Welcome to Silas Condict County Park!

Located in Kinnelon, NJ, the park is managed by the Morris County Parks Department.

Silas Condict Park was dedicated at 200 acres in 1964. In 2005, additional purchases of adjacent land brought the total acreage to 1,581. The centerpiece of the park is Canty’s Lake which is formed from an impoundment of a Stone House Brook tributary (which itself is a tributary of the C1 classified Pequannock River, one of the cleanest rivers in New Jersey)

Silas Condict Park White Trail Virtual Tour

Today we are going to explore the Bear Mountain area in the southern section of Silas Condict Park via the estimated 3 mile White Blazed Trail (aka “the Bear Trail”) following the below trail map (taken from the NYNJ Trail Conference).

Ready? We’ll begin our hike by following Canty’s Lake which will be to our left as we walk  north from the parking area. Before we go any further let’s see what’s hanging around Canty’s Lake.

We got company!  Ring-Necked Ducks! You would think this duck would be called the Ring-Billed Duck due to a white band around its beak but the duck actually has a chestnut colored ring around its neck which is only visible at close range.

While we are chatting about Ring-Necked Ducks a bird just flew by with white tail feathers. It’s a Dark-Eyed Junco! Dark-Eyed Junco belongs to the Sparrow family and prefers forest and shrub lands. The Dark-Eyed Junco stays in New Jersey for the winter and migrates further north during the growing season.

Leaving the shore of Canty’s Lake we walk a bit north and find ourselves in front of the White Trail trail-head. We are going to be following the white trail in a loop fashion. Nice! Loop trails are always my favorite.

Let’s enter the forest and leave civilization behind for a bit.

Mountain Laurel greets us as soon as we enter.  The deciduous forest of winter is primarily colorless other than evergreen shrubs such as Mountain Laurel and the American Beech tree. American Beech (particularly young American Beech) hold onto their leaves until spring when new leaves emerge. As we walk we hear the paper like leaves blowing in the wind.

We are proceeding in a southwest direction and climbing in a zig-zag fashion on the White Trail. American Crows are sounding the alarm that we are in their forest. White-Breasted Nuthatches and Tufted Titmouse are having their own conversations as we start to climb on the trail.

We’ve come to the first viewpoint! Here, we are looking east. Though it’s covered with snow, we can take a seat if we want to rest after our brief climb to this view. After taking in the views we descent passing interesting rock formations.

Numerous fresh blow-downs are present throughout the forest which most likely fell during Hurricane Sandy.

We may feel sad seeing big trees toppled over but the good news is the hollowed out area where the root structure was now becomes prime vernal pond habitat. Vernal ponds are temporary pools of water that are free of fish and provide valuable areas for amphibians such as Wood Frog to lay eggs.

As we walk Mountain Laurel becomes abundant with adjacent Chestnut Oak.

Proceeding through the Mountain Laurel, we have entered a Chestnut Oak forest punctured here and there with Pitch Pine, a tree normally associated with the NJ Pine Barrens.

Pitch Pine grows here on thin, dry and generally infertile soil. These Pitch Pines found on this mountain are exposed to frequent ice storms in winter and strong winds year round.

Chestnut Oak is usually found on dry slopes at high elevations such as where we are right now. Shrubs such as lowbush blueberry and black huckleberry are common in Chestnut Oak forests. However, given we are in late winter, the only shrub we are encountering today is the abundant evergreen Mountain Laurel.

 

We’ve now started our second climb up a snow covered path.

Our efforts are rewarded with a wonderful western view of the NJ Highlands!

The western view is continuous as we continue south and pass an interesting balanced boulder with the White Trail Blaze painted on it.

We now start to descend as the trail turns east. It’s a bit tricky going down the snowy trail so be sure to watch your step!

As we continue to follow the White Trail we find it is leading us to a rock tunnel.

Let’s squeeze through to the other side!

Whew! We made it out! But now we have to watch our footing. We have a snow covered boulder field to walk through!

As we carefully meander through the boulder field we find ourselves following the White Trail on a slippery rock outcrop.

Whoops! We slipped!

Thankfully we’re ok.

Let’s brush ourselves off and keep moving-that Turkey Vulture flying over us seems to have ideas about us.

We’ve now arrived at Trout Brook and its surrounding wetlands. Trout Brook drains Canty’s Lake and is a tributary to Stone House Brook. Let’s carefully cross the stream by jumping on rocks.

As we continue on the White Trail we have yet another crossing of Trout Brook-but this time there’s a brand new wooden bridge present which makes for easy walking.

As we leave the bridge we see a massive rock outcrop before us and see the White Trail Blaze lead straight up the outcrop! Let’s watch our step and climb.

At the top we find we have left the footpath and are now following a gravel road (steep in places).

As we walk we are suddenly surprised by a blur of white! An Albino White-Tailed Deer! The deer is so white it matches the snow around. Amazing!

Leaving the deer and the gravel road we are back on a foot path where we see views of Bear Mountain, which we just finished climbing.

Continuing on a little further we now find a bench with a wonderful view of Canty’s Lake. We are almost at the end!

We did it! We are now at the end of the White Trail back at the parking lot near where we started!

I hope you enjoyed this virtual hike and that it inspired you to check out the hike in person!

Silas Condict Park is located at 100 Kinnelon Road, Kinnelon, NJ.

Check out some great books below to learn more about NJ’s plants and wetlands!

Wetlands
Plant Communities of New Jersey

Feel free to comment below with any bird sightings, interesting plants, memories or suggestions! Thank you and have fun exploring!

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