Van Nostrand Lake

Van Nostrand Lake, near Norvin Green State Forest (1/24/2010)

Today we were going to do the Torne-Osio Rock loop in Norvin Green State Forest, a hike we have done three times in the past (though the last time was 3.5 years ago). But when I opened NYNJTC North Jersey Trails Map 115 (2009 edition), I noticed a lollipop trail blazed in yellow just west of Osio Rock called the Arcadia Lake trail. But no parking area was denoted anywhere, and Google Earth and Bing Maps weren't any help in locating pull-offs. Undeterred, we headed up there and quickly found a pull-off on the northern side of Weaver Road (west-bound direction) not much more than 0.1 of a mile east of the trail head.

This hike is a little gem! It's a very wild path, not well trodden (most likely because of the lack of parking), with lots of blow-downs that may never be cleared. But it offers some beautiful viewpoints and a lovely lake, Van Nostrand Lake (not Arcadia Lake -- despite this trail being labeled the Arcadia Lake trail there are no views of that lake at all). We took the loop in the clockwise direction, though the blazing seems to encourage the counter-clockwise. Total distance today (including the road walk) was 3.5 miles in just over 2 hours.

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