Hike #449; Devil's Hole/Seven Pines Mountain/Cresco

 Hike #449 10/18/9

10/18/9 Devil's Hole and Seven Pines Mountain/Cresco with Jillane Becker, Amanda Rosenblatt, "Amish Paul" and Wyatt Hassler, Franchesco "Chesco" Tetto, Rich Pace, Irina Kulikovskaya, Nadia Kulikovskaya, Bill Kuhfuss, Chip Denis, John Flood, Barbara Blythe, and Jim "Mr. Buckett" Mathews.

Group shot in Devil's Hole

Speakeasy Ruins in Devil's Hole

 This hike would cover some old stuff, some new for me. Once again, Rich Pace and I would co lead our hike to the Devil's Hole and Seven Pines Mountain up in the Poconos, but this time we would split the group mid way and the rest of us would continue to cover the next piece of the former Lackawanna Railroad that I had'nt done northbound. We started at the State Game Lands 221 parking lot once again. Joining Rich and I were my girlfriend Jillane, as well as Amanda Rosenblatt, "Amish Paul" and Wyatt Hassler, Irina Kulikovskaya and her daughter Nadia, John Flood whom I had'nt hiked with in years, Chip Denis who had done my Lehigh hike a while back, and newcomers Franchesco (aka "Chesco", a friend of Amanda's) ?, Barbara Blythe, and Bill Kuhfuss (0a). We began walking down the game lands road to Devil's Hole Creek (1) and crossed over in the bottom. It was quite cold and there was already snow on the ground (1a-1c). We then followed the woods road and soon had to cross again (1d-2aa). We continued on the creek to the old house ruins where we always stop, and Jillane and I pretended we were Amish Paul wearing his glasses and hat (3,4). We climbed around on the old fireplaces and then moved on (5-5d). Chip found a set of old stairs coming down to the creek from an old woods road we'd never noticed before (6). We continued up the creek valley to the waterfall, and I found some junk in the water. Amanda slipped and got a foot wet (I was already wet from walking right through it) and we took a long break at the top of the falls (6a-11ac).

Jillane navigating the rocky edges of Devil's Hole Creek

We then headed back down along the creek to the side gorge up Seven Pines Mountain, which was pretty dry this time (12-17aa). Once at the top, we all followed Rich with his GPS (17ab-17ae) to a game lands road which we followed to Mill Creek. Everyone almost missed the turn, but I caught it (17af-17ai). We bushwhacked through Mill Creek and passed the weird stone arch (17aj-17e), and then eventually bushwhacked up the hillside toward the next game lands road, but took a break in a clearing (17f). We followed the game lands road and Jillane found some blueberries, so she and I hung back to eat some. We followed the woods road which led to a small view to the west (17g-18) and then continued on the woods road toward Cresco Heights, and I found more blueberries on the way (18a).

Cresco Heights PA

The woods road was flooded out, but I walked through (18b). We soon reached Cresco Heights and took a lunch break with a great view of Delaware Water Gap, the Kittatinny Ridge, and Big Pocono (19-20). After our break, we continued along the ridge of Cresco Heights (20a) and then split the group. Rich led his group on bushwhacking back to Devil's Hole (20b-20l) while the rest of us bushwhacked down hill towards the town of Cresco (21). We made our way zig zagging down hill to an old woods road and turned left. The woods road led to a short paved road, and we bushwhacked back into the woods parallel with it, then turned back to it when we reached another woods road. We only followed the road shortly when we reached the old spur rail line right of way that went to Mountainhome (22). On the road, Jim "Mr. Buckett" Mathews pulled up to us, having come to the area to see the snow but found none!

Mr. Buckett and Teddy!

He and his dog Teddy joined us for the remainder of the hike from Cresco Station back to Devil's Hole on the railroad tracks (23-31). We turned off the tracks on Devil's Hole Road which led back to the parking area (32) where Wyatt drove Amanda around on the top of Amish Paul's car (32). We all went to dinner at Holy Burrido I think it was in Stroudsburg, then wandered around Wal Mart acting like idiots.

A final rest before finishing our hike, Devil's Hole PA