Hike #224 6/30 to 7/2/6
Group shot in Van Campens Glen
Looking back on this it was good because it was a departure from what I was used to doing in some respect, while still keeping with the format of my hikes, but on the other hand this was also one of the points where it really started to sink in how much I clash with the AMC group. Attendance was low, but I was ordered to "keep completely silent" at one point, and another participant demanded all of my remaining iced tea even though the Mohican Weekend postings required all participants to bring their own drinks. It started getting on my nerves here.Thankfully Guillermo showed up and lightened the mood.
Hike 224
Here's a link to all of the pictures from this hike. There are descriptions of what they are at the end.
http://s132.photobucket.com/albums/q13/sneezehorse/hike224%206-30%20through%207-2-6/
6/30-7/2/6
Working on dinner at Strawberry Hill Lodge
During my Del Water Gap lecture
Falls near Pahaquarry Copper Mines
Copper Mines Brook
Falls near Pahaquarry Copper Mines
Along Copper Mines Trail, DWG
Falls along Copper Mines Trail, DWG
Falls along Copper Mines Trail, DWG
Falls along Copper Mines Trail
Falls along Copper Mines Trail
Falls along Copper Mines Trail
Along Copper Mines Trail
Along Copper Mines Trail
Along Copper Mines Trail
Along Copper Mines Trail
A forgotten abandoned copper mine hole
Falls along Copper Mines Trail
Along Copper Mines Trail
Pahaquarry mine shaft
Inside a copper mine
Inside Pahaquarry Copper Mine
Probably an old mine railroad bed, Kaiser Road
Probably an old mine railroad bed
Spring along Kaiser Road
On Raccoon Ridge from Kaiser Road
Catfish Pond
Catfish Pond
Strawberry Hill, Mohican Center
Me in Strawberry Hill lodge
Along abandoned Cutoff Road near Millbrook
Foundations along Cutoff Road
Van Campen Glen
Van Campen Glen
Van Campen Glen
Van Campen Glen
Van Campen Glen
John looking through a rock hole at Van Campen Glen
Van Campen Glen
Van Campen Glen
Van Campen Glen
Falls in Van Campen Glen
Van Campen Falls
Lower Van Campen Falls
Van Campen Falls
Lower Van Campen Falls
Depue cemetery off of Hamilton Rd
Depue Cemetery
Spring house near historic abandoned house off of Hamilton Rd
Historic old house off of Hamilton Rd
Abandoned house
Someone is trying to incriminate me.
Abandoned house
Attic of abandoned house
Abandoned house
Abandoned house
Abandoned house
Abandoned house
Abandoned house
Abandoned house
Abandoned house
Abandoned house
Abandoned building near an old house
Abandoned house
Along abandoned Hamilton side road
Abandoned house
In abandoned house
Abandoned collapsed garage
Old vehicles in abanoned collapsed garages
Abandoned road
Abandoned house
In abandoned house
Very old fridge
Abandoned house
Abandoned house
Ruins
Collapsed garage
Along Pioneer Trail, DWG
Along Orchard Trail
At Mohican Outdoors Center
This trip would be different than anything I had done to date. In the months prior, I had recieved an e mail from Chris Rapacki asking if I would be interested in hosting one of theAppalachian Mountain Club's Getaway Weekends out of the Mohican Outdoors Center in theDelaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Because I was now working for Works Data putting in phone systems, I knew I would be free for the entire weekend to host the weekend, so I promptly agreed. Mohican Center handled the sign ups for the weekend so all I had to do was answer questions from potential participants. I had a bunch of responses, but not many signed on, unfortunitely. Cathy and I travelled to the Mohican Center on Friday night to begin the trip. We saw a bear cross Mohican Road on our way there. When we got there, there were already two participants there, Anne ? and John ?. I talked to Dave, who was in charge of the Mohican Center, and he told me there were three more signed on that had not shown up yet, and that one of them might not make it until the next morning. We stayed two nights in the Blueberry Hill Lodge, a wonderful cabin with three bedrooms (with bunks), a full kitchen with appliances, three bathrooms and two showers! I was very impressed that it was a nice as it was. I had only been there once before when Joe Millionaire, Marky Mark, and I hiked from that point, and I had no idea there was that much there. Upon our arrival, Cathy went to work preparing happy hour style foods. Even though only Anne and John were there, I decided to begin telling them the history of the Delaware Water Gap beginning with the geology, then going into the Native American History to the beginning of the Dutch Settlement. I tried not to get too far into the history talk the first night since there might be more people the following night. John seemed particularly interested in the area. I used an easel with a giant notepad to draw a map to illustrate what I talked about. After Anne and John decided to turn in for the night, Cathy and I too went to bed in a room of our own. In the morning, Cathy prepared French Toast and served cereal. One more participant, Susan Budenstein showed up just as we were finishing and almost ready to hike. We began walking down the Mohican Camp Road to the Appalachian Trail, where we saw Kristen Sykes, who worked for the AMC. We chatted a bit, then headed up the AT toward the Copper Mines Trail. The trail was very wet and we had to take our time and watch our footing. Susan was very happy to be out with us, telling me she had dreamt of hiking with me for some time since first seeing my trip postings. We continued on the Copper Mines Trail, with incredible views of the waterfalls along the way. Due to recent heavy rains, the Coppermines Creek was flowing very strongly. We continued to descend to the bridge over the creek, where I instructed everyone to wait while I explored a bit. I wanted to find the mouth of an old mine I had not seen for many years, since I was here when I was about 12 with my grandfather, in fact. I believe I found the mouth of the mine, obscured behind a fallen tree. I was able to get a picture, but could'nt get too close on the slippery logs and rocks. I then made my way up the creek to the bridge where Cathy, Anne, John, and Susan waited. We headed down the Copper Mines Trail to the upper