Hike #1138; Promised Land Loop

Hike #1138; Promised Land Loop

6/30/18 Promised Land Loop with James Quinn, Jennifer Berndt, John Pershouse, Timothy Kovich, Renee ?, Eric De Warren, Anne, Diane Reider, Craig Craig, Carolyn Gockel Gordon, David Goldberg, and Shane Blische

This next hike is one that I’ve been putting off for a really long time. Not only have I been putting it off, it’d been in draft folders and even an announced event for probably a year on the Metrotrails meetup page, and I just kept pushing it off.

Power Pole Trail

I had only once before hiked any of Promised Land State Park, in September of 2013. On that hike, I connected previous trips I’d done with the park by heading north out of Delaware State Forest and Thunder Swamp Trail by way of woods roads and smaller trails, as well as utility clearings, out to Promised Land State Park. We walked several trails to the north to emerge in their camp grounds, and I immediately came up with a loop hike that would go all the way around and cover other trails.

Historic lake image

Somehow, this fell off my plate and we never got around to doing that hike. The NJ Perimeter series took precedent, and then the 911 hikes, Morris Canal Greenway, and now D&H are all higher on my radar, so this kept getting pushed off.
I had thrown it onto the schedule several months ago to be a Summer hike, thinking that it would work out with my schedule, but work schedule is again screwy. I had a ton of people RSVP to do this, and I had to move it ahead slightly, but I felt like I couldn’t just keep pushing this one off. I kick the can down the road enough with the countless series of things I’m doing, and so I would have to skip a month on one of the other series hikes and just throw this one in there.
I was actually kind of glad to be doing something like this. While there is history associated with Promised Land, there’s not nearly as much. Most of it is Civilian Conservation Corps stuff, and apart from some old mills and such, the area was pretty industrially dead.

These folks lived at Promised Land from 1933 to 1936 building the park.

It had no valuable minerals, no farming value. In fact, Promised Land was just a ploy to public to sell the worthless land.

1920s view of Promised Land

The land was purchased by a religious sect called The Shakers, and rather than settle on the worthless land, they sold it off for lumber operations who clear cut it. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania worked to reforest it, and Promised Land State Park was only the fourth state park to open in the state, in 1905.
The land was already to some degree developed. Promised Land Lake was already in existence, but information on what exactly was at the site is sparse. The original dam at the site was created in 1890, and wasn’t replaced until development of the park was well underway.
Much of it remained undeveloped until the CCC work in the 1930s.

Wind Mill at Promised Land

The CCC projects at the site continued from 1933 through 1936 when much of the infrastructure was created.
The park shares a trail system with cojoined Delaware State Forest, and makes for a huge amount of hiking opportunities. Because there are so many trails, there is a very good numbering system that I found to be quite impressive. Each trail intersection has a number, and you get pointed in the direction of the next number from each one. We’d make good use of this throughout the day.

Bald Eagle Trail

There’s bad phone service up there, so a lot of the group was running a bit behind. Cracig, Shane, and Dave I think it was were all carpooling together, but I was able to find a spot where they could easily catch up with us so we wouldn’t have to wait too long.
We parked at the large parking area at the visitor center and wandered on in to have a look around. I got a few new maps, including a larger one of Promised Land, and then congregatd in the lot. Carolyn as particularly happy about this one because she used to camp there.

Red Oak Trail

She told us the story of one time sneaking away from camp and walking nearly the entire perimeter of the lake trying to get to the store, but went the wrong way around.
When we had everyone that was going to show up at the start, we began walking from the lot with the big wind mill on Lower Lake Road only briefly to the Power Tower Trail, a trail that simply follows the power lines to the north. It was well graded along it, which made it really easy, and even though it was hot, there was still shade.

Wallempaupack Creek bridge

It was really good that we were in this area and not back home in New Jersey. It was to be brutally hot back there, with a heat index of around 100. It was still hot and humid, but it was only maybe 85 or so at Promised Land, probably over ten degrees cooler than home.
We continued on Power Pole Trail to the intersection with the Bald Eagle Trail where we turned left. This was also another easy woods road trail. Most of the terrain throughout this area is quite easy and gently rolling at most.

Lower Lake Dam

We continued on Bald Eagle Trail to the intersection with the Red Oak Trail where we turned left. I was a bit confused at this turn, but we got it right and made our way through woods.

