Hike #1166; Waymart to Lackawaxen

Hike #1166; Waymart to Lackawaxen

10/13/18 Waymart to Lackawaxen with Matthew Davis, Russ Nelson, Ewa Wdzieczak-Smering, Jennifer Tull, Diane Reider, and Daniel Trump

This next hike would be the next in the Delaware and Hudson series. It was one I was dreading more than others coming up for a couple of reasons.

High works of the Pennsylvania Coal Co Gravity Railroad in Hawley.

The route of the canal for the first third of it could be very tough. It followed the narrows of the Lackawaxen, and in some cases is completely washed away. The walk through could be very brutal.
The other two thirds were pretty much all road walk. Towpath Road and other roads have been built over much of the canal, which means a lot of walking on pavement. I’d rather take brush a lot of the time than distance on pavement because it kills the joints.
Still, I was very excited to be doing it. It’s great to have a group of people dedicated to the series that are also so into it, so I’ve been enjoying this series a lot.
We met at the end point in Lackawaxen, where we parked at the large lot for Zane Gray Museum. From there, we shuttled in my van to the starting point in Hawley. We parked at the Dollar General place next to the gas station, where the Pennsylvania Coal Compay Gravity Railroad came across and accessed the canal basin, which is now a park in Hawley, with ball fields and a playground.

Playground in Hawley

The canal was completely filled in through Hawley Basin. We made our way across to a park access road known as Park Place. There was still stone work along the north side of what was the basin.
Once we were on the road and almost up to Hudson Street, I saw a path continuing through the woods roughly where the canal should have been. It was filled in through this area, but the path was obvious.
In David Barber's guide to the Delaware and Hudson Canal, he describes this area as one that must be bypassed through the parallel road walk, so I was happy we would be able to walk something like this. The canal really hasn't been documented to the degree of Mr. Barber's work in about twenty years, and it was getting more interesting for me.

Historic image of Levi Barker, boat building in Hawley

There was a giant Sycamore tree hanging over the Lackawaxen River as we headed along the former canal route.

Sycamore

We continued along the route for as far as we could, until it terminated into a private back yard. There was no good way up, so we turned left and just skirted the driveway through the grass up to Hudson Street. We then turned right and walked the street to the right. The old houses along the right side were probably all canal era, and backed right up to the canal.

Lock House #29

Soon, we reached the intersection with Church Street, which turned right and crossed over the Lackawaxen River. A driveway shown on google maps as Settler's Village is the former route of the canal back the direction we came from here. The ten foot Lock #30, which was a weigh lock (since boats were loaded from the Pennsylvania Coal Company Railroad here). There was no evidence of it, but we could see down the driveway to the site.
This particular spot was a final decision point. I had been reading Barber's guide over and over, the the next section seemed a bit sketchy to me. I knew there would be bushwhacking. I knew there would be some difficult sections, but the more I read it, the more I figured we could get away with it. The only other option was to remain on the south side of the Lackawaxen and follow the railroad tracks, former Jefferson Branch of the Erie Railroad, for that section. I really didn't want to do that. I knew it'd be interesting, but we wouldn't see nearly as much that way. Another option I had been considering leading up to this hike was just to follow the canal as far as we could, and when things started to get bad we would wade across the Lackawaxen to get to the tracks. At this point, the water was incredibly high, so that was not going to be an option. Even small streams that Barber's guide considered easy to ford would be major challenges. Further, I had injured my leg and gotten a really bad infection on the previous hike, and I knew getting it wet in the river could be a major problem.

Canal, river and Pennsylvania Coal Co Gravity RR

I made the final decision, with the blessing of the group, that we would try our best to continue as close to the canal as we could. I knew going into it that this would probably be the most difficult stret of any section of the entire Delaware and Hudson series, but I wasn't prepared for just how tough.

