Hike #977; Kettle Run Area to Penn Estates
10/16/16 State Game Lands to Penn Estates with Michele Valerio, Pete G. Wilcox,
This next hike would be an interesting piecemeal of many parks and other lands slapped together in one of our signature routes that certainly no one has ever tried before, nor will they ever try to do again.
It’s always an interesting challenge for me to take a pre-defined end point and then try to put together a hike to that point. I’d been doing this for a couple of years, and I’ve not exhausted all of the areas surrounding, but it’s at the point where we’ll certainly have to overlap some stuff. Still, I managed to put together an almost entirely different hike.
State Game Lands 186 bushwhack
The route I came up with started at Bartonsville Woods Road well west of Michele and Scott’s house. It would pass first through State Game Lands 186. I studied the aerial imagery and saw that there was both a woods road and some other faint woods roads passing through the property. I figured we could get through this, and would be a good way to start off the hike. Lerch (Kralc Leahcim) was planning festivities for Saturday, Scott Trinkle was preparing great food as always, and I had the regular hike for Sunday.
We met at Penn Estates, which was more of a debacle than in the past. We had planned to have a camping trip down the hill from Michele’s at a regular campground, but with fewer people signed up, we made it into just a party at her house. I was too tired and stressed out, and really didn’t want to go out partying with how things had been. I couldn’t eat much more than a little food, and not being able to eat Scott’s great cooking would have just made it worse.
Hallett Road, the main way into Penn Estates, was closed, so we all had to come in from the Bartonsville side. That was a pain, but fortunately the guards let us right in. We went to the other side of the place to park, and a few in the group that had signed up got lost and opted out.
We parked on Bartonsville Woods Road after shuttling directly from the parking area at Penn Estates. The hike started with woods immediately. We followed the access road to the south, then slightly to the west, but I saw the opportunity to go off trail and potentially pick up the old woods road system.
We wandered through some woods, but we weren’t picking anything up. There was fortunately almost no undergrowth, so the hiking was pretty easy, save for stepping over some branches and such. We eventually emerged onto the wider old woods roads, which appear to have been planned as a new development, which would have connected with nearby development road Erica Way. It was never finished and this was our route further to the south out of the game lands.
We actually saw one other hike passing through, a guy looking for mushrooms. It was odd to see anyone else out in this obscure and unused piece of property.
The old road came out at Running Valley Road. We stopped for a break at the gate where we emerged, because Tea Biscuit and Amanda were coming to join up with us. They had found a parking area and started walking with their dogs, but they were pretty far off. We waited for a while, but they had gone to the section of the game lands farther west on Running Valley. We started walking, and they headed to connect with us with Tea Biscuit’s camper.
The ended up parking just to the east at the Kettle Creek Preserve.
We walked Running Valley Road to the east around some sharp bends. The road was pretty nice. Not hard walking. We eventually reached the gate at Running Valley Road and an informal entry to the preserve. We walked in there and soon picked up the trail system.
The Kettle Creek Wildlife Sanctuary was an order by Clayton Swink in his last will and testament that the remaining 120 acres of the Swing Farm and Homestead be turned into a nature preserve.
Kettle Creek Black Bear Trail
The house burned down in 1973, and the barn associated with it in the 1950s, but the preserve still has a lot of remnants of the farming past. Our first leg of the trip was to follow some of the old farm roads, which soon led to a scenic little pond.
I headed out to get Tea Biscuit and Amanda from the main parking area by way of a long handicapped accessible trail with metal railings. We all hung out at a nice little overlook spot until Serious Sean, Cindy, and Kellie met up with us. The handicapped accessible trail was called Black Bear Trail, and was pretty well done. Lots of interpretive signs went over a lot of things, including surprisingly the farm dump.
Observation deck
I could hear Serious Sean before I could see him; his voice was emanating through the woods loudly. It turned out he had brought with him a bull horn, and was saying all sorts of silly things into it. Kellie was laughing so hard she could hardly breathe.
We enjoyed the view of he wetland briefly, then continued on our way along the trail system. We left the handicapped accessible part and then began on the looping outside perimeter which became a simple natural path called the Songbird Trail.
The Songbird Trail went off to the left, and the trail that continued around the perimeter to the right was the Deer Trail.
Pond at Kettle Creek
We ascended through some very nice woods on the Deer Trail. It didn’t climb all that high, but I could feel the ascent. Not nearly to the top of the rise, the trail cut off to the left to skirt the edge of the hillside. It passed through some old stone rows and such, and eventually Deer Trail turned off to the left to go down hill, while Kregar Trail continued to the east along the hillside, now losing some elevation.
