Hike #1167; Mountainside Park to Oakland

Hike #1167; Mountainside Park to Oakland

10/21/18 Mountainside Park to Oakland with Jennifer Berndt, Serious Sean Dougherty, Janet Lynn McCourt-Finsen, Steve Sanbeg, David Goldberg, Craig Craig, Agnese Drzymala, Shane Blische, Robin Deitz, and Anthony!

This next hike would be a point to point in the Ramapo Mountain region of New Jersey. There’s always a lot of stuff I want to do, and I needed something to post rather fast.

Footbridge in Mountainside Park

These mountains are always a lot of fun, and there is still so much I’ve never done through the region. I looked over so much that was possible, from Pyramid Mountain up well into the mountains and Campgaw Mountain County Reservation. I’ve never done any of the trails there, and there’s still some in Pyramid Mountain I haven’t yet hit. One would think I’d have done these years ago, but even doing new stuff every week, it’s impossible to do it all. I knew I wanted to hit a couple of places, but the hardest part is always trying to figure out where the hike will begin and end.

Shelter in Mountainside Park

One of the little parks I had never hit was Mountainside Park, in Pompton Plains area NJ. Despite lookning at Campgaw and Pyramid, one park in the middle I’d never done was Mountainside. I figured that would be one of the priorities, and I’d see how it worked on either other side. The way it worked out, both the aforementioned were left out entirely, and a route was pieced together quickly utilizing Mountainside Park, power lines, development lands, Ramapo Mountain State Forest, and the former Greenwood Lake Branch of the Erie Railroad. I figured it was a winner.

Mountainside Park

We met in the morning at the parking area on Skyline Drive, Ramapo Mountain State Forest, where the MacEvoy Trail comes out. This would be our end spot, and we all got in my van and Robin’s car to get to the start point. I played some of Paul McCartney’s new album, Egypt Station, on the way, which I’ve gotten quite into.
We had to take a weird back rod, and Mountainside Road, which leads up into the park, is a strange dead end street that has it’s own underpass beneath Interstate 287, but then doesn’t go anywhere else.

An off trail view

I was kind of nervous about leaving my car up there at all. It’s a weird lot with really no security. I wonder if people even know there’s a park up there.
We parked and started walking, which immediately gained elevation. We tried to follow the easternmost trails of this park for the first bit of it.
We followed the blue blazed trail up hill first. There was a red one that went to the right, and apparently comes out on Mountainside Ave further down where we had driven up.

Off trail view

We continued ahead on the blue blazes, and it took us up and down quite a lot for a little park. I really needed the exercise anyway.
Soon, we got up to a spot with a shelter, pavilion, and a fire ring. I guess scouts use it or something. I wasn’t expecting to find anything like this in this rather hidden little park. I wondered if it was older, from days when there used to be longer connecting trails, but the shelter looked kind of new.
We took a quick break here, then headed gradually up hill. The blue trail and the orange trail, which has separated a bit further back, came back together. We kept on orange.

Off trail view

My plan was to follow the eastern perimeter, so it made sense to follow that. It turned out it didn’t go away from blue for very long at all anyway.
To the right, there was a woods road and an informal trail. It looked like there might be a view if I were to go up hill to the right, and so I decided to check it out. Not everyone came up, but it was alright. We were looking over Rt 287 and out toward the other parts of the Ramapo Ridge. It was clear from a power line crossing just ahead.

Blue trail

We headed back down and continued on orange to blue again, then turned right on blue to continue on the east side of the park. The section had some nice trail work, with side hills put into the slopes.
We walked gradually up and down on the slope, and then started ascending far more steeply. To the right, there was a bench way off the trail in the weeds. Maybe the trail used to go that way.
We continued to ascend rather steeply, and when Dave got to the bench, he must have headed toward it. I sometimes forget to remind people to watch the blazes closely.

