Hike #1565: 8/13/23 Dingmans Ferry to Bushkill with Jack Lowry, Sarah Jones, Evan "Joe Millionaire" Van Rossum, Justin Gurbisz, Brittany Weider, and Everen
This next hike came about when I didn't have a hike posted, had wanted to do something in coal country, but some of the factors of late caused me to change the route to this rather simple to plan one instead.
I had planned this hike originally for a few weeks earlier, but the major flooding in Warren County led me to switching venue with less than 24 hours notice to Pennington NJ for better weather. So, I had already planned to do it anyway.
I'd not brought the entire group on this section of the McDade Trail since it had been completed. I'd walked it with Ev and Jillane soon after he was born, but it would be kind of new to much of the group.
Finally, I had been looking at this Wilkes Barre area hike, but Diane got me nervous about it because she reminded me of all of the yellow jacket and hornet nests we came upon last year around this time.
Indeed, last year was bad for it. I'd gotten stung so many times, on hike 500 on the Raritan River, at two spots on the Mason-Dixon Trail, and probably more I'm not even thinking about.
I didn't want little Ev to have a problem with those little nasties while out in the middleof nowhere, so I decided against posting that particular hike in favor of something much safer for him.
We met for this one at Marluca's in Bushkilll PA. Marluca's is the old Turn General Store, opened as a deli now and pizza place now. I figured it would be open, but I made the mistake of not checking Sunday schedule. They didn't open till 11. I had to hurry up the road to the nearest Turkey Hill store to grab something for Ev for the day.
Once everyone arrived, we were ready to shuttle north to our start point in Dingman's Ferry. We moved the cars to the official McDade Trail lot on the other side of Bushkill Creek at the end.
I actually started it off farther than we needed to. I pulled over on Rt 209 well south of the lot I'd intended to use, and had to walk up 209 for a bit with Ev in the stroller.
I wanted to make this hike a little something different than in the past by adding something I'd not done before at all, just for me.
One of these was the Delaware Cemetery.
At the main intersection in Dingman's Ferry, a short walk uphill leads to the southern entrance to the cemetery. That bit of road walking was the only bad part of the entire hike; the rest of it was quite secluded, and there were only two road crossings, both at the beginning.
We headed into the cemetery, which is quite modern at first. We skirted the left side, and most of it was relatively modern burials in this area. The Cemetery Association here started in 1880, but the cemetery dates back much earlier.
I know very little about this cemetery, but I can say with certainty that the lower end of it, which is along present day Rt 209, is shown in the old Atlas Maps of Pike County, which date to the 1870s.
After the first loop within the cemetery, we entered a wooded bit and descended a little on a cemetery road. There was an impressive area of tiers of burials, with the highest one almost up in the woods here. We continued to descend to an 1880 maintenance building partially in the ground, which was probably once a crypt. When the ground was frozen, bodies were kept in these areas until graves could be dug.
We headed down from this, then back up on another cemetery road to an upper end of the cemetery, at the far north end.
At the very end, there was a blocked off road that used to be a cemetery access down to Rt 209. We went around that, and down to the highway.
Directly across the highway from that spot is the Joseph McDade Recreation Trail. We crossed, got on the trail, and turned right.
This section went up and down a bit. I'd not been on this piece in many years. It shifted to the left and right around a very tight switchback, down closer to the Delaware River, then back up steeply to the edge of Rt 209 again.
We headed toward the traffic light where we'd just turned a bit before, crossed Dingmans Ferry Road through openings in the railings, and then descended through an open area to the woods.
Just inside the woods, we reached the foot bridge over Dingman's Creek, which is quite a long one. I picked Ev up and let him walk over the bridge and for a little while beyond.
Just ahead, Dingman's Falls Road is reached, which is closed to traffic. McDade Trail turns right on this, and then left off of it into more woods. Ev zigzagged around on the trail a bit, and John held back with him. He started to slow down and get crabby, so I made him sit in the stroller as we reached another steep spot on the trail.
After a short bit, Ev gets over it and is happily looking around again.
The trail heads up to a very high bluff above the Delaware River, and past some abandoned old parcourse circuit exercise stations. I suppose some of this used to be part of the Dingmans Campground, which must be a bit truncated now.
The trail soon turned right down a bit of another slope, near an opening, and weaved around some of the current Dingmans Campground. We came up closer to Rt 209, and then reached the entrance road to the campground were the camp store is located.
We stopped there to get a bite to eat, and the new concessioners are very nice. They are brothers from Milford area that recently took over the previous concessioner's remaining term, and are very friendly.
I took Ev out of the stroller and brought him into the store where we purchased two ice cream bars to share.