We reached where there was a side road to the right, not part of the trail system, which went into what looked to be a sort of slate quarry area. We didn’t go this way, and instead stuck with the trail which skirted the area to the left. We continued down hill to Garter Snake Trail.
Pond at Kettle Creek
The Garter Snake Trail led down hill, past a vacant house, and then to a lovely pond right out along the next bit of Running Valley Road. This would be where we would exit the Kettle Creek area, but first everyone wanted to check out the house.
It was wide open at the side, and the porch had lots of fossils right inside it. We didn’t disturb anything, but it was sadly in a state of disuse quite clearly.
While most of the group took a break, I called upon Justin and Stephen to join me for a side trip to anothe rabandoned house I had seen before with Jillane a few years back.
Hoose
We ran around back very quickly and went on in. The place wasn’t in the worst shape of all buildings we’d seen, but it could have been much better. I spotted a calendar inside which told us about when the place was abandoned. I think it was early 2000s but I really can’t remember now.
After wandering through each room, we headed down into the basement and exited by way of the wide open bilko doors. There were a couple of out buildings to the west of the house that we didn’t bother looking in at this time. We made our way back the way we came to the exit of the property to Running Valley Road. Everyone came out to join us and we walked the road to the east.
Old house
We followed Running Valley Road to the east until we got to Easton-Belmont Pike. This was a nice back road heading down hill gradually. We followed this out to a left on Custard Road. We crossed Rimrock Drive from there and continued on the dead end Custard Road.
This next section I was a bit nervous about, because everything from here until we got to pass beneath Rt 80 was sort of questionable to me. I wanted to see more of the former Wilkes Barre and Eastern Railroad bed, which was abandoned in the 1930s, and when we did the entire thing as a series, this section was sort of skipped by walking Rt 611.
We made our way down the road, and took a break at an intersection to a trailer park or something. It had it’s own barrels of salt along side the road for when it gets snowy. We passed some new houses, some still under development with the well driller doing it’s work out front. The cul de sac at the end of the road had no houses on it, and Rt 33 was right there beyond. It obviously once went through, but no longer does.
Wilkes Barre and Eastern Railroad grade
We entered the woods at the end, and bushwhacked parallel with Rt 33 heading north. A car pulled into the cul de sac as the last of the group was leaving. I wondered if they had followed us from further out in the development. No matter, no one bothered us as we moved along, and it ended up being a really cool section.
We had a gradually descent, which became more dramatic when we reached the old WB&E Railroad grade. It was clear what it was well before we reached it. Beyond, there was a woods road that was pretty well graded, and was probably the route of the old road, maybe Martz Road or an old Custard Road alignment before 33 was built.
Pocono Creek
I got the group back together at the railroad bed and told some of the group a little bit of the history.
The Wilkes Barre and Eastern was actually the most direct route to the Pennsylvania coal by way of railroad, but because the route had so many tight turns, they were forced to impose low speed limits. When William Truesdale made the many improvements to the Lackawanna soon after the turn of the century, it was far faster even though it wasn’t most direct.
WB&E was a wholly owned subsidiary of the New York, Susquehanna, and Western Railroad. It’s terminus prior to this construction was at the Lackawanna Railroad at Gravel Place, just north of Stroudsburg. That part was built in 1881.
The Wilkes Barre and Eastern opened in 1893, but didn’t even last fifty years. Most of the line north of Big Pocono is in good enough shape that it can be traced, but the sections to the south toward Stroudsburg are difficult.
Pocono Creek
I wanted to follow the line more, but I knew that wouldn’t work out. It just goes close to houses. We continued down hill and reached the Pocono Creek. Here, we had to wade across, or so I thought, to get to the next section. I had no problem getting my feet wet, nor did many in the group, but a few took quite a while to cross because they didn’t want to get their feet wet.
We all waited beneath the 33 bridge for everyone to come over. Ken went way up stream with hopes that he’d find a good spot to come across, but he ended up getting his feet wet anyway.
Justin eventually got tired of waiting and he made his way to the top of the bridge to cross on it. When Dave saw him going, he followed suit. It turned out one of the lanes was closed for construction anyway, which made this way very convenient.
