Hike #1309; Lower Ramapo Loop

Hike #1309; Lower Ramapo Loop

3/24/20 Lower Ramapo Loop with Jason W. Briggs and brittany Audrey

This would be a pretty awesome loop hike in the Ramapo Mountains of northern NJ.
This all came about because of the "work from home" status of the pandemic stuff. It was deemed too unsafe for workers to occupy the same buildings, and so we had to work only one employee on per day, in rotation. I would work whatever day it was, Monday through Friday, and have to work every fifth day. At some points this was good because instead of online training, I got to do some trail work.
In this case, I also served the purpose of car counting at the state parking lots.
It was another great day for me to spend with Jason talking about a lot of this stuff, since he's so close to what is going on. 

He'll take a no nonsense approach to all of it. He has great logic but he will not tow a political party line if it makes no sense.

This hike started at the Skyline Drive parking lot just off of Interstate 287. I drove up and did a few then and now compilations at the former site of Pompton Junction and the Haskell station, then headed to the start point.
We followed the brook up from the lot on the trail, I forget the name right now, and then went around the east and south side of Ramapo Lake, which was originally called Rotten Pond. It was a Dutch word, not really "rotten".
We climbed south up to a view of Wanaque Reservoir, and then to the south to a slightly off trail overlook above Rt 287. We followed this around to Cannonball Trail, which is much of the way built on a "secret road" through the Ramapos constructed during the American Revolution to haul cannonballs from the Ramapo ironworks on down to the main roads, out of the way of the British. 

The road was never added to maps in case there was another uprising and it was needed again for tactical purposes. Of course, we had the War of 1812 almost thirty years later, so that was rather justifiable.
The old route was considered a landmark, and when Rt 287 was built, a pedestrian bridge had to be built for it.
We followed the Cannonball Road uphill just a bit, and then turned left to the Indian Rock Trail down the west side of the ridge.
We followed this all the way down to where the trail crossed over the Ramapo River on a foot bridge built for workers many years ago, and restored only somewhat recently.

After checking out the bridge, we meandered back up and started following the Ramapo River downstream. I had an original plan for this hike that I abandoned, and instead decided to head through town and come back up the old Cannonball Trail from below.
We came to some old railroad grades, which I really wanted to explore before. Ties are still in place in some spots, and this was a spur that had broken off the former New York and Greenwood Lake Railroad, which later became an Erie line.
Only the east span was still standing, and the center pier was leaning really badly. One more good flood will take the rest of it down for certain.
There were some old stone ruins near to the trail where we came down, but a bit further on we came upon some giant concrete ones that were quite impressive. I had come down this way once before, and had Justin show us the way through, but hadn't been back since.
That time, I did not see the former bridge that carried the railroad spur over the Ramapo River. This time, we found it. It was in bad shape and only a portion of it was still there, but it was cool. I got several photos of it from different angles and we continued on.
I was trying to figure out exactly where the railroad grade had run at points, but it was kind of hard to tell at times.
I skirted a fence on a bit of a berm that I'm pretty sure was at the very least a road or tramway, used since it was convenient for the fence, but it turned into nothing soon. 

We headed to the south along the river and passed beneath Interstate 287 where someone had put the recipe for some explosives on the wall in spray paint.
Not long after that, we made our way to the tunnel beneath the Ramapo Mountain that went through to the former 

We went back out of the tunnel and reached the Ramapo River again. Rather than turn back the way I was originally planning, because we had gone so far, I decided instead we would head down along the River toward Pompton Lakes.

The area of the river was once part of the Dupont Powder Plant known as Lake Inez. The dam and structures around this area are long gone today.

We continued downstream along the river by way of a sort of ATV path. It wasn't too hard to follow, but it was not as well worn as it was the previous time we had been out there.

Rather than head all the way out to Wanaque Avenue, we headed to the left uphill on an ATV path to see if we could find our way out in back of some businesses or apartment complex. This proved to be a bit more difficult than I was planning on. It brought us into a sort of disturbed area behind a business, and then out to Cannonball Road where it's a town road.

We walked the road only a short bit and then cut down to the railroad tracks that ran parallel. This was part of the New York, Susquehanna, and Western Railroad from 1881. This section might actually have been built a bit earlier because it was farther east. I'm not sure the year.

The crap in the tunnel

We followed the tracks to the east a bit, and then turned left when we got to Schuyler Ave.
We went a short bit and then turned right on Barbara Drive.
There was a lady driving by in a mail truck, and I'd recently had a discussion about what they were with Serious Sean. The regular mail trucks are Grumman LLVs or Long Life Vehicles. They're somewhat being replaced by a similar newer one that has air conditioning and I struck up a conversation with the mail lady about the truck as she drove by.
We continued on walking, and she kept pulling up to the next mail box and the conversation continued.
Most of the Grumman LLVs are at about 27 years old out of their 30 year (originally 20 year) expectancy, so the US Postal Service will likely be looking for a big spending deal soon.
At the end of the road there was an abandoned spur from the NYS&W line in toward the Dupont plant, and a fence saying to keep out.
This was the original start of the Cannonball Trail, but it was closed off by the state. We went through anyway, as the path around the outside of it was very well worn.

We headed uphill, and soon reached the blazed section of the Cannonball Trail going up hill. We followed it across the Cannonball Trail bridge over Rt 287, and then walked along the west shore of Ramapo Lake.
Near the end, we headed up Castle Point Trail to the ruins of Foxcroft, and enormous mansion that once stood on the top overlooking the lake.

Foxcroft, also known locally as "Van Slyke Castle", was built by William Porter of Wall Street around 1910 and was used as his country home.

One night, when Porter’s wife was on vacation, William decided to have friends over for a night on the town and traveled by way of a chauffeured car. There was an accident, and the car overturned on Porter.

He was brought to Paterson General Hospital but never recovered from his injuries.

William’s widow, Ruth, remarried in 1913 to Warren Van Slyke, for which the site takes it’s more commonly used name. Van Slyke too met an untimely death, however.

Ruth remained at Foxcroft and died there in 1940. The property was sold and another couple lived there for a number of years until a bitter divorce in the 1950s. The split ended with the house being vacant for a number of years, and it became a sort of party spot. Vandals ended up burning it down.

The trail passes through a corner of the ruins today.

We continued from here along Castle Point Trail to the north, past the old swimming pool pit, and then after that to the tower structure that once served as the water tower for the mansion.
We made our way to the Skyline Connector Trail near a peak before reaching Skyline Drive, and followed that trail to the east a bit to a parking lot on that road, north of where we had parked.
The parking lot was completely mobbed with people, and so I took some photos for work.
It was crazy just how many people were out because they were off from work.
From this parking lot, my choice for the next trail was a bit of one I'm pretty sure I'd never done before, the Hoeferlin Memorial Trail.
This is one of two trails named for William Hoeferlin in New Jersey. He was a trail volunteer and map maper who created the maps that were the precursor to the NY/NJ Trail Conference series.

This was a really nice trail meandering through the woods. The grades were pretty easy, and I was enjoying it quite a lot. It turned away from Skyline Drive, and had a more remote feel to it.
We followed a tributary along this until it came to just below the dam for Ramapo Lake. We then turned to the left down hill along the brook the way we came in, the McEvoy Trail.
The parking lot was totally full when we got back down to the parking area. Many people passed us on their way up to Ramapo Lake as we were on the way back down.
No one knew how long this craziness was going to last, but it was nice to see so many other people were out making the best of it besides us.