Hike #540; Matamoras/Port Jervis Loop

 Hike #540 2/12/11

2/12/11 Matamoras/Port Jervis Loop with Chris "Cupcake" Kroschinski, Shelly Janes, and Danny Blake Janes.

Cupcake messing with an electrical box

My next hike would be a loop around the Port Jervis/Matamoras vicinity of NY and PA. Again, due to all of the snow on the ground I had to come up with a route that would be feasible in the snow. Jillane had suggested Port Jervis and some of the abandoned stuff in the area, which was a great idea, so I put together a route incorporating some of my favorite past places I'd visited, as well as some new stuff.

We met in the morning at the Pennsylvania Welcome Center on Rt 209 in Matamoras. When I arrived no one else was there yet, so I went inside and had a look around. The older gentleman running the place was very pleasant and helpful. He gave me lots of maps of the entire area, including old trail maps that I loved but had lost my copies in the fire. While I was inside, Shelly and Danny showed up. They left to shuttle Shelly's car maybe a mile and a half away in Port Jervis to give her various opportunities for early outs if she wanted them. She had just had surgery a little over a month before, and was still having complications, but was ready to get out and try some hiking. Soon, Cupcake showed up in the Ska Jeep, followed by Shelly and Danny in Danny's car, and we started walking.

We walked down Rt 209 north, and then made a right turn onto Maple Ave.

Maple Ave in Matamoras PA

We continued to a left turn onto Avenue O or something, and then turned right probably onto Tenth Street which took us to a park that had ball fields. We walked off the road into the snow, but this time it was far better than what we'd been dealing with. The snow had melted and refrozen on it's surface where we could pretty easily just walk right on top of it. We walked the perimeter of the park out toward the Delaware River, and then turned left along a tree line heading sort of parallel up stream. There were some really nice views of the surrounding mountains from here.

Park in Matamoras PA

We came out of the park and walked side streets, I think Avenue O to 1st Street, which took us back to Rt 209 at the bridge over the Delaware. We crossed here and had some nice views of the river below. I couldn't really get many pictures because I had sent my Olympus camera to their service center because it was under warranty. I was reduced to using my cell phone camera, and also limited with how many I took because of camera card and batteries. Many of them I took, e mailed to myself, then continued to take more.

On the other side of the bridge we turned right onto King Street. This led us to a municipal park, along which we found the Delaware River Heritage Trail on a berm. We began walking that parallel with the river down stream. I had thought this only followed roads in Port Jervis, but this was nice to find. It continued to the north and must have started at one of the dead end streets we had passed on our way down King Street to the park.

We came to a fork where the trail must have gone left, but we weren't certain, so we went down hill to the right. We had a nice walk following along concrete cylinder shaped things that Cupcake kept insisting was an aqueduct. I kept joking that it was where dwarves lived and stored turnips. When Shelly said it must be a sewer system, he kept disagreeing, saying it didn't smell bad enough. We finally found one where he discovered the smell. I told him he didn't smell it because turnips are high in fiber.

We followed the trail to where it sort of ended at the flood plain, and then had to go back and head up hill to the former Erie Railroad and turn right. A train went by us as we walked.

I figure this must have been the route of the Delaware River Memorial Trail along the tracks too, because we came out on North Street, where we could see the tracks to the left and bridge, then turned right.

Former Erie Railroad and bridge in Port Jervis NY

We then turned right into Laurel Grove Cemetery which was the route of the trail.

We walked along checking out some of the cool odd tomb stones and reached the end of the peninsula, and then reached the end, the confluence of the Delaware and Neversink Rivers, and also the tri state corner. Fortunately the marker itself was not buried in snow so we could see it.

We continued from there back on the south side of the Cemetery closer to the Neversink River. We soon reached Rt 6, main street, and turned left. The blazes for some of the trails like Lenape Ridge and Minisink Trails were on the poles, to where they officially ended at Delaware River Memorial Trail which is also on the road here.

End of Lenape Ridge Trail, Port Jervis

We passed beneath the former Erie Railroad tracks and then checked out an old switch box to the right. We then continued up the street, and we crossed over the former right of way of the New York, Ontario, and Western Railraod on it's way to a junction with the Erie near the corner of Pennsylvania Ave.

Former "O&W" Railraod in Port Jervis.

We continued walking into town a bit further, the route of the trail still marked occasionally with a sign into town. I stopped and bought a Four Loco at a gas station (they had been re-released with less caffiene) and then crossed the street to a very interesting looking little luncheon type of place. It advertised things like wise crack comments and had a dark atmosphere, with a lot of black and signs and such, like the kind of people who are die hard Ozzy fans.

I think I had like a half of an italian sub, but everyone else got hot food. Everything was great, and the service was excellent, even though they advertised shitty service.

WTF?

The place was full of all sorts of interesting knick knacks, and strange products, and they had a big juke box.

Also in town, I met a gentleman who had grown up in Port Jervis, and he told us up where we were heading, Elks Brox Park, there used to be a cave called Dead Man's Cave, because they had found a man in there that had frozen to death way back. He told us it had collapsed but you can still go in maybe twenty feet or so. He also told us there used to be a trail they would take up from behind the church, but it was probably gone now. The guy looked to be in his seventies maybe.

After eating, we continued to the north passing close by the old Erie Turntable, an intact railroad turntable that's now a tourist attraction. We continued on the road to the north and went left where the main highway went right. The Delaware River Memorial Trail turned off to the left from this somewhere, and we could see some of the Delaware and Hudson Canal towpath and prism below, here opened as a trail. We didn't follow it this time, because we had another route planned.

