Hike #1575;10/22/23 Stroudsburg to Delaware Water Gap/Karamac with Lerch (Michael Clark), Justin Gurbisz, Professor John DiFiore, Mike Selender, Evan "Joe Millionaire" Van Rossum, Alyssa Lidman, Diane Reider, Jenny Tull, Serious Sean Dougherty, Galya, ?, and Craig Fredon
This next hike would be a point to point between Karamac on the New Jersey side of the Delaware Water Gap, and Lerch's place with his girlfriend Cara in Stroudsburg PA.
Lerch reached out to me ahead of time and said he was going to be having a shindig, and asked if I could do a hike around his area to go along with his party.
I was happy to put something together, and so I looked over maps to see what I could come up with that we hadn't done all of before through the area.
Directly from the house, we had already exhausted most approach options on the west, so we'd have to do a degree of road walking to get anywhere, but it wasn't too bad.
I came up with a route that would put together spots on the Brodhead Creek, points around Stroudsburg, historic sites, college campus, and more, finishing at the former site of Karamac Inn and using a bit of the abandoned New York, Susquehanna, and Western Railroad.
I really like challenges like this, where I have a little criteria I have to work with, but I can slap together something interesting still.
Even though I've done so much stuff all over the Stroudsburg area, there was still quite a bit of stuff I hadn't done, and this was a good opportunity to knock out a few more of those oddball places I hadn't.
Unlike the previous trip I did to the area, this one I planned to start at Lerch and Cara's place, and then end farther way, and we'd come back there after.
Lerch had had a party the night before, which I couldn't make it to because I had to watch Ev, and there's no way I'd get away with taking him just out to a party.
We met in the morning at the Farview Lot in Worthington State Forest. It is almost across from the national park service Karamac lot, but that had been closed just under a year prior because of all of the people swimming in the dangerous section of the Delaware.
A few people passed by the lot when they saw the Karamac one was blocked off. The NPS actually screwed over the state park service by closing this lot, because it meant people were still parking on state land and walking right across the street to do exactly what they didn't want. All it did was limit the amount of people that could park there.
Ev and I went for a walk up the road a bit because I wanted to get some then and now photos of where the Karamac Inn used to be.
We went up the road, and I found the spot based on some historic aerial images. Once everyone was together at the Farview lot, we shuttled with as few cars as possible up to Stroudsburg.
Lerch had one friend show up that'd never done my hikes before, but he didn't care as much for the road walking and "pedestrian salad" as I like to call it.
I came up with the term to describe piecing together all of these weird little parks and greenways that don't quite connect with minimal road walks or other interesting sites. The term seems to fit it, and it goes right with my theme of visiting places that might be, by no one's definition, a destination in and of themselves, but when part of a larger experience, are amazing.
The first part was the worst part of the entire hike, because we were just walking the roads through the development.
From Edgemont Road, we walked to Horizon Drive. This road curved north and then to the east a bit.
We continued to the intersection with Butterfly Lane, in a very open area, turned left, and then turned right on Avenue C.
We simply followed this east and downhill until we got to Jay Albertson Park on the left, which had a playground and a little pond. I took Ev out of the stroller here to let him run over and play on the playground for a bit. This allowed for me to look at the aerial images to be sure of our trajectory.
Craig was feeling a bit sick and cut back really early on, even though we hadn't made it very far, so I didn't even get to say goodbye.
From here, we walked around the little pond on the east side a bit. I assume the Albertson the park is named for is a distant relative of mine, since I am descended from the Albertsons in Delaware NJ just to the east and south a bit in NJ.
We walked around the front of a building to Rt 191, turned right, and then crossed to the left onto Appennzeller Ave. Almost immediately, we turned right onto Pumphouse Lane and headed gradually downhill into Creekview Park.
On the right, we turned onto the Stroud Area Levee Trail, which follows along the Brodhead Creek on both sides. I'd been hiking this trail for many years, and every time on it there are new improvements.
Even on sections I had done before, there are more things I've never seen or noticed.
The trail took us down through a very pretty woods area to the flood plain, and onto a foot bridge over a tributary. We skirted the edge of the Brodhead pretty soon, and then emerged into the ball fields in Creekside Park.
For many years, this was a rough spot hiking the trail. The first couple times I did it, we had to bushwhack through to the north, and then make our way out to the next road.
This time, when we got to the edge of the ball field, I was absolutely shocked to see that the trail went all the way through. I thought that we were going to have to backtrack or go through a crummy bit of bushwhacking with the stroller.
I was really happy walking through this. It was easy to push the stroller, and I could enjoy the segment much more than in the past.
As we walked north, I took note of some very obvious grades that at least one of must have been the original New York, Susquehanna, and Western Railroad.
