Hike #1029; Camelback Mountain to Hypsie Gap

Hike #1029; Camelback Mountain to Hypsy Gap

4/16/17 Big Pocono to Hypsy Gap with Kralc Leahcim (Lerch), Jennifer Berndt, James Quinn, Pete G. Wilcox, Kellie Kegan, Bonnie Peters, Rob Gearhardt, Kenneth Lidman, Doug DeGroff, Russell Lord Byron Rapp, and Dan Asnis

Our next hike would be an interesting point to point, and one that I’d been wanting to explore for a long time.
Rich Pace had given me a digital map a while back to show a hike he had put together, which he called “Dry Gap/Fall Gap” in the Poconos, out of the Big Pocono area. His was not a very long one, but was a challenging route with off trail sections and through a lovely gorge. His pictures piqued my interest on it, but I didn’t get around to posting the hike myself.

View on Big Pocono

I came up with a really odd route that encompassed a lot of what Rich did, and also a lot of Big Pocono State Park, more of State Game Lands 38, and an extension to the west to Hypsie Gap.
I made the meeting point Sunny’s Food Mart on Rt 115 near Blakeslee PA. I had an idea of where we were going to park for the end point, but I’d never been there and didn’t want to post anything that might be more questionable. The hike I put together crossed really no roads, so I also wanted to give everyone a chance to get a bit to eat and drinks before we embarked on this trip.

Fire Tower on Camelback Mountain

We headed to Hypsy Gap Road, and I was having trouble finding an appropriate place to park. Eventually, I pulled the Metro Car over at a reasonable spot along the road.
From there, we piled into as few cars as possible and shuttled to our starting point, a lot in State Game Lands 38 just west of the boundary of Big Pocono State Park. The first leg of the hike would be walking along the road into the park for a bit, really the worst part of the entire hike overall. Fortunately it didn’t last long, and we were soon to the split of Rim Road, with the center road leading to the top, and to a parking lot and fire tower. The fire tower was manned, but we didn’t have the opportunity to go up in it unfortunately.

View on Camelback

We had a nice break at the top, where we had pretty much unobscured views to both the south and the north. This would be nearly the last point we’d see paved roads, with the exception of the one crossing of Rim Road on the way down.
It was odd that Bonnie Peters, who had been out with illness for over a couple of years, chose this hard hike to come back to, but she actually handled it really well!

Water Gap view at Big Pocono

Big Pocono is also known as Camelback Mountain. It’s geographically an odd place. It looks like a ridge, and almost lines up like it’s an island of Ridge and Valley geological province, but it’s actually a peninsular piece of the Pocono Plateau, which looks like a mountain from three different angles.
The land was owned by a man named Henry S. Cattell at the turn of the 20th Century.
Cattell knew how much the people loved coming up to the mountain for the view, and so in 1908 he constructed a cabin at the top, which was left open for people to use if needed.

Cattell Cabin shortly after construction

Twelve years after Cattell’s death, in 1928, his land was purchased by the Pennsylvania Game Commission. On the north slope, commercial development was allowed on the retained land, which is now the Camelback Ski Resort.

Cattell Cabin today

The land was purchased from the PA Game Commission in 1953, and it officially opened as Big Pocono State Park in 1954. The Cattell Cabin served as park office and museum for many years. Unfortunately, it was not open so we could not see inside this time.

Historic photo of Cattell Cabin from the fire tower

Apparently there are nature programs and such that still take place in the cabin today.
We continued along the top of the ridge, which still has fantastic views. When the park first pened, the mountain top was pretty much denuded of trees.
We followed a trail gradually down hill and soon crossed over the end of the Rim Road.
From here, we were secluded for the remainder of the hike, though not too far from civilization at least while we were still in the state park lands.
We came to the Indian Trail, which makes a loop up the middle of the park, but I decided not to take that one this time. We had a slow start, and I wanted to be sure we’d be done before dark.

