Hike #606; Ramapos

 Hike #606; Ramapos

Hike #606; 1/7/12 Ramapo Mountains; Oakland to Skylands Botanical Gardens (Ringwood State Park) with Amanda Rosenblatt, Jeff Mitchell, Brad Anesi, Haobo Lai, Tim Kovich, Chrissi Carney, Bobbi Landrock, Lee Murdock Daly, Jaque Melo, Joe Tag, Sara Personick, Tiffany Travers, Tony Bertuch, Chris Herbig, Shayna Michaels, and Jillane Becker

Foxcroft/Van Slyke Castle

My next hike would be another point to point in the Ramapo Mountains of northern NJ. I met my group in the morning at Skylands Botanical Gardens, part of Ringwood State Park, and then shuttled as few cars possible south to Oakland NJ where we began our hike at the Shop Rite. We had a near mishap when we did this because so many met at the Shop Rite rather than the meeting point at Skylands.

This was a really interesting Shop Rite. It was laid out like a mall. I had gone through it on a somewhat recent hike and wanted to use it as a hub to do more hikes due to it's convenient location.

It was set up like a mall, with views from the interior, and a parking garage below the level of the supermarket. We parked here.

We immediately headed up to the store to get some food for the day, because once we were out of the Oakland area, we had only one road crossing and no food stops for the entire remainder of the day.

We also had Jeff Mitchell, a Wilderness Ranger from Utah Jillane used to work with a couple years before visiting, and he too was able to join the hike.

Potash Lake, Oakland NJ

Potash Lake slack water in Oakland NJ

Piece of forest land in Oakland NJ

Once we were ready to go, we headed out of the Shop Rite and down to Rt 202. We passed by the former "Pleasureland" place, a recreational swimming pool place that was closed down many years prior due to a shooting, and never re-opened. We then turned right onto Doty Road out across the slack water of Potash Lake, which was quite pretty.

On the other side, we turned left onto Lakeview Terrace, then right onto Jerome Drive. We turned left briefly onto Oakland Ave, but then cut into a lesser known piece of public land parallel with Pool Hollow Road. We walked through in drainage ditches and then a path which took us out onto the former New York, Susquehanna, and Western Railroad tracks (built in 1881, and the same line that is now Paulins Kill Valley Trail right by where Jillane and I live).

Hoeferlin Memorial Trail near it's end in the southern Ramapos

Starting South Ridge Trail, in the Ramapos

Seasonal view on South Ridge Trail

Seasonal view on South Ridge Trail, Ramapos

At the opposite side of the tracks was the triple blaze marking the beginning of the yellow blazed Hoeferlin Memorial Trail, named for an avid trail maintainer. We followed this trail along Pool Hollow Road, beside a pond, and then up hill on the abandoned portion of the road which still had a little bit of pavement left on it. We came to a point where Hoeferlin went right, but we continued left on South Ridge Trail with white blazes. This soon turned off of the road and began an ascent of the small South Ridge.

Once we got to the top, there was a nice seasonal view out toward Oakland and into the Pompton River valley below us.

The South Ridge Trail continued on this short section of ridge, and then led us down hill to terminate at the Cannonball Trail. This trail followed much of the historic route of Cannonball Road, a secret path used by Patriot's during the American Revolution to transport cannonballs for the Continental Army, far from the eyes of the British and Loyalists.

The trail skirted the Dupont property, and then made it's way into nice woods, gradually ascending. The trail was marked with a red blaze, with a white "C" on it.

Cannonball Trail bridge over Rt 287

We continued to ascend, and soon reached the pedestrian bridge over Rt 287 where Hoeferlin Memorial Trail rejoined. I acted like I was trapped in a cage to passing traffic on I-287. Cars passing below us honked quite a lot. We continued up hill from here, keeping on Cannonball Trail.

Cannonball Trail bridge over Rt 287

Hoeferlin Memorial turned off to the right, and we ascended until we reached Indian Rock Trail on the left, marked with white with a red triangle. I told Jillane to follow Cannonball Trail because she wanted to stay behind, and didn't bother telling her the other route because there were so many more turns. We would rejoin Cannonball later anyway.

View of Castle Point from Wanaque Ridge

We turned left and began descending via the Indian Rock Trail. It led us down hill to the intersection with the orange blazed Wanaque Ridge Trail. This trail, as well as Indian Rock Trail, had only been blazed in the last few years, and were added to the NYNJ Trail Conference newsletter "Trail Walker". I remembered seeing the fantastic view pictures and couldn't wait to get out there.

View from Wanaque Ridge

View of the Wyanokies from Wanaque Ridge

View from the Wanaque Ridge

Wanaque from the Wanaque Ridge

View of Wanaque Reservoir from Wanaque Ridge

View along Wanaque Ridge Trail

Windbeam Mountain from Wanaque Ridge

The trail continued to ascend gradually, and another trail known as Pete's Path descended to the left. We had followed this trail also on a recent hike, but would not this time. Our friend Jaque lived down there.

