Stephens State Park Conditions

[jdog]

My plans allowed me to squeak another session in today. Roughly 5 hours. First stop, from the RR crossing was the one on Trestle. Then I relocated to Saxton Falls to get the disaster on Hally Toe. That multi-pronged mess crossed the trail 2x. Once done with that, I got the one at the bottom of the switchbacks, at the bottom of White Burgermeister. The whole mission felt very De-Ja-Vu from last week's mission,

Then I moved over to the (Allamuchy North) Earthworm lot and did a removal of a chubby headbanger, practically at the trailhead. That one was spicy too. Pics are out of order, but the last pic was the "before' of Earthworm. The fun part there was to cut the twisted stump to drop the tree to the ground, so it can be worked on.

OK, Back to NYC Phish tour....with a detour up to Bethel Woods to see Billy Strings 2x.

We would be lost w/o you!

 

[mattybfat]

Bethel Woods to see Billy Strings 2x.

See you at bethel woods 😀

 

[Cassinonorth]

Rode right past it...coulda finished the loop if I'd seen it. Eyes up...

Gonna be real here....I have absolutely no idea how you missed it lol. But I made it a bit more obvious this morning. It's going to be the permanent route. May need a rake but should be totally fine to ride.

Also a bunch of glass is coming up on trestle towards the end and even more at the railroad trailhead. I got as much as possible by hand but I'll try to rake up more Sunday. Just be careful exiting that area.

And one down on trestle with a request to cut this log at the end of the last twisty downhill. Completely kills your speed. Needs to be another foot to the right or so.

 

[jdog]

Way to kill it out there Matt!!

 

[xc62701]

Border trail has about 5 trees down on it. There was one or two more out there in my loop today but can’t remember where they were. If I recall I’ll post it up. Other trails were looking good. One viney mess on the middle maze I saw that was an inconvenience, but otherwise trails were good.

 

[Teutonic]

I'm tracking the ones on Border and I hiked the Orange loop with my wife today and I moved a few things off the trail, but left this one which is close to the Ranger Station (easy access). The one on white can probably get done with a hand saw or hand chain. Just post up if anyone takes care of it.

 

[Cassinonorth]

Bit of a precarious one on middle. Can duck around it pretty well so not super high priority. Pretty close to the messy one xc mentioned

Then a small one or two on hally

and one that has a good enough go around on tally about halfway. Didn't get a picture of that somehow.

 

[xc62701]

Bit of a precarious one on middle. Can duck around it pretty well so not super high priority. Pretty close to the messy one xc mentioned

View attachment 287070
Then a small one or two on hally

View attachment 287071and one that has a good enough go around on tally about halfway. Didn't get a picture of that somehow.

Good catch. Zoomed under that one but thought it wasn’t a priority.

 

[avc8130]

First one is literally right at the road before crossing from the lake towards Trestle.

 

[chainsawer]

First one is literally right at the road before crossing from the lake towards Trestle.

These were all cleared today.

 

[chainsawer]

I was out today for a 5 hour session. "Border trail" now cleared. "Long Way Round" cleared. And all the ones avc8130 posted just above were cleared (Trestle, Upper Woods Road, and Tilcon lake trail right at the road).

 

[Teutonic]

I just cleared the one on Orange.

 

[chainsawer]

Roughly where is the viney mess and precarious one on "Middle"?

 

[Teutonic]

Roughly where is the viney mess and precarious one on "Middle"?

In saw it last week. My memory says middlish...

 

[Cassinonorth]

In saw it last week. My memory says middlish...

Roughly where is the viney mess and precarious one on "Middle"?

Closer to the RR but middleish.

 

[CrashMP]

On Trestle

 

[chainsawer]

I was out for another 4 hours today. From the RR crossing, I hit middle maze and got the "precarious one" and the "viney mess". The viney mess included a huge chunk of log dangling directly over the trail, hung up with vines. With a rope and a few well-placed touches with the saw tip, I was able to encourage it down without killing myself.

Then I revisited Trestle. Got the blockage reported just above by @CrashMP. Shortened the speed killer at the base of the twisty turns reported by @Cassinonorth in post #2043. And widened a skinny pass-thru very close to, and uphill from the RRcrossing side stream crossing. That narrow cut had been annoying me for years.

Then I moved to the Continental drive trailhead to access the Morris canal greenway. There I was met with an unreported massive viney mess. A tree crown dangling upside down over the trail, still strongly connected. But I noticed that the remaining part of the tree had a hard lean away from the trail. So I actually felled the tree off the trail! (My first time doing that). Once on the ground, very little trail work left to do. Then I proceeded to and cleared the two known targets in the vicinity of the Plane, which I believe were reported by @HiFiGuy.

I wanted to get to Station road to get a fatty out on green but ran out of steam.

pics1-3 are the precarious mess on Middle maze. Before, during, and after. Pic 4 is the speed killer on Trestle.

 

[Cassinonorth]

Incredible as always. 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

I just got some lumber to fix the top of Trestle that's starting to show some age. I'm going to head up there after trimming the rest of Trestle Friday AM.

 

[The Worst]

Went out for a ride with @Hungusoutdoors today. The park is riding great. Phenomenal work, everyone who’s been involved.

 

[mattybfat]

See you at bethel woods 😀

Turns out we saw each other often. 16k peeps and we were in the same row both nights 🤣

One greatest shows and my favorite venue hands down