Hike #894; Mahwah/Darlington Schoolhouse NJ to Kakiat Park NY
11/11/15 Mahwah/Darlington SH to Kakiat Park with Kralc Leahcim (Lerch), Jennifer Berndt, Annika Krystyna, and Justin Gurbisz
The idea came to me between doing the Jersey Perimeter stuff and seeing a Hudson Valley Hikers group posting for the entire Suffern-Bear Mountain Trail in a day. This long distance trail goes between those two towns, and a lot of these groups who consider themselves most “serious” do the entire trail in a day.
Of course, since it was something that other people already do, it was nothing I was interested in doing. Instead, I had my own idea for a more diverse and enjoyable hike in both NJ and NY.
Ruins
My plan was to connect Kakiat Park, just over the NY line, a municipal land adjacent to Harriman State Park, with the Ramapos in NJ. The Ramapo Ridge itself travels from NJ north to the Dunderberg section in Harriman State Park, and I’ve still somehow never walked the entire thing, although I am close.
Justin had off work for the day, and he lives close, and Lerch, Jen, and Annika were all ready to go.
After meeting in Kakiat, we headed to Ramapo Community College to park cars. Unfortunately, it was now an area where we couldn’t park without a permit. We had to drive around looking for something else before finally settling on the Darlington School house, headquarters of NYNJ Trail Conference.
I had not been to the building since it was finished, so it was cool to finally have the chance to go in. They had so many maps for sale, and lots of books in their library. I could easily have spent all day here, but we had to go. We headed on the trail after our visit that leads over to the parking lot for Ramapo Valley County Reservation. From there, the first side trail went to the right leading to some brick ruins, at what appeared to be a possible old mill site. The base of the ruins were masonry, while the top was concrete and brick.
We passed the site of the A.B. Darling Mansion that had been built in 1864, but destroyed somewhere along the way. We continued from here along the Silver Trail, following an old road across a slack water and lake like section of the Ramapo River, across a through style truss bridge, then up the mountain.
We turned right on the way up, on the blue blazed Ridge Trail onto Monroe Ridge. We passed a waterfall below to the left on the way up.
NYC view on Monroe Ridge
The trail followed a nice woods road at first, and it was getting my out of breath going up. I really needed this, because I’d been spending so much time doing the level final perimeter hikes that I’d lost some of my stamina for up hill.
The trail turned left off the woods road to climb slightly more as a foot path, then came to a side trail with a really nice overlook toward NY City. We headed back down to the ridge trail from the outcrop with the view, then made our way to where it intersects with the Havermeyer Trail. There was supposed to be an old Nickel Mine there. I was looking for it to the left of the trail, but just couldn’t see it. We turned to the right on Havermayer Trail, turning left and then right on the White Trail along the way as the trail made it’s way down to Halifax Trail in Havermeyer Hollow.
Crossing
We turned right on Halifax Trail for just a bit, and looked across the creek for an informal trail I was planning to follow. This trail goes across what was shown on the map as “Mahwah Conservation Area”. We crossed the creek on a log once we got far enough, then bushhwacked along the other side until we saw a “reasonable” enough path going over a hillside. It did not appear to be the one we were looking for, but no matter, we followed it, or something, along the slope. There was a house and a cul de sac at the end of Halifax Road, probably the original through part of what is now the trail further up.
The trail seemed to disappear altogether, and it was supposed to go to the right, down to an access road around a large pond to the right, but up ahead were rock outcroppings that just looked too interesting to pass up.
Ramapo College and NY skyline
We made our way over some interesting rock formations to reveal extensive off trail vistas over the Ramapo Valley. We could see where we started, we could see the large body of water, which we now know was called Dator’s Pond. I could see people boating in it, the Ramapo Valley Community College, and the NY City Skyline beyond, now much more clearly than before. It was a really great spot. We could also see further up the Ramapo Ridge beyond the gap toward where we were heading, though there was some sort of hillside between a bit. Most of the view was east.
We climbed up and down, and just when I thought we would make our way down to the waterfront, there was another rock outcropping that promised another off trail overlook and slightly different perspective than the previous ones we’d seen. We kept following them until they pretty much ended.
Group shot
We descended through a gully after the rocks, and came across a lovely little spring. I thought at first to taste it, but then remembered the Ford Motor Company of the Ramapo people, how they had a lawsuit that the water was contaminated. I could wait to get to Mahwah for a drink.
