Hike #1444; Dingman's Ferry to Bushkill

Hike #1444: 10/7/21 Dingman's Ferry to Bushkill with Jillane Becker and Everen

This next one would be a point to point, back to the McDade Trail in Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, the second bit of the trail from where we last covered in Bushkill.

This trail is really so good for what we do with our son, and it provides us with great swimming spots and scenery while not having any grades that I can't do with the jogger stroller.

We drove both of our cars out to Bushkill PA which would be our end point, where we started the previous one, and parked at the far side of the old Turn Store, now Marluca's. We went in there and god food and drink for the trip, and then shuttled to the north to Dingman's Ferry to start the hike.
It started out oddly because my plan was to park at the Dingman's boat launch near the Dingman's Ferry Bridge, which is the only remaining private toll bridge across the Delaware River.

I was surprised to find that the parking lot there now requires a toll for its use. We were not boating, and I definitely didn't want to pay any stupid toll, so we head to figure out another spot to park.

We ended up parking up further near Dingman's Falls on Dingman's Falls Road off of Rt 209. From there, all we had to do was walk it across 209 and to the east, and then get on the McDade Trail.

As we walked down the road, the trail came in on the left I recall and then turned on the right ahead of there. I had hiked the McDade Trail through this section before, but I think some of this was not built yet. I did a series tracing the trail as well as the Pocono Rim above starting years ago, and many of them through 2009, but I'm not sure I ever followed all of this bit of it through since it was completed. 

The trail went into the woods, then climbed a bit more from the Dingman's Creek than I was expecting it to. It ended up going up to a height of land above the Delaware River, betweet it and the Dingman's Creek.

We continued along this, and then started noticing stuff out in the weeds and such. Pieces of metal, wood, and then realized they were old numbered exercise stations that haven't been maintained in forever.

There was apparently once a parcourse circuit going from the nearby Dingman's Campground, and they just abandoned it. 

The trail turned to the right away from the Delaware River, over a little knoll, and then through former pastures to skirt the property of the Dingman's campground. It headed out to pretty close to Rt 209, then turned left through the woods parallel with it for a time.
There is a more direct way to go through and a clear route as I understand, but I think they try to keep the river access in the area exclusive to paying campers or something.

We headed soon to the entrance road to the campgrounds, and the camp store was right there. We took a little side trip over to that and went inside for snacks and drinks and such. I recall they had the really good chocolate milk, I guess it was Clover Farms, and I got some of that.

I ended up talking the clerk working the place for a while, about quality chocolate milk, and I forget about what else exactly. He was a pretty nice guy and into the job being there. I can't remember what else we got there in terms of food, but I know there was something else for sure. 

We got back on McDade Trail after throwing out all of our trash at the waste cans there, and it immediately headed from the woodland to field edge.

We passed through fields on their left side for a while, still rather closely parallel with Rt 209, and then turned hard left into some woods before coming out to another field. This entire area was once the Schneider Farm.

Just before we came out of the woods to the next bit of field, there was an old barn foundation to the right side of the trail. We emerged from the woods, and another trail went off to the right. This led to the Schneider Farm trail head.

We continued down to the next tree line, and the trail turned right to follow it southwest along the field edges. This seemed like a super long stretch in the beating sun.

To the right of us, we had views of the cliffs of the Pocono Rim. There was also a small wetland pond known as Schneider's Farm Pond off to the right.

We pushed onward and reached a tree line where the trail passed through directly, and crossed a foot bridge over the Merchant's Creek. 

Through the tree line, the trail turned hard left and skirted the next field, then at the end, hard right and skirted the other edge parallel with the Delaware River.
We headed back out, and the trail took us away from the river a bit again. A farm lane leads out to 209 directly, but the trail turns hard to the left to cross Hornbeck's Creek.
I'd walked through this area while the trail was under construction quite a while back.

Hornbeck's Creek is the one that has the waterfalls known as the Indian Ladders. It was always one of my favorites, but has gotten a bit more overrun in recent years.

We turned left again after this bridge crossing, and headed down along the fields parallel with Hornbecks Creek, and then parallel with the Delaware once again.
This section continued around a bend and then followed the other edge of the field away from the river again, but just inside the woods from this point was what looked like a nice cleared area, so we went in to check it out briefly.

This little foot path led to a spot with a fire pit and an access directly down to the Delaware River. It turned out that it is one of those trekker's camp sites for those paddling down the Delaware.

We made use of the welcoming spot for a little time, although the bugs were really bad on this day, so sitting still wasn't really a great thing. I went down and jumped into the Delaware to cool off briefly, but Jillane opted not to do so at this point.

After our break, we continued on; there looked to be an informal path beyond this trekker's site that went back to the McDade Trail and cut a corner, but I decided I wanted to follow the trail directly.

I went back to it, away from the Delaware River yet again, then through the line of trees and back to the field edges parallel with the Delaware.

We went for a was along the edges of the fields, and we came upon another camping area for long distance paddlers, and I recall we had a little path in the woods out to that. I think I took another break to take a dip, but I don't remember Jillane getting in this one either.

I think at some point Jillane found an even nicer spot off the trail to the left near one of the corners up ahead where we both went in, but it wasn't anything particular that was on any of the maps.

We turned right at a field edge, and then left into the woods. It was a nice, long stretch of woods that felt great in lieu of the constant field edges. We crossed over a little creek, and the trail turned briefly onto a road that used to be known as Lenny Lane. 

We followed the slopes above the Delaware above Shapnack Island, and then eventually turned to the right away from the river yet again, and toward Rt 209. We crossed Spackman's Creek on a foot bridge, went left, and then skirted close to another field edge, only a bit into the woods from it.

We reached another field edge along the Delaware, went right, and then soon came out to Venturo Road. This was the Venturo Access to the Delaware River. The trail followed the road straight ahead into the access site. 

