Hike #584; Preakness and Ramapo Mountains

 Hike #584; Preakness and Ramapo Mountains

9/11/11 Preakness and Ramapo Mountains/William Paterson University to Haskell with Jason Kumpas, "Commando Tom" Petrucci, Laura Allen Cunningham, Jaqueline Melo, Jack Lowry, Susan Dunan, Brad Baesic, Chrissi Carney, Alex Chujko, and Alexis Kniazew

The group

My next hike would be another point to point, this time connecting Haskell, near Wanaque NJ with William Paterson University. We would meet in the morning at a strip mall in Haskell and then shuttle a few cars south to William Paterson Campus and then head north over the Highlands of the area, using a very interesting and often obscure greenway.

William Paterson University property, near East Road

William Paterson U property near East Road

We started walking from a small parking area on East Road at William Paterson. We cut into the woods from the road and then crossed a mowed area where there were shelters and a camp fire ring. Apparently they must do some sorts of outdoor programs here. We walked beyond this and then crossed over a stream, then climbed up to East Road again further up.

Crossing a stream at William Paterson University

We crossed the road and then made our way up to Wightman Field. This was a large sports complex with several different fields for all sorts of sports. There were people everywhere doing training and riding golf carts. We moved on to the north from here and reached a large parking area that was completely covered over the top with a solar panel farm.

Solar farm in William Paterson University

We made our way along the parking lot and under the giant solar panels to the top of the hill. Here, there was a tall wall of caged rock and a hillside we had to get up to reach College Road. I decided to try to climb the caged rock while the others went around and up the hill to the road. We turned left on College Road and soon came to the entrance to the High Mountain Park Preserve.

High Mountain

We turned onto the trail, heading first on a crushed stone path parallel with the woods, and then north into deeper woods. There were rocky outcrops even when we were at the solar farm a bit earlier. This is all part of the Preakness Range. The Preakness Range, named for the Lenape word meaning "young buck" is probably the most undeveloped in the entire range of the Watchung Mountains. This is the northernmost section of the Second Watchung (there are actually three Watchung ridges) north of the Passaic River.

The trail was actually an old woods road, and it showed a lot of signs of ATV damage. We passed a few other hikers as we followed I think the red trail. We then turned right on a yellow blazed trail which began to ascend Mt. Checchnio. There was no view or anything on that section, and the trail descended through a sort of saddle, and then ascended again to reach the top of High Mountain, the highest peak in the Watchungs, which still did not reach 900 feed, but starting at a closer elevation to sea level makes it more prominent.

Atop High Mountain

View of Manhattan from High Mountain in the Preakness range; 9/11/11

From the top of High Mountain, we could see across NJ into New  York City, which was my plan. I knew for the ten year anniversary of 9/11 I wanted to reach a point where the city would be visible, and this was perfect, and achieved my goal of showing off the skyline but also avoiding the larger crowds. We could easily see the Empire State Building, and for the first time ever I was able to make out the new Freedom Tower in the skyline.

The group on top of High Mountain

Atop High Mountain

Mushroom in the Preakness Range

Awesome crumbling rocks along yellow trail in Preakness Mountains

Old road, the route of the yellow trail in the Preakness Range

We headed up hill slightly more on the yellow blazed trail, through an open area atop High Mountain, and then the blazes got a bit obscure. We were able to find them again, and began to descend High Mountain. After this point, the trail became more like a simple trail, and less like a woods road that had been torn apart by ATVs. We descended gradually until we came to Winding Hollow and Reservoir Drive. The trail came out at the center of a small traffic circle where these two roads come together. Kind of a strange place for one of those. We figured it may once have been a cul de sac they decided to push through.

The trail turned left along the road very briefly, avoided a wet area, and then turned sharply left back off of the road heading south again. This section continued along an old road heading up another part of the Preakness Range. It got rather steep, and the surface was made up of block like rock that busted apart easily while we walked across the top of it. The roadway leveled off and then continued heading sort of south along the top.