A bit of a view

There are a lot of informal trails that break off of the main ones in little parks like this, and then there are ATV trails that tend to be way clearer than the official ones that are easy to get off and follow. Extreme attention has to be paid to where the trails are turning as not to get lost.
We all headed up hill to a rock outcropping on the right of the blue trail where we took a break.
It was a fantastic spot. It was getting brighter, and the view was now better than it was at the previous one. The New York City skyline was now coming into view very clearly. I noticed the Freedom Tower.

NYC skyline view

I also pointed out the Empire State Building which was prominent in northern Manhattan.
After hanging out for a bit and Dave wasn’t showing up, we got a bit worried.

Shane in his weird outfit

We found out he had gotten off trail by the bench and was somewhere down below us. He at least knew to start heading up, and was going over some really steep stuff. It was a relief when we could finally hear him on the rocks below us. He ended up climbing straight up to exactly the spot on the rocks where we had been sitting!
While we were there, Serious ean strummed his acoustic guitar. I forget if we sang something else first, but when we took off to start moving, we were doing Steve Miller’s “Serenade”.

Top of Pequannock Knob

I couldn’t keep my breath continuing up the slope to sing really anything. The rock outcrop we were climbing is known as Pequannock Knob, and it’s a pretty steep one.
It didn’t take too long before we were to the very top, where there was a picnic bench and some views to the north and to the east. Actually, the view we had already been at before was not even identified on the map, and it was far better than the view from the very top. We only stopped for a couple of minutes there.

View on Pequannock Knob

At the bench, Sean started playing the theme songs from Super Mario Bros. on his guitar, which is always funny to see. We moved on toward the west end of the knob from there.

Pequannock Knob view

There was a bit more of a view from the other side, with the knobs of the other mountains in view. We turned of of the blue trail and started following the white blazes to the right. This took us down the slope gradually through some scrubby growth.
On the way, Serious Sean played a couple of Joe Jackson songs. I forget what the first one was, but after that he seemed to pull off a version of “Stepping Out” which sounded neat.

Top of Pequannock Knob

The trail wasn’t too terribly steep. Someone then requested to hear some Joe Walsh. We carefully moved down the rocks, and then picked up a wider section of trail.
Soon, the white trail reached the power line clearing which is oriented north/south. This was my next plan for the hike.
While we waited for everyone to catch up here, we were singing and playing Joe Walsh’s “Life’s Been Good To Me So Far”. I’d never tried to sing that before either. It’s really funny when we’re walking along, and end up singing some crazy song that you know and rather like, but never considered singing.

Power line fun

The power line was flat at first, but then went up some crazy incline. I didn’t want to have anything to do with it already, so I took off running to the top of it.
When things leveled off again, conversation turned from Joe Walsh into The Eagles, and then I believe Sean started playing something by them, and I forget which one it was. Then we started talking about how the bassist for the Eagles was with Poco, and was replaced by Timothy B. Schmidt, and then Schmidt ended up replacing him in the Eagles.

Shane walking all creepy

That led into singing and playing the Eagles “I Can’t Tell You Why”, which was another one I don’t think I’ve ever sang at any time except along in the car.
We went up and down a bit on the rolling terrain of the power line, and Shane got behind us a bit. He had showed up wearing this weird all black robe costume with a mask that he can see through, but blacks out his face. When we turned back to see him walking down the power line toward the rest of us, I imagined that if someone who didn’t know saw that, they’d take off running for their car! He looked quite creepy.

Gas line clearing

It’s always great talking music with other people who know and appreciate it. I found out that Rusty Young sang “Crazy Love” with Poco where for years I thought it was Timothy B. Schmidt. They sound really similar in their singing styles.
We contineued on the gas line which started losing elevation pretty quickly, and then a side path went off to the right to pick up another utility clearing. We continued down hill on that until it took us out along side the edge of Rt 23.

Culvert

I did not have a good plan from that point. I had considered coming down further to the west, but didn’t know if we’d have a good crossing. To the east, the only near crossing was Interstate 287, and that just wouldn’t work. I did consider that there might be a culvert underpass between this point and the next access point, but it was a long shot. If there was one, no one was going to go through if it was completely filled with water. We started walking down the highway heading to the west, and motorists all stared at us.