The line was built across New Jersey and terminated at Gravel Place to the north of Stroudsburg, where it interchanged with the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western. This was only really a significant place until 1893 when its wholly owned subsidiary, the Wilkes-Barre and Eastern was completed. It was the most direct route from coal mines and facilities to the Hudson River for a while.
The many curves and single track forced the imposition of slower speeds. When other lines upgraded, like the Lackawanna, to double track with better grades, even though they were still not quite as direct, NYS&W and its subsidiary could not compete.
The Wilkes-Barre and Eastern was abandoned in 1939, and the NYS&W north of Columbia NJ to Stroudsburg was abandoned in the 1940s.
This area we were walking through was pretty well scrubbed from years of flooding, especially 1955.
Still, there were some pretty obvious remnants of rail through the area. One was a trench back in the woods, and another was a bit of fill out closer to the edge of the creek that might have been a part of it.
Soon, the trail, heading upstream, took us along a fence behind the Loyal Order of the Moose Lodge. I remember walking through this area before, and there was a sort of spot where the trail was acknowledged to go through private land and then returned to public. Now, it was more delineated.
We continued from the clearing to more woods on the other side, part of Stokes Mill Park.
We emerged from the woods onto Stokes Mill Road, and the greenway trail is routed along that to the north for a bit.
We had some rather splendid views of cascades on the river to the right, one of which appears to possibly be the remnants of an old dam. That would make sense if there had been a mill there.
We continued north on the road to Mill Creek Road. Straight ahead, the trail continues upstream along the creek, through the water treatment plant, but my plan for this time was to turn right across the bridge, and then to the south through Yetter Park on the other side and reach Stroudsburg.
We crossed, and then checked out the pretty rocks immediately on the other side of the creek. There's a great little approach to the water there.
After that, we continued walking the trail throught he park, which is also used as a frisbee golf course. There were some people playing, so we tried to stay out of their way as we moved on through.
We had a pleasant walk along the flood plain, and there were some more little side trails going in different directions, all parallel withone another, through this area that had not been there on my previous visit.
I could easily do another version of this hike and do a lot of different stuff for sure.
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| NYS&W Stroudsburg bridge in 2003 |
As we walked the old railroad bed started coming into view. The NYS&W used to cross the Brodhead Creek in the area between where we had been walking on the other side and this side, but the bridge is long gone, probably removed in the 1940s soon after abandonment.
I could see just about where the bridge would have been and pointed it out to everyone else. I started making a little history video on this, while everyone else in the group started obsessing over a cat they saw below the beginning of the levee ahead.
This was the first part of the trail that was actually on the levee itself.
We followed this for a rather short distance, and then reached the ball fields farthest from the Stroudsburg high school.
I couldn't fit Ev around the right side along the creek in the stroller easily, so I kept with the official trail, but Lerch and his buddy went around to the right, closer to the creek.
The inland side around the field follows the Sambo Creek for a bit, and then reaches a parking area for the fields. We all got back together here, and followed the access road across Sambo Creek, then continued on the trail back up onto the levee again.
All of these levees were constructed as a result of the Flood of 1955. The Brodhead Creek actually had some disastrous results from that, including the flooding of an entire boy scout camp and the death of many campers.
We continued along the levee probably about 12 blocks, and Lerch and I reminisced about a time in this area where we stopped by our friend Gina Zuvich's house and played chess in the middle of the hike.
We continued from here to Dansbury Park, where the trail weaved inland on the levee a bit again. It then descended and crossed a foot bridge and ascended to an area behind the Salvation Army, and then back through the parking lot onto the levee trail again.
We only had a little bit farther to go before we came out on the Main Street, where we would turn right and take a side trip into downtown Stroudsburg for lunch.
I wasn't too picky about where we went. I knew there were wineries and breweries, and I wanted to try to hit one of those or something.
We headed down the street, but then turned to the right on McConnell Street for just a bit, because it's a bit more out of the way of all of the traffic.
Ahead, the former coaling trestle associated with the People's Coal company partially still stands. I had a photo of the site back in 2003, but it was too difficult to figure out exactly the angle I had back then without it in front of me, so I didn't really get a good then and now.
Some of the coaling trestle closer to the McDonalds was still standing back then, but has since been demolished. Only the bit over the road remains.
We continued walking to the west, out to Main Street, and headed to a brewery. I think it was Downriver Brewery from location, but there might be a couple of them in town now.
We went in to have some lunch, and I forget what I had. Probably a burger or something. Some of the group went to another establishment closeby, and Lerch, Ev, and I played with arcade games in the back of the place while we waited for the others to get back.
I ordered a beer, whatever the strongest thing was on their menu (I think an IPA), and the tables were so wobbly that it spilled almost immediately. They didn't offer to replace it for me, which I thought was kind of annoying.
When we got everyone back together, the route I chose to head east on was the Main Street over the bridge toward East Stroudsburg University.