Wallempaupack Creek and bridge

Red Oak Trail led out to a parking area off of Lower Lake Road, where Craig, Shane, and Dave would park. We walked the access drive/Red Oak Trail out to the road and guided them in, and then we all continued on the other side, now part of Delaware State Forest, where the trail became a woods road.
The trail had branches to both the left and right, and passed through sparse coverage of woods. I’m not sure which one we were on, but we made a couple of turns and continued on Red Oak Trail.

"Fuggin' Awesome" or "Effin' Awesome"?

We continued to intersection 12 on the map, where Saw Mill Brook Trail went left, and Sno Runner Trail went straight. We continued ahead and slightly down on Sno Runner Trail.

Wallempaupack Creek

We passed junction 98 and reached junction 102, where we turned right and continued down more steeply to junction 23. This area had a lot more shade, and was much more pleasant to walk. We turned right there, and then made the next left down to the Wallempaupack Creek, where it flows directly form the main dam of Promised Land Lake. A bridge carrying Lower Lake Road crossed right by the dam, and someone told us that had just been replaced. It was a pretty cool little spot. We checked out the foot bridge, but then turned to the left to follow the creek down stream through the woods.

Weird tree on Wallempaupack Creek

The word Wallempaupack is a Native American Lenape word which means either “deep dead water” or “stream of swift and slow water”. I’d never hiked this creek before, but have long looked forward to exploring it, as the main tributary to the giant Lake Wallempaupack.

Little Falls

I got the most epic photo of Craig holding my “Effin’ Awesome” and “Fuggin’ Awesome” drinks when we stopped for a break along the creek. It was really hot, and the first spots we came across looked good and deep, so we had to stop and take a dip. It was incredibly refreshing.
We soon continued on ahead along the downstream Wallempaupack, as the rapids in it got a bit more intense. Pretty soon, we came across Little Falls, a pretty little waterfall where the trail crosses the creek on a bridge.

Above the Little Falls

It would have been an even better place to swim, because it was so much deeper below it, but there was already a family and several kids down in it. We opted to just continue ahead, and hold off for the next swimming opportunity.
There were trails on both sides of the creek, and I think the creek switched split off into two or something. It shows that on the map but I can’t quite remember. Either way, we followed the trail, the East Branch of the Wallempaupack Trail, a bit further on to where there was no bridge crossing.

Little Falls

To the right, somewhere, Big Dam Ridge Trail was supposed to go to the right. There were usually carsonite posts along the way with the numbers and trail names, but none here.

Little Falls

I got to where the trail should have been, and I crossed the stream to look for the thing. Just a little ways to the north, I found it and back tracked to where it actually crossed the creek. It was an obscure spot we’d never have seen from the other side.
Everyone took their shoes off or did whatever they had to do in order to get over to the trail, and we continued to the north through some nice woods.
The trail went only gradually up to the number 30 point, where White Birches Trail goes left.
We continued gradually through woods, and the trail got a little confusing ahead.

East Branch of Wallempaupack Creek

I’m not sure what turns we made but we figured it out. Hemlock Hill Trail and Lower Lake Trail both go south in this area, and Song Dog Trail goes west.

Big Dam Ridge Trail

I left some of the hike open ended for how much we’d stay in the woods. I knew we wanted to swim, but wasn’t totally sure if we’d go to the main beach or not. It was pretty hot, so we all decided to do that, which proved a good idea.
We continued ahead and somehow got on Bear Wallow Trail, which took us to the east on a much easier woods road route.
Big Dam Ridge Trail and Bear Wallow Trail both make up the boundary between Promised Land State Park and Delaware State Forest on the north side of Lower Lake.

Bear Wallow Trail

Lower Lake is actually a separate, smaller lake, and Promised Land is the main big one, and they are bisected by Rt 390.
We continued to a left turn on Tree Tower Trail, and made our way out to Rt 390 across from the main recreation area.
We crossed directly and entered into a path to the main parking lot. A couple of maintenance people were sitting in a truck there. It’s always interesting to me to see how other parks similar to where I work handle their maintenance and enforcement.

Tree Tower Trail

We crossed over sections of the parking lots heading to the main beach area and started making plans for what we were going to do. There was a nice little concession stand there, so we figured we would go for a swim, then come back and have something for lunch.

