Pool Hollow



Pool Hollow, Ramapo Mountain State Forest (Thanksgiving Day, 11/25/2021)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Today we headed to an area that we hadn't hike in almost fifteen years, Wanaque Ridge. That was the plan anyway. Using this map, we parked in the Back Beach Park parking lot at the western end of the Indian Rock Trail. We were first met by a mama bear and her two cubs. That was fun, but what wasn't fun was the fact that even though it hand't rained much lately, the Wanaque River was raging! And to get to the rest of the trails, we had to cross it within the first five minutes! We had done this crossing back in 2007, with no problem at all. But apparently a good part of this "bridge" has been swept away by the waters and the crossing is much trickier than it used to be. So, we decided not to chance it! Back at the car I had to extemporaneously find a Plan B. And I did!

Back in 2006, we hiked an area at the most southern part of the forest, which allowed us to "hike" over US 287 along the southern-most stretch of the then-Cannonball trail. We started at the end of the residential street Barbara Drive (Google Maps still shows the Cannonball Trail beginning at the end of that street). But that parking opportunity is no longer specified on the maps. And the trail is no longer the Cannonball Trail! Wow, so much has changed! So we parked on the tight dead end street Pool Hollow Road, and headed into the woods starting from there, first crossing the railroad tracks. (You can see this area at the very bottom of the map, west of Great Oak Park.) We first followed the yellow Pool Hollow Trail, turning west on the white Southern Ridge Trail, before walking over US 287 on yellow, which we took north to the blue-red LeGrande Lake Trail. We took that trail east to a nice, albeit very noisy, viewpoint over US 287. Along the way I also managed to find a few paths which aren't on any maps, one with a nice hammock on the ridge. After taking in the views, we headed back to the car, taking yellow all the way back.

Total distance hiked today was 4.5 miles in about three hours and 15 minutes.

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