Hike #744; Rockleigh Woods to Montvale/Pearl River

 Hike #744; Rockleigh Woods to Montvale/Pearl River

12/28/13 Rockleigh Woods to Montvale/Pearl River with Daniel Stone, Jennifer Berndt, Ed DiSalvo, David "Captain Soup" Campbell, Ted Wright, Angela Castro, Steve Levy, Susie Duncan, Jon Wilson, Annika Krystyna, Vicky Tiburzi Bowman, Jessica Glass, German, Bob Weiland, Murtoza ?, Z, Monika Kwiecinska, and "Maya" Beata Blaltkeawicz

Alpine Scout Reservation

Our next hike, and the last hike of the year, would be another in the series to walk the entire perimeter of the state. Most of the northern portion of the state has long been completed by me, and we've been focusing a lot of effort on the southern portion. The only part I've not yet covered was the section between Ringwood State Park and Northvale. I had done a loop hike from Northvale back in 2010, and covered some of the route out of Rockleigh Woods, including some of the back roads close to the border, but most of the section from here to Mahway would all be back roads. I was never that excited about covering this section.

When I decided to really start trying to complete the perimeter, I knew I had to do those hikes. I intentionally saved them for winter months because I knew we'd have to do a lot of road walking, which might be desirable compared to trudging though snow. I was surprised there was as much interest in this hike as there was.

We met at the Annie Sez clothing store in Montvale in the morning. I greeted Dan Stone first, as this would be his last hike with Metrotrails before making the big move out to Washington state to take a government job. A few were running behind, so we waited for them to show up, and got breakfast sandwiches at a little deli place down at the plaza.

When we got moving, we headed over the NY line to take the easiest driving route to Rockleigh Woods. I had already done most of the trails in this preserve before, but to make the hike more interesting I added some of the few I had not yet done into the mix.

We started walking from the playground, and kept to the left as best we could, the perimeter of the preserve. The trail closely paralleled a woods road, keeping somewhat off of it's washed out route. We continued on until we got to the southeast side, and then continued out of the park onto an old woods road. This soon became the Red Disc Trail, which goes through Alpine Scout Reservation. I'd only done a portion of this trail before, so this time we'd try to cover it all. The red disc trail joined the woods road from the right, and continued on the woods road ahead. We followed nearing the Palisades Interstate Parkway, and we saw a foot bridge and open field down hill from us to the left at one point. The trail led us through some lowlands as a foot path, through camp grounds, and out to camp roads. It was surprising that it went through some really wet areas , all headwater springs of a small creek. Once we got to the main road entrance to the camp, we lost the blazes somehow. We kept to the right on the road again until blazes came back into view. We'd have to come back another time to scout the southwestern half of the Red Disc Trail. The blazes we found led us back to the trail as we followed it before. It was never an obvious treadway, but the group was able to spot the blazes, which were done to standard fortunately with all the turns, and we got through most of it.

We retraced some of our steps, and Murtoza's friend Z was taking pictures all the way. He's got a his own photography page and takes excellent pictures. We continued to where we first joined the Red Disc Trail, and followed it left away from the woods road. This led us gradually up hill and joined the White Trail back in Rockleigh Woods. I had forgotten how arduous the terrain was on this trail, and was thankful that I included it, because we passed a nice overlook toward Hook Mountain to the north, the Hudson River, and Clauseland Mountain. The trail descended from here and the Red Disc Trail departed to the left. We'd save that for another time.

The White Trail led us past some ruins of old spring houses as we descended. We continued on along whatever trail kept going to the left, again keeping with the perimeter of the preserve. We went over a wet area, across a creek, and then back to the entrance trail where we started. A group of dog walkers were totally surprised to see us here, and some told me that they never see anyone in this preserve.

We exited the preserve and re-grouped. From this point, we went sort of straight on Willow Ave. This took us out to Piermont Road where we turned left, then went right on Paris Ave. This road took us across the Sparkill Creek at some sort of club house building or something near the golf course. I'd already walked this road between Rockleigh and Montvale with Action Adam Stevens back in 2010, but we were nearing what I had never done before.

Once we entered Northvale, we turned right on Industrial Parkway. A lot of the group was walking far ahead. I knew this would be a problem on this hike because there are just so many turns to take and people will assume we're going one way for a long time. Everyone caught back up and joined us going up Industrial Parkway, around a building, then we cut to the left through an opening in a fence to John L Hogan Memorial Park. This took us out to the railroad tracks next to Pierron Street. That took us to Livingston Street. To the right, this street has side streets that dead end, and it leads into NY state. In order to continue following the perimeter, we had to go left.

We made our way south, and then stopped by a liquor store on the left for some refreshments. We went directly from there to a little bakery place on the left. The place had some interesting pizza like nothing we'd had before. Rather than typical pizza dough, this kind was made with a bagel crust. It made for an interesting taste, and was still in the same shape as a regular pizza. Quite good!

We continued from here to a right on White Ave, then a right on Tappan, and a left on Clinton Ave across the railroad tracks. We'd hiked these tracks for a bit on the NY side, and they are used by fast moving heavy freight, so we didn't bother to walk any of this. We continued beyond the tracks to a right on Briarwood Lane. Monika and Maya cut out in this area to walk back to their vehicle at the beginning. They hadn't done a big hike in a bit and wanted to build back up.

We followed the road to the next intersection, we turned right on Paulding then left on East Ave. We found there was a way to cross the railroad tracks, but not legally. We headed up hill a bit on East, then reached an intersection with Andre Ave. The other side of the intersection was NY state, while we were in NJ. I pointed out to everyone that the license plates on all the cars on that side were NY, while the ones close to us were NJ. We turned left on Andre, which led us parallel with but further away slightly from the state line. There was an old building up hill to the right, surrounded by all the new development.

