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. |
