Hike #447 10/4/9
Along Tim Swamp Trail, Delaware State Forest
10/4/9 Thunder Swamp Trail with Jillane Becker, "Amish Paul" Hassler, and Eric Pace
For the second week in a row, Eric and Amish Paul were the only hikers to show up other than Jillane and I. The weather was amazing and it was a beautiful day; I didn't understand why people disappeared for two weeks, but I suppose it happens. For this hike, Amish Paul and Eric gave Jillane and I some more time to walk together alone, and it ended up working out pretty well. We ate lots of blueberries and had some nice quality time together. Stoney was a bit tired though...we found out after this hike that he'd gotten a fractured leg from walking with us! Oops!
Stony in the water
Snow Creek, Tim Swamp Trail
Foot bridge over Snow Creek, Thunder Swamp Trail
Snow Creek
Bridge on Thunder Swamp Trail over Snow Creek
Along Snow Creek
Snow Creek falls
Snow Creek falls
Snow Creek
Utility right of way bridge along Thunder Swamp Trail
Southeast side of Thunder Swamp Trail
Thunder Swamp Trail
Thunder Swamp Trail blueberry picking
Thunder Swamp Trail
Along Thunder Swamp Trail
Thunder Swamp Trail
Along Thunder Swamp Trail
Stoney along Thunder Swamp Trail
Along Thunder Swamp Trail
Along Thunder Swamp Trail
Thunder Swamp Trail
Thunder Swamp Trail
Burnt Mills Swamp Trail section, northern end of Thunder Swamp Trail
Burnt Mills Swamp Trail where Thunder Swamp Trail follows it
At Thunder Swamp
Thunder Swamp
Thunder Swamp
Thunder Swamp Trail
Thunder Swamp
Thunder Swamp
Thunder Swamp
An old dam ruin along Thunder Swamp Trail
An old dam along Thunder Swamp Trail
Foot bridge on an old dam along Thunder Swamp Trail
Thunder Swamp Trail
Old mill site along Thunder Swamp Trail
Old mill site along Thunder Swamp Trail
Thunder Swamp Trail
Thunder Swamp Trail
Mushroom along Thunder Swamp Trail
Thunder Swamp Trail
Thunder Swamp Trail
Thunder Swamp Trail
Thunder Swamp Trail
Large meadow along Spruce Creek from Thunder Swamp Trail
Large meadow along Spruce Creek from Thunder Swamp Trail
Large meadow along Spruce Creek from Thunder Swamp Trail
Foot bridge over Spruce Creek on Thunder Swamp Trail
My next hike would mark my completion of the main trunk of the Thunder Swamp Trail system in Delaware State Forest, PA, connecting the small backpacking trip from the previous Spring with the one I'd ended at Snow Hill a year earlier. Joining me this time were my girlfriend Jillane Becker with her sister's dog Stoney, "Amish Paul" Hassler, and Eric Pace. We met at Snow Hill Road where the Thunder Swamp Trail crossed, and then shuttled out to where it crossed Rt 402 to the south. We started by walking a side trail that went through Tim Swamp, a spur of the Thunder Swamp Trail (1,2). The trail was pretty obscure, but we made our way to the Thunder Swamp Trail and remained on that for the rest of the day. We came to the creek crossing where I'd fallen in on my previous visit here (3) but it was no longer necessary to ford the stream because a new bridge had recently been constructed (I met one of the guys who had worked on it at an AMC meeting recently; 4-6). We continued on as the trail led us along Red Rock Run with pretty cascades and one small waterfall (7-10). Jillane and I stopped to wait for Paul and Eric when we reached a utility line right of way (11) but Paul had hurt his knee and Eric did'nt want to go on, so Jillane and I were happy to continue by ourselves. We came to the old Luke Road section and turned north, covering more new ground I had yet to cover (my previous hike joined TS Trail at Luke Road). We headed gradually up hill where the trail followed Luke Road northbound (12,13). The trail continued, sometimes following woods roads, but mostly foot path, and we found some great blueberries to eat (14-21).
Amish Paul showed up on the trail ahead of us and we walked with him for a while again. We soon crossed Whittaker Road and started covering some familiar ground. Jillane and I decided to stop to eat our lunch here and Paul went ahead. We took a long break and resumed hikng (22,23), then came to the Burnt Meadows Swamp Trail, a road the Thunder Swamp Trail followed for a little while.
Here, we rejoined with Paul and Eric and headed southwest (24-26). We soon came to a large swampy area (I think this was the Thunder Swamp itself, named by the Youth Conservation Corps supposedly just because they liked the name. Originally, they say there was no Thunder Swamp.). It was a beautiful spot, and the trail cut over to the left to follow a creek (27-31).
There were a couple beaver dams holding everything back, and we lost the trail somewhere. I went looking for it by hopping on rocks, and sure enough we found that it had been flooded by beavers (32). When we came to another trail junction, Amish Paul and Eric opted to turn down it while Jillane and I would go on to finish the hike alone. Soon, we came across the only significant man made structure of the trip, an old dam and mill site. The dam was the route of the trail over the creek (33-36) and the old mill site was just below with a well defined water wheel site (37-39). We continued along the trail which got continueously cleared as we neared the crossing of Rt 402, the only paved road we would cross on this trip. Once we crossed Rt 402, the woods became more interesting with many ferns, evergreens, oaks, and more (40-44). We made our way around the north part of a wet area, then crossed it and ascended on the other side. The Autumn colors changed in this area back to green, probably because we were out of the low wetlands. I went pretty far ahead of Jillane because Stoney appeared to be hurting and Jillane's sister was going to pick him up soon, so we hurried him along. I noticed another ruin along the trail along the way (45) as we neared another natural area to the west (46-49). The trail crossed and then followed the tributary that spilled out of the swamplands heading south leading back to Snow Hill Road to finish the hike. Eric was there waiting for us because he wanted to be sure we were alright. His car would'nt start at first, but I told him how to get it going.
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