Hike #705; Pocono Rim; Milford and Matamoras

 Hike #705; Pocono Rim

6/16/13 Pocono Rim; Milford North Loop with Cory Janusz, Justin Gurbisz, Michelle ?, Steve Levy, Tim Kovich, Stephen Argentina, and Father Stephen Argentina Sr.

The group behind Delaware Valley High School in view of the Pocono Rim

Our next trip would be a fantastic loop on the Pocono Rim.

I had been doing Pocono Rim series hikes at this point since I first decided to do a series in July of 2006 starting in Slateford PA. Doing a couple sections of it every Summer mainly, we had reached as far as Milford PA, and near the end of Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. This section would prove to be more difficult than many of the previous ones due to private land avoidance and the fact that there really were almost no developed trails overall. I would have to be creative with how to get through.

We met in the morning at the Grand Union supermarket in Milford. I got there a bit early, ahead of the Google prediction and went in to pick up a sandwich. There was a guy working behind the deli counter that knew some of the area we were talking about. I chatted with him for a while, and he told me for sure how we could get up to the cliffs. I thanked him and got a sandwich from them, which was really awesome. I also gave him a Metrotrails card in case he wanted to join us when he got out of work at 1 (though he never called).

Once everyone was together, we started on our way. It was nice to have some newcomers out. Justing was standing awkwardly with a group of old timers at the lower end of the Grand Union Lot when we arrived. Seeing him standing there, I assumed he was looking for us from behind. They were probably just as confused about why  he was over there with them!

We wandered on up the street from the supermarket and entered the mowed lawn on the lower end of the Pincho estate property. The property was first developed by James Pinchot, whom we found was possibly the father of Forestry. Pinchot had retired from a successful career in designing wallpaper from NY city to the town of Milford where he grew up. His original home is a lovely brick building in town. He constructed Grey Towers on the hill overlooking the town near the Sawkill Creek and a waterfall the family liked.

The home Pinchot constructed was a French Chateau modeled after the Marquis De Lafayette's La Grange. Originally to be named the Sawkill Towers, it was reported that the place was named Grey Towers at the request of James' wife.

We walked past a relatively new looking spillway dam and through an open area of ornamental species to reach the main entrance road and Gate House for the estate. There was a trail that began at the bottom of the hill called the Pinchot Timeline Trail. It was also marked with the Pinchot Greenway signs from that trail route down in town we had hiked on previous trips. We were told later that the switch backing trail was the original route to reach the mansion at the time of it's completion in 1886. The route had some very nice interesting trees along the way. One of them is the European Copper Beach (Fagus Sylvatica), which was Gifford Pinchot's favorite tree, and one of the only he planted on the site.

We continued up hill and I saw two trees that made me thing of Jillane. There was White Pine wound tightly together and growing with a Sugar Maple in a way I had never seen before. It reminded me of one of my favorite stores in Greek Mythology, which I told to Jillane when we first got together. The story was of Baucus and Philemnon. They were visited by the Greek gods, Zeus and Hermes disguised as poor migrants looking for shelter. The couple catered to them, and despite their own poverty offered to them their finest foods and saw to their comfort. Upon their departure, the gods revealed themselves to the couple and offered to grant one wish in return for their hospitality. The loving couple's only wish was never to have to see each other perish. When they grew old and the time had come, they turned into intertwined Oak and Linden trees, and bid each other farewell as the bark closed on their lips.

Seeing these trees made me think of how Jillane and I can be like an abrasive pine and sweet sugar maple, and how these trees somehow make it work, and help support each other's weight.  I wished she could have been there to share the moment with me.

We continued along the timeline trail to the Grey Towers and headed inside. We had to wait for a little bit for our tour guide to be ready. We had a fantastic, informative tour, starting with the main hall which had amazingly retained the same character as when the Pinchots lived on site. A picture from the beginning of the 20th century revealed that it was nearly unchanged.