I had never walked through the campus before, and I knew there was a good, pedestrian friendly route there.
We headed to the east, crossed over the bridge over the Brodhead, and then took a little side trip down into the parking lot where the Walmart is, because I wanted to get Ev something to eat at the Burger King. He didn't really touch anything when we stopped earlier, and I wanted him to have something.
We crossed the bridge over the former Lackawanna Railroad main line, which had been established here in the 1850s. There was access down to it, at the bridge, but we didn't go down.
I understand that the town of East Stroudsburg was once Dansbury, but that it was petitioned to change the name of the station for the railroad to be associated with Stroudsburg.
We continued up Ridgeway Street, which ended at the circle drive right in front of the college entrance, where we started walking through the campus.
Ev was already getting tired and starting to fall asleep, so I barely got him to eat anything.
We continued through the campus to the east, to Smith Street, near the intersection with Centre Street, where a trail started following the south side of a ball field past a lovely, large tree.
This trail skirted the fields a bit, and then became a walkway around the outside of the performing arts center. Near the east end of that building, another improved surface trail headed into the woods to the east.
We followed the trail, which was quite pleasant, and took us out to the University Ridge Apartments.
We continued to the east, and skirted the north side of the parking lot. When we got to the end, a power line headed downhill into slighty brushy stuff. I had a closer look at it, and determined that we could get the stroller through it.
I carefully pushed Ev down the hill for a bit, and then when we got closer to the bottom, there was a little path into the woods to the right. We turned here, and I was still able to get the stroller through, and emerged in back of the ESU Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center.
I was really glad this connection worked out as easily as it did. We headed from here down and across Independence Road around an abandoned hotel building. It wasn't all that long ago that this was open, and it looked as though there were squatters staying in it at this time.
There used to be a restaurant inside at this place that I recall eating at years ago.
We headed out of the lot to Rt 209, and carefully crossed the busy area as soon as we had a good opportunity.
There used to be a gas station at this point, which has been torn down. I knew that where that station was, there used to be a path down to the old NYS&W Railroad bed, on an old road. The road used to go under the railroad by way of a bridge for which the abutments were still there.
I had hiked by this years ago, and used to know it pretty well, but it's changed a lot over the years.
There was one time back in 2009 when my friend Brad Baesic had a boat he wanted to recover that he'd found in the area. I offered to help him paddle it down the Brodhead, but it turned out it was a lake boat, basically an overgrown soap dish, which was not good to navigate with.
When we reached heavy rapids near the paper mill in the area, it looked like we were going to get soaked. Brad's cell phone was going to get soaked, so he chucked it off to the edge of the creek.
That adventure brought us to the Delaware Water Gap where we had some of his friends help us out. He ended up selling the thing for good money, as I recall.
We used the access lane that I was looking for on this trip to find Brad's phone, and we did find it. I figured if I could find it in the dark way back then, I should be able to find it on a bright day.
We got the stroller around some barricades and through weeds, past the paved pad where the gas station used to be, but then I couldn't find the old road heading down to the creek.
I tried in a couple of spots, but could not find anything. We ended up walking back out, and then onto 209 northbound for a bit. We had to walk through the parking areas of some of the stores heading to the east.
We went around the back of a car wash place on the access road, and then the back of the Odd Lot store. We cut onto a piece of land where something was apparently going to be built, and switchbacked down to 209 again just before the right turn onto Eilenberger Road.
We turned right there, which was a nice little road, past some old homes, and then turned right onto Hillside Drive.
We followed this down to Gap View Drive, and continued straight. At the bottom of the hill, we turned to the right, and then headed to the covered foot bridge over the Marshall's Creek at the Minisink Hotel.
It would have been tempting to stop at this point for a break, but it seemed like some of the group wanted to just continue on. We still had a couple of miles left to go.
From the bridge, looking downstream on the Marshall's Creek, we could see that the lot to the Minisink Hotel was being held back by filled old milk crates stabilizing the creek side!
We continued from here on River Road. In a short distance, we reached where the NYS&W Railroad used to cross the road, probably over it via a bridge because the grade is substantially higher.
Some of the grade is on or next to present day Price's Landing Road. We continued past that and along the edge of the road by the bicycle park area, and then crossed over the Brodhead Creek on the road bridge.
Immediately on the other side, we reached Minisink Park. I considered going to the left and down on a loop around the Cherry Creek Trail section, but decided we would just cut the corner by going through the part of the park closer to river road and to the other side of the former Lackawanna Railroad.
We crossed the tracks, and then the other section of the trail goes to the left. This spot is supposedly the area that is to become the new commuter train station if it indeed connects through to Scranton.
We followed the trail along the ball fields, and then into the woods. We slowly descended until we reached the Cherry Creek, right next to the old Lackawanna Railroad bridge over the same.