mine, I showed everyone the upper shaft, then led John and Anne into the back of the horizontal mine while Cathy and Susan waited outside. We continued down hill a bit an turned left on the Kaiser Road Trail to return to the AT on Raccoon Ridge. By the time we reached Raccoon Ridge, we were ready to turn back toward Mohican Center. We admired the view of Lower Yards Creek Resevoir a bit, then headed back to the Blueberry Hill Lodge. We took a break, then decided to walk the camp road out and along Catfish Pond to the little beach for a swim. I swam across and back, and we all had a good time. We soon headed back to Blueberry Hill where I went over more history while Cathy prepared a dinner of Steak, Salmon, salad, spaghetti, broccoli, corn on the cobb, and garlic bread! We all stuffed ourselves well. The other two participants never showed up, so we had a great deal for ourselves. Because we knew there would be no more coming for the weekend, I finished the history talk from the Dutch settlers through to the industrial history, the Old Mine Road, the railroads, tourism, the Tocks Island Dam project, squatters and hippies, and finally the national park service. We were too late walking to the main lodge to hear the musical entertainment which they have every Saturday night, so we headed back to Blueberry Hill. Susan took a ride into Blairstown to pick up some alchahol. I had some blueberry Arbor Mist, of which I drank half the bottle, and we all had interesting conversations until late.We finally turned in, as I planned on leading the longer hike as I always do for Sunday. I was a bit unhappy with the AMC regarding this, as I agreed to host the Getaway Weekend with the stipulation that my regular particapants would still be able to participate in my Sunday hike whether they signed up for the weekend or not. I was later told I could not do this, but this was not a problem when Guillermo (Bill Fabel) showed up the next morning. Anne had prior engagements and had to leave early. I had Cathy bring her car to Millbrook where we would finish and Susan drove her back in her car. We began walking up the road from Blueberry Hill to Rattlesnake Swamp Trail up to the Kittatinny Ridge. We then turned north to the Catfish Tower. From here, we continued to Millbrook Road, turned west, then made the turn onto the long abandoned Cutoff Road. We followed Cutoff Road to Van Campen Glen Trail passing foundations, then headed into the Glen. Everyone was quite impressed with the geological formations. Guillermo and I jumped in from the shelf area, as the Old Mine Road was closed and we knew rangers would not disturb us. The falls were still flowing incredibly. We continued on out of the Glen to Old Mine Road, turned briefly to the south before turning onto the old Hamilton Road. As we walked, something to the left caught the corner of my eye, so I went to investigate. I was amazed to find that this was the old Depue Cemetary! Old gravestones were sprawled about in the woods looking quite creepy. I was amazed I had not known about it previously. We made our way back out to the Hamilton Road, which was now the route of Pioneer Trail. The original Pioneer Trail had mostly been abandoned due to a large washout on it's north end. Instead, the old roads had been blazed just to the south to make a different loop. We soon reached the giant abandoned house on the left. I tried to coerce everyone to go in, but at first it was only Guillermo and I. I guided everyone through the weeds, and they went in. Susan did'nt stay long because she felt uncomfortable, so Cathy stayed with her. The rest of us wandered through the house exploring every room. I was surprised that the area around the house was much more overgrown than it had been on previous visits. This time, we explored another building further down along a creek, possibly a spring house. We continued ahead to explore the second old farm house, while Cathy and Susan went ahead on the old road. I instructed them to continue straight. John, Guillermo, and I continued to explore, and when we'd seen everything we headed out. At first, I thought I could see Cathy and Susan far off in the distance, but then they disappeared. We continued ahead, and the road forked to the left on a worn route while the route straight ahead had more weeds. I worried that Cathy might not have decided to go straight here, so I walked a short distance down the fork road, then headed back. We continued on this road, very washed out in spots, heading through some overgrown fields, then to where the orange blazed Pioneer Trail broke off to the right. I yelled for Cathy for about five minutes with no answer, and decided I had better run back to look for her. I instructed Guillermo and John to go up the trail to Hamilton Ridge Road. Guillermo had done this section before, so he was able to lead here. I turned back and ran as fast as I could toward the fork, and just before I reached that point, I found them. I led them back to the trail, then up hill through ferns, then steeply up hill. There was a small secondary ridge we followed briefly, then ascended on what might have been a woods road. Guillermo called me on his cell phone as we made our way up, and I instructed him to bring John the rest of the route on Hamilton Ridge Road Trail to make the right hand turn onto Orchard Trail to Cathy's car, as it appeared a storm was moving in. Cathy and Susan were singing all sorts of songs to help them through the mileage. We continued uphill to Hamilton Ridge Trail. Cathy was hurting after the ascent, but soon was able to move. We followed the old paved road to the Orchard Trail. Just before we reached this point it began to drizzle. We followed the Orchard Trail gradually down hill, and I began making monkey sounds to see if I could hear Guillermo. Sure enough, he responded in a similar ape sounding manner, and we soon saw Cathy's car. We used the car to get back to Mohican where we had another dinner with the leftovers from the previous night, as well as Apple Pie and ice cream. We had to hurriedly clean the place, as we were supposed to be out by six pm, and we ran over that time by quite a bit. Still, we had a pretty good time.
