Hike #576; Wyanokies and Ramapos

 Hike #576; Wyanokies and Ramapos

8/7/11 Wyanokie, Haskell and Ramapo; Westbrook Road to Skyline Drive with Jaque Melo and "Connecticut Joe" Bukowski

Giant rock near Roomy Mine

My next hike would be another interesting route, this time connecting the Wyanokie Mountains with the Ramapo Mountains in the north Jersey Highlands. Joining me this time were only Jaque Melo and Connecticut Joe because bad weather predicted scared people off. It worked out for us though, because we didn't get any rain and had fantastic views.

View along Roomy Mine Trail

View along Roomy Mine Trail, northern Ball Mountain

An old mine pit

View along Roomy Mine Trail, Ball Mountain

View of Wanaque Reservoir from the yellow blazed trail above Roomy Mine

Wanaque Reservoir view

Joe was sick, so we spotted his car in Haskell, just south of Wanaque, and shuttled my car on up to the beginning point, on Westbrook Road at the Highlands Trail.

We began by hiking the Highlands Trail up Ball Mountain as I had done on past hikes, but this time we would take a turn off to the right on the new orange blazed Roomy Mine Trail. This took us up hill a bit more to a regular sort of ridge area on Ball Mountain. When we reached  trail intersection, we turned right to see a view point mentioned on my map. The view was nice, sort of west facing, but didn't really show much

We then backtracked along the trail out to a yellow blazed trail which took us further along the ridge with a couple other little views to the west. We also passed a small mine hole along the way. We continued on to a nice south facing view point that overlooked Wanaque Reservoir, the best one we had yet on this trip.

Wanaque Reservoir from Ball Mountain

Beyond the view, the trail began to ascend, and went past another mine pit. Beyond here we came to a side trail to the right which led to Roomy Mine. We took this way.

Roomy Mine

In front of Roomy Mine

Inside Roomy Mine

Looking out of Roomy Mine

We went back into the mine, crawling under the opening, through the room with the chimney, and then out through the adit back into Ball Mountain. Joe was particularly impressed with it. Jaque had been there before, but didn't know how to get back to the spot in the past.

Wyanokie Falls

Lower Trail

Along Lower Trail

Lower Trail in the Wyanokies

Chickahokie Falls

Chickahokie Falls

Chickahokie Falls

After leaving the mine, we continued up the trail, passed a yellow trail on the right, and passed a giant glacial erratic. From here, the trail went over a knoll and took us to Wyanokie Falls, a neat little water fall I had never been to before. We climbed down, and Joe and I cooled off under the falls which felt great. We then moved on by way of a red blazed trail, the Wyanokie Circular. I had never done this section before.

The trail took us somewhat down hill and intersected with the Highlands Trail again. We turned right here, crossed over a little brook, and then reached the intersection with the Lower Trail to the left. Since I'd never done this one before either, we turned left here. This was a very pleasant trail that passed below to the east of Carris Hill. It was quite pleasant and offered an easier alternative to the intense climbs of the rest of the Wyanokies.

Lower Trail eventually brought us down to Posts Brook. It connected with Carris Hill Trail and Post Brook Trail, and we took a side trip to the right to go to Chickahokie Falls. This falls was beautiful. I'd been to it before, but never had a chance to take a dip in it's waters. It was actually very deep at the base of the falls, and it felt great. I also decided to try to climb up them which was really cool.

Chickahokie Falls

We left the falls and then continued to backtrack along Posts Brook Trail the way we came.

I'm a Shop Rite kid

Along Posts Brook Trail

Posts Brook Trail

Along Posts Brook Trail

We reached the spot where the other trails came back in, and we continued on along Posts Brook Trail heading east. We saw some other hikers here, and some of them were NYNJTC volunteer maintainers. One guy took care of Otter Hole Trail, and the other took care of MacEvoy I think.

We continued along Posts Brook Trail which was quite pretty. We passed an old stone dam to the left, with a silted in and overgrown pond, and then made our way into a narrow little ravine area I had done once before. On my previous trip we ended up going the wrong way and realized it, and turned back. This time I wanted to finish this trail.

When we got to one particular point where the trail was really narrow and required some stone scrambling, there was a giant brown spider, probably a Wolf Spider on the corner of the rock right where we were supposed to put our hands! That was kind of freaky.

Giant spider along Posts Brook Trail

Posts Brook Trail

Posts Brook Trail, a former road at this point

The trail continued on through a narrow ravine area that soon opened up to a wider flood plain. It also came to some evidence of ATV damage. The trail became wide and rutted with puddles where the ATVs had been. We soon came to an abandoned former road which led to the Wanaque Reservoir to the north of us. We could barely see it through the trees. The old road was blocked off by galvanized rails.