Once we finally had everyone across, we headed beneath the Rt 33 bridge to head north parallel with the highway. I was surprised, but happy, to find that a woods road in from the highway was kept clear and very easy to walk in proximity to the highway. I didn’t see another railroad yet, but it was still just what we needed after so many unsure steps.
Stephen along 80
The route took us somewhat parallel with Rt 33, and then turned off to the right sort of parallel with Rt 80, but back off in the woods from it. This didn’t last forever, and the woods road cut to the right. It was heading back to the south again, and we needed to stay parallel with the south side of Route 80. That was where the Wilkes Barre and Eastern Railroad went.
We couldn’t see any remnants of the railroad from above, but we didn’t want to go further south because since we walked from the bridge, we were now hearing gun shots rather close by. I knew we’d be safe within close proximity to 80, but we didn’t want to be going too much further to the south again.
The railroad apparently had crossed over the Pocono Creek below us, and I was originally intent on going down and walking along the creek, but the descent to it was insanely steep. It was not going to be a good one if we went down that way. Justin and I scouted ahead to see if there would be a better route up closer to the grade of 80.
We found a wide meadow like area parallel with the highway, which according to maps was the actual route of the railroad bed. We got out along 80 and starting following it parallel in through the fields, but not really well within sight of drivers and such. There was a deer path through the stuff which made it reasonably to walk it for a while.
I watched the map for where the railroad would have cut away, and at that point we headed inland. We climbed steeply down the edge of the highway into the area closer to the stream.
Wilkes Barre and Eastern bridge abutment
We got down to the creek edge, and there were no houses in sight. We were able to easily follow the creek down stream for a bit. I took the opportunity to walk through the stream, and took a nice quick dip.
Old bridge site
It wasn’t very long before the former bridge site where the railroad had crossed the Pocono Creek came into sight. Only the east end abutment was visible, and it was a bad, crumbling mess. It was obviously the original abutment from 1893, and the mortar had not held up very well.
The other side of the Pocono Creek from the abutment was gone due much in part to the construction of Interstate 80. Interestingly, the Pocono Creek itself was moved for the construction of the highway. The creek used to turn to the north, but the entire former creek bed was filled in, with the new channel just below the highway remaining to the south.
Pocono Creek at the bridge site
So, the route we followed along the south side of Rt 80 was just about right on where the tracks once were, but where the highway is was right where the stream used to be. The tracks used to go through an open field area, after a double crossing of the Pocono Creek. To the north of there, the creek was moved below 80. When we descended, we got back to the point where the railroad was never moved.
Several other places to the east, the Pocono Creek was moved over due to the construction of Rt 80. This is why I was never able to follow the WBE right of way very well before.
Wilkes Barre and Eastern Rail bed
Once we were all up on the bridge abutment, we had a good group shot. We had a closer look at the bridge site, which had it’s stone work hanging over like an overhang. It will probably collapse any time, which made it a bit nerve wracking watching all of my friends standing on the edge of it.
We moved on along the railroad bed heading to the east from here. It was very clear and easy to follow for a good while. At some point, it got a bit more overgrown, and a clearer path went off to the left. We continued straight on the right of way, which was still easily walkable.
WBE rail bed
Soon, we came to a former bridge crossing, over Schafers School House Road. There didn’t even seem to be any abutments left to the former bridge, but we were easily able to walk down the side through light weeds to reach the road. On the other side, a faint path led back up to the rail bed, which we could walk with only minimal undergrowth heading to the east.
We continued on the rail bed over a high fill, with some swamp land to the left and the Pocono Creek to the right. I recognized this area, with the big flat rocks gradually descending to the creek side, from photos of it I had seen on line. It looked like an inviting place to swim, but we didn’t stop.
Walkin Beech Road
We turned away from the railroad bed when we got to the boundary of Kirkwood Camp. There were some camp activities like a big swing thing and other stuff around, and the railroad bed was used as an access road to get to this point. I didn’t want to wander further into the camp, so we went through the activity area (and some played on the equipment) and started climbing up the hill.
I went ahead for a bit to make sure we ended up on Beech Road, where there were no houses or other properties where we might have a problem.
We emerged west of some houses and had no problem. We continued walking the route to the east, and then came across a side street called Abbey Road.
Abbey Road
We of course felt the need to remake the iconic Beatles Album cover in front of the street sign.
We followed Beech Road from here to the entrance to the Kirkwood Camp. The railroad bed continues just in the woods from this corner, but we turned left to follow Beech Road up hill and beneath Route 80. It was one of the biggest “up hills” of the entire trip, which wasn’t really at all bad.
