Ilgenstein Rock, Bear Swamp Lake, Mt. Defiance, Warm Puppy Rock Loop (Ringwood State Park)
Hike Type: Figure-8 Loop
Distance: 10.81 miles
Elevation: 1,631 feet
My Time: 4 hours, 25 minutes (4 hours, 17 minutes moving)
Book Time: 6 hours, 13 minutes
Parking: Ample Parking at Lot C.
Hiking Challenges: Ringwood-Ramapo Hiking Challenge
The Hike
Okay it was NOW time to tackle a big ol' hike in Ringwood State Park as a redemption to forgetting my wallet yesterday. I made it to Ringwood in the morning with a slight hangover from last night's DCI show in Clifton and immediately had to tend to a code brown... There was a larger bike/dog meetup in the parking lot, and the code brown subsided (thankfully) as I started my hike.
My hike started on the Five Ponds Trail, which seems relatively recently blazed/reblazed as no online maps were fully accurate to my hike (the NJDEC one was closest, but left out a lot of the woods roads I followed that were unblazed). The start of the hike thankfully was delightfully easy, it was 72 degrees out with significantly lower humidity levels than yesterday. I threw on some bugspray after a couple minutes.
After a lovely uphill meander, the Five Ponds Trail was joined by the white-blazed Crossover Trail on a gravel road. There was a mish-mosh of old roads and a few blazed trails in this area - I came to a big junction at a height-of-land and kept following the road bed, passing a lady and her "harmless" unleashed dog.
There were a few more junctions that I simply could not keep track of afterwards. The air was more humid deeper in these woods, but overall it was pretty pleasant! I crossed a stream on a culvert, and eventually left the road grade I was followed onto a footpath (always following the pink blazes). The trailbed here had some really nice stonework, which felt like it was recently manicured for mountain bikes. I rambled a bit longer, the white trail eventually left and I turned on and off of another old road bed.
After a few more minutes, I turned right onto what AllTrails called Ice Pond Road, which provided some overgrown views of Gatum Pond. Afterwards, I began to gain elevation on the old, wide road, which was pretty lovely! It seemed that the pink blazes continued along this road until the road turned a corner, where it was unblazed afterwards. I followed the unblazed road towards another junction with some very old fencing, rejoining the Five Ponds Trail again (I guess I accidentally found a shortcut!). I wish there was a comprehensive map of this area with the current trail layout and unblazed paths, probably one of the paid ones.
I took a sharp right turn onto another unblazed road, caught a few spiderwebs (thankfully just a few, I was loving the wide roads), and noticed flies buzzing about, but leaving me alone. There were two decently big blowdowns that were fully navigable and then... my tummy started to feel scary again.
The road I was following (which according to AllTrails was Peterson Ridge Road) made a sharp left turn and then... it was time. Time to christen the woods! My poor tummy... It took me exactly 40 minutes and a smidgen under two miles to this point. It was traumatic, but I prevailed.
After gathering what was left of my dignity, I came to the junction with the white-blazed Crossover Trail, which was well-graded for mountain biking. I meandered along this trail for a bit, passing a nice ferny area, then a reroute, then a grassy area, and then a rockier area, always slightly gaining elevation to the edge of a ridge where the Crossover Trail turned right and the yellow-blazed Hoferlin Memorial Trail went in both directions. I had another wave of scary tummy...
I turned right here to follow to coinciding white/yellow trails towards Ilgenstein Rock - my first Ringwood-Ramapo Hiking Challenge point of the day! There were three pileated woodpecks flying about and the narrow trail was neat to follow. There were some wetlands on the right out of view from the trail and it sounded like there was some commotion going on even though I couldn't see.
I was hearing some weird machinery and to my dismay, came across a group of five dirtbikers. I was just thinking about how "out there" I was feeling - I guess I was incorrect! At least they scared the bears away?
The trail opened up and came to the viewpoint at Ilgenstein Rock, which had a nice viewpoint out to the rolling hills nearby and NYC in the distance. I could make out a pond below on the left, which I think would be my next stop. After checking the map, I realized I was looking at the Ramapo Valley County Reservation - how fun! There was an old fire ring, a mourning dove, and some blueberries here.
It was a little confusing to figure out where to go from here, but I was able to use my handy-dandy AllTrails to find the Crossover Trail, which I would take down to my next stop - Bear Swamp Lake. The trail was a little steep here, and I passed some neat rocks on the way. There was a breeze further down, and I then came to a old stone wall that I crossed and turned left onto the "C"-blazed Cannonball Trail (which was fun, because I was on the Cannonball Trail the other day!).