Lock #28

We continued along Hudson Street, and soon came upon the former site of Lock #29. I was watching to the right the entire time, and I spotted a snubbing post, where mules were tied off, down to the right. I took a photo of it, and upon further inspection could see where the top of the ten foot lock walls were. The house right along the road I then notices had the look of a Lock House.
Lock tender's houses differ on every canal. Sometimes they look similar, and on some canals every one of them is different. Some doubled as stores and lodging. I didn't really know what to expect until the previous hike when the precedent was set that lock houses were large, boxy structures of greater size than many other canals.
The Lock House at Lock #29 had the look of many of the other lock houses, so it was kind of obvious, and still lived in.
We continued up the street, which was kind of busy. There was an historic cemetery to the left side, so we ducked into that to walk it's distance rather than the road for a bit. I found a tall, stately grave stone for "Charles Daniels", to which I made the joke "The Devil Went Down to Hawley".

Lock 27

We returned to the road at the end of the driveway and walked a short distance more to the entrance of a water treatment plant. The guide book is written from east to west on the canal, which in some ways is odd because the most freight went from west to east. It made it hard at times to read the guide and figure out what was coming up next.
We walked around the outside of the fence, and it was pretty overgrown. I was hoping for something maybe a little simpler. We spotted an old masonry structure to the left as we hung on along the fence, and eventually came to the old canal. It still had water in the prism, and the towpath appeared to be in good shape, but it looked hard to cross. I went down and managed to hop over it only getting my feet slightly wet. There was no really good way to do it.

Lock 26

The others tried to find other ways to cross, but there was a stream flowing into the canal directly beside the treatment plant lands, which would have to be forded no matter where we went. Most of the group eventually went the way I did and reached the towpath on the other side.
There were purges in the towpath which looked to be a washed out. The first one had masonry on it, so it was definitely at one time a weir, where excess water from the creek was designed to run off without causing washouts. The second cut was nothing more than a washout.
Beyond this point, the towpath and canal were in very good shape for a while, and we had a pleasant walk.
The towpath started getting really washed out. The walls were still good, but the base was all the rocks that were below the treadway it was designed with. We were starting to reach some of the very narrow section of the Lackawaxen. A bit further, someone had a little camp site set up in the middle of the towath, and cliff walls appeared on the left. It wasn't long after this we came upon the remains of Lock #28, also known as Rock Lock.
This was a rather incredible lock because it was built right up against a cliff face. The berm side of the canal still had the lock wall in place, but the river side was washed out and we couldn't really see any of it. It was very thickly overgrown from here with Japanese Knotweed. The berm wall too was beginning to collapse in places, so we had to carefully edge our way along it to continue. The recesses in the walls where the lock doors would have opened were still evident. It felt like a really cool discovery because the place was so hard to get to, but it was only the beginning of this type of thing.
Continuing beyond the lock was even harder. The Japanese Knotweed was insanely thick. At least it was non-abrasive. The canal was on a shelf along a vertical rock cliff in this section, and nothing remained of it at all. At one point, rocks from the cliff had collapsed, and we had to scramble over them to get to the next bit.

Waste weir

We had some good views along the Lackawaxen after the knotweed died died, and the old Erie Railroad on the opposite side also had some impressive stone work holding it up. We continued along the shore until eventually some of the towpath base walls started to appear. We passed an old bridge abutment along the way, which may have gone across the Lackawaxen, but can't be sure.
The canal soon became recognizable again, with a towpath, but the prism remained pretty washed out for a while.
We came to another difficult part when we got to a stream flowing in from the Woodledge Community to the north.
This was known as Swamp Brook. It's not significantly mentioned in Barber's book, but it was huge this time.
The group went up stream and crossed partly on a fallen tree. I was able to hop to one rock, get only my left foot a little wet, then do some contortionist stuff to get over and through another fallen tree and to the shore on the other side. There was no sign remaining of a weir that would have had to be in place here during canal days.

