Hike #709; Flat Brook and Kittatinny Ridge Vicinity
Flatbrookville/Millbrook/Blue Mountain Lakes Vicinity with Brandan Jermyn, Justin Gurbisz, Michael Clark, Lyz Hagenbuch, Ric Giantisco, Theodore Wright, Mark Norman, Susie Duncan (and Zip Line), Steve Levy, David "Captain Soup" Campbell, Michael S., Henry ?, Sarah ?, Simon ?, Trish Magnotta, Christine ?, "Pirate Dennis" ?, Joel Reger, Al MacLennan, and Angela
The group starting off the hike at Flatbrookville area
Our next hike would be a fantastic route up and down the Kittatinny Ridge from Flatbrookville area up, then back down to Wallpack Bend. I posted it as a difficult hike in order to put the scare in beginners to my hikes, but still had quite a few that seemed unprepared for what we were undertaking. Regardless, we made it through and had a fantastic time.
We met in the morning at Millbrook Village because they had adequate parking. The actual end point of the hike would be at Wallpack Bend, but there is very little parking there and it's tough to direct people to. I opted to use Millbrook and shuttle the short distance, that way people could also have an early out if they so wished.
I also finally got to meet Michael Clark, who I'd been friends with on Facebook for quite some time. I was surprised how much taller he is in person. He told me people call him "Lerch"!
After moving a few cars to the actual end, we shuttled on to Mountain Road, the road that leads from Rt 615 to Walpack Center past Bushkill Falls. My plan was to begin next to the nice old through truss bridge over the Flat Brook and make our way to Donkeys Corners Road, most of which is now abandoned, to the outlet stream to Hemlock Pond and bushhwhack up.
We did just that; we followed Mountain Road to the right turn on Donkeys Corners Road. The road soon becomes impassable to vehicle and leads gradually up hill through woods. We passed the first stream up the hill which leads to a beaver pond off of Woods Road Trail. We'd bushwhacked up this ravine in 2009 to find several off trail waterfalls. I had similar hopes for this one.
We followed the woods road and soon reached the creek. It didn't at first look all that promising. I explained to everyone that I would be walking UP the creek, but everyone was welcome to try to bushwhack parallel, and that it would be extremely difficult. Mike Clark, AKA "Lerch", who I'd been friends with on line for some time but never got around to meeting went right up the stream with me, as well as Justin of course, always willing to climb anything and everything. Ric and Lyz also of course remained right in the stream climbing quickly ahead. The first falls were probably the most beautiful we'd come across. It was pretty easy to climb up them on an angle. After this first set of falls it was just one after the other heading up hill. Most were a little smaller than this first one, but very nice. Many of the others made their way to the stream rather than stay on the embankment because of the difficulty. Brandan and Pirate Dennis were soon behind me. Dennis managed to climb up each water fall with only one hand, with a drink solidly held in the other, not spilling a drop!
This was probably more stressful for me than I wanted it to be. I was anticipating a much smaller group for this one, but we ended up having some new people who were simply not ready for the strenuous nature of this hike. Those of us who climbed the falls made our way to Woods Road Trail and Hemlock Pond, and had a nice swim. Lerch and I headed back down after a short while to check on the people that were still running behind. We followed Woods Road Trail south a bit and then cut into the woods. He continued down hill a bit to see if he could intercept them, and I went back to the creek to follow it down stream the way we'd come. I found Mike S. down there, and a few others followed shortly behind.
After a while the entire group was back together and resting at Hemlock Pond, so we could all enjoy a good swim. It was surprising that not more of the group went in the water. Al and Angela joined us also at the pond for a good portion of the trip.
After the swim, we headed around the south side of Hemlock Pond to the Hemlock Pond Trail, which climbs the rest of Kittatinny Ridge up to the Appalachian Trail. We turned left here, and made our way along some of the woods roads that were intended to be development roads, but were never built. I intended to follow Crater Lake Trail, but I missed the turn and led everyone onto more obscure woods roads by accident. We followed the AT for a while, then we all turned right on one of the roads headed back down toward Crater Lake. When we got to the shore of the lake, we passed some lovely old steps, then headed to the main parking lot for another good swim. There were quite a few people around, so we didn't hang around for too long. We then followed the gravel road which accesses the lake down hill slightly and to the south side of the ridge. Two rangers drove by us in this short section of road we walked. We also took side trips from the road to check out views on the edge of the ridge. While checking out this area, we happened upon an old ramshackle building that looked to be a concession stand. Not sure exactly what it was for, but it was certainly middle of nowhere and far off of the road. Pretty soon, a path paralleled the gravel road, which we were able to follow for a time out toward the old Flatbrook Stillwater Road which is now abandoned on the south side. We crossed on the Appalachian Trail and refilled our water bottles at the pump at the parking lot. This was a great and needed stop. Al, Angela, and ? cut out to make their way back to Al's car.