The Cannonball Trail followed some pretty, open woods and was a bit grassy, but not horrific. The trail easily descended to it's terminus at Bear Swamp Lake.
At the terminus, there was an old chimney, some old appliance(?), and an old dam/spillway for the lake. It was neat to explore, and naturally I came across the dirt bikers again (ugh). The dam/spillway was in rough shape - I wonder how much longer it has before it fails?
Bear Swamp Lake was full of flowering lily pads, and I was now following the blue-blazed Shore Trail. The Shore Trail crossed at least four old chimneys, making me curious about the history of this area. The latter chimneys had a rusted out refridgerator and some foundations left, too. The Shore Trail approached the water and then turned left away from it, crossing a wet-grassy area and then neared the pond again, which sounded full of bullfrogs. The trail veered away again in some lovely woods after a ~10 foot muddy stretch, and I finally had an easy rock hop across the inflow stream before turning sharply left back onto the yellow-blazed Hoeferlin Memorial Trail.
This stretch of trail looked wildly untraveled, and a quick, moderate push had me winded right away! The trail became slightly easier to follow when it turned onto an old road which was also pretty grown-in, but at least I saw an eft! There were a series of blowdowns of various ages, one of which felt a bit like a jungle gym.
At a split, the yellow trail turned left and I continued on an unblazed road (on the NYNJTC map, not on the NJDEC map), which was feeling more like a bushwahck. I was scraped up by the end of it, but it was easy to follow thanks to the road grade.
Thankfully, it was a short bit, and then I turned left onto the Bear Swamp Trail, which was technically blazed in red, but it is no longer on the NJDEC map. The trail was on another old road with deep ruts and mud pits. There were frogs in the mud pits! The dirt bikers found me again, tragically, but the quality of life on the trail was slowly improving.
The trail roller coastered for a bit, trending upward, and eventually it brought me back onto the same ridge as "Iggy" (my affectionate name for Ilgenstein Rock).
I turned right onto the blue-blazed Pierson Ridge Trail, which was wonderfully flat and wide. Another old road joined this one - this collection of old roads reminded me of my hike up Antone Mountain in Vermont. The road split again around what seems like old fire tower footings? I have so many questions about this history of this land!
A few propeller planes were overhead as I passed another skink (the most skinks I've ever seen in a summer in New Jersey) and saw my first blaze in a while - still blue! The trail was making a very easy decline to a gas pipe line that it crossed with a few flowers on either side of the trail.
The blue blazes terminated soon after and then I turned left onto the dark-green-blazed Halifax Trail. I was losing steam and getting hungry, but a mourning dove cheered me on and kept me going! This trail was a footpath, which was a change of pace after being on old roads for a while. It rose for a minute and then steeply descended before crossing the clearing again, walking through the woods, and (you guessed it), crossing an old woods road! There was a solo dirt biker on this road, and I couldn't get over how stinky the bikes were.
I had another steeper descent while hearing guns from a nearby sportsmen's club (I think/hope), and soon enough I was back on the pink-blazed Five Ponds Trail! I crossed two more roads and continued on a footpath, past a single SCREAMING cicada. The descent KEPT descending, which was a bummer because I still had at least one climb left in my hike. I did pass a very pretty wood frog, a cedar waxwing (I think), and a chipmunk with a missing tail(??). The Five Ponds Trail turned onto a muddy road between the two Glasmere Ponds.
The ponds were both nice to see, and afterwards I turned right onto Revel Road (according to AllTrails). I swapped my Nalgenes since it was again time for some uphill climbing. To my surprise, I hiked past some ruins of some building almost entire swallowed by undergrowth?? It was basically impenetrable, so I couldn't explore more, but I was sure curious! After the ruins, I had the unfortunate scary tummy again...
After, I turned left onto an unblazed, unmapped mountain bike trail that was delightfully graded with switchbacks, and my tummy was feeling BAD. This stretch looked like a possible reroute of an older trail? I was so confused with the NYNJTC, NJDEC, and AllTrails maps all in disagreement. Either way, the trail was lovely, even if my stomach was in anguish.
I wrote "another one of those lifted things, it sullied up a tree like a sorrel," and after reading it over and over, and over, I think I meant "another one of those [lizard] things, it [scurried] up a tree like a [squirrel]" - maybe! The trail crossed the pipe line again with a nice view on the right to something with a communication tower, and then I was back into the woods.