Culvert

It was only a matter of time before we’d have a problem walking 23. Traffic was all slowing down, and before long we had a huge backup of traffic moving slowly.

Old buried tank

I could just image cops showing up. Shane wearing his all black thing walking beside me in my typical suit and tie. I wanted to get us off of the highway as soon as possible.
There was a wide area to the left after the access roads to some of the developments, and I figured one might have a pipe. One section appeared to be an earlier alignment of Rt 23, with pavement at a lower level. We walked through that, and I saw where water was going down and under the highway through something.

Mirror group shot

There were a lot of rocks at the bottom, but I could get over them without barely stepping in the water quickly. There was a concrete box culvert below, and I could walk through it without having to duck too badly. It was really actually pretty cool, and the water was only just barely enough to cover the soles of shoes. Like a miracle, this would work perfectly to get us across Rt 23. Fortunately, everyone was up for the challenge, and climbed down to go through the pipe. The other side required a big step past some water, but wasn’t bad.

How not to make a path...

We were already talking about food stops at this point. I was getting hungry too. Still, I wanted to get through a bit more of the crazy stuff before stopping to get a bite to east. I didn’t think anything ahead would be too hard, but it was still a bit more unknown.
We made our way into a bit of woods, and up over a part buried old fuel tank or something. A high retaining wall to the left led up to the retail areas up near the Target where my friend Justin used to work when he lived up there. We headed down hill slightly onto a bit of a paved road remnant, then turned left.

Apartment views

We had a tiny bit of bushwhacking to reach the access road, Falston Blvd. We did a mirror group shot there.
We turned from here onto Sanctuary Blvd, and headed north. We skirted some tennis courts and walked through an area where they had their little paths in a garden growing over with weird grass because they didn’t put any cloth down on it first. We went through the parking lot from there and then had an interesting view of the apartment complexes all over.

Apartment view

At the edge of the lot, there was a grassy access road heading further up the hill behind the apartments. We stepped over the railings and started heading up hill, and the grassy road turned slightly to the left. This weaves around and goes to a water tower, but my plan was to cut off of it through the woods to the right, back toward Sanctuary and onto development roads to the north.
The group started moving off to the left immediately after going down hill. I could see why they were headed that way. There was a nice little pond barely in view to the left. I figured that would be in people’s yards.

The road thing

In retrospect, we should have gone that way, because it would have been easier to get out. We turned to the right and skirted the hillside the way I planned. On the way down, I spotted an old glass bottle with a pop top style. I’m not sure how old it is, but it’s definitely somewhat old. The glass is thick and heavy and it’s a pop top.
We continued down hill from here, and then found that there was a giant fence that blocked us off from the road I wanted to get to. A cul de sac on Perry Court was looking like the only option, and we’d have to pass between two houses.

Old bottle

I really preferred not to go that way, but if we went quickly I figured maybe no one would notice us.
Amazingly, just that appeared to happen. We walked down between the houses, along a line of trees closer to the one to the left while trying to avoid the one on the right. We walked down Perry Court and turned to the left from there on Degraw Road.
We just had to walk a bit to the north through the developments at this point.
We reached Mathews Ave intersection and continued straight. In not too long, we were crossing the old New York, Susquehanna, and Western Railroad still active, in Bloomingdale.
We didn’t turn to walk the tracks here through the very visible area. We continued straight and reached Route 511, Main Street, and turned right along that. We passed a couple of businesses, and then reached the Busy Bee Lunch hot dog stand.

hog dog line

Serious Sean wanted us all to stand and pretend like we were on line at the hot dog stand that was obviously closed, but I think everyone was getting tired and too seriously hungry to play along.
We continued walking a little ways further ahead, and reached the entrance to Appelt Park, a lovely little park along the edge of the Pequannock River.
There was a little foot path going in on the right which looked inviting. It took us out along the shore of the river, in a very beautiful section that one wouldn’t really think is right along side the main street into Riverdale.

Pequannock River

The name “Pequannock” comes from a Lenape native American term “Paquettahhnuake”, meaning “cleared land” or “being made ready for cultivation”.

Campbell Foundry ruin?