We found a rear view mirror in the Preakness Range

Rock outcrop

Rock outcrop

View from the Preakness Range toward Point View Reservoir

Rock out crop just off the yellow trail

Along the trail, I found a rear view mirror from a car sitting. I couldn't imagine even a truck trying to drive this particular route. I tried to get a group shot with us looking at the mirror, but it just wasn't going ot work, so I managed to get Tom and Laura at least.

We continued along the trail as it turned from south sharply back pretty much to the north again along the other side of the top. I saw a clearing off to the left so I decided to check it out. It led up to somewhat of a view west toward Point View Reservoir, which was nice.

View of Point View Reservoir from Preakness Mountain

Yellow trail heading down hill in the Preakness Range

Really interesting washed out area along Yellow Trail in the Preakness Range

Yellow trail in Franklin Clove

We returned to the Yellow Trail which continued north for a bit, and then began to descend this particular section of the range. We passed over some nice exposed rock and then came extremely close to the parking lot of some sort of business or something that would have been accessible off of Valley Road just to the southwest. The trail continued through the woods, and when the business parking lot ended, the trail turned away through a slight valley. We could see that the place had been badly flooded recently, as there were all sorts of exposed roots and such. The treadway fro the trail was at times not apparent, and so we lost it briefly. Susie found it again and we continued on.

The trail next descended into a scenic little ravine with a brook called Franklin Clove. The trail continued north through it, along an old road route, and I'd have loved to see it, but we had to turn left on the white blazed trail to the left next.

The next step was to get out to Chicopee Drive, because Brad, Chrissi, Alex, and newcomer Alexis were joining us there.

The trail led us to the intersection with the Pancake Hollow Trail, and then continued out to Chicopee. We took a break here, and didn't have to wait long before Brad pulled up. Shortly, Chrissi, Alex, and Alexis also arrived. Together, we turned back on the white trail and quickly made the left onto the Pancake Hollow Trail. Jack joked all day that I had promised pancakes that had never happened.

Some sort of stick fort along the Pancake Hollow Trail

We followed the trail, which I was worried would end up being really wet, but we had no problems. We passed by a stick fort to the left of the trail which had a path leading to someone's house. A lot of the beginning of the trail was close to development, but then got into some deeper woods. We eventually came to a fork where the trail formed a "lollipop loop" and would come back on itself. I planned only to do a portion of this loop. We made a left turn and followed that section, which headed down hill through what I believe must have been referred to as "Pancake Hollow" and then got pretty close to the nearest road, Berdan Road. When the trail went from going west to north, we turned off of it and made our way out to the road. It did get a little wet in this area, but we were able to cross easily using logs and rocks. We reached the road and turned right.

We walked the road for a short distance, and I chatted with Alex about my plans for the remainder of the hike. I was totally unfamiliar with the area, but they lived close by now just off of Valley Road. I told Alex my plan was to cut through a huge undeveloped swath of open space where there was a park called Lieutenant Carey A. Arthur Memorial Park. He knew exactly what I was talking about, although he hadn't explored it either. He could tell me with confidence though that there was a developed park section off of Indian Road nearby. We made the next left on Indian Road and then did a road walk section until we got to the park. There was a small playground here.

Playground sign...a warning the crap gets scared out of you?

Boulder at Lt. Carey A. Arthur Memorial Park

There was no sign of a trail of any kind, but the mowed grass area extended back quite a bit, so I headed to the far right corner of the park area. There seemed to be a little path, but it soon turned to nothing. I turned left and bushwhacked through until I came to a giant boulder. The others followed me through the weeds, and we regrouped at the boulder.

Boulder in Lt. Carey A. Arthur Memorial Park

I didn't know quite what to do, but near the boulder was some sort of apparent woods road. We followed this for a bit, and I kept an eye on my GPS to see where we were going. We turned away from the woods road because it appeared to go out to back yards, and turned right. We were truly bushwhacking now, over some small ridges and trying to make our way through a swath of undeveloped woods that apparently no one ever uses due to the lack of trails.