The rest of us followed the Appalachian Trail a little bit to the Pool Colony Roads. Pool Colony was another of the proposed developments that were supposed to be constructed in what's now the Del Water Gap NRA, but never came to be. We followed one road till it ended at an intersection and I watched my phone GPS. We had to bushwhack a little bit down hill, and near a small stream crossing I nearly (or maybe did) stepped on a large abnormally dark colored Timber Rattlesnake. I saw it after it moved only, and I waited and warned everyone of it's presence. It began moving off down stream direction, and we got some good pictures. I was going to grab hold of it for a second by the tail for everyone to see, but was convinced not to, and then Pirate Dennis picked it up (crazy guy!).
We continued on from here along the roadways, then cut off of them near a pond that was intended to be in the development. We made our way down stream following the tributary that drained the pond on our way to the Van Campen Brook. It was a pretty nice area and the undergrowth wasn't too bad. There was another old woods road in this vicinity too that we crossed, which seemed to head down hill on the other side of the creek, but it wasn't going our way. It had the remnants of a wooden foot bridge that had badly washed out laying partly in the washout section.
We continued down stream, then turned left in a more south direction when we neared the Van Campen Brook. A wider, open meadow section lay below us as a well as some remnants of what might have been a homestead or something. I remember there being signs of past activity here in the level area. We continued down stream parallel with the Van Campen Brook. We had to go up and down twice over spots where other creeks flowed in. I was originally intending to head up to Coventry Pond along the way, but we went out of the way already and so I omitted this from the trip to save a little time. We continued on the Flat Brook which led to an amazing little water hole that was perfect to lay in. The cold water cooled off those of us who went in substantially. I'll have to remember this great little place.
We continued across the creek and up to the Donkey Hollow Trail, continuation of Donkeys Corners Road which we were walking before. We followed this directly in to Millbrook. There were a couple people fishing just down stream from where we were, and I think they were none too happy with our arrival and bathing in the creek.
When we reached Millbrook, we took a little break and a lot of the group left us. Mark, Michael S., Joel, Lyz, Ric, Brandan, Justin, and Mike continued with me to the end. There might have been another but I can't remember!
We crossed Old Mine Road and headed up hill on the Orchard Trail. I hurried up pretty quick on this one, and waited at the top for people to arrive for a bit. Ric wasn't too far behind me; he's pretty quick. Lyz was a short distance behind followed by the others. We turned right on Hamilton Ridge Trail, the former road road that is still paved, and turned left onto the abandoned former route of the Pioneer Trail. There was, to my surprise, still a wooden "Pioneer Trail" sign a short distance into the woods along the trail. We had at first walked right by it. It was easy to miss.
We followed the old trail for a bit, but then turned off to the right when I saw a faint old woods road. It led over a bit of a knoll, then headed down hill slightly. There seemed to be two woods roads, one in a dip between little ridges, and another a little further up. Soon, both seemed to disappear. The climb down became more difficult, and we approached a small stream. There were stinging Nettles and loose slopes we had to negotiate, then climb down the stream only to climb back up the other side on an equally steep slope. There were rock outcroppings on this side we had to work our way around. We continued on and I believe we came across yet another dip we had to go down and up on.
Mike S. was falling behind a bit, but Lyz went back and got him fortunately. The terrain was rugged here high above the Delaware. This section from Pioneer Trail to the Riverbend Camping Area was one of the few sections I had not walked close to the Delaware. In fact, I had done pretty much all of the western perimeter of NJ from Milford Montegue Bridge south to Trenton save for this one little piece, so I wanted to fit this in somehow. Just before we reached the Riverbend Campground area we crossed one more deep ditch. We then descended to a couple of building foundations and made our way to the outlet of the Big Flat Brook. The Delaware River was full of a billowing mud while the cold Flat Brook was crystal clear as it flowed into the slack water created at Wallpack Bend (Wallpack is the native American term for "Whirlpool". The river was deeper than usual and so slack water went back on the flat brook for some distance. I chose to wade across while Joel went ahead to lead everyone across at an easier spot. Joel is an able leader, through Appalachian Mountain Club and other groups, and one of the first I made an official trip host through Metrotrails' Meetup group.
I took a bit of a swim and cooled off, then went up onto the trail along the creek. We made our way from here back out to the parking lot along the creek where we'd left cars in the morning.
The hike was fantastic, and although some of the participants didn't handle it as well as others, it was awesome to once again hike with a group that was up for the excitement of climbing off trail up waterfalls and bushwhacking through crazy back woods areas no one has explored likely for many years.
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