The river is among the cleanest in the state because it flows out of mostly preserved lands including the Newark Pequannock Watershed.
The area of Appelt Park had some definite clues of past industry in it. Part of a mill race was obviously filled in, and there was a bit of a sluice still in place further into the weeds.
The site was reportedly home to the Campbell Foundry at one time, but I can find no information about this industry along the Pequannock.

Glenburn Estate

Across the street from this site was the historic Glenburn Estate. It doesn’t seem to have any relevance to the foundry or milling, but it is very historic in it’s own right.
A series of land purchases were undertaken by Arent Schuykler in the area in 1695, and in 1710, Schuyler sold a three hundred acre parcel of land along the Pequannock River to Simon Van Ness. The property remained in the Van Ness family for five generations, and he built the first part of the historic house there in 1816. A couple more generations of the Van Ness family lived at the site until 1868.

Pequannock outcroppings

At that time, the property was sold to a renowned portrait artist named George Linen.
Linen added the additions and gave the house the look it retains today, although other Colonial Revival changes were made in the early twentieth century.
Linen named the property “Glenburn” after a place he loved in his native Scotland.
The borough of Riverdale purchased the property in 2006 and now rents it as a wedding or event venue. It was at one time in danger of demolition when a strip mall had ben planned where the farmstead is today.

Path on the Pequannock

Even the out buildings may be very historic, because the barn on site is certainly from the 1800s, but might be original to the site from the original Van Ness settlement.
The place was set up with a large tent in the back as we walked by, so it must be a rather busy venue.
We continued out of the park on the east side, by following the old mill race much of the way.
Soon, we got to where the NYS&W Railroad crossed the street, and we turned left. We hurried over the through girder bridge and past a mile marker denoting 36 miles out of Jersey City. We hurried out and around the corner, and there was some sort of construction on a pipeline or something going on to the right.

Pompton Junction postcard

There's an interesting find that was associated with this lately, which had some sort of royalty emblazened on the back of a rock found in the bottom of the Pequannock River. Details on that here: https://wsus1023.iheart.com/featured/steve-andrews/content/2018-10-23-mysterious-carved-rock-found-in-pequannock-river/?Sc=editorial&Pname=local_social&Keyid=socialflow

Pompton Station

We walked on to the east and passed beneath Route 287. We continued out behind piles of old railroad ties and then to Pompton Junction, where the former Greenwood Lake Railroad and later Greenwood Lake Branch of the Erie Railroad once crossed.

End of tracks

It is still active and tracked at this point, but only continues north a short distance into a Tilcon quarry facility.
We turned left onto the old Greenwood Lake Branch, and no one was around. We were able to just wander through to the north without a problem. In the distance, we could see where the track ended with big pieces of concrete blocking the way. We walked around these, and then bushwhacked through a bit to cross Willard Street.

The old Greenwood Lake Branch

This railroad started life in 1867 as the MOntclair Railroad. It extended north from Croxton to the New York State Line at Sterling Forest Station, on the east side of Greenwood Lake. It went into recievership and became the Montclair and Greenwood Lake Railroad in 1875, and then the New York and Greenwood Lake Railway in 1878. The Erie Railroad operated the line and took control of it and other smaller lines. They extended out across the Hackensack Meadowlands, and it became a very popular vacation line to Greenwood Lake.

The rail bed

The last train ran to Greenwood Lake in 1935, and the iron industry was slowing down starting in the 1920s. The line was abandoned in stages to the north, and was cut back to Midvale for commuter service. Other sections lasted until the fifties. These short bits like at Pompton Junction are still used, while some sections like the one near Mountainview are now very active NJ Transit.
THe right of way was very clear and easy to follow, now some sort of public utility right of way. I think water or sanitary sewer, heading north.

Historic image of Haskell station

It was grassy and mowed, and although it went along the backs of people's yards, it was not posted anywhere along the way.