Historic image of Big Pocono with no trees

We continued slightly down hill and to the left to the North Trail.
It wasn’t wonderfully marked for the first part. It looked like there were two routes to it heading down hill on some maps. We followed the red blazes as best we could, but they were quite separated from one another.
I made a left turn on an old woods road that I thought matched up with the trail as shown on the map, however it ended up being the wrong way. We ended up at the end of the easternmost ski slope for the resort.

Ski slope

Rather than go back, or try to bushwhack down directly, I decided we’d try to walk the ski slope down hill. It was much warmer out, and had been, but the north facing slope still held a lot of snow on it.
We carefully made our way down the slope, and when it turned to the left, we cut off trail into the woods following a seasonal runoff from the ski slope. We took this down hill until we reached the abandoned right of way of the Wilkes Barre and Eastern Railroad.
When we got there, I was horrified to see that my camera had fallen out of my side pouch. I ran back up the long arduous slope looking for it. Pete came along with me, and as if by some miracle he spotted it, face down in the leaves and such near the runoff.

Wilkes Barre and Eastern

I felt much better at this point, and we happy trotted back down the mountain and to the railroad bed.
Lerch and Doug, who were walking ahead much faster, ended up on the correct trail route down to the railroad bed. They then turned left on the railroad bed and would connect with us straight ahead.
The Wilkes Barre and Eastern was constructed in 1893 as a wholly owned subsidiary of the New York, Susquehanna, and Western Railroad. Prior to it’s completion, interchange had to be made with the Lackawanna Railroad in East Stroudsburg, at a stop known as “Gravel Place”. The WB&E ended up being the most direct rail line to the coal region.

WB&E engine

Despite being the most direct, it was certainly NOT the fastest. Because the rail line had so many dramatic twists and turns along it’s route, as well as a couple of large bridges, it was necessary to impose low speed limits on trains.
By around 1910, when the Lackawanna Railroad had completed many of the cutoff projects, the WB&E simply couldn’t keep up. Even though it was more direct, the Lackawanna had double tracks and improved grades which allowed for super fast travel.
The WB&E was unable to pay interest on it’s mortgage ponds, and so it filed for bankruptcy, and was abandoned soon after in 1939.

WB&E line at Big Pocono, now Lower North Trail

I’ve hiked the entire former WB&E route as closely as possible, an it’s been among my favorite historic rights of way I have ever traced. This section at Big Pocono is among my favorite ones. The right of way hugs the steep hillside and provides seasonal views, plus it has some amazing cuts and fills.
This section is just above Tannersville, and must have been quite a climb for the locomotives.
I started t his hike with a suit and tie on, but it very fast got warmer than I was anticipating. I had to go off into the Rhododendrons to get changed. It was just too much.

Historic image of Tannersville Station

Everyone else was really far ahead of me, so I hurried along as best I could. It was turning out to be a nice day, and there were still just few enough leaves on the trees that we got a pretty good seasonal view to the east.

Wilkes Barre and Eastern grade

Soon, I reached the major rock cut where the railroad right of way makes the turn around the east side of Camelback Mountain to becoming westbound for a bit.
Once I got within the rock cut, I discovered that Lerch and Pete had climbed up, and were up on the rocks to the right side of me.
I paused when I caught up with the rest of the group, just below Lerch and Pete. While waiting, I looked up at them and noticed something rather interesting: etching graffiti in the rocks almost 99 years old. It read “FS EB MAY 3 1918”. It was a very interesting little find. Lerch climbed down to look closer.

WB&E rock cut

Lerch climbed down the rock face a bit more and made his way to to the etching to read it more closely.
I looked to the other side of the rock cut, and found a similar one, but it appeared to have been made in 1968, well after the railroad was abandoned.
These etchings were similar to the ones we found at the former site of Paradise Tunnel on the Lackawanna Railroad old main line not too far away.
It was a bit frightening watching Lerch descend from the rocks in what clearly no one should be trying to climb down, but he of course made it alright and we were soon on our way.

1918 rock etchings

We continued on the Wilkes Barre and Eastern right of way only as far as where the Lower North Trail turned to head back up the hill on a slope. We turned and started to climb a bit.
The trail went up hill and connected with the South Trail, which follows the south rim of Camelback in an east/west direction. We met up with James near the trail intersections.

