Hike #346 5/24/8
5/24/8 Bushkill/Taminent/Snow Hill with Skyler Jermyn, Jude Shabrach, Mary Tomsia, Crystal Corcorran, "Connecticut Joe" Bukowski, Eric Pace, Susan Eckhart, Ilene Mort?, Barbara ?
How many hikers can you cram into a phone booth??? Abandoned Taminant place
My next hike would bring me back to the area around Bushkill Falls. The previous year, I did a hike from Bushkill Falls, Bushkill PA, down to the Delaware and following somewhat the McDade Trail and other routes back to the Delaware Water Gap.
Trails at Bushkill Falls
Bushkill Falls
Bushkill Falls
Lower Gorge at Bushkill Falls
Lower gorge
In the lower gorge
Bushkill Falls area
Bushkill Falls area
Lower Bride's Maid's Falls
Walkways
Bridal Veil Falls
Upper Bride's Maid's Falls
Rock outcroppings
Along the Saw Creek
Delaware Valley Lookout in Bushkill Falls
Delaware Valley Lookout in Bushkill Falls
Misspelled sign at Bushkill Fallse. LOL
Bushkill Falls walkways
Upper gorge area
Pennel Falls
Pennel Falls
South of Taminent
South of Taminent
How many hikers can you fit in a phone booth? In abandoned Taminent resort area.
How many hikers can you fit in a phone booth? In abandoned Taminent resort area.
Abandoned Taminent resort area
Abandoned Taminent area
Abandoned road in Taminent
Swamp north of Taminent PA
Makeshift foot bridge on what used to be Luke Road north of Taminent
Old road along Thunder Swamp Trail
Snow Hill Creek along Thunder Swamp Trail
Cascade along Thunder Swamp Trail's south side
Falls on Snow Hill Creek
This time, I would make an effort to head north from the Delaware Water Gap to Delaware State Forest and the Thunder Swamp Trail system. I came up with a very unconventional route. Joining me this time were Skyler Jermyn, Mary Tomsia, Jude Shabrach, Susan ?, "Connecticut Joe" Bukowski, Eric Pace, and newcomers Crystal Corcoran, ? and ?. After spotting out cars at the end point, Snow Hill in Delaware State Forest, we shuttled to Bushkill PA and met up with Eric ?, and ?. We began walking at Bushkill Falls. We immediately used the trail with the best view of the main falls, then continued down the creekside to the southern end of the preserve, looping back up along Saw Creek to the Bridesmaid's and Bridal Veil Falls. We headed to the tops of all three falls, then crosses Saw Creek on a bridge, and I checked out the smaller unnamed falls below before heading down the trail high above the valley of Saw Creek. We soon reached Delaware Valley Lookout. We admired the view briefly, and waited for Eric to catch up. He did okay on the down hill sections. We headed out along the trail back to the upper side of the main Bushkill Falls, then walked the catwalks upstream along Little Bushkill Creek. Eric started falling behind as we went through the upper gorge to the Hemlock Grove. We continued on to Pennel Falls. Once we crossed the creek we parted ways with the two new ladies, and we began heading upstream along the Little Bushkill Creek off trail. For a bushwhack, it was really very easy and rather pleasant walking. We made our way along the creek which had plenty of pretty little purple flowers, and soon came to Bushkill Falls Road. I had originally planned to bushwhack up what was referred to as "Old Shohola Road", but we did'nt cut up hill early enough and ended up walking the paved road up hill. Once at the top of the hill, we turned left on some sort of access road, then right entering some sort of a camp area, or something that looked like it. There were a ton of buildings there, all abandoned with overgrown yards. There was also a phone booth and a two story parking garage, all inactive. We assumed this must have been an abandoned time share place of some sort. We decided to see how many hikers we could fit into one phone booth, and I think we got six of us in there! We continued along the old road, and soon came to an area where the road seemed to end. We bushwhacked up a bit of a hill to a fence line, coming out through a hole in the fence to another road. We were now in an area where people were living. This area is shown on maps as "Taminent". We walked down the road and then headed north on yet another road. The road had a few buildings on it, but the place was surprisingly very little was going on. We followed the road for a ways, and I was