Site of Lock 25

We continued ahead from this point, and there was another camp area in the old canal prism. This one was obviously more used. There were ATV trails leading to it from different angles. Fortunately, no one was around at this time. A sort of cloudy day with a minor chance of some rain worked out for us when avoiding encounters.
Soon, we came upon the ruins of Lock #27. Another secluded lock, but in really great shape. Some of the timbers that made up the inside walls of the lock were surprisingly still in place, even though it had been abandoned 119 years ago. I was amazed to see so many of the metal components also in place here, including hand fashioned nails. Even one of the verticals to one of the lock doors was there, and leaning into the river.
The canal was completely gone again on the east side of the lock. Part of the downstream side of the lock was washed out on the river side, and no topwath continued beyond. We had to walk through some high grasses, on rocks with water from the river running between them in such a way that it was hard to see it. We had a good distance of totally missing canal before some of the berm walls started appearing again, and a little bit of shelf, but still no towpath. The shelf the canal occupied was just about all that remained here.

Lock 24

When the canal started to become more apparent again, the river had a wider flood plane. The river went off to the right, while the canal route traveled further away from it into the flood plain. It was getting more overgrown and thus harder to follow as well. A private house appeared on the left side. I tried not to gawk too much. I wanted for us to just slip by as quickly as possible unnoticed. Lock #26 was just ahead. The lands on this entire stratch were posted inland from the edge of the canal berm, but not the river side. It makes me wonder if there is legal public access.
Lock #26, also known as Baisden's Lock, was more overgrown, but probably in even better shape than 27. The book on the canal reads that there was a collection of canal era buildings on the berm side of the canal, but I noted only a rather modern looking house. We were kind of uncomfortably close to it. I walked the towpath and got a couple of quick photos, then hurried along as not to have any incidents. There were still no signs saying not to be on the river side, but it was clearly posted inland. I descended somewhat from the towpath because it as getting too overgrown, and Matt followed me. I went back up to the towpath in a short bit, and there were a couple of places where the land owners had created paths out to the river across the canal. The canal turned even more inland away from the river than it was right at the lock, and I lost it briefly trying to stay out of sight from the house. I had to bushwhack through some thick stuff and eventually got back to the towpath. Another mowed off path came in from the left and went into the canal prism ahead. There was a weir site in pretty good condition where the canal started moving back closer to the river. This point seemed like a good spot to wait for everyone to catch up. It seems everyone went different ways for this part trying to get through weeds. From here though, it was more reasonable traveling along the towpath.
We continued along, and there was another cut rock face section to the left. There were a couple more washouts in the towpath, but overall it was okay for a bit, up until we got to some new development stuff.

Towpath

When David Barber wrote his book, apparently the area up ahead, adjacent to a road known as Markle Road, was far less developed than it is today. He made mention of a cabin along the Lackawaxen up hill from the canal in this area, but there was more than that this time. There were at least four, maybe more, permanent residences right up to the river. The canal had been filled over and turned into some of their front yards. I had the book in hand if anyone asked what we were doing, but that would have been a poor excuse. No one in their right minds try to go through the mess we just went through. I hurried across the yards as quickly as I could, through a little brush, into the next one, until the last house where there was vaguely a path that went along the river. There was a bend up ahead, very sharp. This was an interesting point in canal days.
The area we were reaching was known as Pool Pit. The Lackawaxen River makes a hard turn at a vertical cliff face.
When the canal was developed, a new trench had been dug for the river to the south, and the canal was developed onto the old river bed below the cliff face. At this point was about the site of Lock #25. Barber mentions that all remnants of this lock are gone.
It looked rough even approaching it. We made our way along a steep and weedy slope. We almost ended up in someone's yard above, and then had to bushwhack down through worse stuff to continue. We then were along some steep rock faces ourselves and had to go over a spot where a slip couple mean a long fall and serious injury.
Jenny, Diane, and I were up front, and Matt came up behind me. He helped everyone over the rough spot, and I went ahead to see how things were looking.
Just around the corner was another stream entrance, called Tink's Brook. This was another major flow that would prove to be problematic. I saw some branches further up stream I figured we could use, and then went back to Matt to discuss it.
Because the river had reclaimed it's original channel and obliterated the canal at Pool Pit, the river smashes right up agains the vertical rock cliffs. It is therefore necessary to climb to the top of the cliff in a roundabout way, then descend on the other side to continue on the canal. At this point, it was already the toughest stuff we'd done in the entire D&H series, so I knew not everyone would want to bushwhack on through it.
When Russ and Ewa arrived, I posed the idea of following Tink's Brook up to Markle Road, and then following that to Kimble at the Narrows of the Lackawaxen not all that far down stream, and just skipping Lock #24.
Everyone decided they didn't want to try to go up and over around Pool Pit. After the mess we just went through, and the miracle that we didn't even get seen walking through it, it was understandable that they didn't want to take any more chances.
I was about to go with them, but my curiosity was lighting up my brain like fireworks. My adrenaline was high, and my curiosity was at it's peak. I asked Matt if he'd like to go if I try to bushwhack on up and over, and he said he'd see if there was a good way across. I had already made up my mind, I was going over. After the previous hike and doing the crazy section there, and after missing really only one lock site on that one, I didn't want to miss another.

