Ramapo Mountains,
Rockland County, NY
Was raining much of the day and was still very foggy when I left in the afternoon. I had checked the radar before heading out and there were severe thunderstorms heading towards us - so I had to plan the hike to be back before the thunderstorms arrived.
Parked on top of Cheescote Mountain on Cheescote Lane, which is a developed neighborhood of newly construction million dollar homes. The trailhead is in a cul-de-sac surrounded by some of these homes. It's a really strange place to start a hike. From the road took the short gravel trail to Cheescote Pond, where I picked up the Long Path and headed for a short while east. There is some construction going on here and it looks like they are trying to develop the park around the pond area. I certainly hope they keep it wild the way it is now. From the pond headed off the trail onto one of the many unmarked woods roads in the path towards the summit of the mountain. Started heading down the mountain but was getting nervous about the weather so bailed out and headed back the way I came. Did a little cut-across on a different path towards the Long Path, and then took the Long Path back to Cheesecote Pond and back to the trailhead.
This was a very eerie hike. The fog was extremely dense and it was lighly drizzling with hardly any visibility. I could hardly see where I was going navigating through the dense fog. At one point I passed some old ruins which really looked really ghostly in thick fog.
At the beginning of the hike.
Cheescote Pond.
The fog had totally blocked it out from view.
Another view of Cheescote Pond
At the summit of Cheescote Mnt.
Spooky ruin off the unmarked woods road.
The yellow-blazed Long Path heading back.
Hiked up there many times as a kid before the big houses were all up on the ridge. We'd go through the woods, past the ruins then up the mountain to the tower. From there you could see all the way to Manhattan on a clear day or night. We'd also go catch fish at the pond or in the creek.
ReplyDeleteWhat do the ruins look like? Was it and old settlement? Or is it all stones?
ReplyDeleteThey are more than just stones. See the picture in the above post to get an idea of what it looked like. I don't know if it was an old settlement.
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