[Journal Entry for November 23, 2014; Foxcroft, Oakland New Jersey]. In the late afternoon of a sunny fall afternoon, Dallas and I walked to the Foxcroft ruins (also called the Van Slyke Castle). We parked at the hiker’s lot off of Skyline Drive and took the MacEvoy Trail (blazed in blue) up into the hills, following a small stream. We passed old stonework that seemed to be some sort of aqueduct, or rather the supports for now-vanished pipes. We reached Ramapo Lake in about fifteen minutes and took a quick side trip to the dam, the source of the little stream. The dam does double duty as a bridge and the view of the lake is very nice from it. We were surprised to find a thin layer of ice coating some of the lake’s surface – the weather in the lowlands has been well above freezing, but the Highlands have evidently been much colder. The trail follows the eastern shore of the lake, and offers a series of nice view of the islands in it. We then joined the Castle Hill Trail (blazed in white), which took us up to the steep flank of Fox mountain (really just a hill) to the ruins.

Foxcroft was a hilltop mansion whose construction was planned around 1909 by the industrialist William Porter and finished by his wife Ruth after his death in 1911. The name “Van Slyke” refers to Warren Van Slyke, the man Ruth subsequently remarried. The mansion burned down in 1959. All that remains today are its brick and stone walls, now falling into ruin, the foundations of neighboring outbuildings and a stone water tower.

The trail leads first to what appears ostensibly to be an exterior wall of the building, but which actually must originally have been inside a larger structure, for it has an outward facing fireplace. This wall has impressive archways that were once windows and doors; yet is its cracked and falling to pieces. We walked inside, taking care not to fall into the basement level, which occupies only about a third of the total area, but which is a level lower. We peered at the well-reserved remains of a cast iron furnace filling one of the basement rooms.

We then explored the hilltop, passing a substantial and deep concrete swimming pool. Its floor has been colonized by bushes. They walls have protected the plants from the cold and the wind, so they were quite a bit greener that those at ground level. We also examined a concrete foundation of some smallish garage or storage shed. We found an overlook, a rock ledge that offered a great view of Wanaque Reservoir, and the hills to its west. We then ascended a little rise to the water tower, a stubby tower with narrow windows build of beige gneiss blocks. The stone walls are still solid, but its wooden roof has rotted away. A doorway reveals the stone footing that once supported a wooden water tank. The wood is gone, but the steel cables that were once the hoop supports of the tank remain, scattered around the site.

Daylight was beginning to fade as we started our return journey. We tarried at the point where the Castle Hill Trail starts its descent, for the rock ledges there provide a nice view of Ramapo Lake. Thin clouds had moved in and were starting to turn pastel colors as the sun began to set. We rejoined the MacEvoy Trail and followed it along the lake shore, making a couple of short side trips down to the water’s edge. The lake surface was very still and was reflecting the evening clouds beautifully. I tried to remove a plastic bottle that someone had left on top of a tall boulder, but only succeeded in knocking it into the water and having it float away. We soon reached the dam. The trip down the stream valley was all downhill and quick. About two hours.