Pequannock Watershed, NJ - Bearfort Waters

ABOUT THE PARK:
Pequannock Watershed - City of Newark
Wawayanda State Park - NJDEP
Highlands Trail Guide - NYNJ Trail Conference

PERMIT REQUIRED FOR HIKING IN THE PEQUANNOCK WATERSHED. 
See THIS hike for permit details.

DIRECTIONS: 
GPS Coordinates 41.106638, -74.434882

P4 parking on the west side of Clinton Road with room for about 4 cars.  (There is also P4 pull out parking on the east side on the other side of the bridge.)

TRAIL MAP:  
North Jersey Trails Map 116 - NYNJ Trail Conference

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HIKE DISTANCE:  9.75 miles

THE HIKE:

The Highlands Trail comes in off of Clinton Road and passes through the parking lot to the left.

Starting off it's white/teal Highlands Trail.

White leaves to the left, we continued straight on the Highlands Trail.

At the top the Highlands Trail turns left joining in with the yellow Bearfort Waters Clinton Trail; we turned right on yellow.

TONS of ancient spider webs along this stretch.  At least it would be clear on the return route - that was the plan but some spiders had already started rebuilding by then.

Passing by private property on the left.

Creek crossing with very low water this time of y ear.

Yellow turns right on a woods road and it's woods road for the rest of yellow to it's end in Wawayanda State Park.

This would have been pretty earlier in July when rhododendron was in bloom.

When yellow turns left, right goes to parking P5 on Clinton Road.

Crossing a flooded out section what is spill over from ...

... a swamp on the right.

Leaving the Pequannock Watershed and entering Wawayanda State Park.

A trail not on the map crossed over yellow.  What could this be?  I like to lay a baseline GSP of a known trail before wandering off exploring so maybe we'd check it out on the way back.

Just off the side of the trail, no bushwhacking required for a change ...

... balloon #43 of the year.

A bear was here.  There were prints that were more clear but a mosquito was buzzing in my ear so I had to keep moving.

Shortly after this seesaw looking thing (whatever that is for) another trail not on the map crosses over.

OK, another one to check out on the way back.

A juvenile American Robin.

The yellow trail ends at the red Old Coal Trail where we turned right.

Passing by the Project U.S.E. lodge.

The southern end of Bearfort Waters.  It was here that a mountain biker was heading in, the only other person we saw the entire hike.

Returning back past the lodge.

Where we came off of yellow straight ahead, we kept lright on red.

Then uphill to right on an unmarked woods road.

This woods road ascends and follows a ridge above Bearfort Waters although with foliage there is nothing to be seen.

On the map, this woods road ends at the gas pipeline.

We headed a short distance to the right ...

... for a view of Bearfort Waters down below and ...

... a hiker heading to Terrace Pond (which is where the rest of the world goes.)

We found a shady, breezy, mosquito-free spot off to the side for a break.

Heading back to the woods road to retrace.

I could not figure out what this out of focus bird was so I posted on "What's This Bird?" on Facebook and the reply was...

"Male House Finch, big bill/ reddish head/ brown mask."   Not something I would have expected out here in the woods.

Coming off of the unmarked woods road to left on red.

Right on yellow.

Turning left on that trail we passed to explore some.

Checking my GPS it was heading in the opposite direction from the way we were heading so we retraced.  (I found out later we could have stayed on it.)

Back on yellow by that seesaw thing.

We turned left on that first trail we had encountered and it did head south so we stayed with it.

It was quite a lovely trail and was the only stretch of trailwhere I did not run into a single spiderweb, which led me to believe this is where that one mountain biker we saw had been.

Yes, this must be a mountain bike trail.

And I could see more trail down below to the left.  Where the heck did this trail go?  Then it suddenly occurred to me to check the Trailforks app.

And there is the entire trail in blue.  Why did I not think to do that earlier?  The blue dot is where we were right at the yellow trail ...

... which I could see off to the right.  It was a short 10ish step bushwhack to get over there and continue on our route.

In looking at the Trailforks app, the yellow part is what we had just hiked.  The orange part above is where we had turned back because the trail was heading in the opposite direction.  Now I could see that had we stayed with it, we would have ended up back on the yellow-blazed woods road right at that swamp.  Another trail for another day!

For now, a short bushwhack over to left on yellow ...

... passing by the swamp.

Yellow leaves the woods road to the left as a footpath the rest of the way.

Crossing the creek again ...

... where I noticed a downed tree with a rope to the left, probably a high water crossing alternative.

Female Baltimore Oriole

Left on the Highlands Trail where yellow/Highlands Trail continues straight.

White joins in from the right.

Back at the parking lot, only one other car there, a family with a watershed permit just having arrived to hike.