View of Delaware Water Gap

The South Trail took us up hill a bit longer, and eventually leveled off to a much more relaxing trail. It was so much hotter than I’d anticipated, I couldn’t wait for the up to be over. I’m not nearly in good enough shape, because the hills are tiring me out far more than usual.

South Trail

We had a few very nice views to the south as we walked, including to the Delaware Water Gap, and up and down the ridge, as far west as Millbrook Gap and Catfish Pond Gap, and as far east I believe as Lehigh Gap, but definitely to Wind Gap and Totts Gap.
After one final meager view near another trail intersection, we remained in scrubby woods for the remainder of our time in the state park.
When the trail turned to the right to head to parking, we continued off of the official trail to the west, heading into State Game Lands 38.
The old woods road we went left on is shown on Google Maps as “High Pass Way”.

In Dry Gap heading to Fall Gap

We continued out across a power line clearing, then straight to the west on the same woods road. We descended slightly to a dry saddle in the “ridge”. This was Dry Gap.
I don’t know why I sort of expected there to be a creek here, but no matter, we were able to walk down hill on an old woods road through Dry Gap.
We headed down hill a ways, and switched from going south to sort of west. The woods road was getting closer to developed areas, but we came across a trail blazed poorly in blue. We opted to follow this to the right with hopes that it would lead us sort of in the direction we needed to go.
The trail worked out perfectly; there were a couple other informal trail connections, but we were still able to follow the blue one for the most part toward Fall Gap.

Fall Gap

I didn’t know quite what to expect in Fall Gap. I had seen Rich’s pictures, but nothing really was to prepare me for how awesome it actually was.
There was literally no trail going up Fall Gap. We had to walk along side the stream as best we could...or in my cars in the stream.
Lerch went ahead of the rest of the group pretty fast, and Doug was also up close to the front. I did the best I could after a short while to maintain a good pace while walking up the very center of the Fall Creek. There were nice little cascades along the entire way, sandwiched between beautiful mossy tree roots and rocks through the deep cut gorge.

Fall Gap

The first real waterfall was really beautiful. The other cascades leading up to it were pretty, but I was impressed at just how big these falls got, and how barely anyone ever comes back here. Photos don’t do the size justice without someone in the pcture to define just how big it was. I made my way out and past the lower falls and continued up the creek from there. Most of the group was pretty far behind at this point because they were trying to stay along the side, not getting wet. Pete was out in or along the creek pretty close to me, on the rocks getting the best photo opportunities.

Falls in Fall Gap

I continued through a mess of sticks and rocks. Some spots on the creek got pretty deep, and I’d unexpectedly go further in, and other spots were just hard to pull myself up and over. Branches of dead trees and Rhododendrons kept me from easily just going up the creek.

Fall Gap

The largest falls we came across were a double that came together at a single fall in the narrowest part of the entire ravine. Lerch, Jen, and James got to the top of that before me because they had gone out and around. I was still fighting my way through the stream, which was getting continually harder.
I climbed the lower falls, then made my way far to the left. I could not pull myself up the left side of the falls because there was no grip, and by that time my arms were starting to get pretty tired. I stood on a mossy rock shelf assessing the situation, and decided it best to go slightly back and climb around further from the water to be on the safe side.
I soon got to the top with the others, where they’d found a lawn chair to sit on.

We waited at the top for the others to catch up. This took a little bit because the section was so difficult. Once everyone was together, we moved on up the creek a bit. Doug found the remnants of some sort of old rope and stick bridge sitting along part of the creek.

Fall Gap

The gorge still had high hills on both sides, but it was not nearly as steep any more. It was much easier for me to navigate, though we were still fighting through lots of fallen trees and Rhododendrons.
We came to one more impressive smaller waterfall on the creek before I stopped everyone to have them prepare to turn. I was watching my pre-loaded aerial images, which we ended up comparing with other people’s because their screens were bigger and clearer, and I determined that it would be better to explore a section of ridge and make our way to Bowers Gap. I’d never heard of anyone exploring there, so I figured it would be a good one.