We turned right onto Grand View Ave I think it was, which took us back to the main road north of town, and then soon turned right off of that also onto Skyline Drive. This road ascended on a sweeping switchback to the top of a knoll, Elks Brox Park.

Woods road north of Port Jervis

On the first sharp bend in the road, rather than keep going for the switch backs, I asked Shelly if she could handle a steeper ascend on a woods road or utility right of way of some sort that went directly to the top, and she said yes, so we made our way up hill steeply.

Along the way, we stopped by a spot where there was no snow on the ground. The route did not look like a utility line of any kind because it wasn't very clear, more like a steep woods road. But this spot was free of snow, and from the ground came a weird whistle. We couldn't figure out what it was, so we just continued on.

At the top, we found out way to the abandoned buildings of what was at one time a lipstick factory. I was told by Cupcake he'd found out it was abandoned in 1994. Some of the rear parts of the buildings up there were still somewhat used, but most of it was totally abandoned, so we had to check it out. A door on the west end where we approached was slightly ajar and we could get in.

We had a look around and Cupcake messed with an electrical box to find that power was still turned on to this building.

Alarm system

This one was just pretty much like a garage and not all that interesting, so we headed back out and made our way to the largest building.

The next building was boarded up and the only way I could see in was by way of a receiving bay that was open. It was a high bay, and so it would be tough to climb up into it. We instead walked around the rear of the building and found our way in there. The building was like a long hallway with rooms mostly to the left. It was apparent that it was used for other purposes following the lipstick thing, including something to do with music. We checked out every room in the place, and every time there was an alternate side route we investigated.

The basement was pretty cool. To the north side there was an old elevator Danny found.

Elevator

On the south side where the basement sort of ended there was bad water leakage with ice along the path of pipes in the floor. Cupcake discovered a huge vacuum system the building had with a big filter. We also found some sort of boiler room, with some cool old gauges.

Back on the regular level, we continued until we got to a doorway that was somehow blocked, that led to a set of stairs. We couldn't get the door open, and so I looked around and found an open window with planks leaned up in either direction. Shelly and I both carefully climbed through, and I was able to pull myself up onto the receiving bay just a few feet away. The others soon came out and climbed up onto the bay as well. I went ahead to check out the level. It was definitely a storage and/or packing area because there were conveyors leading up into the ceiling where they certainly must have stored the stuff. Two sets of stairs at the middle and north end of the section led up to that level. When Cupcake and Danny joined me there we found several old lipstick containers that had fallen into the edges of the walls, on top of the drywall or whatever it was of the ceiling below. We collected a lot. They also found some sample colognes in there somewhere as well, I think in a drawer or something, still wrapped.

Toilet

I made my way back down with Shelly to see if we could find out way into any more of the buildings in the area. We went between two buildings and then out toward the rear but didn't see anything else that would be simple to get in. We walked up hill next to an old flight of stairs, and then looked out to see a plowed roadway went to the back of the building. This was our sign that that section was still in use. We waited for Cupcake and Danny to come back out and we all went to the back to investigate. It was certainly in use, so we left. We got on the power line just to the east and folloed that back to Skyline Drive. A car came up as we reached the road and turned around. Skyline Drive ahead was blocked off and closed seasonally. We walked on past the gate and headed along the road.

View toward Matamoras and Pocono Rim from Elks Brox Park

On the way up we stopped by an exceptional view point next to part of the power line looking into PA at the Pocono Rim and Matamoras. The day was winding down and the lighting was beautiful.

We continued along the road as it made lots more crazy corners and reached the main view point of Elks Brox Park.

Port Jervis view from Elks Brox Park

The view was outstanding and clear. We could easily see High Point in NJ straight ahead, all of Port Jervis, matamoras, and the Delaware River. To the southeast we could see up the more undeveloped valley of the Neversink River and the Shawangunk Ridge.

We had taken a lot of time in the abandoned building, so we didn't hang around at the view point for very long.

Port Jervis and Matamoras view from Elks Brox Park

We followed the road t the first turn, then bushwhacked down off of it briefly to a blue blazed trail. I thought this might be some rogue informal trail, but then I saw turn blazes and figured whoever did this at least knew something of what they were doing. We didn't stay on the blazed trail for long; I couldn't see further blazes and we needed to keep descending from the mountain anyway.

At one point, Danny found out he could sit on his butt and slide on down a lot of the way, which the rest of us followed in doing. We made our way rather easily down to a creek near some houses. Although one house had a foot bridge and we could have gotten out to Reservoir Ave that way, a dead end road called Elmendorf was just to the right (at least I think that was it). We walked this and somehow ended up I think on Orange Street back to Rt 209 in the middle of town.

It had now gotten dark, and we were hungry so we stopped in a pizza place at a strip mall near the turntable off of Pike Street. The guy inside gave me two slices for two dollars since one had a bubble in it! Alright!

Shelly was parked here, and although there wasn't much left to do to get to Matamoras, it was better that she cut out here. She did absolutely fantastic considering she hadn't hiked in many months.

Danny, Cupcake, and I made our way across the bridge into Matamoras, making stupid talk the entire way about being a "playa" ("The playa can be recognized by the spoiler on the honda civic", "The nemesis of the playa is the mothafucka...because the mothafucka is the advocate of bullshit"). I was thoroughly amusing myself.

We reached the PA Welcome Center, and the snow we had walked in earlier had melted to the point where our feet now sank in it.

With the snow slowly melting, it was good to feel that we would have more unlimited hiking experiences very soon.