tresstle. (Ok, now start reading as fast as you can!) Up to the lower mulch pit rd. (Did not cross and up single trak then cross again on the the "Itchy Trail" which as Pedals reported is a disaster.) So far trails were xcellent. Made right into woods stayed left on trail that goes under the Mulch pit and left up to woods wide track where Itchy ends. Right onto wide trail and over toward power line. Made the right before power lines ( the middle of this trail has a nasty wet area in it), maybe someday it'll get rocked. Right on trail that takes us over to green (some blazed were torn down again). Used inner green ( further away from powerlines, one low hanging tree across the trail) to first white right. Down Sunset Tr. left on white, right on cut across trail back to white, thru rock garden and straight on to "The Golden Trail" cross white on Golden Extension back to white (right) down to blue by chimney, down Chimney Downhill (there is some big branches to climb thru) to lower white, left down traversing downhill, right at bottom on "The Bottom Trail" back to white to pink to the "Blue Rock Trail" and to the car. YOU GOT ALL THAT! lol...

11 mile ride.

Very happy to say the upper trail I traveled today were Blowdown free... other than as mentioned.

Hopefully get a look at the Blue trail soon...
 

EpicRidr

Member
Blue Rock Trail?

Is that the Jump Trail?

Now I want to ride Stephens again and do the upper stuff that I skipped on Monday. Want to ride Friday or Saturday?
 

EpicRidr

Member
Stephens is in great shape

Stephens is in great shape, but I would suggest trying to ride early in the day when the ground is frozen. There are a couple places where the sun hits that get really slick once the mud starts to thaw out. Also, I haven't been through the Tilcon lake area lately - last time I went through there the water was still pretty high on the causeway, and I splashed my feet. This is no time of year for wet shoes.
 

rlb

Well-Known Member
Stephens is in great shape, but I would suggest trying to ride early in the day when the ground is frozen. There are a couple places where the sun hits that get really slick once the mud starts to thaw out. Also, I haven't been through the Tilcon lake area lately - last time I went through there the water was still pretty high on the causeway, and I splashed my feet. This is no time of year for wet shoes.

Agreed, I don't think I've ridden over the causeway since pre-Irene, seems the water levels have been quite high since then.

I rode there this morning. Conditions=awesome!

Thanks!
 

Reggie

Formerly ReggieHammond
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Conditions are near perfect with the exception of the Canal Trail's normal wet areas. Ended up hitting up lower Stephens and out to the Maze. Everything was dry and fast. Saw a few motos out there as well.
 

jmanic

JORBA Board Member/Chapter Leader
Staff member
JORBA.ORG
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Conditions are near perfect with the exception of the Canal Trail's normal wet areas. Ended up hitting up lower Stephens and out to the Maze. Everything was dry and fast. Saw a few motos out there as well.

Sorry I missed you out there today. Would have looked you up if I wasn't in "smash-n-grab" mode. I need a proper tour of this place. There's a lot of fun in there.
 

jackx

Well-Known Member
I rode Stephen's on Saturday and saw a lot of hunters, hikers, and a number of ATVs and motos, but no other riders.

I was going to start on the Budd lake side at near Karen rd, but the access trail under the power lines was extremely wet and muddy. I went over to station road lot and the trails were pretty dry there from green to white and blue.
 

soundz

The Hat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I rode Stephen's on Saturday and saw a lot of hunters, hikers, and a number of ATVs and motos, but no other riders.

I was going to start on the Budd lake side at near Karen rd, but the access trail under the power lines was extremely wet and muddy. I went over to station road lot and the trails were pretty dry there from green to white and blue.

I was there on Sat morning. Started at Mooch North (5:30am frozen) to Stephens (8:00am mostly frozen) to Deer Park (9:00am just starting to get soft). Lots of frozen ruts on parts of Deer Park and some on lower pink at Stephens.
 

JohneeOxford

Shop: Marty's, H-Town
Shop Keep
Did a quick lil ride with mr.7kindsasmoke... was an excellent ride, barring the hunters..... lil snowy, lil muddy... 100% funny... Springtime is in the air yo!
great time to be alive!
big ups to the responsible party for the re-route on the Canal trail, great job!
 

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