Haskell Station; Sam Debenedetto collection

It has been for a long time a proposed trail, but it just never happened.
We followed along behind the yards, and emerged at the back lot of the Wanaque Center For Nursing where the rail bed was severed by Interstate 287. We had to turn right, and then left to pass beneath on Ringwood Ave. This was a narrow stretch, where we had to walk behind the galvanized rail and even at times in the traffic lane until we were beneath the highway. On the other side, we went left past the Stop and Shop on Union Ave.

Historic image of crossing Doty Road, Haskell

I put it to a vote among the group what they would like to do for our late lunch. It was about noon, and there was the stop and shop, and then just past that there was a Burger King.

Bridge

If they couldn't wait, we could just get that right away. The only other option was to continue on and we'd get something when we got to a regular restaurant type of place a little further to the north, after walking a bit more of the railroad bed.
My original plan was to come to this point from the east rather than the rail bed. I was going to go up and over Federal Hill, but with no official trail an my general unfamiliarity with it, I decided to repeat a bit of the railroad bed that I'd already done would be a welcome easier thing.

Mile marker

At this point on Union Ave, I had not walked the Greenwood Lake Branch yet, so this was all new to me.
We started walking and it was nicely mowed, just like the section further to the south. It ran closely between buildings but was still good and clear. Eventually, it came out to a building where we had to cut to the left out to Greenwood Avenue for a bit. The right of way was paved over as a parking lot, and so we had to go left, then come back to the right into the lot to continue north.

287 bridge

On the other side of the lot, it was totally clear and mowed again. The terrain was undulating because the buried utility had obliterated a lot of the right of way.
We soon reached Posts Brook crossing. There was a path that went to the right, and a few stones were laid in it to help cross. The railroad appeared to have gone to the left slightly. When I was crossing, I looked to the left and could see what appeared to be one abutment still in place a little bit over.

Pompton Junction

Some of the group went to try to cross over in that area, while I went with others to just rock hop the brook. We then made our way out to Doty Road in Haskell where we waited for the others to catch up. They eventually had to all come around and cross the way the rest of us did anyway.
Haskell was once a station stop on the old Greenwood Lake Branch. It sometimes was referred to as "Haskell's", with the posessive name after J. Amory Haskell, who headed the Laflin Rand Company. That site was later to become the Dupont Powder Works.

Lake Inez

Apart from just having the station at this point, it was also where the spur line broke off to serve the Dupont interests in the area.

Pompton Junction

A lot has changed over the years, to where now it's barely recognizable compared to what was there before.
One of those major changes was the existence of Lake Inez on the Ramapo River. The lake extended far up river and served the plant as well as recreational bungalo communities on the west side as I understand. The dam is no longer there, and it appears has been gone a long time.
The spur line that ran out to the edge of Lake Inez also broke off just about where the station was.

Greenwood Lake Branch

We could see absolutely no remnants of such a spur while we were there, but it would have gone off parallel with Doty Road, which becomes 2nd Ave on the other side of Ringwood Ave, and 2nd Ave is built over top of the right of way. We'd end up walking it and not realize it.
When everyone had caught up, I asked them to decide where we were going to eat. There weren't a lot of choices, and defintely no bar and grill places that were open. Everyone agreed to go with what was closer, because we had the option of going to a pizza place a little bit farther north, where we'd have to follow the rail bed just a bit further. Everyone preferred closer.

Haskell Station, Brian Vanderhoff Collection

We turned to the right on Doty Road out to Ringwood Ave, and there was a strip mall to the left. There was an italian place there, but it was closed.

Everyone was looking at their phones and Yelp and stuff, trying to figure on what would be good. We met a guy who was hanging out in front of the strip mall, and he said at first to go to The Lanter just barely to the south behind the CVS. We thought it sounded like a bar, but it wasn't. We asked where would also have beer, and he said the bar was just across the intersection. We walked up to it, and the place was totally closed. In fact, it looked like it had been closed for a very long time.