Posts Brook Trail, a former road at this point

We continued from here along the old road to another section of foot path. This emerged on East Shore Drive in the private community of Lake Losco. We followed this road to Doty Road on the left, and continued on it heading east into Haskell just south of Wanaque. As we got into the proper portion of the town we were along the shore of Lake Washington on the left of us which was pretty.

Lake Washington, Haskell NJ

Lake Washington, Haskell NJ

Dragonfly at Lake Washington, Haskell NJ

Along the shore of the lake, I saw something moving on a rock wall that made up the edge. It was a dragonfly. Jaque noticed this dragonfly was eating some sort of a bug that looked like a queen ant. I quickly took a couple pictures and sent one to Allen Barlow, the Nature Conservancy steward for White Lake. He liked it, and told me it was an Eastern Pondhawk, one of his favorites.

Dragonfly eating a bug

We continued out to the strip mall parking lot where Joe had left his car, and Jaque and I were going to continue on, but Joe invited us to have lunch with him. Always very generous, he insisted on paying for a fantastic meal at a very nice italian restaurant with great service. We had a wonderful time eating, drinking wine, and chatting about life over this fantastic food. The lady who served us even introduced us to her mother, and gave us a complimentary italian ice. She called it "real" italian ice. This was fantastic stuff, nothing like what you'd get at a Rita's stand or something. It was very different, and very good. I also had a mixed drink called a "Bahama Mama" which was strong but great.

This was certainly the best restaurant I'd eaten at in many months, with a great atmosphere and great company. We had already had an exciting day so far, and this was just something that made it even better.

 

When we were finished, Joe was on his way and Jaque and I continued with the hike as planned.

We followed Fourth Avenue east, then north along the east side of Haskell leading to Back Beach Park.

Back Beach Park, beginning of Indian Rock Trail

There were a lot of ATV trails in the area, but we opted not to follow them, instead heading for the Indian Rock Trail, which connected Back Beach Park with Ramapo State Forest.

Graffiti on Indian Rock Trail

Someone had put vulgar graffiti on some of the trail signs. We made our way along the trail through some woods until we reached the Ramapo River. Here, there was a really nice interesting crossing made of sort of cement and stones.

Historic crossing marker in Back Beach Park

There was an historic marker on the three that said that this crossiing was originally constructed about a hundred years prior, but that it was rehabilitated several times by different groups.

Ramapo River crossing for Indian Rock Trail

Indian Rock Trail crosses Ramapo River

Ramapo River Crossing

Ramapo River crossing

Ruins along Indian Rock Trail near Ramapo River

Ruins along Indian Rock Trail

Graffiti along Indian Rock Trail

Historic marker just off of Indian Rock Trail

This was a really pleasant looking spot on the Ramapo River. The bridge crossing was really weird, obviously made for pedestrians only, but just barely. It was rather shabby looking, but safe enough that it was really cool. We continued across, but then realized this was a great spot to jump in for a dip. I went in first, and the current was so strong it pulled me right under one of the two openings in this little bridge. Jaque then came in and did the same thing. We enjoyed laying in the water for quite a while, which was great.

When we finally got out, we continued on Indian Rock Trail up hill. There were more ATV paths, and we crossed a rather wide flood plain. On the way up the ridge, there were some ruins of sorts. It could have been part of an old Dupont place that used to be nearby. We were pretty close to the Rt 287 underpass for the Ramapo River and I'd read about this area a lot in Weird NJ.

We continued up hill, and on the way up we crossed a utility right of way where we turned right to check out the view briefly. There was a nice view of the Rt 287 bridge over the Ramapo River.

View toward tr 287 on Wanaque Ridge

Carsonite post which has been cut off

I also found a good argument against using carsonite posts to mark all trails, which is what I found out was apparently in the state trails plan for how we were supposed to mark all of the trails. Those cost over thirty dollars each, and people tend to take something to cut off the tops or remove them altogether. I found one on the Indian Rock Trail that was taken off at the top presumably with a pair of loppers.

Cannonball Trail, an historic former road

Ramapo Lake

Ramapo Lake

Ramapo Lake from Cannonball Trail

Ramapo Lake

Ramapo Lake

We made our way further up the Ramapo Ridge on Indian Rock Trail. To our left, the Wanaque Ridge Trail turned off heading north. I was originally going to take this route, but decided to go for the Indian Rock Trail all the way through this time. I knew I'd have to come back because there are far too many trails to do in a day.