After passing Pete's Path, we were now on trail I had not yet done. The trail made it's way further up the Wanaque Ridge. We began to get a seasonal view in both directions. To the right, there was a bit of a small valley, with the main Ramapo Ridge beyond. To the northeast of us, I could see Castle Point where the ruins of the Van Slyke Mansion/Castle/Foxcroft stood, as well as the stone tower beyond and much of the ridge.

The seasonal views to the left out over the Ramapo River Valley, the town of Wanaque, and the Wanaque dam and reservoir with the Wyanokie Mountains behind soon opened up to a more fantastic open view. The view of the Wanaque dam was particularly impressive looking, with it's arch patterns designed into it's facade.

I looked on at the small peaks of the Wyanokies and remembered climbing over them all on the Highlands Trail; Wyanokie High Point, Carris hill, Ball Mountain, and Windbeam Mountain were all in view. The next more open view also afforded a look to the southwest and the lower Wyanokies toward Riverdale.

Main dam of Wanaque Reservoir from Wanaque Ridge

View northeast from Wanaque Ridge

View southwest from Wanaque Ridge

We continued along the ridge for a bit. There were a few more views before descending. The trail took us down to some sections of woods roads with some really  nice rock outcroppings. The map showed something called "Profile Rock", but I didn't think to refer to it as we went down, so I didn't see what exactly it was referring to.

Reservoir view from Wanaque Ridge

Wanaque Ridge Trail

We then continued into a bit of a gully, a low area, and then began a gradual ascent again, at least in part on a former woods road. The trail was routed away from it only a bit to avoid erosion. We reached the top, and the trail terminated at MacEvoy Trail. We stopped for a break here and waited a bit for Tim and Haobo to catch up. They had been taking pictures of the fantastic views and we got ahead.

View from Castle Point Trail in the Ramapos

View of New York skyline from Castle Point Trail

We turned right for a bit along MacEvoy Trail, which crossed a gas line right of way (we actually crossed it earlier as well) and then continued as a woods road toward Ramapo Lake. Before reaching it, we turned left onto Cannonball Trail again, and followed it as a foot path through a section of woods.

The trail led out to an abandoned road where the Castle Point Trail turned off to the left. We followed it's white blazes steeply up hill from here.

Ramapo Lake from Castle Point

Wanaque Reservoir from Castle Point

Foxcroft/Van Slyke Castle

The trail reached the terrific rock outcropping where we had a view down toward Ramapo Lake. The excellent view also included more of they Wyanokies to the southwest.

I arrived first, and made my way up hill, stepping up onto part of an old wall or foundation, and then up the steps to the ruins of the mansion that was once known as Foxcroft, where I met up with Chrissi and four of her friends. They were climbing around the ruins and having quite a good time.

Foxcroft/Van Slyke Castle

Foxcroft/Van Slyke Castle

View of Ramapo Lake from Castle Point

Foxcroft/Van Slyke Castle

Former swimming pool at Foxcroft

Brad at the former diving board site at Foxcroft

Jillane texted me, asking where to go after the castle. She had gotten quite far ahead of us at this point, and I instructed her to move on along Cannonball Trail to the next road. She would end up meeting up with Jim "Mr. Buckett" Mathews and Eric Pace, and they would do their own hike rather than meet up with us.

I waited at Castle Point fro the rest of the group to catch up, which didn't take very long. We decided to have our lunch break here.

To the east of us, I could barely see the New York City skyline, with the Empire State Building dominating the view. Still, the all new Freedom Tower was now already substantiallly tall, and we could see that behind one of the Watchung Ridges in the foreground I believe it was.

We had a very nice break here, and then moved on along Castle Point Trail. The next point of interest was the former built in swimming pool for the estate. At this point, Chrissi's friend Deirdre Kondrk and her husband Scott cut out early to head back down the former driveway to the mansion. We walked around the edge of the swimming pool, which had been quite deep at one time. Brad found the bolts that would have held the diving board. This pool was quite deep, but not filled with water.

Abandoned building on Castle Point Trail, Ramapo Mountains

Abandoned on Castle Point Trail

Abandoned on Castle Point Trail

Abandoned on Castle Point Trail

Abandoned on Castle Point Trail

View east from Castle Point Trail

We continued on the ridge ahead for a bit, and then came to a giant sort of castle building. I'm not sure what the use for this building was, but I assume it was for some sort of water tower or something. I walked around the right side of it where the doorway was, but I could tell it would be more difficult than it was worth to try to get up there. I just took a few pictures of it and moved on.

We continued walking from here along Castle Point Trail, which went down and up over the gas line again. We took a break and Jeff went ahead, and then immediately came to Skyline Drive, our only paved at grade road crossing. Right before the road, the Cannonball Trail came in, and Castle Point Trail ended.