trying to follow the roads shown on an old out of date map I had of the Thunder Swamp Trail system to the north. It showed an old road known as Luke Road heading northwest, but now the entire area had some sort of developement built. We made a left turn through part of what seemed to be developement area, but after a few occupied houses there were no more. We continued on, walking down a hot unshaded road with plenty of lots, but no buildings. It was gated off after a bit, and there was nothing at all. We continued on, and made a 90 degree turn to the right, following the road across a tributary and up hill. The inactive road way came to another gate and we entered an area that was inhabited, though barely. The houses we found in this area were large upscale cookie cutter homes, but only some of them had tenants. Others just sat there, many with swing sets and kids toys still strewn about the lawns. The market must have been bad or something so that people either were'nt buying or people could'nt afford to stay, as some houses had been simply left. Oddly, each street was named after a character from "The Lord of the Rings". I recognized some names from Google Earth when I researched the trip, and knew when we got to Golom Court that we had to make our way northwest. We went to the end of a cul de sac and cut through an abandoned yard into the woods. We bushwhacked behind houses and soon found the abandoned Luke Road which we were looking for. Following the road, we soon came to a stream which even had a little bridge over it to get us across the brook! I was very happy to see that things would get easier from here. The road was not very badly overgrown; the worst was a few fallen trees over the pathway. We continued on and crossed a very crummy foot bridge over the next brook, then ascended a hill to reach the Thunder Swamp Trail system, blazed blue I think it was (though it had been reblazed as per my maps from orange or something.). We began following the trail to the west. As we walked, the narrow footpath led us along the edge of a creek which fed the Saw Creek to he west. We hiked along the edge of it and passed one really nice waterfall to the left. The trail continued on and soon came to a place where a bridge used to cross the Saw Creek. Unfortunitely, the bridge was not there so we had to cross on stones. I decided to try to wade it, but it was far too deep, deeper than I'd thought. I fell in and got my camera completely soaked! Unfortunitely my photography was done for the day. We continued across a road (Rt 402) and headed through the woods, at one point passing through the largest amount of hay ferns I have ever seen. The trailway was beautiful and not too difficult. We continued on, and the trail eventually led us above the main Bushkill Creek which was nice. We walked along heading north and had some interesting discussions with Connecticut Joe on the way north to Snow Hill where we were parked, ending my first hike opening us up to the Delaware State Forest and Thunder Swamp Trail system. It was a great day. We stopped for dinner at a little diner near Marshall's Creek PA which ended up being great, and Mary payed my way for driving.
1.) Walkways at Bushkill Falls2-3.) Bushkill Falls, main falls4.) Looking down stream from the main falls5-6.) Along the trail in the Lower Gorge7.) View downstream along Little Bushkill Creek8.) Walkways along Saw Creek9.) Lower Bride's Maid's Falls10.) Stairs from Bride's Maid's Falls11.) Bridal Veil Falls12.) Upper Bride's Maid's Falls13.) Amish Paul on the rocks14.) Goofing off by the Bride's Maid's Falls15-16.) At Delaware Valley Lookout17.) Skyler with a misspelled sign at Bushkill Falls18.) View across at walkways at main falls19.) Upper Canyon20-21.) Pennel Falls22.) Heading north from Pennel Falls23.) Along Little Bushkill Creek north of Bushkill Falls24-25.) Seeing how many hikers we can fit in a phone boot at abandoned camp area!26-27.) Abandoned camp area near Taminent28.) Unused developement road at Taminent29.) Nice swamp land along abandoned Luke Road30.) Crappy bridge over Red Rock Run in Delaware State Forest, Luke Trail31.) Little Bridge just off Thunder Swamp Trail32-35.) Along Thunder Swamp Trail at a falls on Red Rock Run
Bushkill Falls
No comments:
Post a Comment