I turned out to be going the wrong way, so I turned everybody back and found a deer trail heading in the direction I wanted to go. There were a few places where we found what appeared to be old roadway routes, where some turnpiking had been done to build up a road way. After wandering for a bit, we found our way onto a clear old woods road, quite a relief. It happened to be heading out direction. Along the way we found the ruined remains of an old car.

Old car along a woods road south of Oakland.

The woods road took a sort of a turn to the left, back to the west. There was a path that went to the right continuing north, but I didn't trust that it would take us through, so I opted to take everyone up through  saddle of the ridge and see if there were any more paths. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be anything, so again we bushwhacked in a northerly direction. We soon came to another old woods road, though not nearly as clear. Alex went ahead and was pretty good at finding the route of the old road until it seemed to disappear.

"PLay On Player" written in the cap of my Sobe drink! LOL!!!!

When the road was gone, I again took the lead, this time heading back down hill to the east a bit. There was a lot less undergrowth here, and the undergrowth on the top of the ridge was starting to get un-managable. We made our way through the lower elevation area where it was more hay ferns and such. We ended up having to make our way up hill again a bit further down, either that or the small ridge we were sort of following lost elevation. I can't really remember which it was at that point.

Weird twisted tree in an undeveloped swath of woods south of Oakland

The ridge area seemed to get a bit narrower, and I recall we found another path. This one was not terribly big or pruned back, but a path nevertheless.

Pool

Pathway

Viewing platform

While we were up on the ridge area, we came all of a sudden to a real trail. It was very clear, and it even had tree identification tags along it. We were pretty ecstatic to be somewhere that didn't feel like the middle of nowhere. We followed the trail down hill to find an awesome manicured area with lovely laid stones and walled in springs. I thought at first that this must be a park, but wondered why I had never heard of it. We continued on the pathway as it lost elevation and became wider. There was a sign that read "grandchildren's camp site" or something. We started to figure this was some rich person's personal park area.

We continued down, and next came to a side trail leading down to an observation platform. If there had been no leaves on the trees, we'd have probably had a view of the Ramapo River. It was quite pretty.

Huge viewing platform

Riding the bear

Pool

Coy pond

I took a walk down hill below the platform, which came out to some sort of utility right of way or something. I considered bringing the group down there, but the curiosity of where this trail led out was killing me so we all headed back up. Next, we came to a sort of bear statue carving, which Alexis rode on. We made our way further down hill to another walled in spring thing. We figured this was probably all piped and maybe even pumped to the site. There was quite a nice coy pond down below, but it had some brown water in it from the recent storms so we couldn't see them.I, being the crazy person I am, couldn't resist the temptation to take a dip in the little pond.

Takin a dip in the coy pond...yeah...

We continued down hill along the trail path, which at this point was becoming more like a road. There were some machines parked near the bottom, one of which was a huge earth moving track machine. I decided I wanted to try it out, and found the keys in it! I started it up and drove it forward and backward a bit, spun it around, and operated the scoop a bit before figuring I should stop before getting in trouble. We then headed down further and reached a road way. We turned left and came out on Post Road right across the street from the Oakland Shop Rite!

View from inside the Shop Rite of Oakland out a big window!

This was a great time for a stop, so we all decided to make our way over to the Shop Rite and have a look inside. The place was huge, and there were tons of employees loading up people's cars from what looked like a delivery or recieving bay. Apparently there were a lot of shoppers who use that shop from home method and pay extra.

HAPPY in the Shop Rite of Oakland!

Oakland Shop Rite

Oakland Shop Rite

When we got inside, we were blown away at how huge the place was. This Shop Rite was like a mall. We could honestly get lost in it. It had low ceilings and so finding which areas had what was difficult. Jack played his guitar as we walked through, and he commented that it was "Bring your guitar to the grocery store day". We goofed off a bit, and eventually found our way to the deli sandwiches. There were these huge sandwiches, which I was calling the Excalibur Magnum sandwiches. I opted to get a little one, but Chrissi and Alex went for the Magnum, and claim they had enough for lunch the next day.