We crossed Skyline Drive and continued on the co-aligned Cannonball and Hoeferlin Memorial Trails. The trails paralleled Skyline Drive for a bit, and we took a short break at another parking lot before continuing on.

View from Matapan Rock in the Ramapo Mountains

View from Matapan Rock in the Ramapo Mountains

The trail turned away from the road after a short distance, and then made it's way to the near west edge of the Ramapo Ridge. Here, the Matapan Rock Trail crossed. We turned off of our route briefly to follow the trail to  Matapan Rock to the west, which was where that trail ended. There was a really nice view out over the valley of Wanaque, with the upper end of Wanaque Reservoir in plain sight.

View from Matapan Rock

The group at Matapan Rock

View toward Monksville Reservoir from Matapan Rock

Along Hoeferlin Memorial Trail

View along Ringwood-Ramapo Trail

View along Ringwood-Ramapo Trail

We could now see a bit further up toward Monksville Reservoir, and more of the upper Wyanokie Mountains. Windbeam Mountain was still visible to the southwest, but we could also see Board Mountain, Bear Mountain, and what was probably Harrison Mountain and beyond.

We followed Matapan Rock Trail back to Hoeferlin Memorial and Cannonball Trails and continued to the north. It didn't seem like long before those two trails separated again. Cannonball Trail went to the right, while Hoeferlin Memorial went left. We turned left here.

We followed Hoeferling Memorial Trail for a bit to the area known as High Mountain where the Ringwood-Ramapo Trail came in from the left. We stopped here to discuss our plans for the remainder of the hike.

Joe recommended we continue to Erskine Lookout and Ilgestein Rock, which were fantastic views he said, but the problem was that we were running out of daylight. I knew that the Ringwood-Ramapo Trail would be easier and probably much more direct. I decided that Ringwood-Ramapo was probably the safest bet, so we turned left here. It was probably a good thing because the sun was going down fast.

The trail led us gradually down hill. Joe was unhappy with the trail because it used to be more challenging, with some rock scrambles and such, but it had been recently rehabilitated for use of mountain bikes, with stone tread ways and seemingly countless switch backs. Overall, the trail work was actually very impressive, but also frustrating when we could see at times where the trail used to go in a more direct route. It probably wouldn't have been so bad if we weren't part of a huge group and could see the next person ahead of us, but just a few feet away.

The good thing about taking this trail is that we were offered good seasonal view points along the way that we might not have otherwise. Those sections were quite nice.

View along Ringwood-Ramapo Trail of Monksville Reservoir

Swamp along Ringwood Ramapo Trail

Ringwood Ramapo Trail

There was one particular spot that was nice where the Old Guard Trail crossed. We could now see the dam of Monksville Reservoir, and beyond Harrison to Horse Pond Mountain I think.

We continued on the trail as it made it's very gradual descent. Everyone was cutting the corners in the switchbacks except for Jeff who took every one of them, but also managed to keep caught up with the group with ease.

The trail soon reached an old woods road close to Erskine Lakes. We followed these woods roads for a bit, and then the trail turned off to the right into a small swamp. We then came out to I believe it's called Cupsaw Brook.

Rock bridge on Ringwood-Ramapo Trail

Sunset on Ringwood Ramapo Trail

The trail crossed the creek on a strange triangular shaped rock that almost looked like it had been placed there, but it was enormous. A root system was exposed from a fallen tree, and propped the big rock up into the air a bit. Everyone crossed pretty easily, and Jeff waited for everyone to get safely across. When he went to cross, probably because the entire group had wetted and scraped fungi off of the rock, he slipped off into the freezing water. He was alright, but not happy to be wet so close to the end point. Had he been earlier in the group, he probably wouldn't have had a problem. Oh well.

The trail made an ascent from here onto the southern end of Mount Defiance. We could see that the trail probably used to make a steeper ascent, but now followed a roundabout switch back. We followed it and were then afforded one final awesome view of the sun setting over the Wyanokies.

Sunset view from Ringwood-Ramapo Trail at the southern end of Mount Defiance

We moved on and only followed Ringwood-Ramapo Trail a short distance further before turning left onto Crossover Trail, which would lead us back to Skylands Botanical Gardens. We managed to finish with the foot path portion before it got really dark. From there, Crossover Trail turned into an old road route.

Ringwood-Ramapo Trail on Mount Defiance

It skirted the east side of the Botanical Gardens after leaving the rockier woods road, and then came out one of the countless roads that criss cross the garden areas. The blazes continued along these pleasant garden roads back to parking area A where we had met in the morning. We finished just before the park officially closed at 7 pm, luckily.

Brad only lived two miles from here, so he bid us farewell and walked on home. The rest of us tried to work out the carpool situation. Tony took Chrissi, Tiffany, and Sara out of the main gate of the park for Chrissi's boyfriend Alex to pick them up. We were able to pile everyone else into two cars to get everyone back to the Shop Rite.