Narrows of the Lackawaxen

Everyone else disappeared up Tink's Brook around the corner, and I used some branches to limit how wet I got. I then went to the part of the slope that was just barely graded enough for me to climb up with a few hand holds helping me out. There were some tiny deer run grades going up that I made use of, and soon found my way to the rock outcrop directly above the Pool Pit. This was a really cool spot. Just above there, there were cuts into the rocks that appeared to have been quarried out, maybe for stone for the canal.
I climbed down very carefully trying to use trees along the way, and managed to get to the edge of the river at about the first spot I could reach east of the vertical rock face. There was some level rock in the area, but no sign of any masonry for the canal or Lock 25. I turned to the left, and there was a cool overhanging rock, and I had to climb over some pretty ridiculous ones. I turned and surveyed the area to see on the other side some evidence of stacked stone work. I told myself that this must be the remains of Lock 25, not really recognizable from any other angle. It is possible that the lock was not actually up against the cliff, but further over in the river's channel, while the river was in it's new channel to the south. Even if it was not the lock itself, I am fairly certain that this was definitely a canal related masonry structure.
I had to climb a bit further up the cliff again because the rocks got to be impossible to navigate briefly, but I made my way carefully back down again as soon as I could. There was then a rocky shelf, but rather flat, along the river. I figure this was the canal bed, on which masonry was sat, but it's long since been flooded away. It became a wider flood plain as a walked it, and slowly the outline of the towpath and prism started to appear again.
There was an ATV path down through the prism, even where there was a bit of water in it, and eventually I was able to get back on the towpath, which was surprisingly cleared as I moved on. It got to be a bit nicer, and there was even a substantial wooden foot bridge built over the canal to the left. Soon, a house appeared off to the left. I tried to continue through rather quickly. Near the house, I could see an opening, like some sort of weir site but on the opposite side from the river. Maybe to let a creek flow in. Just above this point, I reached the former Lock #24.
Lock #24 was also known as Frank Danniel's Lock. Like most of them, it had about a ten foot lift. This one was badly overgrown, and it appeared that some of it might have been collapsed. It was an easier one to just walk past because there was so much vegetation. I tried to take some photos rather quickly, and was surprised to see a good amount of the wood still inside the lock, and even the horizontal pieces across on this one, which weren't as prominent on previous ones.
At the end of the lock, the cleared towpath ended. It got to be absolute crap. I bullied through the first bit of it, and then had to turn right off of the towpath for a bit. I made my way to the right a bit and found a clear ATV road. Although it wasn't on the towpath at first, it was closely parallel with it. There was a big water tank and pipes I could see across the Lackawaxen on the far slope. Not sure what that was, but I know at this point that it has something to do with the outflow of Lake Wallepaupack.
Soon, the path I was following climbed back up to the towpath and followed it to the right, totally clear. I could see a ways down the towpath and the bridge that carried Kimbles Road over the Narrows of the Lackawaxen came into view. As I made the corner, I could see what looked like a vehicle with a light bar. I was relieved to be through the mess. With my injured leg, going through without tearing bandages off was hard enough, but now I'd have to deal with other issues.
As I worked my way toward the next road, I could see the others above walking parallel with me and talking to the guy at the house where the car was parked. It turned out to just be an emergency vehicle, not a police officer.
Better yet, there was signage along the section of the canal that read something to the effect that you could walk through there and fish, but no camping and such.
Dan Trump met up with us at this point and he went to walk down the path earlier, but it was too early to catch me. The guy at the house was not particularly friendly, and when Dan told him he was just checking out the canal and that it said fishing and such was allowed, he asked where his fishing pole was. Dan said "It's in my truck! Want me to go get it?".
They didn't say anything to me as I came out, and we all congregated on the bridge to look at the scene.
This area was known as Kimble, and also as the Narrows of the Lackawaxen. It was a really tight space, probably the tightest of anywhere the canal had to pass through. It was built on a chiseled away shelf along the river, with a high masonry built up section. It's incredible that such a thing was built at this location. Today, nothing remains of the amazing infrastructure in the narrows except for the base of the shelf created to hold the canal. We could see just where it was supposed to be.
While there, the guy on his porch along with his wife stared at us with looks of disapproval. I wanted to go down to the shelf and make our way around the narrows, but the humdrum duo made me think otherwise. We instead turned back past their house, and Dan bid them a nice day, then headed up Kimbles Road to Towpath Road and turned right.