The rail bed

We walked back to the intersection to figure things out, and then we decided we would go to The Lantern. There was a liquor store close by, so we wandered over and got a couple of drinks. Anthony, our only newcomer, was handling the hike great, with a positive attitude the entire way. He got himself a Mississippi Mud drink thing, and Jen and I split some Weyerbacher Tiny Belgian Style Imperial Stout pack, then walked it back over to The Lantern.
The place was a cozy little drive in feeling restaurant. They had burgers, hot dogs, etc.

rail bed

I think I got a burger with fries, but I can't remember if there was anything else. The others had taken up residence at the corner of the room and were already served some of their food. The place actually was really quick for a mom and pop fast food place.
We hung out here for a good long while. We popped beers open and relaxed, and no one really seemed to care thankfully.
The food was quite excellent. I don't remember there being anything particularly special about the fries, but the burger was outstanding. Jen got some disco fries that I finished, but I think they needed more cheese.

Rail bed

While we waited, Craig soon showed up. I was delighted to see that he came in a very nice tuxedo with a bow tie! We already looked eccentric enough, but this made it that much better!
When we were all about ready, we started moving on, out of the parking lot and to the northeast. I believe we walked Park Avenue for a bit out to Boulevard Avenue, and passed 2nd Street where the railroad would have once crossed.
There's some confusion for me with this, and what I've seen on the maps.

Rail bed

All old USGS maps show that the railroad went out to the edge of Lake Inez, but nothing shows it ever crossing. However, I know there are level grades and ruins on the other side, and I recall there being railroad ties. The railroad would have had to cross the Wanaque River then at some time, but I've no clue of how it could have done so, and I have no maps that show it at all.
There is a tunnel going through the Ramapo Mountain to the other side, which had it's own spur from the New York, Susquehanna, and Western, but I don't think it's really big enough for a full size locomotive.

Crossing Ringwood Ave., Haskell, NJ, looking south, July 1963. (A.R. Ward Photo, via Wanaque Library, Marie Mahler)

We continued to the north, and then turned to the right on 4th Street, which skirted the east side of the developed area.

Ruins

After the ends of the buildings were on the left, there were some sort of ruins off in the woods on the slope. I'm not sure what these were, but it looked kind of interesting.
Soon, we reached the entrance to Back Beach Park. I understand there was once a beach here, probably part of the upper end of Lake Inez. Today, it's just ball fields and such.
At the entrance, there was a sign reading "No Dogs Allowed Beyond This Point", which kind of surprised me.

No dogs...

Then again, people are leaving so many bags of dog crap everywhere in parks that more and more land managers are banning dogs from parks entirely. I always use parks like this as an example when they say it won't happen. Monmouth County's Manasquan Reservoir Park was hugely popular among dog walkers, but they have completely been excluded from there now.
At the entrance to the park, off to the right, there are some giant boulders with the profiles of native Americans on them.

Map

That is the start of the Indian Rock Trail, which heads up into Ramapo Mountain State Forest. It crosses Wanaque River on a very odd foot bridge crossing.

Indian Rock crossing

It’s sort of slapped together using mortal, stone, rocks, and such. It was apparently an historic crossing for Dupont workers I believe I read somewhere.

The crossing

We had a few different choices from this point. We'd be in the woods for the entire remainder of the hike, and which exact trail we took would depend on how much time we had remaining. I wanted to do something that would be good, but also some sort of new thing that I'd never done before. We would definitely be heading down MacEvoy Trail, but other stuff was up in the air.
We started walking through the start of the woods in Back Beach Park, when Robin took a fall. I went back to make sure she was alright, and her face was horribly bloodied up! It initally looked really bad.

Dupont ruins

She had blood on the tip of her nose, chin, upper lip, and forehead. I should have had some sort of first aid thing in my bag, but I didn't (Jen got me one and gave it to me on the next hike). After my leg injury I should have gotten one together right away.
Fortunately everyone pulled together and got enough stuff to help clean her up, and she was taking the whole thing great. There was no stopped, and even though we were right by a road she didn't have any plans to quit. She was already laughing and joking about it within minutes.

Shane and his garb

We all headed down the trail and crossed the weird bridge over the Ramapo River, then ascended the other side a bit through the former Dupont Lands. There were metal signs on the trees pointing to where the trail went, and some sort of infrastructure along the ground with foundations. I think the railroad bed came up to about this point, but again did not know where it came from.
We started ascending a bit more steeply through woods and away from the river. I hurried along trying to figure out which way we would go, and then I figured we could use some power line stuff I’d not done.