Ev can say several one syllable words, one of them being "ice" at this point. He kept repeating "ice" over and over in anticipation as I was making the purchase. I also picked up some kind of chips I think.
We hungout outside and enjoyed our snacks before moving on ahead. The trail skirted a field in the next bit, but it was pretty pleasant because the way the sun was, we remained in the shade for a while.
In this stretch, I noticed at the invasive Autumn Olive plants on our left side were beginning to bear fruit.
The fruit, known as Silverberries or Autumn Berries, are edible and can be pretty tasty. I ate a few to make sure they were good, and they were. Ev had some, followed by everyone else I believe.
It got me thinking, when I was little, I had a microscope that came with one slide with it, of a "silver berry scaly hair", and I wonder if it is the same species of plant. It was quite a pretty slide.
Ev walked for a bit down the trail ahead, but eventually got tired and had to be placed back in the stroller.
Ev fell asleep, and it was soon we came upon our first good swimp spot. This spot was good enough that I could get the stroller down the slope to the river side pretty well. It was at a nice turn in the trail, so I was able to remember the spot from when I was last there with him and Jillane.
As I was pushing him down the hill, it was a bit bumpy and he woke up, having only had a very short nap compared to usual. I think this was the former Schneider farm area near Merchant's Creek.
Ev was quite happy throwing stones and such into the water while the rest of us took a dip.
When we were done with our break, we headed uphill and sat at logs and such, for what must be a campsite for boaters and such. Ev just went over to a log that was his size and sat himself down. I can't believe what a little person he's become.
I let Ev out of the stroller again for a while to run on his own, and he covered a good distance. The trail crossed Deckers Creek in a tree line, and we continued along field edges for a while.
Ev got tired and kept sitting back down in the gravel of the trail, so I sat him back in the stroller with little opposition.
The relaxing hike continued on, and Ev accosted the others with a turkey feather we found.
We paused for another break at a nice picnic table that I think was at the Venturo's Access to the Delaware.
We continued ahead, and the trail joined the access road to the Jerry Lees access to the Delaware. A couple of cars were down there, but this area was surprisingly not so busy.
After the Jerry Lees road ended, the trail continued on another former road through a line of trees, then cut to the north for a bit. I had my maps handy, and I recognized the spot, that this was where we would take a side trip to a rather forgotten cemetery.
The Brodhead Linderman Cemetery was easily found this time because there were somewhat obscure spray paint marks on trees leading from McDade Trail.
The first time I found it, I came in from the east a bit. The main part of the cemetery had a white wrought iron fence around it that read the two names, and the date 1870. The enclosed fence section was not the only part of it. There were other burials a bit further north in there, and we walked around to look at all of them. I know the burial ground dates back to before 1870, as one of the burials on the north side was from 1852. There were also posts remaining from another family plot enclosure where almost all of the fencing around it has vanished.
After looking around, we headed out to return to the McDade Trail, but I went off course and ended up going a wrong way.
I ended up in the edge of soy fields, and then couldn't get back into the woods easily, so I found my way all the way back to Jerry Lees, then hurried along the trail back to the rest of the group, who were worried where I ended up. Ev came running to me, as he was waiting back with Joe Millionaire. I got myself pretty well sliced up through that mess.
We pushed onward and came out along more fields, rather close to the river. This brought us past the Eshback Launch area and access, and then on to the west toward Egypt Mills, where we crossed Toms Creek. I think we crossed this one right next to Rt 209.
From here, we headed back along fields, and it got a bit hotter. The sun had shifted in the sky where it was beating down on us more of the time, and we skirted the south side of field edges for quite a while.
We eventually came to the crossing of Denmark Creek, and then came much closer to Rt 209, sandwiched in close with the river, until we reached the Bushkill Launch. We stopped there for a little break. I went into the water to cool off quickly one more time, and fortunately didn't do so in front of the ranger that was parked right around the corner.
The Bushkill Access was once a lavish motel along the Delaware, on the upper end, and the launch area was a private access before the Tocks Island Dam project took all of the land in the area. Fortunately, that plan was defunct by Carter in 1979, and officially deauthorized in 1991.
We continued from here back into the woods, crossed one more creek, then came back to field edges which we skirted the north side of.
Justin and Brittany went off exploring abandoned stuff, and the rest of us continued walking along the trail, through a tree line to a lower level, and then out to Rt 209 in Bushkill.
We turned left on the road, which used to be lined with homes and a mill where only the Turn Store remains, crossed 209 where there was formerly a pony truss bridge, and then continued briefly into the woods until the side trail to the parking lot.
We got my car, and then headed to a pizza place a little further down 209 for dinner before ending our day.
I was dead tired after this one for some reason, but glad to have done it.
No comments:
Post a Comment