Jason Kumpas got neopolitan ice cream sandwiches and shared with everyone, which was great. We sat out front and consumed our lunches, while Jack played guitar. I sang a bit, and I'm sure we drew the attention of some onlookers. Around this time we did "Across the  Universe" and "Besame Mucho", as well as some of Jack's original material he's always conjuring up.

Heading along Ramapo Valley Road in Oakland

We made our way out of the Oakland Shop Rite and walked around the building onto Ramapo Valley Road. While walking across the Shop Rite lawn, Commando Tom rode a shopping car down the hill, but Laura thought he was going to ride inside the car, and she seemed to get pretty nervous. When Tom got off the cart he shouted "What, do you think I'm stupid???". I think all of us thought he was going to go down the hill inside the thing. I know I did, and I can't say it's stupid because if he'd done it I probably would have tried!

Ramaop River at one of the Pompton Lakes from Doty Road

We turned right on Doty Road which soon took us across part of the Pompton Lakes, with a nice view. We then turned left onto Lakeview Terrace on the other side. We followed that west out to Acorn Ave and turned right out to Oakland Ave and turned left. We continued to Pierson Miller Drive and used that to get to the railroad tracks. I realized I had gone too far west, and so we had to turn right and follow the tracks for a bit until we got back to Post Hollow Road. At the tracks, there was the blaze for the trail heading up the Ramapo Ridge which we had followed the previous spring. We followed this same route, along the abandoned former route of Post Hollow Road, with a bit of a side route off of it until we got to the pedestrian bridge over Rt 287, the route of Cannonball Trail.

Cannonball Trail approaching the I 287 Overpass

Cannonball Trail, former roadway near I 287 overpass

View for Rt 287 from the Cannonball Trail pedestrian bridge

At this time of night, the mosquitos were getting terrible. I figured I would hurry ahead and get on the pedestrian bridge over Rt 287 where they probably wouldn't bother me as badly. They were still pretty relentless on the bridge to my great surprise. I waited here for everyone else to catch up.

It was starting to get darker, and so all the plans I'd had to follow other routes through the Ramapos as well as go to the Van Slyke Castle again were not going to work.

Cannonball Trail pedestrian bridge over Rt 287.

Once across the bridge, we all applied some bug spray thanks to Jason Kumpas. We then continued on the Cannonball Trail slightly up hill for a ways until we got to the junction with the Indian Rock Trail on the left. We turned left here and continued slightly down hill. We would not be able to follow the Indian Rock Trail down to the bottom because the foot bridge over the river was now under water. We would have to go north. We turned right on Wanaque Ridge Trail, which I hadn't followed yet, and took that along a neat sectio of the ridge. There was a section that appeared to go through possibly an old strip mining sort of area, with a vertical rock wall to the right of us. It also led to a couple little places where we got a bit of a view off toward Wanaque Reservoir.

Somewhat of a view from the Wanaque Ridge near the end.

When we got to the junction with Pete's Path, we turned left. This trail was actually a private trail used for a private community at the base of the ridge, but Jaque lived there so we actually had the right to go through this one this time. We descended on a very nicely built trail, complete with steps and water diversion devices. It led us down hill pretty steeply, and then came to an "end of trail" marker. The trail continued on with a sign that said not to continue, private, etc. We cross over a brook on big stone type things and then came into the community. Jaque escorted us out of the place by way of the access road, and then turned around to head home.

When we reached Ringwood Ave, we turned left. The road that took us out of the place went over the former Greenwood Lake Railroad, but I couldn't see anything of it because it was now dark. We walked down the road and could barely see the abutment for the former rail bridge over Ramapo River as it spilled out of the reservoir.

We continued along Ringwood Ave, and I was planning on following the former rail bed after it crossed the road, but it was getting so dark I figured we'd be better off just following the road for the remainder of the trip. We walked Ringwood Ave for about a mile or maybe a bit more and soon reached the parking area to finish the hike. It worked out perfectly that the two cars remaining there could take the two groups with their different cars back to where they were parked.And so ended another great day, spent with very limited road mileage, and lots of fantastic back woods greenways that probably no one has ever considered trying to combine. I had a great day.