The trail continued on and terminated at Cannonball Trail. This trail was once an historic road kept secret up until even recently to some extent. The road was supposedly used during the American Revolution to haul cannonballs without the british finding out It would connect the iron works with other roads. Because it was considered a secret, it never made it into history books so much presumably.

We turned left and followed Cannonball Trail to the north. I'm not sure how much of the trail follows the historic trace of the road, but it's interesting nonetheless.

We walked along the shore of Ramapo Lake which soon came into view. It didn't look too tempting to swim in because it was full of lily pads and scum. It kind of made me realize how it got it's previous name, Rotten Pond, until I found out the real history; Rotten Poel (Rats Pond) was what it was named by the Dutch settlers who first found it way back. Unfortunately, the meaning was lost when the adjective was transliterated instead of translated into English, becoming Rotten Pond. I would presume this was once a natural lake and that the current dam was added later to enlarge it. Along the Cannonball Trail/Road route, we actually passed a house above us on the left. I found it surprising to see anyone living up there, in otherwise total park land.

Castle Point Trail view toward Ramapo Lake

Ramapo Lake from Castle Point Trail

The road continued and took us across a small causeway with part of the lake to the left of us, and then we came to where Cannonball Trail went left. We continued ahead on another road shortly, but then realized we wanted to do a bit more exploring. I opted for Castle Point, with the ruins of Van Slyke Castle.

Ramapo Lake from Castle Point

Van Slyke Castle/Foxcroft

Van Slyke Castle/Foxcroft

Van Slyke Castle/Foxcroft

View from Van Slyke Castle

Van Slyke Castle/Foxcroft

Van Slyke Castle/Foxcroft

Van Slyke Castle/Foxcroft

Van Slyke Castle/Foxcroft

Van Slyke Castle/Foxcroft

Van Slyke Castle/Foxcroft

Van Slyke Castle/Foxcroft

Van Slyke Castle/Foxcroft

Van Slyke Castle/Foxcroft

The area was settled and a sort of development similar to Tuxedo Park, NY was proposed for the site, but attempts never really came to be. There was also once a huge planned hunting preserve planned on the area that never happened. The lake was renamed "Le Grande Lake" for a while, and I suppose that's when the little development there is there came about.

Van Slyke Castle really was built by a guy named Porter, who married Ruth A Coles, who's husband was a rich New Yorker. The home was named Foxcroft because it's on top of Fox Mountain of the Ramapo range. He died, and then she married Van Slyke.

The house passed through hands and was left vacant for a time until someone went in and torched it in 1959. Even before reading about it, I could tell that it had been burned because the beams still showed of it when we walked through the ruins.

We climbed up the Castle Point Trail, which was difficult to find at first. We ended up at the north end of the MacEvoy Trail, and then made our way along more of Cannonball Trail to an old road, which I think was the former access to the house. We ascended steeply on the white blazed Castle Point trail which led to great view points over the Ramapo Lake and the ruins of the house itself. The architecture was really cool, and the furnace I guess it was was still in place, as well as pipes and other things.

Old sink in Van Slyke Castle

Van Slyke Castle

Van Slyke Castle

Van Slyke Castle

Van Slyke Castle

Van Slyke Castle

Van Slyke Castle

One of the things I thought was particularly interesting was the fact that I could even still find the sink in the ruins of the building. It was more extensive than I thought it would be by far. We walked all the way through from the front half to the back. Two other hikers were directionally challenged in the ruins, so I guided them back down to the trail.

After looking at everything we could see, we descended the way we came along the Castle Point Trail. This time, we continued on the road when Castle Point Trail ended. At the bottom of the road, it intersected with the same road we were following on the shore of Ramapo Lake earlier.  There were two little columns for a gate at the base of the driveway and a chain that was laying on the ground.

We also stopped along the shore of the lake where I took a dip. It was quite literally the only spot I saw on the entire lake shore that was not full of much and lily pads to swim in. The water felt great though.

Amazing lovely sunset over Ramapo Lake

We moved on to the east side of the lake and continued down MacEvoy Trail from the dam area. This took us along the tributary flowing that direction out of the lake (barely running) and right back to the parking area where we had met in the morning. Jaque was good enough to take me back to my car to close out another amazing day.

I am so blessed to have such a brilliant life, and at the risk of sounding conceited, I must say that my friends and I probably have some of the most interesting, exciting, and fulfilling lives of anyone alive.