James Pinchot was a true forward thinker, having obtained almost all of the materials for Grey Towers from local areas, and employed local workers. It was he who instilled in his son Gifford the importance of the renewable resource of forests. James was not proud of the damage his family had done to the forests, and suggested that Gifford go into Forestry. In the US, there was not yet a forestry service, and the general attitude was that the resources were infinite. Gifford went to Forestry school in France and returned to implement his studies in the US. He is widely known as the nation's first forester with a great many successes including the "Midnight Forests", a bill passed by Roosevelt with his advise the night before executive power was taken from that title in favor of congressional approval. He was also twice Governor of Pennsylvania.

We were shown the rooms upstairs, including Gifford Pinchot's bedroom, left just as it was at the time of his death. It was a small room with a tiny bed despite the man's great height. His wife Cornelia had an artistic side room made to reflect her outgoing personality. She was also one of the first feminists, who would go camping and such which was unheard of in women of her time.

We were escorted out of the building to view the "Finger Bowl", which was basically a hot tub, only cold, that guests would be seated in and float boals of food across to one another at gatherings. We were finally shown Gifford's favorite Copper Beech, which our tour guide said that Pinchot wished he could see a hundred years after he'd planted it, which was ironically about the time we were seeing it.

After the tour was over, we walked by the moat in front of the towers and then on down the road. I had wanted to get in to see the Pinchot Falls, but there was a large locked gate blocking it off. The guide told us that the site had been closed off because it was on private land now, chiseled away from the original property. I thought we'd get in to see it anyway, but it would have been too tough and obvious for a group to go over.

We made our way down the way we came in, and then found a path into the woods. I thought we'd get to make our way up the creek here, but it was getting too weedy and tough, and I wasn't sure we'd be able to actually get to the site easily.

We continued then back down the road to a side street and the shops near the north part of the town. Stephen went into a store to get some fudge, but left his $600 camera on the counter! We continued walking for a while, and took a side street until we found where we could cut into the woods by the Sawkill Creek by Milford Glen. Stephen then realized he lost his camera and went running back for it. He ended up going the wrong way and called me to find out where to go and eventually found it. His dad was saying "He leaves a $600 camera for $2 worth of fudge!". It was quite comical. But he fortunately got it back.

We continued through some rough woods, then had a steep climb off trail to the top of a bluff where we connected with a woods road. This turned into the trail that goes through the Glen. We continued on the trail to the old Mott Street truss bridge and took a dip in the creek. At the bridge itself, Justin started climbing up the trusses. He got right up to the top and started walking across like nothing. It's amazing how heights don't seem to scare him in the least bit. It was nerve wracking just watching him there!

There was some kid watching us and talking on a cell phone, and I didn't want to have a problem so we hurried off into the Glen further, and soon reached Rt 209. Stephen rejoined us with his camera here. We then headed down onto the former Rt 209 and picked up the Pinchot Greenway on the little used river road, a gravel lane along side the Delaware out of town with only a few houses on it, some of them vacant.

The greenway turned up a street, and we turned right on a foot path that paralleled a small park and led out to the roads in town again. We zig zagged along back streets from here until we reached Rts 6 and 209.  We then followed 209 a short distance to Old Milford Road, another predecessor to the modern highway.

I'd explored this road by car with Jillane a little while back and wanted to incorporate it into a long hike. It's really a nice back road. There was one abandoned house and some other ruins off to the left side along the way, but I didn't want to try to get in there because there were too many other houses occupied nearby and thought we might have a problem.

We continued on and checked out an old cemetery called Smithville, somewhat overgrown to the right, and then beyond to the Charles S. Pierce House, which is now owned by NPS and apparently used for offices. Peirce is known as one of the greatest American Philosophers and logicians. The house we saw was originally an 1854 farm house that in 1887 he had remodeled to his design. It's quite an interesting building. Further, in his later years, Pierce was in poverty and the Pinchot family paid off his debts.