Promised Land main beach

Much of the group went down to the beach, which wasn’t all too crowded, and took a swim. It was still more crowded than I’d have liked it to be, and didn’t like leaving my stuff out in the open for anyone to grab. We didn’t take too long, just enough to cool off.

View in the cabin areas

We headed back up to the right side of the concession stand where there was some shade and hung out for a bit.
I forget what I got, probably some ice cream or something. I can’t remember actually.
I wanted to get something fast, because it turned out to take forever to get anything from the place. There were people standing around waiting for an eternity, and those in the group that decided last minute that they wanted something to eat were waiting probably 45 minutes for it.

Ridgefield Point

I was impressed to see there were actually park rangers/park police out and walking the beat. They were doing a pretty good job of keeping an eye on things.
In New Jersey, our park police are sent all over to different parks and rarely exit their vehicles. It would be so much nicer, probably for both land managers and the police if they only had to be at one place rather than all over creation. Things seem to work pretty well with the way PA does things.

Sucker Brook crossing

When we were all ready to move on, and feeling quite relaxed, we followed a path out of the parking area that led into the Pines Campgrounds. This was the route I had taken my first time into this park, coming from the east.
We walked to the north side of it, then turned to the right on a trail that took us out to North Shore Road. We turned right to follow the road for a bit around the north side of the lake, and across a stream called Little Inlet.
The next crossing was of Sucker Brook, and James crossed it to say “Suck Ok”.

"Suck...OK"

For the rest of the hike, I wanted to just try to follow the perimeter of the lake as best we could. I figured there might be informal pathways all the way around it.

View on the north side of the lake

Worst case scenario, if there was not a good path around it directly, the road is so lightly traveled that it’s like using a trail anyway, and we’d enjoy it.
We followed an access road to one of the rental cabins to the right. It was vacant at the time, and so we tried heading down to the waterfront from there. There was no good path down there, but we still tried bushwhacking along with hopes that the lake side would open up more. When it didn’t, we made our way back up hill to emerge at another rental cabin.

Promised Land view

We followed the access road to this just a bit up hill, and I saw another road going to the right, parallel with the main driving road. It didn’t go through like a regular road the entire time, but we could cut through to the front of the next cabins.

Promised Land view

The road continued in front of each of the cabins on the east side of the peninsula we were moving out toward. When we the road was cut off, we continued through to the next one. Eventually, we had to make our way out to the main public access road to Ridgefield Point.
Ridgefield Point is a boat launch area at the south end of a peninsula on the lake. It’s directly across from what’s called Conservation Island, and around the corner from the beach we were at earlier, so we were pretty much out of sight.

View from North Shore Road of the lake

We could see the other beach, at the end of Pickerel Point, which we would be stopping at later, off across the lake and to the east.
We all stopped and took a swim at the boat launch, and no one came and bothered us fortunately. That’s one of the great things about being in PA. If we were swimming off the boat launch in New Jersey, someone would probably have been there in short order to tell us not to do so. We were there a good long while and not even another car showed up at this point.

Big Inlet

We came out of the lake and started heading back out the Ridgefield Point access road until we got back to North Shore Road and turned to the right again.

Big Inlet

The road section was very pleasant, with only a few cars going by, and some very nice views of the lake to the south.
We passed by the Whittaker Cabin peninsual but didn’t go down there because it was so short, and then reached where the Whittaker Trail comes in from the left. Just after, we crossed Crane’s Nest Run, and turned to the south. North Shore Road actually follows the east shore of the lake from this point. As we headed south, we soon reached the Big Inlet, the main creek flowing into the lake.

The group at Burley Inlet boat launch

The Bruce Lake Trail, which connects with the Big Inlet Trail, which connects just to the south of the inlet, was the first trail in the system I had ever hiked, in from a private land to the east on an old road.

North Shore Rd

We continued to the south, to the southeast corner of the big lake.
An access to the Boundary Trail was near the corner, and then we crossed the Burley Inlet.
Just past the inlet, there was another boat launch in a little corner of the park. We took another nice break there and went for another dip in the lake.
Not everyone wanted to go in this time, but I found it to be quite refreshing after a sweaty walk along the North Shore Road.