I could hear people ahead of me and then almost got an over by a biker who simply said "howdy!" and then I turned left at an old foundation, leaving the mountain biking trail and joining a footpath. My tummy was feeling a little better, but still not feeling good. The voices I heard up ahead were five New Jersey Search and Rescue members looking for a guy named Derek. They were disappointed but unsurprised when I said I was not Derek.
I crossed the pipe line for a final time and started a moderate-to-steep climb with rocky footing - I was missng the roads and mountain bike trails! The trail was also very webby, I guess no one has been up here for a minute. The tree views began higher up, and before I knew it I was at the top of Mt. Defiance? Either there were no views or I missed a viewpoint. Bummer!
The trail wiggled down past another skink and followed a cool cliff band above with some fallen boulders scattered around. I passed a junction with an unmapped bike trail - this back half of the climb was pretty enjoyable. I passed an unmarked spur with a nice view and continued down past a junction with a triangle-blazed trail that clearly stated to not do any illegal trail maintenance.
I turned right, continuing to follow the red-blazed Ringwood-Ramapo Trail up and over a viewles knob and then wiggles around around a grassy plateau area. It was extremely unclear where "Warm Puppy Rock" is between the different maps, AllTrails, and google trip reports - I ended up deciding to follow this trail all the way past my intended turn around point just to be safe.
I went through a large, familiar junction that I hiked earlier in the day, continuing to follow the red blazes. The trail was nice and sunny now and I soon came to a slab that had some graffiti and a lackluster view - I think this is the other spot people call Warm Puppy Rock. Challenge is officially complete! There was a slightly better view just futher down the trail.
I used the Merlin Bird ID app to identify a cardinal sound that I hadn't heard before as my scary tummy came back with a vengeance. It made some sounds that were nothing short of terrifying. I stopped to find a safe spot to take care of that business and immedaitely heard voices. I was in a state of absolute panic, but my body was clear that it was TIME. I took care of it and the product immedaitely attracted a comical amount of flies, so I guess that's was nice for them?
Soon after I came to the unblazed White's Road and turned right - it was wide, flat, and made of gravel - a dream! It was nice and shaded which was a dream too. I followed White's Road until I was back on pavement and on my final stretch of this long hike.
Skylands Road passed Duck Pond which had a plethora of snapping turtles sunning themselves on logs. The pond was covered in a dusty green algae, and I spent some nice time getting photos of the turtles (but not too much time as I had some post-traumatic stress from that code brown).
I crossed paths with a person, which was a first in a WHILE, then some e-bikers, and then I walked alongside a sunny meadow. There was a mowed path through the meadow which would have cut off maybe 100 feet of hiking, but I was all done with grass and hills at this point. There were signs indicating the meadow as a wildflower management area, which featured some old, rusty farm equipment right at the turn for the parking lot, which was joyfully empty!
This was a long one, but I was thrilled to have this challenge complete!
I spent some more time after my hike exploring the NJ Botanical Gardens - including a nice FactTime date with Christien. The grounds are beautiful, and as someone who does not really enjoy FaceTiming, it was fun to "explore" "with" someone!
Step-by-Step
- Start hike on Five Ponds Trail (pink) from Parking Lot C.
- After Gatum Pond, turn left onto Ice Pond Road (unblazed).
- At jct., turn left onto Five Ponds Trail (pink).
- Soon after, turn sharply right onto Peterson Ridge Road (unblazed).
- At jct., turn right onto Crossover Trail (white).
- At jct., turn right and join Hoeferlin Memorial Trail (yellow) to Ilgenstein Rock.
- At Ilgenstein Rock, continue to follow Crossover Trail (white) blazes down.
- At terminus, turn left onto Cannonball Trail (red).
- At terminus, continue left onto Shore Trail (blue).
- Near north end of lake, turn left onto Hoeferlin Memorial Trail (yellow).
- At jct., turn right onto overgrown, old road (unblazed).
- At terminus, turn left onto Bear Swamp Trail.
- At jct., turn right onto Pierson Ridge Trail (blue).
- Cross Pipe Line, turn left onto Halifax Trail (dark green).
- Cross Pipe Line, continue on Halifax Trail.
- At larger jct., veer left and join Five Ponds Trail (pink).
- At Glasmere Ponds, turn right onto Mountain Bike Trail (unblazed).
- At jct., turn left off of road onto unblazed Mountain Bike Trail.
- Cross Pipe Line, then at jct., turn left onto Ringwood-Ramapo Trail (red).
- At jct., turn right onto White's Road (unblazed).
- At gate, turn right onto Skylands Road.
- Follow Skylands Road back to car.