Wanaque Ridge Trail

We soon reached the gas line crossing. I decided we would follow the Wanaque Ridge Trail because it has outstanding views, but I didn't want to just walk up hill to come back down on that. I'd never walked the gas line, but I knew that it ran across Wanaque Ridge as well, so I figured we'd shortcut over by following this.
We turned left on the gas line, and there was a little bit of up and down, but not too bad. After a short bit, we arrived at the crossing of the Wanaque Ridge Trail. I was impressed to see on the right that there was a whole lot of work that had gone into creating stone steps in this section. Very impressive.
The trail went gradually down hill a bit from there. It went through a bit of a dip only then to climb up to the Wanaque River with some exposed rocks.
Once we got to the height of the land, we started getting some views both to the east and the west.
To the east, we could see over to the main Ramapo River, and to Castle Point.

Castle Point view from Wanaque Ridge

Castle Point is named for “Van Slyke Castle”, a burned out mansion actually called Foxcroft on that ridge that we would be visiting soon. We could barely see some of the ruins through the trees.
To the west, we could see the Wanaque Reservoir and it’s interesting main dam.
The dam, known as the Raymond Dam impounds the Wanaque Reservoir. It was completed in 1928, and is the second largest reservoir in the state of NJ by volume after Round Valley Reservoir.

Wanaque Reservoir

We moved on a little further along the ridge to a good view of the reservoir and let the others catch up. We then moved even further yet to about the best view for a group shot.

View on Wanaque Ridge Trail

We continued on along the ridge from there, and soon the trail descended from it through woods. It passes through some rocky areas where it goes back and forth and joins a woods road below. In that area, there is supposed to be an Indian profile rock, which I have never taken notice of, even though I’ve walked this trail probably two times before.
The trail went down and up a bit, and we continued to follow the orange blazes.

Group shot

We weaved back and forth, and there were a lot of other side trails, ATV ones, besides the informal woods roads actually shown on the map.

View on the ridge

I moved on and got ahead of the group, and at some point Dave turned off again on one of the informal trails rather than the one with the blazes on it. The side trails are everywhere, and it takes getting used to making sure to follow trail blazes. Sometimes, the blazed route doesn’t look like any kind of delineated path at all, while something prominent with tire tracks goes off in another direction. Craig and Shane went back to try to find him.

Reservoir view

The rest of us continued on up hill further. The trail picked up ATV trails and woods roads along the way. Iw as surprised to see the trail, as it was laid out, was in such a way that ATVs could barely get through, but they managed to follow almost the entire thing, including over rock outcroppings and through narrow areas.
We kept heading up hill until we got to the intersection with the MacEvoy Trail. Wanaque Ridge Trail ended, and we had to go briefly straight on MacEvoy to the gas line crossing.

View toward Castle Point

When we reached the gas line, we let most the group catch up with us, and I talked on the phone with Shane and Craig so they would know where to turn.
The gas line went up hill somewhat steeply to the left. It led us to the top of a hill and then took a hard right. Just beyond this, at the crest of the Ramapo Ridge, the white blazed Castle Point Trail crossed, or it seemed to cross. There was a trail coming in from the left, and then over to the right, but another branch of white went down on the south side as well. I don’t know what it was. But I knew where to go.

Water tower

We took a break for a bit at the crossing at the top for people to catch up with us.
I didn't want anyone to miss the turn. I figured it was a good spot to wait for Dave, Shane, and Craig too, but then realized there was a view just above to the right to the west. We went on the white blazes that bit further to the good rock outcropping where it was a nicer spot to stop.
Serious Sean was playin songs while we were there, and we chatted about where we’d been and where we were going.
Anthony was cracking us up; I had posted the hike as "Ramapo Super Happy Fun Hike" and he said that was what enticed him to come out. He said "well I want to go on that", and then said that he saw that it was sixteen miles, but then remembered "But it's a super happy fun hike"!

