Hike #287 6/3/7
6/3/7 Walpack Center-Mohican Outdoors Center Kittatinny region with "Amish Paul" and Wyatt Hassler, Jason Itell, Dave "Captain Soup" Campbell, Joe Tag, and "Major Tom" Conroy
The group on a long abandoned bridge across the Flat Brook, near Flatbrookville site
My next hike would take us back to one of my favorite regions, the Kittatinnies, and this trip would take us from the ghost town of Walpack Center to the Mohican Outdoors Center. I had a new trip planned out that would encompass many places I had not yet scouted out.
Walpack Post Office
Downtown Walpack Center
This tree is trying to eat that rock! On Wallpack Ridge
Walpack Ridge
Abandoned barn on abandoned Thunder Mountain Road
Farm site on abandoned Thunder Mountain Road
Barn off abandoned Thunder Mountain Road
Barn on abandoned Thunder Mountain Road.
Farmlands in Del Water Gap NRA
Along Rt 615
Along the road to Flatbrookville
Parade of antique cars which passed us along our way
Old cars parading down Rt 615 near Walpack Center
Old cars heading down 615 near Walpack Center
Old farmstead south of Walpack Center
This was a neat flume down from a pond, but what I didn't see until a few years later was that there was a huge waterfalls on the cliff behind it!
Valley view south of Walpack Center
Flower
Bridge over the Flat Brook on Mountain Road.
I cut my leg climbing the bridge.
Mismatched shoes...like usual.
View off trail of the Flat Brook
Old foundation along the Flat Brook
My cut from climbing the bridge
Old farmstead site along the Flat Brook
Abandoned along Flat Brook
Abandoned along Flat Brook
Abandoned along Flat Brook
Abandoned along Flat Brook
Abandoned bridge over Flat Brook
Old bridge over Flat Brook
Old bridge over Flat Brook
Former foot bridge site in Flatbrookville
Bridge in Flatbrookville
Old bridge in Flatbrookville
Old bridge in Flatbrookville
Confluence of the Delaware and Flat Brook
Confluence of the Delaware and Flat Brook
Wallpack Bend
Flat Brook reaching the Delaware
Wallpack Bend, Indian word for "Whirlpool" and one of the most dangerous spots on the Delaware. Jason and I were able to swim across and back because we ROCK.
Off trail below Wallpack Bend
Millbrook Village
We met at the Mohican Center in the morning, and joining me were all past participants; Amish Paul and Wyatt Hassler, Jason Itell, Joe Tag, and "Major Tom" Conroy. We shuttled cars from Mohican to the middle of Walpack Center where we began our walk. On the drive to the beginning, we saw a very large black bear on camp road, and my breaks burned up a bit heading down hill into Millbrook on the way to Walpack. I was suprised we did'nt have a larger group for this trip, but knew we had a good group. We started out walking the old road northwest out of Walpack Center. It was a washed out old woods road leading up hill. We passed the trailheads for Walpack Ridge Trail and continued to an intersection of woods roads and turned left. We continued along this old road through former farmlands in various stages of succession. The old road led us to the site of an old farm. The residence had apparently either already fallen in or was demolished while a couple barns were still standing, as well as a silo. We went inside one of the barns to the second floor to have a look around. It seemed rather sturdy. There were a lot of ticks in this area, and Joe and I were sort of competing to see who would end up with the most (I think it was very close, I think I had twenty something by the end of the day! Still did'nt beat my record of 43 in Summer 2006). We soon reached a parking area and turned left on another road which led back down hill toward Rt 615. This road was dirt, and came to a paved road where we turned left once again leading to Rt 615 where we turned right. We made our way around a corner and slowly up hill, and to our surprise we were soon passed by a line of late 1930s Model A Fords I believe they were! Quite an interesting site back here in the middle of nowhere. We continued on until we reached an old side road which led down along the Flat Brook. We checked out a trail that led along the brook, but we ended up having to go back out to the dirt road. The old road led us to a lovely old truss bridge over the Flat Brook where some of us decided to take a dip. I decided to try to climb up the truss by hanging from the bottom of the bridge and swinging myself up. I made it, but cut my left leg just below the knee rather deeply. I believe I'll have a scar from that one. We continued on, walking along the southern bank of the Flat Brook. At first, there were fisherman's trails, but they gave way to some light bushwhacking. We continued along the flood plane, but soon had to ascend to a lovely high ledge above one side of the brook. We continued along, sometimes in flood plain, sometimes high above the creek. At one point, Joe found the site of some sort of old house, with a foundation in the middle of the woods and no sign of any road having led to it. There was one place where it appeared a road used to come down to the river, but it soon petered out and we were back in woods. We came into some land that was posted as private, but ignored it and made our wy onward. There were a couple trailers parked on the opposite side of the creek, but no one appeared to be there. Still, we were quiet going by. Eventually, we came out along some field areas and the ruins of a barn came into sight. We continued across an old overgrown field to the farm site. There was the ruins of an old house falling in on itself and two barn structures, also in a great state of disrepair. An old road and lovely truss bridge over Flat Brook still existed, though quite rusty. We took a long break here while some of us went in the river and others just hung out on the bridge. The bridge itself had bars added to it that were meant to keep vehicles from crossing. We continued on the old road along the brook from here, and it was quite washed out at times, leading us back to Rt 615. There were almost no signs of the town of Flatbrookville that used to be here. We followed the road out to the Old Mine Road, where the current road bridge sat next to the original bridge over the Flat