Narrows of the Lackawaxen historic view

There was an old cemetery on the right from there, and we headed to the edge to have a look down toward the canal. Some other people were there at the entrance looking to us warily. Fortunately, as I walked on Dan stayed behind and actually smoothed things over.

The narrows today

When I looked over the edge to the left, I was blow away to see an awesome looking lock. This was Lock #23, or Jim Harrison's Lock. It had a lift of ten feet, but from our angle it looked much higher. The bypass flume was also in great shape. Some wood was left along the inside walls. Below the lock, closer to the river level, there was a feeder channel that apparently fed water into the canal. Maybe it was an earlier alignment of the canal too, I'm not sure.

Lock 23

I walked back the direction we had come from, toward the bridge and the narrows. The towpath became eroded away abruptly as I neared the narrows, and I could just picture the water crashing against it and destroying it. There was nothing left but shelf, and I walked toward the bridge we had just been on for a better look.

Lock 22

I turned back and we did our group shot at this point, because it was such a cool looking spot. We then moved on along good towpath to the east. It wasn't long before we came across Lock #22, also known as Mike Harrison's Lock. This one had a lift of eleven feet, but somehow looked smaller to me than the previous one. The lock house was still standing and still lived in, right on the other side. We didn't take a lot of time here as not to intrude. We just took a couple of photos and moved on along the towpath to the east.

Lock 21

The old canal was soon very close to Towpath Road. We still stayed on the towpath itself for as long as we could, but eventually had to turn to the left when it got weedy. This was because there was an old stone waste weir in the area. A small foot bridge went back across the prism to the towpath, but it was somewhat overgrown and went into people's yards ahead. Here, we just started walking the road.
We walked the road for a little bit, and then on the left side we came to the remains of Lock #21, also known as
Field Bend Lock. The road is built over the towpath wall, which buries some of it, but the berm lock wall is somewhat there with the upper gate recess visible. The bypass flume is also back behind that and was very recognizable. There are houses out behind this site, but I didn't take notice if any of them resembled the previous lock houses. Most lock houses have a certain look to them on this canal, which makes them easy to recognize.

Lock 20

We continued walking from this point on the road. The entire road stretch often had masonry work along what was the berm wall to the left of the road. It was very common to see, along with the occasional dip for where the prism was, usually at least part covered by the road.
To the right, there was another channel in the river. This might have been an earlier route of the canal before it was upgraded. It was rerouted in other places, so it's not too far fetched to think it might have been changed here as well.
Soon, we came to the site of Lock #20, also known as Pat Gannon's Lock. It was kind of a more secluded wooded area, and again only the berm side of the lock chamber was still there. There was also some wood and metal framework in place along that. Just after the lock, I spotted a snubbing post in the weeds to the left, something commonplace at lock sites.