Tower fun

As far as elevation and such, this was a harder hike than I'd anticipated it being, and everyone was doing really well.

Tower fun!

Something spurred me to start singing "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" by Bily Joel when Anthony was huffing and saying something about being tired, and Serious Sean pretty quickly figured out some chords.
This reminded me that Billy Joel's "Don't Ask Me Why" was a pretty good acoustic number, and he figured out how to play that one pretty fast. I actually remembered all of the words too. That segued us into one more Billy Joel song "Sometimes A Fantasy".
By the time we got done with those and probably a couple of other ones, the others had arrived.

Inside the tower

We chated for only a bit and talked about what was coming up when I realized the water tower ruin, also looking like a castle, was just ahead within sight. This was a far better place to be taking a break, so we all migrated over to there.
The tower was the water tower for the Foxcroft Mansion. There is a pipe that is still visible leaving through the bottom of it and heading toward the mansion site. The wood inside the tower, looking to the ceiling is rotten, and in bad shape, but the stone superstructure is pretty awesome. We went inside and had a look around.

Once we'd had enough of this place, we moved on further down the trail to the south, and the next point of interest was the swimming pool associated with the "castle". It's still pretty intact, with the steps going down into it.
The Van Slyke Castle, again really called “Foxcroft”, was built by William Porter of Wall Street around 1910 and was used as his country home. One night in 1911 while his wife was on vacation, he invited a few friends for a night out to his home in the country.
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.

Foxcroft

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.

Foxcroft

I have hiked through this spot several times at this point. It always amazed me that no one ever said anything about a trail going right through the burned out ruins of a massive mansion. It really is an incredible spot with a great overlook from it.
This time, I was very surprised to find that the area had been somewhat cleared. There were all sorts of trees and such growing through it, as well as vines, but many of them were now gone.

Foxcroft

Further, it wasn't just a path through it any more. Somone had gone to the trouble to delineate a path by lining it with rocks, and placing wood chips down on the area where the trail is meant to go. It was certainly a lot of work.

Foxcroft

We had a nice long break here. Everyone was climbing around on the ruins and checking things out. It was amazing that some of the pipes as well as what appeared to be the hot water heater was still in the base of the building.|
We didn't have that much more to go to get back to the cars, so that allowed us to spend a bit more time at this site, which I think everyone liked.
When it was time to go, we headed out of the ruins and then down hill slightly over some of it's walls. There was a great view down to Ramapo Lake, which was originally called Rotten Pond, not because it was rotten, but because it's a derivation of an old Dutch word.

NYC skyline

Looking to the east, there was an amazing view of the New York City skyline, and I realized for the first time that this was the exact spot the Highlands Critical Treasure booklets put out by Appalachain Mountain Club had the main photo taken from. Prior to this, I thought the photo had been taken maybe further up the Ramapos or something.

Ramapo Lake

We headed down past a lovely view of Ramapo Lake, and soon reached the bottom and the little roads that go to the very few private homes that still exist on the lake.

Ramapo Lake

The one side of the lake was the historic route of the Cannonball Road, which was a secret route used during the American Revolution to carry cannonballs through the mountains from the iron furnaces without British knowing about it. The route remained out of history books for the most part until the "Vanishing Ironworks of the Ramapos" book came out. The route was supposedly never really written about because of fear of another attack from the British, so it could be used as a tactical advantage.

Cascade stuff

We turned left along the road around the lake, and had some lovely lake views as the sun was going down. Steve hurried back to the cars because it was starting to get dark, but then started walking back toward us to be sure we were okay.
When we got to the dam for the lake, we continued on MacEvoy Trail, which was pretty wide and easy, though with it's rocky sections, down to the parking lot on Skyline Drive. It was only just getting harder to see, and we ended up finishing up just about before dark, perfect timing. Anthony drove Robin and I back to our cars at Mountainside and we were on our way.
This was really a fantastic hike for me, with new and favorite old places, lots of high energy, and overall good feeling. The combination we have of this natural network, the recreational route network, and the human network and how they mix so wonderfully, make hikes like this something incredibly special.

HAM