Take a Hike

(You can always skip the slight narrative and go right to the pictures! And my wife’s pictures!)

Amy wanted to break in her new hiking boots yesterday, so I looked up a nice route through Ramapo Mountain State Forest on my NJ/NY Trail Conference map. The weather forecast threatened rain, but the sky was pretty clear and the temps were only in the mid-to-high 70s, so we doused ourselves in sunscreen and bug repellent, drove up to the top of Skyline Dr. and a trail entry point, and got a-hikin’. (For reference’s sake, we took Hoeferlin trail down to the lake, MacEvoy trail north around the lake, and then Castle Point trail back up to Skyline Drive.)

I feared that our late start (10:30am) on such a pleasant day would leave us without a place to park, but I was happily surprised to find only 8 or 9 cars in the area, with plenty of spaces free. We always talk about hiking there, and it’s only a few miles from our house, so I feel bad that it took me this long to get out there.

When we pass the park area going to or from work, there’s usually at least one trail-biker armoring up for a trek through the forest. We didn’t see any in the parking lot as we pulled in, but plenty of cars with bike racks had arrived already. Once we set out on the hike, it didn’t take us long to meet some bikers. As expected, they were decked out like American Gladiators, ready for the day’s wipeouts on the rocks.

As unexpected, we discovered one of the trail-bikers was only half as sane as his compatriots: he was riding a unicycle. We’re still kicking ourselves for not snagging a picture of him. He tried to head down a rock ravine that we’d just passed, so we figured we’d get a photo when his group caught up to us, but it seems that they elected not to follow that path. Can’t say I blame them.

A few minutes later, while Amy was snapping pix of a spider’s web in the sunlight, a biker pedaled up the trail to us. He was armor-plated, wearing orange-tinted wraparounds, and exhausted. I made space for him, but he took the opportunity of my presence to stop and rest. I said, “You’re a better man than I. Oh, and my wife’s just up the trail; try not to run her over.” He panted for a while, and I thought, “I could be in shape like that if I bothered to exercise.”

Eventually, we reached the Ramapo Lake. I remembered walking on these trails with my family and our dog when I was a little kid, but only in the abstract. I mean, I remember getting out of the car at a different entry point to the trails, and I think I recall walking around the lake, but that was it.

As we began to skirt the lake on MacEvoy trail, I noticed that, amazingly, there’s a private home that overlooks the lake. I was impressed until I poked around this morning and found Ryecliff, an even more amazing estate in the park (got $5 million I can borrow)?

From the lake, we turned on to the Castle Point trail to get back. The map showed several good observation points on the trail, as well as the eponymous Castle Point. I had no recollection of a castle from my childhood trip(s) to the park, so we got our adventure on and began following the white trail blazes.

Unfortunately, I’m not great at figuring out the topographical parts of these maps, so I didn’t realize that we were in for a couple of quick ascensions. They only added up to 350 feet — we were around 550 feet at lake-level, and ended up at an elevation of 900 feet at the top of the trail — but they came upon us quickly and were tiring. Also, it seems like the bugs preferred the higher elevations, so this last stretch became much more of a hassle.

But it was awfully rewarding. We discovered Castle Point almost without warning, as gray stone ruins emerged under the sun-dappled green canopy.

There’s nothing more satisfying for me than when I can find a story. I treasure that unfolding process, when what we saw gains more meaning as we discover its context. Or maybe it’s like an iceberg. Whatever. Anyway, we walked through a ruined building in the forest yesterday, and I found out where it came from and how it fell today.

After we poked around among the ruins and took all sorts of pix, we continued on the trail, reaching a solid, square, stone building. I said, “Looks like I was wrong about those ruins being Castle Point! This must be it.” I added that this made the ruins “Castle Pointless,” but Amy didn’t find that very funny.

We circled the tower and then looked inside, but we couldn’t figure out what the building was, nor what its relationship to the ruins was. There were no stairs (or sign that there’d been any) inside, so it couldn’t have been an observation tower, despite its high vantage. We puzzled for a bit, gave up, had some water and some trail mix, and continued along the trail. Today, I discovered that this building served as the water tower for the ruins, which were the Castle Point. I had noticed a pipe heading out of the building in the direction of the ruins, but failed to put 2 and 2 together.

After the water tower, we finished the Castle Point trail and reached Skyline Drive, where our body-armored and orange-sunglassed biker passed by us. I said, “Wow! It’s like a Herman Hesse novel, but with a better plot.” Amy didn’t find that very funny either.

That pretty much covers the “facts” of our hike. I’m not feeling too reflective/ruminative, so I’ve held the commentary about the region’s history, the joy of nature, the folly of castles, etc. to a minimum. It was a lovely hike, and we had a great time. If you come out to visit and the weather permits, we’ll take you out to see it. I promise.

(Go check out the pictures. Amy’s are better than mine.)