Lock 19 site and lock house

We continued along the more narrow road ahead. The older channel remained below us to the right for a bit. As we rounded a corner, a seemingly abandoned house appeared on the far side of the Lackawaxen River. There were higher areas on each side which leads me to believe that this was once a ferry site. An old bridge abutment was in place on the berm side of the canal in the area, but it didn't appear to be any bridge to have crossed the river.
We moved on and came to the site of Lock #19, also known as Abe Rowland's Lock. There really wasn't a lot left here. Some rocks and such, and a driveway was built directly over the mostly filled in lock site. Just past the lock, the former lock house is still standing and lived in. It's been altered and added on to, but there is a snubbing post on the west side and a sign reading that it was the lock house for 19 on the east side, as well as an 1826 date.

Lock 18 site

The canal and towpath would have turned inland slightly in the next section, moving away from the river a bit where there's an island in it, onto the flood plain. Wide yards appeared to the left, and masonry from the berm side became apparent. The road narrowed a bit near the intersection with Schoolhouse Lane, and the road is built directly on top of the site of Lock #18, also known as Jim Hanner's Lock. There are discrepencies with the lock house in this area from what I've read. The first house we came to, on the left, which was of good size, has a sign out in front of it that reads that it was the lock house. Just past that, another house is mentioned in David Barber's book to have been the lock house, and is much closer to the lock itself. The house sits up a little higher than the road to the right, which probably helped protect it from flooding, on the river side.

Lock 17 site

Behind it, there is a swinging footbridge of considerable length spanning the Lackawaxen to a farm on the other side. I wanted so badly to cross it, but it was private land. Still very cool to see. I don't know which one was really the lock house. Both looked like they could have been it, but the larger one had the look more so of previous lock houses. There was also an old D&H stone property marker in the front yard.
We continued along a great bend in the river, and a cliff was on the left side. The canal was mostly filled over by the road through this section. We had a view up the river toward the foot bridge if we looked back.
After coming away from a narrow area, there was a yard on the left and a large white house. This was supposed to be the site of Lock #17, also known as Rodger's Lock. The house standing above it is described to be the lock house, but it doesn't look like the others. It could have been much altered, because the roof is different and ht has a sort of overhanging porch. Apart from that, it does appear around the same size.

Lock 16 site

We continued along, and there was a nice sitting area along the river and a yard to the right. It didn't say to keep off, so we regrouped at this point. Across, there was a very small house according to the sign was the lock house for Lock #16, also known as Corkonian's Lock. This lock house broke the mold for what we were expecting of lock houses. It was far smaller than any of the other ones. The lock itself is mostly filled in, and the driveway to the lock house crosses over the site. At the time of Barber's survey, the house was not lived in, but it was looking to be in very nice shape now, and had the construction date of 1828.

Lock 15 site

We went around another corner in the river, and could see across to where the former Jefferson Branch of the Erie Railroad crossed over the Blooming Grove Creek at it's confluence with the Lackawaxen.
We continued on to the intersection with Engvaldsen Road. This road is built over the site of former Lock #15. A little bit of masonry can be seen around, but it's much covered over. The lock house for this one is still sanding as well on the berm side, although it too appears to have been altered quite a bit.

Lock 14 site

We had another narrow spot along the river, and a snubbing post on the left side which might be in it's original location, because the canal is watered in that area and goes from under the road for a bit.
We continued to where it got a little wider again, and then the site of Lock #14, also known as Griswold's Lock, was in a yard area to the left. Up above it, there is a large house that was known to be a canal era boarding house, but also a lock house. A bit of the lock wall at the east end was still recognizable.

Lock 13 site

It wasn't far from here to the site of Lock #13. There was a thing in the brush that might have been a bypass flume remnant. Not a whole lot to see here. A house on the slope could have been a remodeled lock house easily, but apparently no one is sure about this one. It is about the right location for it. Ahead, a sign on the road welcomed us to Rowland PA, with "Little Norway" in quotes. Their little mascot on the sign was a troll, which gave us a laugh because we were referring to the yahoo that gave a hard time for walking the canal back in Kimble as a troll. Dan talked to someone else after that who said "Oh, don't mind him, he's f***in' crazy!".