Dater's Pond
We made our way through the woods to a roadway close to the water. There was another one even closer, with a connector path between, so we followed that one out to the shore line and continued north. Along the way, there was a side path to the right that led right up to the water. I went out and stood in it, and it felt pretty good.
We made our way from here further up the road, passing by some buildings that have something to do with the function of the water or something, and came to a gate leading us out to Stag Hill Road. We turned right on Stag Hill, passed under Rt 287, then reached Rt 17. We turned left and then right to cross the highway on a crumbling road bridge that was built in 1955. Once on the other side, we turned right, then left along the access roads to the Sheriton Hotel. We had passed by here on the NJ Perimeter hikes twice, and even went up to the top of it once.
On the way, there was one of those variable message boards reading something about “heroin epidemic at town hall”. It seemed very strange, that wording.
We headed past the sign, along evergreens and the fountain in front of the Sheriton. We then headed into the building to use the restroom, and to try to go to a Starbucks. Annika said that almost all Sheritons have a Starbucks built into it, and that she’d treat us to something. This one however had no Starbucks built in, but offered the coffee. We opted not to hang around and instead headed out to walk behind the building.
Sheriton Group
The next leg was to get on the old railroad right of way, a branch from the former Erie Railroad, that served the Ford Motor Company that used to be at the site.
We got around the back of the building, which we had walked before, and easily made our way to the old railroad right of way. We turned left following the black cinder dirt on what appeared as though it was probably several tracks at the plant. In the middle there was a section that still had ties on place, sometimes barely protruding through the cinder dirt.
The right of way continued ahead, and we took a side trip to the right over a through style truss bridge that carried an access road over the Ramapo Ridge into the town of Mahwah.
Rail right of way
The bridge was in more deplorable shape than I had remembered it, with holes through the decking and minimal metal support underneath. We had walked this bridge on one of the Jersey Perimeter hikes on the north border.
We headed back out to the railroad bed at that point, and made our way across the state line. Some of the right of way had been washed away a bit, probably by regular river flooding. We then approached a through style girder bridge that carried the railroad over the Ramapo River.
Rail bridge over Ramapo River
The rail bridge was in really rough shape. The ties were all rotten, and even I was a bit apprehensive going across this time at the start. Usually I have little problem with these bridges, but something about this one, walking where there were no ties on the I beams just freaked me out. We headed across anyway, after getting over being psyched out.
Once on the other side, the rail bed became somewhat overgrown, and we took a path down to the bottom, and headed through a park with ball fields and such.
We made our way parallel with the active tracks through the park, and reached steps that went up to the station platform for NJ Transit. We headed up these, walked the length of the platform over Chestnut Street, then descended from steps to that street there. There were platforms for access under the rail bridge, with sharp things sticking up from them. I called them “Justin Extruder Devices”.
We headed into Suffern from the Suffern station looking for a place to get some lunch. We were doing pretty good on time, and so we decided to stop and have something really good. We walked the length of town, first discussing Pizza, but then everyone switched moods to Mexican. There were at least three or four places there, and we tried to figure out which would be best.
Ready to blow mud
We went into a convenience store first for some drinks. We got some beer and wine and such, and I got a cheapo can of Four Loco, but I would end up not drinking any of it at all.
While in the store, we talked to a guy there about what would be the best place for food. He told us about each one of the Mexican places, which ones were authentic, which ones had what, and we decided on one that was more of a nice sit down place. I forget which one it was, but the food was excellent.
Annika treated the whole group to lunch, which was very nice. We were brought bowls of chips, which I totally over indulged on. They were home made, and in a home made salsa that had just the right amount of kick to it.
I got a meal of Chimichangas I believe it was, after I should have already been stuffed on chips, and then Annika could not eat her Tilapia meal she had ordered, and so I ate that too. By the end of lunch, I was absolutely stuff beyond capacity. I had worn pants that were about two sizes too big, and I felt as if I had expanded into them.
Conversation digressed to speak of blowing mud and such.
Halleluja
We left the place and headed back through town, and I felt like death, but happy that it was such great food. We then stopped randomly into this junk store on the right, which had an inventory of all sorts of crazy stuff with no rhyme or reason about how it was situated.
Here, I found an outstanding priest garb for pretty cheap, and the guy told me he’d give it to me for $35. I thought about it, and it seemed pretty expensive, but then this was an authentic thing, and I’ve never come across any since the one I used to have. Also, this one was purple. I told the guy I might come back later to buy it, if he was open, and depending on when we got done with our hike.