Falls in Fall Gap

The mess of rocks and bushwhacking up Fall Gap left me somewhat bloody and cut up, especially on my left shin (If only I’d known in the next couple of weeks I would near mortally wound that same leg in the same exact spot).

Let cut foreshadowing

When we thought we found the best spot, we turned off of the creek and headed up hill to the left, to the west. There wasn’t a lot of understory, so we were able to move up it rather quickly. Once we were near the top, we checked the aerials again and tried to find our way to a woods road to the southwest. Lerch got ahead of us looking for one of them, and I think he found something first. We ended up weaving around through a pretty back thicket for a while in an indirect route because the direct route surely would have provoked a mutiny of insurmountable proportions.

Mountain in SGL 38

We did find a woods road, but somehow we ended up on the south side of a ridge section I had wanted to see. The clearer woods road would have been to the north of the ridge in retrospect.
The ridge looked like a cool prominent feature that might have had views I thought, so it would be good to check out. I found an old road going to the top, but it was kind of overgrown. Few wanted to follow me, so many stayed below in the woods which gave way to terrible weeds. The trail I took up to the ridge became rather densely dominated by White Birch, and was quite pretty despite the lack of views.
Cell service was bad, so staying in touch with everyone in the couple of different locations was tough. Eventually, we managed to pull everyone back together, but it was tough with all of the weeds. The woods road on the ridge went from bad to really good, then back to kind of bad again. It didn’t started to get better till we intersected with the better woods road on the west side of the ridge area.

Descending Bowers Gap

When all together, we followed the woods road to the west for a bit. It came to a sharp ninety degree angle turn to the north. At that point, we left the road and continued straight to the west, heading rather steeply down hill into Bowers Gap. We crossed over an old woods road on the on the way that looked like it would be pretty cool to explore at a later time.
We continued down hill and crossed a more prominent woods road near the base of Bowers Gap. From there, I posed two choices to the group: either follow the woods road down hill to the left to the next wider woods road, or follow me to Bowers Creek and follow it directly down hill.

Bowers Gap

Not many were into the creek thing at this point, not after the craziness of the Fall Gap climb and following bushwhack. I went to the creek hoping to find some more waterfalls. I went up stream for a bit while the group was restring but didn’t find any. On the way down stream, there were some nice little cascades so walking it was worthwhile, but nothing like Fall Gap.
Soon, we reached the next old woods road which heads to the northwest from the creek crossing. We took a quick break there, and then started following it up hill westward.
It started out fine, but the old raod got badly washed out after a short while. Side woods roads and trails looked inviting, but I wanted at this point to just follow the simplest ones toward the cars.

On the Pocono Plateau

We rose through the washed out woods road to the more level section of the Pocono Plateau, and then waited at the next woods road intersection for everyone to regroup.
The woods roads at the top went through huge herbatious openings, probably for wildlife management. We turned left at the first one, then right around the west side of the clearing.

Messing with Dan's car

We soon reached a very wide grassy road and turned to the left. I guess this was a water authority land or something, I am not sure. We continued very simply until we emerged on gravel surfaced Hypsy Gap Road. We turned left here, which led us directly down hill to where we parked all of the cars off to the side. I was relieved that we had no problems with out cars there.
On the maps, it looked as though it is all public land, but when we got there in person, there were lots of “no trespassing signs.
Despite how hard the terrain was, this was extremely enjoyable for me. There was only a bit of stuff I’ve done before, and a whole lot of new stuff. It was another hike that I feel opened up another new world of game lands and such I have yet to explore. Everyone handled the difficulty well and remained in good spirits.
We went back to Michele Valerio and Scott Trinkle’s place afterwards for some food following the hike, which was cool because Michele’s injured leg is keeping her from hiking, but she still gets to see everyone this way.
Various other hikes are now possible from where we left off in so many directions, and using these different lands we can connect all the way to Hickory Run State Park, a fantastic back woods route just begging us to explore it.