Hurricane Irene is within hours of reaching Morris County as I type (perhaps it will be a Tropical Storm when it finally passes over the area). Amazingly, as of this morning, out of an argurably hysterical over-abundance of caution, many of the state parks in NJ and NY were closed since yesterday! Yes! Yesterday ... one day before the storm reached land way down in North Carolina over 500 miles away! Translation: Cover Yer Ass. Well, as of this morning there were still at least 12 good hours of hiking available before the rains began, so we fit in this relatively short hike on a very nice new trail blazed in Silas Condict Park. The last time we visited this park (back in 2009), this trail didn't exist. In fact, almost nothing south of the lake existed. But thanks to the efforts of the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference, there is now a white trail south of the lake which passes several nice viewpoints and even passes through a rock tunnel. How cool is that?