Blacksmith shop

We continued along North Shore Road to the Deerfield Campground area, and turned to the right to head up toward the Pickerel Point area.
On the right, there was a blacksmith shop. It had some historic marker signs, but nothing said anything about whether it was an historic structure or not. I suppose it could be, but I can find nothing to say it was historic just about anywhere, and most of the kiosks in the park don’t say anything much about it. I looked it over and we continued to the north.

Pickerel Point

The two new girls decided to leave early, as did a few others, I can’t quite remember all who at this point, but most of us continued out to the end of Pickerel Point.

Pickerel Point

I think this was one of the best swimming spots of the entire hike. Not that many people were in; it was still watched over, but not life guarded. There was a rope, but it felt safe. There was even a park employee who yelled at a guy for fishing too close to the swimming area.
“You don’t need to be fishin’ here, ya got the whole lake!” he yelled at the guy standing on his boat. The guy just gave a smile and a wave and continued on.
We swam for a little longer this time, then continued on our way.

Snow Shanty Run

Carolyn seemed to recall this was the section of the park she had camped when she was little, and some of what we walked must have been the same thing she walked back then.
We headed south from Pickerel Point the way we had come pretty much, and reached Pickerel Point Road, where we turned to the right to head west along the south shore of the lake. We crossed Snow Shanty Run, another inlet, and then just ahead made a right turn on Park Ave. We could have finished quicker, but I wanted to do the whole thing.

View on Park Ave

By following the road to the right, we could get to Conservation Island, which I had not yet ruled out doing as part of this hike, and then we could get to the town of Promised Land to have something for dinner.
Some of the group opted to continue ahead on Pickerel Point Road at the next intersection, but my plan was to turn right and follow Park Ave, along the west shore of Promised Land Lake, and cut over to the town.

View to the bridge to Conservation Island

Tim had an idea of somewhere to eat that was further to the north, but I didn’t want to drive further out of the way that wasn’t on the way home. I wanted to stay somewhere right in Promised Land area for convenience mostly.

View to Conservation Island

I thought it would be really great if we could just have something that was right on the walking route, and there was something that showed up on the maps right in the village area, so we started walking toward that.
We headed to the north on the road, and passed through a little community of homes on the east side, which I kind of wasn’t expecting of the shore. We also passed by the entrance to Conservation Island. I decided we would add that on to a future hike, because it’s a considerable distance there.

Getting late

I was text messaging the rest of the group to meet us at the restaurant I was planning on right up the hill in Promised Land (right now I can’t rememer what it was called).

View at dusk

We got to the first road that led up from the edge of the lake back to Route 390 and headed up. There was a bit of a trail parallel with the road complete with a little foot bridge. This was part of the Rhododendron Trail.
We turned off of it and through the settlement, and passed by an old church. When I got to where the restaurant should have been, I found that it had been closed. It looked like it’d been closed for quite some time actually.

Promised Land Lake

There was a fire department I think it was that had a bingo night going on, and some kind of food. I thought about doing that for a moment, but no one else was up for that.
I waited for the others to show up, and then Tim had another suggestion of something that was closer and pretty good, the Old Rangers Inn.
I can’t remember if I walked the remaining distance back to my van or what. I know there was an issue with room in the cars, so I might have gone the entire way back.

Old church in Promised Land

The town of Promised Land is really middle of nowhere, and it didn’t looks like a lot of places survived. There were some rough looking places, and one of them looked like it was maybe part of a motel structure or something that was in the process of collapsing pretty badly.
Either way, I had to go and get my van in order to get more of the group and bring them back. We then carpooled to the north to Old Rangers Inn and had a rather delicious dinner.

Rhododendron Trail

I believe I had some sort of burger that was a special to that place specifically, and it was outstanding.

Abandoned

I usually feel pretty tired after I eat following a hike, but this whole one was really so relaxing that I think it was what helped me to get through it without a problem.

At Old Rangers Inn

From the Promised Land State Park area, there are countless more trails that lead off in all directions. I could do probably half a dozen more hikes connected right off of this one very easily, all covering new stuff. Knowing how easily these trails are to follow and how the marking system works, I’m more inclined to go back and see more of it.
Still, there are so many more things I want to see and so many series I’m working on, I don’t know when I will get a chance to get back again. Maybe I’ll keep it in mind when the time comes that I really need some relaxation again.

End