We passed an abandoned house off to the left overlooking Route 80, which I’d have liked to explore, but with the large group I dared not try to wander over to it.
Delaware Water Gap from the school
We came out at the intersection on Rt 611, and turned to the left briefly to reach Pocono Commerce Drive, a commercial road going to several businesses like Home Depot, TJ Maxx, and a bunch of other crap. We would have stopped for a bite to eat here, but we had plans to stop at Pocono Limited Winery. I thought it was along the way as per google maps, but it turns out it was not open except by appointment, and we had none. I left them a message but they never called me back.
We continued from the shopping center, then off to the right as the road continued onto the property of the rather new Stroudsburg Middle School. Actually, all of the schools are throughout this area along the road, at this point called Mountaineer Drive.
At those Pocono schools
There was a terrific view into the Delaware Water Gap from the top of the high by the middle school. We cut to the left across a parking lot and then grass to the north. This allowed us to cut a corner on the Mountaineer Drive; we then headed down hill past a retention pond, and through some messy brush to reach the road where it crosses over Flagler Run.
We walked along a short bit of the road across the creek, then climbed up steeply on the hillside on the other side which allowed us to cut yet another corner that heads past the Stroudsburg Intermediate School.
I went way ahead of the group and ended up at the top before anyone else got there.
Retention hill
We had a really nice break at the top of this hill. Everyone had to catch up, because they were pretty far off. I could see them all in the distance coming down the hill from the retention pond that I had crossed far quicker.
Michele was doing really good until this area, and her knee started giving in pretty badly. Tea Biscuit and Amanda were almost ready to cut out as well. We took a long break at the top of the hill, and I probably could have fallen asleep if I’d tried. We couldn’t wait too long though; I gave up on the winery thing, and instead we needed to make our way to the Brodhead Creek and try to get to the last of the trails before dark.
After crossing a field, we came to Chipperfield Drive. From there, we went along Clearview Avenue all the way to the northern side of Stroudsburg. It was the most boring part of the hike, but as I recall it went by pretty quickly. We turned left on Ramapo Lane, then left on Dayton Ave.
Jen's new perm
Along the road walk stretch, Lerch and I don’t even know who else, probably Scott and Christian, ended up picking up Tea Biscuit, Amanda, and Michele.
The rest of us continued into town. We turned left from Dayton onto Rt 191 briefly, then turned right onto a frontage road called Loysen Road. There, we found a guy putting out free stuff that didn’t sell at a yard sale he’d had that day. After checking out the free stuff, we went to see what he had at his yard sale. It turned out to be a great move!
The guy who was having the yard sale was a DJ by trade, and he told us he did events all over the area. This is why he had so many crazy get ups. His late wife, who had passed only somewhat recently, had owned all sorts of costumes, and so he was just sort of cleaning house. Everything was pretty high quality and really cheap. I had to get as much as I could, because I also have so much fun with this stuff.
First, I bought a great pirate had that was only $5.
Serious Andy Warhol?
Jen got some sort of weird perm haircut thing and a skirt, Sean got a weird Andy Warhol wig, Kellie got something too, I forget what the costume was supposed to be. A lot of people in the group walked away with some funny, high quality stuff.
The DJ owned his businesses which included Fantasy Karaoke, and he certainly has the personality for it. I regret to say I cannot recall his name, but he thoroughly enjoyed the visit from our group. We probably hung out a lot longer than we needed to just because he was so fun to be around and talk to.
It was tough to pick what to get in addition to my Pirate hat; there was an excellent fez had that I wanted, plus full costumes. I only had enough cash on me to get one more t hing, so I settled on a Greek God costume. It was between that and a black and white striped jail bird costume. I had already done the orange jail bird thing, and I really liked the Greek God thing better overall anyway. I was then ready for the upcoming costume hike!
Having too much fun!
We headed up Loysen and continued to the right onto Mill Creek Road. This took us out to the Brodhead Creek Trail, which makes part of the Levee Loop in stroudsburg below this point, and continues up the river to Pinebrook Park to the north.
I posed it to the group that we could walk over the bridge and visit the M&S Store since we didn’t get a chance to pick anything up before. The bridge was closed, after having been recently replaced (it’s finished but I understand it awaits a final engineer sign off), but we could easily walk over it.
When we got to the other side, we were disappointed to see that the store was closed. There was a guy parked around the side with a pickup, and when he saw us walking away, he called out to us.
