Stephens State Park Conditions

Rode the lower part of Stephens this afternoon. Where the fire was (just past the railroad overpass/towards mulch field) is rideable. There are a few trees down from the fire, but overall fine.

Trails in great shape, even after yesterday's rain. Streams are flowing but not too deep.

Noticed some new/cleared trails off the mulch area - originally thought they were go-arounds for Sandy rootballs...but they kept going towards the upper trails. Will need to explore when I have more time.
 
There was originally a go-around (with a few very well built logovers) then the original was opened up at a later time. Also I have are something about a new trail going in but aim not sure where, so it could be either.

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I went by it was gonna take it but didn't because figured it was prolly just another trail to avoid something hard.
 
The red track is the original trail, the one highlighted yellow is the bypass
 

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Steve put in that bypass because the original trail is not completely on park property and it also goes through that clearing that overgrows terribly with pricker bushes during the summer and is a bitch to maintain. The new trail is definitely more difficult and not everyone's cup of tea, so he reopened the old one.
There has been a lot of quad and motor bike activity at the park and they have been adding their share of random new trails everywhere by the compost heap area. It's pretty annoying when you hit some spots and your front wheel washes out randomly because some guy on a motor bike decided to rev it right there.
 
I did see plenty of corners torn up by motos last weekend in that are

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The upper trails should be ok, but around the lake and along the railroad tracks will be pretty muddy... That's my guess anyway.... It rained here pretty much straight for a day and a half..
 
I hit that new trail and once you get by the creek some back labor was put in. Nice benching and rock work. Need to see if going up will be doable on the SS. Drops you right at the stream CXing by the start of little grunt.
 
did 35+ miles here over about 4 hours on Saturday and the trails were in fantastic shape....rode many new little trails I'd never even seen before and saw flagging in the woods in several spots where maybe more trails are going in???? specifically up by white/blue western intersection and over by mulch pit field thing.

TICKS!!!!! pulled 9 off after just doing pink maze loop, be careful out there
 
mattybfat said:
I hit that new trail and once you get by the creek some back labor was put in. Nice benching and rock work. Need to see if going up will be doable on the SS. Drops you right at the stream CXing by the start of little grunt.
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The go-around in my screen shot? Or the other new trail? Filiponi told me about a new trail "on the way in" but I didn't ask him where, duhh. Been wanting to find it, maybe I need to explore this weekend.
 
Conditions?

Anyone been riding Stephens lately? was thinking of heading over later today and was curious how the trails are looking....:hmmm:
 
Daily_Minefield said:
Anyone been riding Stephens lately? was thinking of heading over later today and was curious how the trails are looking....:hmmm:
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havent ridden here since last saturday, but it will only have gotten better since then.
rode the whole lower section of the park then and it was fine. you should be in good shape
 
Yes! I rode all the lower sections today...Tilcon area had usual wet spots. Crossed road to short climb up to train tracks, made right after tracks and all the way out to pink...starting to get dry and fast! Pink maze is very overgrown! Smacking bushes the whole way which made for an interesting ride! Smacked pedal on rock through one of the overgrown sections and went otb into some pricker bushes! especially enjoyed the double tree overs that are like 8' apart from each other...looks like it could be cleared with one giant bunny hop! Good ride overall...getting fast! Pink just needs a weed whacking

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Rode top the other day & it was really badly overgrown in many areas.
Tilcon Lake is so beautiful. Had to pick up trash that slobs left behind...
 
Yep, I gave up on riding Pink because of the growth/ticks. Pulled 2 deer ticks off myself after my last ride through there. Tons of "regular" ticks too.

Do you need any special permission or clearance to do maintinence in there? I would gladly spend an afternoon in there with some trimmers and clear back the growth.
 
I did notice that the connector trail that goes from the road near the rail-line back over to Kinney Rd had been trimmed back...I've seen people doing maintenance before, but don't know if you need official clearance or not. is there a trail steward or contact for Stephens? Or the Allamuchy parks in general?

It's a shame its so overgrown, since pink can be so fast and flowy when its dry and you can see where you're going!

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Whiteroom_Guardian said:
Yep, I gave up on riding Pink because of the growth/ticks. Pulled 2 deer ticks off myself after my last ride through there. Tons of "regular" ticks too.

Do you need any special permission or clearance to do maintinence in there? I would gladly spend an afternoon in there with some trimmers and clear back the growth.
Click to expand...

You can contact Stratocaster on mtbr.com via pm. I mentioned your post to him today and would gladly take the help.
 
Don't ask me why, but after reading about the condition of pink I decided to do some trail maintenance yesterday. The right side of pink is well trimmed and the center is pretty much there as well. It was ungodly humid there yesterday and I think there's a tiger mosquito convention as well.
 
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