Lock 12 site and snubbing post

We entered a little settlement, and then crossed Robert's Brook on a highay bridge. This is built on roughly the site of the Roberts Brook Aqueduct. There is no remnant of the aqueduct today. Just beyond, the towpath still has a higher remnant than the road to the right for a bit, and the road is in the canal prism. Church Road came in on the left, and at about this site was Lock #12, also known as Westfall's Lock.
We moved on ahead, and the canal still had remnants of prism on the left side of the road, as well as stone walls for the berm side. There were two house on the left that would have been older and could possibly have been lock houses, but Lock 11 wasn't just there yet. It's possible it could have been an older lock site. A snubbing post was at the corner of a driveway just ahead of here.

Lock 11 remaining walls

We soon reached Lock #11, which was in surpisingly good shape for it being part covered by the road. Both lock walls were at least part there, with the towpath side making up the slope of the road wall. The berm side wall with the gate recesses was in really good shape with at least one piece of wood remaining. This was also known as Saxon's Lock.

Lock 10 site

We continued ahead a bit more toward the Rowland post office, and in front of a house there, somewhat overgrown and messy, is the remains of Lock #10, also known as George Rowland's Lock. It wasn't clear whether the house behind it was the lock house or not, but I suppose it could have been.
Across from the lock site in the same area was what appeared to be an old toll house and a bridge site that used to span the Lackawaxen. The area was apparently site of a lot of controversy because the citizens felt they should have a free bridge paid for by Pike County, and others felt otherwise.

Historic image of Rowlands

The toll house and abutments are all that remain today, and a new bridge spans the Lackawaxen a short ways up.

Lock 9 remnants

The towpath ahead was interesting in that a little cellar room had been built into the berm side wall. We continued and passed a snubbing post along a driveway to the left.
Rt 590 had joined from the left, which was much busier. Towpath Road was no more, and this busier road would be our route for a while. We were spoiled with good road for a bit.
We soon came upon the site of Lock #9, also known as Bishop's Lock. Only the berm side wall was in place with some bypass flume. There was a house just past it on the river side, which looks like it could have been the lock house. There was really no other purpose for a house to have been out this far in the middle of nowhere. Another snubbing post was visible on the river side near it.

Lock 8 bypass flume is all that remains

The river continued to bend, and I was getting worried whether we'd be able to see everything I wanted to see prior to it getting dark. We next came at a bend to the site of Lock #8. No lock house or any buildings were visible. Even both lock walls had been demolished by the highway construction, but we knew where the site of the lock was because the bypass flume is still there and in good shape. This one was also known as O'Donnell's Lock.

Lock 7 remnant

It wasn't far between Lock #7 and Lock #8. Lock #7 was also known as Tinsmith's Lock, and the berm wall of that one is still standing on the left side of the highway. Up hill in the woods above the lock were lots of stone foundations. These were apparently not only the tender's house, but mule stables and maybe more. The bypass flume for this lock went undergrown through a tunnel at the east end rather than open, likely so mules and people could more easily walk down to the canal from these buildings.

Canal nearing the end

We continued down from the lock site, with some gate recesses visible, and the canal turned away from the highway to the right briefly. We got to walk one nice section of towpath off of the road here which was nice. A short watered section was at the end of it, and then it came out onto grass to the highway once again.
I was getting really tired, and the book was getting hard to interpret because so much has changed over the past decades. The canal turned right, away from Rt 590 a bit, but goes into yards. We had to stay on 590 through a rock cut, and then the canal came back somewhere to parallel the road after crossing it again. No crossing site was apparent.

Probably Lock 6 site with snubbing post

We turned left on Kuhn Road, which would have been on the berm side of the canal, with 590 apparently on the towpath side. The road we were following was dirt, and we took it to a cut over to 590 where there was a snubbing post out in the grass. This area was probably the site of Lock #6, either under one of the houses or in the grass and it's been covered over. Just ahead of this, there is some stone work along the road.