We continued along Old Milford Road until it reached a cul de sac where a foot path led out to Cummins Hill Road. We turned left here and passed beneath interstate 84. I tried to climb up the slanted slope of the underpass like I do in so many other places, but this one was incredibly slippery. I got to the top for a picture, but getting down was difficult without sliding. A tumble would certainly have been painful and could easily have happened!

We made our way up the road and looked to the right where Cummins Creek flows down off of the Pocono Rim. I was looking for a hole in the chain link fence that would take us to the bluffs above. There didn't seem to be anything. We just made our way up the road for a ways until we saw an  open spot to the woods and made our way in.

When we got to the creek, Cory and I waded across, some took their shoes off, and others went across on a log. The water felt great. We then climbed steeply up the room along the cliff face and got some outstanding views of Rt 84 and the Delaware River, as well as to the Knob to the south of Milford. I had looked upon this place many times in the past and always wanted to get up there.

We continued along the ridge for a while, and Justin kept getting really close to the shale side which was insane looking! We made our way further on, then had to bushwhack down hill at another creek site. We came upon a utility line cut, apparently part of the upgrade/expansion that's probably associated with the Roseland thing that's had so much opposition in recent years. The trees were laying, all knocked down and a mess to get over. We tried to head down, but it was like a sheer cliff below them and would have been impossible to cross, so we headed back up stream to the nearest feasible place to cross.

We saw a waterfall in the creek just ahead, so after sweating it out over the mess, Justin, Cory, and I headed down to try to see the falls close up. Cory came down steeply from the west side, while Justin and I made the other crazy descent from the east. There was a lot of loose shale and dirt which made it extra tough. We had to hold onto a single tree, and then slide carefully beneath an overhanging rock, then crawl flat beneath with barely enough room to a spot we could get down. I managed to get down first and spot Justin, (who honestly requires no help with climbing at all), and we instructed Cory on the other side as to where vertical drops were so he didn't go over them. When we all got down, we headed directly to the falls hidden in a very narrow ravine with vertical rocks not more than six feet wide on either side. I was the only one prepared to get 100% wet, so I continued on and got behind the waterfall. There must have been at least another six feet one could stand behind the falls, an amazing site. Even though it was such a hot day, I was freezing cold coming out of that. Justin managed to climb back up the same way that we came down, which I thought was too risky. I went with Cory a bit down stream and we managed to climb another very steep spot but with some better grip.

We took a short but nice break back at the top, with the rest of the group wondering where we'd gone. I was totally happy. It's great to have friends who are into doing this more high adventure stuff and seeing amazing places like this. The three of us who were down there all have something special we bring to people, through the history of vacant buildings, promotion of nj hiking, and my Metrotrails thing.

We continued from here steeply up to the next section of the Pocono Rim. The views were tremendous, and different than the Pocono Rim views we'd had in the past, and yet still very similar. The cliff sides were just as all the others had looked, complete with Prickly Pear Cactus growing naturally on the south facing slopes (this was the furthest north I've observed the species growing. Apparently they they are native to further north in NY as well.). Although the topography is the same, the view was vastly different with widespread development. In most ways it's really disheartening to see, but in others it's interesting to see things like cars and people in order to give a sense of how far and up we were. The Delaware Valley High School, the Wal Mart, apartments and other area businesses were all in view. There were a couple of levels to the ridge at this point, which were somewhat steep to go up. Once at the top of the main one, we had to descend a bit. We found an ATV path/woods road which led somewhat down hill toward Rosetown Creek. We crossed a smaller spring which we turned off along and followed down hill and over another small ridge. There was a nice tiny waterfall here. We then made our way through a cleft in another ridge down hill on an old woods road. I ran off to the right of this and found a nice taller waterfall where the small creek flowed over the cliff. I would guess this is a rather new spring and cascade because the entire route of it had almost no erosion at all, and just flowed over the top of the rocks.