We made a right, went around a curve, then turned right again on Tenakill Drive. At the end of this, we went right on Semino Road. At the next intersection, Old Tappan Road, we once again reached the state line and turned left. We followed this until we reached a right turn on Orangeburg Road and turned right again to reach DeWolf Road and turned left. Most of this entire way was somewhat new residential development. As far as street walking is concerned, it wasn't too terrible. We had nice conversations and it went by pretty quick.

Along DeWolf Road, we passed a lovely old Dutch style colonial home. This was the Haring-DeWolf House, built about 1709 by Cosyn Haring, one of the sixteen Tappan patentees. It was also the birthplace of John DeWolf, first mayor of Old Tappan. There was one of those great old metal historic markers along the road next to the place, which stated that at the time of it's placement, 1964, the home had never been deeded to anyone. It had been kept in the same family for over 260 years! Sadly, when we walked by there was a realtor's sign out in front of the house.

The road took us out to Old Tappan Road again. We turned right and headed to a shopping plaza, then took a break under a tree near a preschool. While we sat here drinking high gravity lagers and such. In a short while, two police cars pulled up to us. Fortunately, everything was magically finished or put away by this time.

All the police wanted was to know what we were up to. We of course looked like a crazy bunch sitting around there, and so they wanted to know where we were going. I let them know where we were going and about the idea of hiking the perimeter of NJ. The police were very nice, and they justified that the route I was planning on walking was the correct one to get through.

More of the group cut out here due to prior commitments.

We continued to Washington Ave North, and turned right. On the right side of the road was an old cemetery on a hillside. It was really weird because someone's driveway accessed their house right through the middle of the cemetery. We continued down hill a bit and the road was closely parallel with Lake Tappan. We continued along the road and crossed a section of it passed the dam where the Hackensack River spills out. We then walked along a hillside to the left of the road, which offered us better views of the reservoir over the chain link fence to the right. The reservoir itself was off limits, with chain link fences blocking the sides. At the bend, where the road turned left, it changed names to Poplar Road.

I spent some time talking to Bob Weiland, our friend from the furthest distance away. I believe he said Arizona! He was out visiting family, and started looking at hikes going on that weekend. He thought the one that I had posted looked much more interesting than the other ones going on, and so there he was! I sort of wished that he had been able to see one of the hikes with more of the cool destinations rather than something that looked more like the "stereotypical" NJ. Still, he was very happy with the hike, and an overall optimistic individual who definitely added to the positivity of the group.

Just after the bend, we reached Poplar Road Wildlife Sanctuary. We took a break here and gave people the option to take a break while the rest of us headed into the sanctuary to do the loop trail. I figured we probably would never visit this site again, and so we needed to see what it had to offer. Captain Soup and a few others had gone far ahead, so they missed out on this section. We took the trail to the left, slightly up hill, then it turned right on an abandoned roadway. We followed this for a bit, and the trail turned right off of it through a plantation of evergreens. The trail went down hill from here, then cut to the right in a loop to close back in on the entrance. I think some people really needed the break. It can be very tough on the feet walking so much pavement.

By this time, we were in the home stretch. We were feeling happy from drink, and getting close to our destination, which consequently would not be the "end".

We also passed a few more historic homes, some of them from Colonial days. It's always very interesting to pass these amazing old homes of the Hackensack River valley.

Poplar Ave took us to a right turn on Riverdale Road. This road would continue to the NY line, but there was no good way through on it or other development roads, partially due to more railroad tracks, NJ Tranit, to the west. We had to make the left turn on Grand Ave. We followed this road to the Montvale Station, and then turned right on Kinderkamack Road northbound. Dan pointed out that this road was an historic route during the American Revolution. Indeed he was right, as General Lafayette's Division marched it and camped in what is now Oradell. The word Kinderkamack is of the Lenape language, meaning "place of ceremonial dance and worship."

We headed up the road to the north, then turned right on Montvale Ave, followed by a left on Walnut Street. This led us back to Kinderkamack after a sharp bend, and just ahead we got back to the Annie Sez where we'd met in the morning.

From here, some opted to cut out and be done with the day, while the rest of us continued on along the road to the north. We were finished with the perimeter of Jersey section, and were now headed over the NY line to Pearl River, where we'd visit the Defiant Brewing Company.

We walked past the train station, which was a nice old structure still standing. We then went in and took a seat at the brewery. I purchased one of their beers, which was pretty good. After I was done, I poured the rest of my drink from earlier into my glass to finish. Dan had gone to pick up his car, as well as Ted, who also walked in shortly after. Captain Soup, who was ahead with Angela from much earlier, already went out to dinner with some of the group, and so he showed up here late. We hung around and chatted for a while, and then more of the group left.

I wanted to have dinner with Dan for the last time before his move. The rest of us headed to a pub and restaurant across and west of Defiant. Defiant offered food, but it was just pub food and barbecue type of things, which I really wasn't into. I had some sort of "smothered burger" at the place we ate, which was quite good.

Dan was very optimistic about his move to Seattle, and joked the he was going to be sleepless, and that he'd be waiting for Meg Ryan to come and save him. It was also cool that Bob joined us as well, because he wouldn't be around again often either.

These types of goodbyes are bittersweet. How can we be anything but happy for our friends going forward with a career, by choice and to see them excited about the opportunities and experiences that await them? Dan has become a great asset and embedded Metrotrails core group member since his first hike with us in February 2013, happily contributing in every way he could. He had also been GPS tracking all of the interesting routes we'd been hiking, and posting it for everyone to see after the event. His presence will certainly be missed by not only me, but the entire group I'm sure.

So we continue on, and look forward to when Dan comes to visit, with hopes that he'll make the time to hike with us again!