Probably lock 6 looking to lock 5 and 4 site

This could be part of Lock #6, or mayb Lock #5. The two were very close together and it's hard to tell where things were. Lock #4, Ridgeway's Lock, was also right there together with these others. It looks like at least two of the three are probably obliterated, or portions are and I can't differentiate between them. The sites of Locks 5 and 6 were apparent because of the change of elevation in a grassy area between trees. Lock #4 then is probably some of the masonry just below that. We talked to some guys working on an old car in a lot right where the canal should have been, and they said that the canal should have been right in there. They didn't know much about it.

Possibly lock 4 remnant

After leaving the little settlement, off to the right we came upon rather unexpectedly, the site of the Lackawaxen Aqueduct.
This area was improved in later years of the canal. Originally, the canal reached the Delaware River, then used a small dam and slack water to ferry boats across. It then passed to the north side of the Lackawaxen River and passed through Locks 1 through 3 before joining the later alignment. Loggers hated the canal and it's slack water dam, so they would destroy it and close down navigation until repairs could be made. The dam would mess up their log rafts, and it was a major problem.

Lackawaxen Aqueduct

John Roebling had already had success in 1845, when he created a suspension aqueduct in Pittsburg PA. He was enlisted to construct aqueducts to relieve the stressful situation with the loggers. The Delaware Aqueduct and the Lackawaxen Aqueduct were started in 1847 and completed in 1849. New locks were added on the NY side, and the first three in Pennsylvania were eliminated with the new alignment over the two aqueducts. An immediate success, the aqueducts eliminated one full day of travel for coal carrying boats.
In the years after the canal's abandonment, the Delaware span was converted to a vehicular bridge, now the oldest suspension bridge in the world, and the Lackawaxen structure was abandoned and only abutments remain.
We walked out onto that abutment, and it was amazing to picture boats coming through the finely crafted trough. I had been wanting to stand on this site for some time. In fact, I'd been wanting to connect to both of these aqueducts for some time. Some of the metal was still in place at the ends. It was about to get dark, and we got to see it with just enough time remaining.

Lackawaxen Aqueduct site

We headed out from here, and made our way further along Rt 590. The original canal prism was still very obvious along the way. Soon, we reached the intersection with Kelly Road and the canal turned to the right a bit, parallel with it. The intersection is about the location of the original Lock #3. There is even a house above that is likely the former lock tender's house. I had wanted to continue on and see the sites of Locks 1 and 2, but it was starting to get too dark. We wouldn't see much at all. I decided we would just tack that onto the next one, and do a little less of the canal.

Lock 3 site

There's a lot of stuff around Lackawaxen I want to see, and so it'll be easy to put something together there. I'd also like to cross the Delaware Aqueduct twice on the two towpath sections. There's a lot more to look forward to.
We left the old canal route and crossed the Rt 590 bridge over the Lackawaxen. We then turned left on Scenic Drive, passed under the old Erie Railroad, and returned to the lot at the Zane Gray Museum.
Matt and I got a ride back to Hawley to my van, and we stopped at a pizza place for some food. I was really tired, and my leg was hurting pretty badly. I didn't do a night hike the previous week because of my injury, and it was badly swollen. I was also dead tired and totally hungry. This was by far the most difficult of any of the D&H hikes we'd yet done. Mostly it was because the road walking is hell on the muscles and joints, but also because we had such a time consuming, difficult section at the start. When we get to Orange County NY, all of that should be over with, and even prior to that none should be as difficult.

Last boat through the Lackawaxen Aqueduct

Driving home, I was feeling awake but not right. I actually started hallucinating. I'd not had any alcohol (I didn't want it to effect my antibiotics), and I was still having problems. Although I felt awake, I kept seeing sticks or branches that were not there falling in the road in front of me. It was like they were real. I pulled over at a gas station to let Matt drive after he'd already offered several times before. I didn't fall asleep on the ride back, and was okay by Washington, but this ended up prompting me to go to the doctor again.
The scoop was that it was very badly infected, but by the time I went a couple of days later, they were happy with how much the swelling went down. They admissed that if I'd been in a couple of days sooner, they might have put me on something stronger or maybe even an IV. The girl at my initial visit told me I should go to the ER right away. Fortunately, it was much improved by the following weekend.
There’s a whole lot more to look forward to in this series, and I feel that they will only get more enjoyable as time goes by.

HAM