Near the end of the road access, the trail went back into the woods, and then turned slightly away from the river again. A wet area with vernal pools and such was just to the south, closer to the river, so the trail skirts the entire section to the north.
We followed this bit, and then crossed over Briscoe Creek on a foot bridge. 
Immediately after this creek crossing, we returned to field edges and skirted them to the left. That brought us out to the Jerry Lee's Access Road.
The trail turned to the left here and followed the gravel road out toward the Delaware River. 

We turned right and passed through the access site, and then remained along the Delaware for a little while longer. When the road ended, the trail remained on the old road route for a time.

The trail turned hard to the right at some point, and then left into more woods heading toward a foot bridge over the Mill Creek. This was an area I watched closely, because I knew there was a hidden abandoned cemetery in this area.

My understanding is that it is known as the Brodhead Cemetery, and it is on I believe the former Wheatplains Farm in Lehman Township.
It was before that supposedly known as the Heller Farm.
The cemetery is known also as the Brodhead/Linderman Cemetery and Brodhead-Courtright Burying Ground. There was reportedly once something called Lynn's Bar and Restaurant near here.

I found a spot where there was some flagging ribbon on trees heading off away from the trail. I decided to try to follow that route. At first it was pretty good, but then I got off of it. 

I'm pretty sure the ribbons were put up by someone to show the way to the old cemetery. I fortunately found my way to it, and it was pretty awesome.
Jillane and the baby went way ahead of me at this point, and I offered to wait to let her go back and have a look at it, but she opted not to this time.

One section of the burial ground was a bit more beat looking, on the outside of the main part, which was lined by a very nice ornamental white wrought iron fence.
It looked as though it had been maintained somewhat over the years, but was just growing back over often. It didn't have any trees in the enclosure anyway.

I made my way back through the woods from the cemetery and onto McDade Trail, and then headed across the Mill Creek. 

We meandered through the woods a little more from here, and then passed through a scrubby section of overgrown fields where we crossed Alicias Creek, which flows out of Sunny Hill Lake, also known as Stuckey Pond. I had walked pretty much all of the creeks coming off of the Pocono Rim, and this one was small but pretty.

We continued along the field edges, which became cultivated again, and then reached Eshbeck Boat Launch where we took a little break. 

I went for a little swim at the launch area because it was so nice. I don't recall if Jillane got in or not, but it was a really great stop. 

The trail continued ahead from here on a splendidly shaded route, just inside the woods from the field edges for a bit, then returned to the fields to continue on. 

The trail continued through the Eshbeck Farm sction on the edges, but then turned inland after a while again when we got close to Egypt Mills.
This was an area where there used to be a little resort and several more buildings. Just about all of them are gone today from Egypt Mills. The settlement was on Tom's Creek, which flows down to the Delaware here.
The creek probably would have required a

more substantial bridge, and so there is one right next to the Rt 209 bridge. 

Once we crossed, we turned hard left, and the trail skirted fields and went back under good tree cover in the woods again. We then weaved out of the woods and back onto a field edge, this time along the left side of a tree line.

The trail seemed to go straight as can be for an eternity until we got to the next forest section. 

At this point, the trail turned left on an access road that goes further than we were going this time to the Valley View Group Campground. Before reaching that, the trail turned off to the right and headed further into the forest. It passed through stands of evergreen which was welcome with the heat.
We skirted the Bennekill Pond on the right, with the Delaware River on the left. The wetland on the right. Pretty soon, Denmark Creek spilled off into the Delaware.

We continued ahead, and Route 209 came very close to the Delaware River. The trail just followed along the slope below the highway for a good while here.

Just a little bit ahead, we arrived at the end of the Bushkill Boat Launch. This was, until the federal government took over the land, the site of the Delashore Motel.

The hotel advertised that each room opened up to a veranda overlooking the Delaware River.

I think I took another dip down at the boat launch, which had a side road down along the edge of it we could take instead of the trail, and connected back together on the other side.

It was getting pretty dark by the time we reached the launch. The last of the sun was setting and the river was starting to get dark.

We continued out the far side of the launch into the woods, and crossed over the Randall Creek. From there, we headed back up closer to Rt 209.

My maps showed that there was another hidden cemetery in these woods to the left, near what is known as the Schoonover House (not to be confused with the Schoonover Mountain House, same family, different place), which I believe is still lived in by a park employee. It was unfortunately too dark at this time to get to it, so we just continued on along the trail to get done as soon as we could.

We crossed the Schoonover House driveway, and continued back into more woods, with stands over evergreen through them. We then emerged into the edge of another field and followed the right side of it in the Peters Tract.

From here, it was dark but nice. We had walked through here somewhat recently and knew what to expect. Jillane took Ev and put him into her front pack to carry him the little bit of time we had remaining. We passed below another abandoned house that was owned by a member of the Turn family, and then passed down a hill through a swath of trees to reach a lower field.

We passed into the last bit of woods before coming out in Bushkill, and we took the actual trail fork to the left before coming out because I wanted to stay right on it.

It turned out that the trail I followed down hill was what I suppose was intended for the future McDade Trail when and if they ever build a separate bridge for it, and we had to backtrack a bit.

It wasn't all that bad; we came back out to the real trail and made our way out to Route 209 in Bushkill, right across from the Turn Store where we were parked in the end of their lot.

I really had a great time with this one as well; I wanted to do the last segment of the McDade Trail, which isn't quite the distance we usually do, but we could add on Cliff Park section and have plenty of mileage for it. Unfortunately, the trail was closed soon after this in this section due to Bald Eagle nesting, so we wouldn't get around to doing it, and as of this writing I have not finished the trail with Ev yet, although I've done it all myself.