Hike #109
Along the Lackawanna Tracks below Rt 80 and the Broadhead Creek
Hike 109
9/28/3
Leading new long hikes was certainly important to me at this time, as I tried to move
away from doing the same hikes over again. At this time, I was trying to save the new
sections for when Tea Biscuit would join, and other hikes for newcomers.
Crossing Rt 80 bridge at Del Water Gap, AT
Indian rock shelter along the AT, Mt Minsi
Spring along Mt. Minsi Fire Road
View from the top of Mt Minsi
View from the top of Mt. Minsi
Unfortunitely,Tea Biscuit was not around all of the time, and I figured I need to move on without him or
I’d never get to scouting anything new. Fortunitely, Peeps was willing to try a new hike I
had scaled in the Delaware Water Gap and areas north including Stroudsburg. Peeps was
the perfect person to join in on this one, as he had done most all the section hikes in the
proximity of the Water Gap with me, and it’s better to enjoy new connecting section hikes
with someone who has a common frame of reference. Rich Nielson was planning on
joining originally but backed out when he heard it was supposed to rain. I would later be
able to tease him, as we only had a brief couple of showers in the morning. The rest of the
day was great.
We began in the Dunnfield Parking lot in NJ, and walked across the Appalachian Trail
walkway on the Rt 80 bridge, with trucks rushing by. It was rather chilly, especially with
so many fast moving vehicles passing by at high speeds and at close proximity. When we
reached the PA side we followed the AT along the streets through town and past Lake
Lenape. We stopped by and checked out an indian rock shelter on the way up Mt Minsi on
the Minsi Fire Road. It was drizzling, and when it stopped there was still a good amount
of cloud cover. Miraculously, when we reached the summit of Mt Minsi, the clouds
cleared away to open beautiful views! The few clouds that lingered below us only added
to the beauty. We soon continued on past the site of the former fire tower, and as we
crossed the top of the ridge, the clouds moved back in very thick. As we stood at a
viewpoint over Portland PA, it seemed as if we were moving as we were overcome by the
clouds, and we watched as the view to the south disappeared in seconds. It was quite
amazing.
Old road descending from Mt. Minsi
Old road, probably called MOUntain Road, descending from M t Minisi
View over Cherry Valley
Stroudsburg PA, old NYS&W railroad trestle
Old NYS&W railroad trestle, Stroudsburg PA
NYS&W trestle, Stroudsburg PA
Along the berm above Broadhead Creek, Stroudsburg PA
Berm along Broadhead Creek, Stroudsburg PA
Lackawanna Railroad just south of Stroudsburg PA
Through girder bridge over Broadhead Creek, near Minisink Hills PA
Former Lackawanna line north of Del Water Gap PA
Former Lackawanna line at Del Water Gap RR station
When we reached the underground pipeline near Totts Gap, we left the AT and walked
the gravel road to Totts Gap road, and continued down the ridge. I stopped and left my
symbol, an amalgam of my initials, MWH, on a little building (I do this often). Totts Gap
road was an unimproved dirt road for some time, until we reached a gate where it was
paved. Soon, we made a right hand turn off of Totts Gap Road onto an old woods road
through forests. There were many places where there was evidence of houses that had
been ripped down along the way. The road led us out to the pipeline we had crossed
earlier on the AT.
We followed the pipeline north through some wet areas until we reached another
abandoned road, this one in much better shape than the previous one, but with many
potholes. We walked around large puddles on the road as it led us through the woods,
passing more house sites and along a shelf in a creek gorge. I viewed evidence of an old
bridge crossing for the creek, which once carried a road leading to Minsi Fire Road.
We continued on the road, coming across places where old pavement exposed itself from
the mossy cover it had acrued over the years. Soon, the road began switching back as it
led us downhill. We came out near a golf course in the Delaware Water Gap, and we
headed back toward town, making a left downhill into Cherry Valley. We walked the
roads through Cherry Valley along the creek, over a nice little bridge, and then up a
narrow road to the main road into Stroudsburg over Cherry Ridge. There was a nice view
along the way of Cherry Valley Golf Course.
We made our way downhill and into Stroudsburg where we walked streets out to the
center of town. I believe we stopped by the Main Street Jukebox, one of my favorite
music stores on the way. We then continued down Main Street looking for the right of
way of the New York, Susquehanna, and Western Railroad, which apparently crossed the
Delaware at Karamac above the Water Gap, and continued to Stroudsburg, connected
with the Wilkes Barre and Eastern Railroad, and ended at a location called “Gravel Place”.
We made our way to a railroad trestle still in place, part of it with rails on it! The trestle
was severred mid way into a parking lot for McDonalds, where we stopped for some
food. After having a bite to eat, we continued following where it appeared the railroad
trestle or fill would have continued. This led us to a large berm on the north side of
Broadhead Creek, built to hold back flood waters (Stroudsburg was devastated by the
flood of 1955). We walked the berm out to the road we crossed the creek on when we
first entered Stroudsburg. We walked back down the main street and across a long bridge
into East Stroudsburg because we would have to cross the creek to get to the rail bed
anyway. We walked to the Wal Mart area parking lots, and tried to get some beer, but the
only thing being sold was wine. Peeps stopped to talk to some of his friends before we
decided to move on. We followed the Broadhead Creek berm on the south side and past
the confluence of two streams (I think the other one was the McMichael Creek). We
continued under Rt 80 on a riverside path, which petered out and we found ourselves in
heavy weeds. We ended up making our way into an industrial area and back out to the
road, then to the DL&W tracks, which I had walked many times before (including on hike
67).We made very good time walking back to Dunnfield.
Johnny on the Spot, Dunnfield
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