Photos:
1.) Cathy preparing the Blueberry Hill Lodge for our Getaway Weekend Friday night
2.) John looking at my notepad where I drew a map of the Water Gap Region
3.) Susan, Cathy, and Anne on the Coppermines Trail
4.) One of the little waterfalls along Coppermines Brook
5.) Another view of the first little waterfall we passed
6.) A larger falls as we were descending on Coppermines Trail
7.) One of the tributaries to the Coppermines Creek joining from the southwest
8-10.) Falls below the Coppermines Trail in a deeper gorge
11.) Another falls below Coppermines Trail
12.) Large cascade on Coppermines brook
13.) Coppermines Creek cascade from afar
14.) Coppermines Creek
15.) An old mine hole along Coppermines Creek
16.) The group crossing the trail bridge over Coppermines Creek
17.) Another falls on Coppermines Creek
18.) Along Coppermines Trail
19.) View down a coppermine shaft, Pahaquarry Mines
20.) Anne and John in the upper Pahaquarry Mine, all the way in the back!
21.) John and Anne in the back of the upper Pahaquarry Mine
22.) Cathy and I on the Kaiser Road Trail in a dug out area
23.) Lovely Rhododendrons along Kaiser Road Trai
l24.) A spring along Kaiser Road Trail
25.) Cathy resting along the Appalachian Trail with a view of Lower Yards Creek Resevoir
26-27.) Cathy and John swimming in Catfish Pond
28.) John, Cathy, and Susan in the Blueberry Hill lodge
29.) Me resting on the couch in Blueberry Hill Lodge Saturday Night
30.) Me, John, Guillermo, and Susan on the abandoned Cutoff Road near Millbrook
31.) Guillermo at the foundation of an old farm house, presumeably, along Cutoff Road
32.) Van Campen Glen
33.) John on a natural shelf along the Van Campen Brook, Van Campen Glen
34.) Small falls in Van Campen Glen
35.) On the natural shelf in Van Campen Glen
36.) I took this shot after jumping over Van Campen Brook
37.) John peering through a cleft in the rocks along Van Campen Creek
38.) Me setting up my camera in Van Campen Glen
39.) Still messing with the camera
40.) John, Susan, Guillermo, Cathy, and I in Van Campen Glen
41.) Van Campen Glen
42.) Falls in Van Campen Glen
43.) Van Campen Falls
44.) Another view of Van Campen Falls
45.) Lower Van Campen Falls
46.) Another view of the lower falls
47.) Guillermo in the old Depue Cemetary
48.) Depue Cemetary
49.) A building along former Hamilton Road, now Pioneer Trail near an abandoned house
50.) Abandoned house along Pioneer Trail
51.) Guillermo entering the abandoned house
52.) The stuff we wrote on the walls on our previous visit four years ealier!
53.) Upper floor of the big abandoned house
54.) Attic level of the old house
55.) Guillermo and Cathy in the old house
56.) John in the old house with more writing we did in 2002
57.) View out of top level at another part of the top floor
58.) Another view of the top floor
59.) Another view in the bottom floor
60.) Bottom floor of the house near the garage
61.) The kitchen of the old house
62.) Outside the front
63.) Outside the front/side
64.) Building to the southwest of the big house
65.) View of the side of the house through the trees
66.) Guillermo passing by an old garage
67.) Collapsed old garage on Pioneer Trail
68.) An old VW bus in the weeds
69.) Old Hamilton Road, now Pioneer Trail and the garage
70.) The second abandoned house
71.) Guillermo in the second old farm house
72.) John on the stairs of the second house
73.) The old fridge was still in the second house
74.) John outside the abandoned second house
75.) The rear of the second house
76.) Collapsed building behind the rear of the second house
77.) The old car with the garage collapsed on top
78.) Cathy and Susan on the Pioneer Trail
79.) Cathy and Susan on the Orchard Trail near Millbrook
80.) Cathy and I at the Blueberry Hill lodge finishing off our weekend
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