We headed down the street from here and through town, toward the Rt 287/87 overpass. The old railroad station for Suffern was now an historical museum on the left. We didn’t have time to check it out at this point, we’d taken longer than anticipated in Suffern.
The Suffern-Bear Mountain Trail started here. Historically, the trails used to go from point to point where there was a train station, so hikers could get off the trail and just hike to another station. This was how these historic trails were done in the days prior to everyone having their own cars.
We followed the blazes under the highway, and then to where it turned right into the woods, immediately ascending steeply. There was a tile “SB” in the sidewalk where it entered.
I began ascending, and felt awful. I thought I was going to explode. Making our way up the first overlook on Nordkop Mountain, part of the Ramapo Ridge, was really tough for me, but I managed to push hard to the top.
Nordkop Mountain view
This was a great spot to get to. For so many years I have driven 287 and 87 north through this area and stared at these mountains, wanting badly to get to the top of them, wondering what the view looked like. Now I had finally gotten to this first promontory in NY. I could see Rt 287 and the interchange with 87, with the sweeping bridges very plainly. To the west, I could see the road we took to Brad Anesi’s house toward Sterling Forest. I could see the entire town of Suffern and we could hear the trains coming from the distance.
Suffern view on Nordkop Mountain
NY City Skyline was in view again. I could see the Shariton, and we could see the girder railroad bridge we had crossed because enough leaves were off the trees. We could also see along the state line heading to the east a bit.
I wished we could have stayed at this point for a little longer, but we were pushing it for daylight at this point. I knew we would be cutting it close, but we would probably be alright as long as we kept on moving.
View north
We had some good views along this last stretch, mostly from the power and gas line crossings, both to the north and the south. We ended up making a wrong turn at one point and headed needlessly to the top of a hill on a gas line from a point where the trail followed it. Fortunately we didn’t go too far ahead.
We continued over rock outcroppings up and down some somewhat tough ascents, one of which was called the Kitchen Stairs. It wasn’t too terrible, but in my condition, everything was tough. As I walked, the pain subsided and I started getting to where I was pretty comfortable. I powered ahead of the rest of the group, waiting up at good points to make sure they made the right turns.
I then fell behind the group for a bit, taking photos and messing with layers. It was looking like we were going to be alright. Annika had a thing on her phone where it would pick out our location on a NY NJ Trail Conference map, so that was a good help. We made our way through a rocky section known as Valley of Dry Bones, and then were getting closer to the turn off we needed.
View north
We kept to the trail until we got to a gas line crossing. Here, I made the executive decision that we could follow that down hill to one of the trails in Kakiat Park rather than wait until the actual intersection. We would follow the trail to the connection at a later date anyway. We started heading down hill rather easily, and came to another power line crossing. The orange blazed Mountain Trail I think it was called crossed here, and followed a woods road, and the white blazed Kakiat Trail broke away from that. We turned left on the orange to the white, and then descended. We had a few views to the north on the power line on the way down, and I wanted to see more of the ones on the orange trail, but it was just getting too late to get out that way. The white Kakiat Trail looked more direct, but in retrospect, the orange trail follows a woods road and might have gotten us down the mountain even quicker. No matter, we’d do that next time.
View on the gas line
We headed down on Kakiat, across a brook and across a power line. It wasn’t too tough to follow, but it was just a foot path. Since it was closer to an access point, it was more worn in than some of the secluded stuff we were on along Suffern-Bear Mountain Trail.
I powered ahead again, thinking I would get to the cars first and then be able to be there in case police or rangers showed up. This was not one of the Harriman lots, it was one of those municipal things, so I didn’t know for sure what to expect.
Kakiat Trail took me out on a woods road section where the trail turned right to follow that. I followed it for a bit, but then I saw a path going left from it. I foolishly thought this would be a shortcut, so I followed it. There was a path along the Mahwah River there, but it petered out to nothing. It was getting pretty dark. I could see the parking lot and I could see headlights in it. I had no trail.
I turned right and had to bushwhack through a mess of thorns, which really sucked, and then through a bog and got my feet wet, within sight of the end, and made my way back out to Kakiat Trail. The rest of the group had passed me, not knowing I had ended up in the mess, and when we crossed the bridge over the river I came out behind them.
Justin took the others back to their cars, and I headed back to Suffern to pick up my priest garb, for all in all a successful day. Despite getting the much needed workout, I probably consumed far more than I burned off. We’ll just have to do more of these tougher hikes and hope for no delicious food temptations. Maybe.
No comments:
Post a Comment