Lord Stirling Park, NJ

ABOUT THE PARK:

Environmental Education Center - Somerset County Park Commission

Dogs are not allowed on the trails.

DIRECTIONS:

GPS Coordinates 40.69492, -74.52044

Parking lot at the Environmental Education Center.

TRAIL MAP:

EEC Trail Map - Somerset County Park Commission

HIKE DISTANCE:  3.4 miles

THE HIKE:

Thanks to everyone for your well wishes for my surgery.  I had a hysterectomy a little over 3 weeks ago and today was my post-op visit with the surgeon.  Turns out I had uterine cancer and a malignant ovarian tumor which he was able to completely remove.  I would have been in the clear, however, during the biopsy another cancer was found in a fallopian tube which spread microscopically so I have to have chemo to be rid of that.  What that means for hiking is in another 3 weeks when restrictions are fully lifted I can work back up to hiking and during chemo, which will last about 5 months and is expected to make me tired, not sick, I can continue hiking and working out like I did before all of this but there will probably be days when I am too tired to do it.  So seems like I will be hiking, just maybe not as consistently or as far as I like for a while.  Just happy I will be able to resume my normal life to some extent and hopefully be back full speed in the fall.  Since I was in Morristown and daily walking is required right now, I left the surgeon's office and headed over to Lord Stirling Park 10 miles away in Basking Ridge where there are easy, flat trails and boardwalks.  This also allowed me to completely avoid Friday rush hour which I would have been stuck in had I gone straight home.  I had hiked here previously in November 2014 but it looks much different in the summer.  For the next couple of weekends I will be looking to do similar hikes before I can start working my way back to regular hiking.  Brodie is with my son, daughter-in-law and grandkids until my restrictions are lifted, one of which is no pulling and pushing or picking up anything over 10 pounds.  Brodie weighs way more than 10 pounds.  He is being spoiled rotten.  I don't think he misses me.

Starting off on the green trail from the parking lot which runs parallel to Lord Stirling Road.

Keeping right on yellow to head towards the Passaic River.

Gray Catbird

From the observation blind ...

... there isn't much to see in the summer.

No Lily Pad Pond to be seen in the summer either.

Immature Eastern Towhee

Adult Male Eastern Towhee

Keeping right to ...

... a view of the Passaic River.

From here there is a more narrow footpath not on the map which runs parallel to the yellow trail but closer to the river.

Better river views from the footpath.

The footpath merges back into the yellow trail.

Taking a boardwalk on the right to an overlook deck.

Marsh Wren

While I was standing on the observation deck the Merlin Bird ID picked up the Marsh Wren along with Hairy Woodpecker, House Wren, Common Yellowthroat, Eastern Towhee, Wood Duck, Song Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Baltimore Oriole, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Eastern Bluebird, Least Bittern and ...

... Yellow Warbler

Heading right towards the Dance Floor.

Dance Floor

Passaic River from the Dance Floor.

Boondocks Boardwalk

Along this section the Merlin Bird ID app identified Veery, Common Yellowthroat, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Swamp Sparrow, Eastern Wood Pewee.

Taking red back to the Environmental Education Center.  

Almost ran smack into this guy sitting in the middle of the trail.

He was not amused by the near close encounter.

Esox Pond can't be seen from this point in the summer ...

... but there is a little bit of a view a few steps ahead.

Back at the EEC.  I had only walked up to 1.3 miles a day to this point (all of the aisles at Whole Foods and Shoprite during the Canadian wildfire smoke pollution) so 3.4 miles might have been overdoing it a bit (it turned out to be fine, no additional soreness) but I just could not help myself.  It felt so good to be back out on trails and I really needed that!