We continued on the lowest of the ridges until a home came into view along the end of Mountain Avenue. I had seen this while driving with Jillane and knew it would be a difficult spot to descend and keep off of the property. We carefully made our way over the steep slope toward the river, then followed a very narrow excuse for a path along an almost vertical area above the Rosetown Creek. It was a tough spot, but we managed to hang on, with Cory leading the way here, down to the creek side.

From this point, we had to walk IN the creek, which was my plan. There is no nearby underpass beneath or over Rt 84, and so I planned on going through the creek undperpass. This proved to be quite interesting, in an oblong tunnel that became smaller as it reached the downstream end. Michelle, the newcomer from Milford who had only done one short hike with me in the past, handled it very well despite her initial apprehension. Stephen's father also fared excellent. He was a great sport for joining his son on Father's Day for this hike.

Out the other side of the underpass, we made our way to the Wal Mart parking lot where Justin climbed immediately to the top of the billboard on the corner. He managed some sort of running jump to the ladder and casually walked across the high catwalks on top.

We made our way from here along the front of the Wal Mart, then toward the lot in back, parallel to the high school property. When the fence turned, there was an opening, and we made our way through to the back of the high school track and onto a path that paralleled the Delaware in back. The path was wide and nice for a bit, and we followed it on to some sort of senior center area, then cut through some more woods to a creek with a beat up old bridge over it. We tried to cross and continue, but there were tons of weeds and private land. We opted to make our way up to Rts 209 and 6 and follow them south for a bit.

We were soon parallel with a family camp ground along the river which was separated from the highway by a high berm. We followed the campground road until we got to where the Cummins Creek crossed the site. It was surprising that the creek had no bridge over it in the camp grounds. A few of us waded across while the others went back out to the highway to cross and come back.

We exited the camp ground near their main office and got to Philips Lane, a small back road leading out to and parallel with the Delaware sorrounded by national park service land. When the road ended, we cut into the woods on what appeared to be a former continuation of the road. It became very obscure, but we continued on. At one point it crossed someone's yard, which confused me since it was all supposed to be park land from what I saw. There was a house along the river who's yard we didn't want to cross, so we cut up hill and out to Roberts Lane, then headed southwest again parallel with the river once more. One side road went to the left as we continued on Georgi Circle. The roads were little used, and at the end there was some guy's house, where the road didn't seem to go through like the maps showed. We cut into the woods off of the guy's yard. He was mowing the lawn and gave us a wave, but payed us no mind. What came next was the most brutal bushwhack of the hike.

We had to fight through undergrowth trying to stay underthe more dense canopy of evergreens, which was tough. We eventually found our way out to the fields beyond. These were not in cultivation and were not easy to walk through. Cory led the way on an angle across the fields heading to from what we could see on our GPS as the next opening in the fields. After a while, we got to an overgrown lane, followed by an open cultivated field. We headed to a field break where a stram underpass was eroding the road route, and crossed some more fields. After the last of the fields, we cut into the woods through some mostly non abrasive undergrowth until we reached an old road access to the river. There was a path leading up hill from the road, but we ignored it and continued on the woods road until we came out near behind a motel area. We followed it's service road back out to 209. We checked out some of the Vandemark Creek which had a nice bridge parallel with 209 directly over a waterfall, and then followed back streets through Milford, partially along the Pinchot Greenway to Elderberry Alley, which the greenway follows back past the Grand Union supermarket parking lot.

This was a fantastic hike. I really needed something more challenging at this time. So often I'd been getting newcomers that were used to "Dennis Lee" hikes, from the NY/NJ/PA Meetup group, who describes very easy and slow paced hikes as difficult great workouts, and goes to great extents in his trip postings to talk about body mass index, hiking gear, boots, etc. and the important information gets lost, and results in participants not even reading trip descriptions. There was no one unprepared on this hike, and everyone was up for the challenge and the excitement of exploring. Quite a fulfilling day. There was no drama to speak of, and we hardly spoke of anyone who was absent. I felt pretty free of resentment and high on life. This felt like a return to what I intend for my hikes to be.