“Hey, what do you guys need?” he asked. I told him we just wanted snacks and drinks, and he told us to hang on a second. He came around and opened the front doors, turned on the lights, and allowed us to get some stuff despite the fact that he was closed Sundays.
Brodhead Creek dam
He explained to us that it’s been really hard on business since the bridge had been out. It used to be a great spot for those coming back and forth across the river, but it had been for too long. I had patronized this store in the past while going through, and will certainly go back my next time in the area because of his kindness.
We re-crossed the bridge, and there was a kid jumping his bike on a pile of dirt left by the construction. The trail turned right just on the other side and skirted the sewage treatment plant property. I had never been on this stretch of the Brodhead Creek Trail before. It had never gone through until recently. My first time through, we had to walk through from on street to the north.
Brodhead Creek
It was really a beautiful section with some great views. It led us past the building,s and over a small bridge at an outflow, then through an open area followed by woods. Another access trail came in from the left, and we continued along the waterfront to the north toward Brodhead Creek Park. The official trail route went to the left, but we continued past a little pond and to the woods with a faint footpath.
I remembered my first time walking through on this section ahead, with my ex, Cathy. When we had reached this spot, we finished off the last home made bottle of wine made by her boss, Jerome Baucom’s late wife. It always felt like a strong memory, the end of something created with passion, never to be again. All things end, and it’s best to hold onto a pleasant memory of whatever that may be.
Brodhead mess
The “trail” that continued on the creek was far worse than it was when I’d tried it with Cathy. In fact, I’d done it again within the past five years, and this time it was far worse than any of the previous times I’d done it. It was horribly overgrown and I found myself on my hands and knees crawling through the crap. I’d imagine the rest of the group were probably cursing my name back there. I would never have expected that it would be this bad. Most of them went for higher ground, closer to someone’s house, while I fought through some crap to end up on the rocks along the shore. Pete ended up on the shore somehow too, and we did a rock hop heading to the north along the creek directly.
I worked up a hell of a sweat, and so I layed down in the creek and took a quick swim. It didn’t feel as cold to me as it would have otherwise. It was definitely a good move, because I’d have felt sweaty and sticky had I continued from here after the bushwhack.
Hallet Road bridge
Soon, the group were able to get out of the mess and onto an informal path that led to the official Brodhead Creek Trail. I decided to walk up the river for a bit, but the water came up to way over my hips. I tried to hold on, and kept my pack just barely above the water as I made my way to where I could climb up and join the group.
We then continued on the main trail across a rather new footbridge at the south end of Pinebrook Park. The old bridge had washed away, and a temporary puncheon was in place just below to the right of it, still in place, but unused. We crossed and continued along the creek through pleasant level ground to reach the parking area.
Pinebrook Park was the former site of a boy scout camp that was wiped out in the Flood of ‘55. The scouts were swept away inside the buildings. A survivor named Charlie, who was stuck on a roof, watched the building full of kids go over a waterfall in the Delaware, and the building disappeared (he was one of my managers at A&P).
Hallet Road bridge
We made our way out of the park, and for a brief time I went the wrong way on 191. We had to turn back to get on Hallet Road.
Hallet Road was another road closed off for work. There are at least three closed roads within close proximity of one another in this area alone. Hallet was closed because an old stone arch bridge had collapsed partially. Justin and I were going to move the bollards at the end of the night to get our cars across, but they had piled up lots of dirt that neither of our vehicles could cross without causing damage. Shovels would have taken more than ten minutes and so turning the other way was smarter.
We walked the long stretch of Hallet Road from here. It was a good time to hike it, because there is almost no traffic on it due to the bridge being out. It made for a pretty pleasant walk.
We remained on the road until we got to the power line crossing just before the Penistates entrance, and took that directly to the cars. Much of the group decided to just go home, while the rest of us headed to Michele’s for some food and drink.
It was a pretty mellow evening; everyone was just watching TV. Lerch was now walking, but with a strong limp due to his broken bone. I’m kind of glad it was laid back; with my stomach pains and stress, I wasn’t able to eat more than a tiny bit at a time, and I couldn’t have much more than a beer without feeling crappy either.
It was all in all a great day. Just the kind of thing the hikes are supposed to be, something everyone can enjoy, and get their own thing out of. Michele gets the convenience of having a hike close to home, and everyone gets the gift of an amazing experience on her birthday. I really feel that the best gift is the shared experience.
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