Hiking Trails Review: Around the Lake at Wawayanda State Park

So, I decided finally to do something that was long overdue, and to take a hike on some of the trails around Wawayanda, a beautiful wooded park with a large lake at the center, which my family used to go swimming in regularly back in my grade school days, dating back to the 1980's. I still go there fairly frequently, and even take my son swimming there at times during the summer, although such occasions have grown more and more scarce, with the price of gas going up.

But it really is a wonderful park, and very family friendly, with a nice playground, some boating and biking available, and walking trails and routes of varying degrees.  There are some stone structures, the last remnants of the local iron ore industry that used to dominate, and these structures sometimes look vaguely reminiscent of old castle ruins set within the woods. In short, it is a nice place.

With my new schedule now providing me with a relatively stable and predictable schedule for the first time in years, really, I wanted to take advantage of this first day off (on a Wednesday, that is) by catching up on sleep and taking a rather longer than normal hike someplace that would be new. For once, both of these goals were achieved, and it was a good thing, too, because I needed one to get past the other, and then needed the hike to be tired enough later on to catch another nap before work. So it worked out, it seems!

Here's the thing: way, way back in the nineties, and I'm talking the early nineties at that, back when I was a prominent and rising member of the Environmental Club at Bergen Community College, a few of us had gotten together to have a hike and picnic at Wawayanda. Much to my shame, that marked the last time that I ever had gone hiking here, and it really is not only a shame, but it was quite ridiculous, because I would go walking here all of the time. You see, Wawayanda is a park that offers extensive opportunities for walking, if that is what you like (and obviously, it is for me). For whatever reason, even though I have long loved hiking in the woods at other places, at Wawayanda, it was always, systematically, walking what I referred to as "the loop", about a two mile walk along the lake, and then down past the stone ruins of the iron/ore facility that used to be there, and then down a road along a stream emptying out to a swamp, and finally along the main road. It is a nice, healthy walk, and on energetic days, I sometimes did this three or more times, often with the old Ipod and headphones on my person.

Yet, hiking remained something that always seemed outside of Wawayanda to me, and the paradox was not lost on me at the time, either. It really is strange. For a long time, I meant to change that, and expand my horizons at this park, but that remained more a theory than a practice.

Until today, that is. I was determined to finally explore the hiking trails that I had only gone on a handful of times. Since I had so much time, and have wanted my father, who is ridden with rheumatoid arthritis and other medical conditions, and has been urged by the doctors not to remain statuary, but to go out and walk and move, to go out and get some fresh air, I took him along as well. We stopped at a local thrift shop along the way, then finally got to the park. It was a quarter to three.

I decided to go towards the area I had last gone hiking in, to the right of the beach on the lake. Foolishly, I had gone without first picking up a map, and the folly of this decision would become clear soon enough. But with some vague notion that surely I could take a trail that would wrap around the lake, I headed towards what would surely be the trail.

Before long, there was no trail, and it became a difficult hike, that was actually less hiking and more jumping from rock to rock over a stream, and up a hill, trying to avoid shrubbery and the ticks that seemed determined to plant themselves on my body. Three ticks in a day, including two in a span of five, maybe ten minutes, both new personal records!

I was on the verge of turning back after such a rough start, but my day in the woods had only begun, really. I climbed a hill, and the day seemed hotter than expected. Stealing glances back from where I came, and not relishing the idea of going through some tall and unkempt shrubbery and constantly checking for ticks, I kept trying to find something to indicate that other human beings had been where I was in the last…say, ten years or so. That persistence paid off, fortunately, as I found the orange trail, marked Pump House Trail. It was one of two orange trails that I would get to explore on this day, although I did not know it at that time.

Good, I thought. Things are looking up.

I was going to head back to the beach, and to then call it a day for "hiking", and get some reading done. One of the true pleasures with Wawayanda is the chance to just plop a folding chair or a blanket or simply your butt down on the ground and open up a book to get engrossed in, looking up on occasion to take in the beautiful view, to listen to the sounds of geese or other birds, or even the waves. It is truly a beautiful park with a lot to offer!

But instead of heading back, I plowed forth, figuring (wrongly, as it turns out), that this trail just had to hug the boundaries of the large lake and, if I just persisted in the trail, it would wrap around it, and I could finally say that I hiked around Wawayanda Lake – something that I had never done before!

The Pump House Trail is a wide and well-maintained trail. It offers some nice glimpses of the lake, although it does not actually seem to go right up by it – although there was at least one side trail that offered this. Still, all in all, it felt wonderful to be out of the shrubs and ticks, and onto more level and clear ground. The birds were singing, and the wildlife was out! There were nine bright orange lizards or salamanders that I spotted, as well as other things, too. I saw just about the most monstrous sized millipede that I have ever seen before, and it was fascinating to see it curl up in it's way, as a means of defense. The trail was very nice, although at some point, on the other side of the lake, it straddles some suburban homes. That was a bit of a surprise, since almost all of the rest of it seemed completely isolated. But it did not detract to much from the walk that the trail offered.

Of course, predictably, the trail did not simply wrap around the lake. It went to the very end of it-  and it takes a long time indeed- but then abruptly ends in a mysterious dirt road. This was, I later discovered, the Cherry Ridge Road. I had the idea that I could negotiate my way back, finding my way to another trail, since my sense of direction often has been relatively strong in such situations, and since I knew the lake was not far, and neither were other trails. Still, it was a bit stressful. If not for reminders that I was still on park grounds, indeed, I might just have turned around and gone back.

But I found some new trails, and took them. The first of these was Laurel Pond Trail. It was clearly marked, although it seemed much more like another road, than a hiking trail.

Eventually, however, I found another actual trail, and this was Sitting Bull Trail – the other orange trail, on the other side of the lake. Not that I knew that, yet, either. However, instinctively, it seemed encouraging that the color matched that of the trail on the other side of the lake, it just felt right. Also, I had the sense that it was more or less in the right direction, and decided to take the chance.

The Sitting Bear Trail was very nice. It did not take long before I knew I was on the right path again, once it offered glimpses of the lake. Eventually, it went right along the lake, and there were some wonderful views along small rocky cliffs. The trail itself was well-tended to. It was also very muddy, but that was because it had been raining quite a bit in the days leading up to my surprise visit.

Ultimately, the Sitting Bear Trail emptied out into the Iron Mountain Trail, which at first seemed like yet another roadway. Of course, by this time, the lake was plainly in view, so it was not like earlier, where I was initially wondering if I had somehow hiked right out of the park, until finding the markers indicating it was all still part of it. Here, the lake was very much in view, and there had been glimpses of the beach and other parts of the park on the side of the lake that I was most familiar with. So, there was no nervousness.

There were waterfalls, which were very nice and which were unfamiliar, unfortunately. I had never seen them before, to my knowledge, and so this came as a pleasant surprise.

Finally, the trail emptied out into more familiar terrain, and I knew my hike for the day was done.