ABOUT THE PARK:
Ramapo Mountain State Forest - NJ Division of Parks and Forestry
Ramapo Valley County Reservation - Bergen County, NJ
DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 41.04742, -74.25130
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Parking at 7:00 AM |
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Parking at 12:00 PM |
TRAIL MAP:
North Jersey Trails Map 115 - NYNJ Trail Conference
Ramapo Mountain State Forest Trail Map (free map) - NYNJ Trail Conference
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My GPS went rogue on me and spontaneously lost about half of the hike so here is the route highlighted on the free map. |
HIKE DISTANCE: 8.3 miles
THE HIKE:
Shawnee hiked the previous day so I went on my own for this one to do a hike too difficult for her.
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Cross Skyline drive veering left towards the mailboxes and post with blazes. |
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Take yellow to the left heading towards the fire danger sign. |
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A short distance in, an Indian shelter to the left, a scramble to the right to continue on the yellow trail. |
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Indian Shelter? |
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At the top of the scramble, sunrise to the east. |
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The Cannonball Trail joins in from the left and that is the one I would be staying with all the way to Camp Yaw Paw. |
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Up ahead... |
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... the trail goes right through gas pipeline stuff where there is a strong smell of gas :( |
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Back into the woods and away from Skyline Drive. |
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A left on the Matapan Rock Trail to ... |
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... views west a short distance ahead. |
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Back on the Cannonball Trail, vintage car ruins. |
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A felt so sorry for this squirrel. She scrambled up a tree with her mouth stuffed full of leaves, got almost to the top and dropped them all. She proceeded to chatter curse words, in squirrelspeak, of course. |
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That gas pipeline runs parallel on the right and sometimes comes into view. |
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The Old Guard Trail joins in briefly. |
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Entering Ramapo Mountain County Reservation. |
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Cam Yaw Paw ruins. |
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Shortly after this dilapidated cabin... |
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Yellow starts on the right, |
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Taking yellow. |
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Orange joins in for a bit. |
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You would think that as upcoming views draw my attention to the left... |
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... that I would not notice this way off to the right. |
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But I did. Balloon #3 for the year. |
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Back to those views. |
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New York City skyline in the distance. |
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The other end of the Old Guard Trail. |
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Orange leaves at ... |
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... an area of open views. |
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George Washington Bridge |
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Continuing on yellow. |
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More camp ruins. |
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White joins in ... |
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... then leaves to the right. Staying on white now. |
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White goes along the left side of this cabin... |
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... turns right along the cabin... |
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... crosses a bridge over... |
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... Fox Brook ... |
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... then ends at the camp road. Turn right on the road. |
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Veer left towards the sign... |
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... to the beginning of white. |
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White follows a camp road along Lake Vreeland. |
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Lake Vreeland |
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Hooded Mergansers |
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White leaves the camp road as orange joins in from the left. |
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Staying with orange when white splits off. |
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I had seen this red trail the last time I was here and it's not on the map but looks like it goes to Lake Tamarack so I went to check it out. |
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Downy Woodpecker |
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And here it is ... |
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Lake Tamarack |
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Retraced back to orange and continued on to Skyline Drive and the parking lot. |