In the past, I've gone up and over the railroad bridge when the creek was high, but this time I think Lerch took the other end of the stroller and we simply walked across the concrete cylinders placed in the stream for the trail to cross on.
Soon, the trail emerged on Oak Street, near a department of public works area.
We turned to the right on the road, which took us up and across Interstate 80. I believe we went west on Waring Street to Delaware Ave in the down of Delaware Water Gap, the route of the Appalachian Trail.
We took that route directly to the Rt 80 bridge and followed that across to the New Jersey side.
There were great views along the way, and the bridge sort of shakes a bit as the vehicles go by.
Across the river was the former site of the Kittatinny House, the most iconic hotel in the Delaware Water Gap from the days when it was the vacation capital of the world.
In the National Geographic Magazine publication book called "Mountain Adventure", it noted this as the most frightening place on the entire Appalachian Trail. My grandfather got me the book when I was little, and although it's a little burned, I still have it.
As soon as we reached the other side, the trail goes down a ramp to the right, and then reaches the access road near Kittatinny Point. We turned to the right, away from the Appalachian Trail, and then passed beneath Rt 80.
Immediately on the other side, the Karamac Trail begins at the longest traffic light in NJ. The three minute light on River Road/Old Mine Road controls a one lane section of the road ahead.
Karamac Trail, at this point, is the NYS&W Railroad bed. Through the Delaware Water Gap, Rt 80 obliterates most of that right of way, but as soon as 80 crosses, it is quite a nice walk.
There is a mile marker on the right side as we enter the trail denoting 96 miles from Jersey City.
I recall this trail always being pretty easy to get through, but it had sadly grown over a lot over the past several years. There was still a bit of a foot path, but there was a lot of scrubby stuff encroaching.
It was also terribly wet in some places. I heard that some of the Youth Corps group did work on the section, with puncheons added in these wet areas, but I saw no such thing the entire way.
It was a really nice stretch overall, and some of the sections were alright, but I needed more help on this one than I was anticipating because of fallen trees.
Karamac Trail is actually not part of Worthington State Forest at all. The other side of the road is, but this is all Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, and clearly no one maintains this anymore.
We got a glimpse of the former bridge site where the railroad used to cross the Delaware as we neared it, and then we passed a giant sinkhole just before the turn for the bridge site.
I hadn't been back to this spot in years, but always found it to be very cool. I used to come to the spot when I was 18 and 19 and hang out in the Summer time, because hardly anyone knew of it.
Way before Ev was born, I used to bring Jillane out to the spot as well.
The water just below the bridge is deep enough that if you jump out far enough, you can land it and not hit bottom. Lerch was tempting me that we should jump off of it this time, because it wasn't too terribly cold out, but there was no way I'm doing that now.
Even on a hot day, I doubt I would take that risk since having Ev.
What I did do was to try to set up a good then and now series of shots here. I had a good historic photo of the bridge from below, which graced the cover of one of the Images of America books, and I've never seen anyone emulate it.
I could see about where the shot was taken, which would require a climb down. The group stayed back and hung out with Ev, while I made my way down the slope and found the exact spot the historic photo was taken.
I got the shot, and was very happy about it. I climbed back up, and we all headed to the former site of the bridge.
I had another head on shot of the former bridge from up here, and so I set that one up as well.
This was also the best place to get our group shot for the day. I had done a group shot here on a hike way back in 2004, and before that once before too, so it was kind of neat to emulate my own thing as well.
From this spot, it would be a little trickier to get out.
The Karamac Trail does not have an officially marked route out from here. There is one way that goes along an extremely narrow shelf above the Delaware River heading downstream from the bridge site, and then to some former mooring areas along the river. There was no way we were doing that with the stroller.
The other way was up a steep slope above the trestle site directly. There was the makings of a path in this area, which might date way back to both railroad and inn days. I understand there was once a sort of flag stop at this location.
I decided the way up would be the best way, and I was going to need everyone's help again to get up there.
Serious Sean helped with the stroller at this point, and I took Ev's hand to get up. I carried Ev up the hill some of the way, and then he got down and walked the entire rest of the trail back, which was pretty impressive since it was still steep.
Sean commented on how hard it was to get the stroller up the hill. Most don't realize how difficult it is to navigate with the thing.
Once we got up to the lot, we figured out the car situation to get back to Lerch and Cara's place, where we hung out for a while, ate some food, and had a good time.
I was really happy with how well this hike came out. There was so much to see, so much diversity, and was the right combination of history, relaxation, and a little challenge.
Seeing Ev climbing up the slope rather unassisted, and having good balance, gave me hope that he'd be ready for tougher stuff in short order, and I can continue adding a bit harder stuff all the time. Hopefully he keeps enjoying it.
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