Brook. We checked out the old bridge, and I recalled driving over it when I first got my driver's permit in my grandfather's jeep cherokee cheif. We continued from here along Old Mine Road briefly, and took an abandoned side road along the Flat Brook to the confluence with the Delaware. It was a beautiful spot, the shallow brook gently making it's way into the Delaware at seemingly the middle of the dramatic Walpack Bend in the Delaware. The river could almost be mistaken for a lake at this point, though the current is rather strong near the middle. We took a break here, and waded across the Flat Brook to continue along the Delaware downstream. While everyone was taking their break, Jason and I decided we wanted to swim across the Delaware! We made our way out over the water, and did rather well, but were a bit surprised with how far it was across when we were just over half way. A guy coming by on a canoe stayed close to us to make certain we were safe for a bit. Once on the other side, we could see how small everyone looked, and that defined how far we'd just swam. We had no one across the river with which to gauge the distance across. For the trip back, we found an old railroad tie we decided to try to float across. Unfortunitely, it was not much help to us, and in fact probably more work to push across than it would have been to swim by our own strength. Jason finally gave up on the thing, and I got it a bit closer to shore before I finally let go of it. The tie would sink every time we put the lightest amount of weight on it, so it was difficult to move it at all as well as keeping it afloat. Once under way again, we headed up along the Delaware continueing up and donw through gullies along the river. Major Tom was hurting pretty bad by this time, and I began exploring early out opportunities for him. My original plan was to make our way along the Delaware using trails and such to the Pahaquarry Mines, then up to Mohican; I had to change the hike to reach Mohican quicker, and find a place for Major Tom to wait for us. We made our way up hill using an old woods road, then cutting through woods to the Old Mine Road. We followed Old Mine into Millbrook where I instructed Major Tom to wait for us near the center of town where the buildings were. The rest of us continued out of town on Millbrook-Blairstown Road up hill. Amish Paul decided to take another route up hill because he thought it to be more interesting, and the rest of us stayed on the main paved road. I reached the top first and started chatting with an AT through hiker named Patrick. I convinced him to make the trip back to spend the night at the Mohican Outdoors Center to get a good shower and a comfortable place to sleep. When the rest of the group (minus Paul who had taken the long scenic route) arrived, we, including Patrick, headed out along the AT to Rattlesnake Swamp Trail back toward the Mohican Center. When we came out near the cabins at Mohican, Patrick continued on the the main building while Wyatt and I made our way over to the beach for a swim. We swam across Catfish Pond, and also goofed off with a canoe, which Wyatt tipped with me in it. Jason came over to the water for a bit later, and soon the three of us headed back to the main road to wait for Amish Paul. He never showed up, and Jason, Wyatt, Joe, and I waited at the farthest cabin near the Rattlesnake Swamp Trail head for some time. Joe played some of his big band music with the marches of John Philip Suza and danced around a bit. After not seeing Paul for a while, we headed to the main part of the Mohican Center to look for Paul. Suprisingly, he was inside! Apparently he passed by when we were swimming, went out on the lake in a canoe to look for us, then returned to the center to wait. Captain Soup was the one to come out saying he was inside. We retrieved the vehicles and headed back to Washington without much incident, and we had dinner at the Log Cabin Inn in Colombia, which was great (I had a lot of nachos).
1.) Captain Soup at the Walpack Center post office2.) The main drag in Walpack Center NJ3.) Interestingly, this tree split this rock4.) The group on an old woods road on the Walpack Ridge5.) An old collapsed barn on Pompey Ridge I think on an old woods road6.) Ruins of a farm on Pompey Ridge7.) Inside top floor of an abandoned barn8.) Wyatt leaving the only barn still standing9.) View of Rt 615 from the top of a hill south of Walpack Center10.) Joe Tag on a road in Delaware Water Gap NRA south of Walpack Center11.) The group along Rt 615 south of Walpack Center12-14.) A line of antique cars passed us along Rt 61515.) Lovely farm scene along Rt 61516.) Some sort of a dam with an outlet trough along Rt 61517.) Another pretty meadow scene of a pond and the valley of the Flat Brook18.) A pretty flower along 61519.) An old bridge over the Flat Brook20.) My cut up leg after climbing the bridge21.) My mismatched shoes on the bridge...22.) View of the Flat Brook from a knoll above the creek23.) Site of an old building back in the woods above the Flat Brook24.) My leg looking worse all the time...25.) Ruins of an old farm along the Flat Brook near Flatbrookville26.) The old house in ruins along an abandoned road27.) More of the ruins of the house28.) Old barn ruins nearby29.) Captain Soup examining the ruins30.) Major Tom on the old bridge over the Flat Brook near Flatbrookville31.) Here we are on the bridge!32.) On the bridge33.) Wyatt and Jason on the old bridge over the Flat Brook34.) Major Tom at another old bridge site in the Flatbrookville vicinity35.) Another old bridge over the Flat Brook36.) The old bridge for the Old Mine Road which sits next to the newer one near Flatbrookville37.) Major Tom on the old bridge38.) Crossing the Flat Brook at the confluence with the Delaware39.) Wyatt in the Delaware at Walpack Bend near the Flat Brook confluence40.) View downstream along the Delaware around Walpack Bend41.) Captain Soup crossing the Flat Brook at Walpack Bend42.) Jason and Wyatt in the Delaware before Jason and I swam across43.) Joe hiking off trail near Walpack Bend44.) Wyatt in Millbrook Village
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