Hike #1178; Lackawaxen/Minisink Ford to Pond Eddy

Hike #1178; Lackwaxen/Minisink Ford to Pond Eddy

11/25/18 Lackawaxen/Minisink Ford to Pond Eddy with Matthew Davis, Justin Gurbisz, Diane Reider, Russ Nelson, and Ewa Wdzieczak-Smering

This next hike would be I believe the eighth in the regular Delaware and Hudson series.

Historic overview of Lackawaxen

On the previous trip, we had finished at the Zane Grey Museum in Lackawaxen on the Delaware and Hudson Canal. This time we would continue on that route south.

The bridge replacement at Pond Eddy

This next hike would be our last return to the Delaware and Hudson series main route until it would be warm enough to brave the section in to Port Jervis, because I feared we would have too much trouble along the narrow sections of the Delaware. As it turned out, it wouldn't be so bad after all, but I'd still schedule alternate fill in routes for later because of potential for snow and inavailability of Matt Davis.

Rock Shelter at Minisink Battleground

I picked up Matt and Justin in Washington in the morning and we shuttled north toward Pond Eddy.
It was neat driving through, because they were replacing the old Pond Eddy Bridge.
The original bridge was a suspension structure, and it was replaced by a petit truss bridge in 1903. That bridge was found to be very structurally deficient in recent year, and it's replacement was called for. It once served the bluestone quarry interests of Shohola, Pennsylvania on the other side, but those are all long out of business. Today, only two dead end roads are on the other side, and twenty six homes. It almost seems like it'd have been cheaper to buy them out than to replace the bridge, but they did replace it. A new truss bridge was sitting next to the old one, already open, and one of the two spans of the old bridge has already been demolished. The other span was still standing, but I'd imagine it has been knocked down by now. It's sad to see it go.

Minisink Battlefield Park

We continued north to a parking area along Route 97 just north of Pond Eddy to meet the group, except for Russ and Ewa who were going to join in a bit late. My plan was to first cover a bit of the Minisink Battleground Park, then continue to the canal where we'd left off.
There was initially a lot of interest in this hike, but only Diane showed up for this one. Because we had some joining, and there were only two cars, we chose to take Diane's car to the start point and leave my van at the end to take more hikers.

Historic image of the old cables

We shuttled to Minisink Battleground Park, located on Minisink Road above Lackawaxen area.
The Battle of Minisink took place on July 22nd, 1778. It is the only major Revolutionary War skirmish to have taken place in the upper Delaware Valley. Eighty seven Tories and native Americans of the Iroquois nation were led by Captain Joseph Brant, a native American himself, had sacked the frontier village of Minisink two days prior, and were heading north. The New Jersey and New York Militia had planned to surprise them at the area of Minisink Ford, but an accidental firearm discharge alerted them. Fighting ensued first closer to the river, and then culminated with a bloody hand to hand combat battle atop the hillside where the Minisink Battleground Park is today. The Militia were no match for the Tories and Iroquois, and there were heavy casualties.

Delaware Aqueduct

This horrible battle led to Continental Army troops being sent north, and they destroyed evey Iroquois settlement on the way. It's not well written of that their alliance with the British played a hand in their mass extermination.
The area where the battle took place was still considered such dangerous frontier that the bodies could not be removed from the site of the battle for 42 years. Some of the wives of the dead attempted the journey but were forced back. When they finally did arrive, bones were found and put in a mass grave with a monument in Goshen, NY. One remains believed to be a casualty of this battle was found and interred as an "unknown soldier" over in Lackawaxen PA.

Lackawaxen Aqueduct site

We arrived at the park and began our walk past a restroom, which was surprisingly open, through some snow and onto the Woodland Trail, which breaks off of the Battleground Trail to the left to head up through some nice woods. There wasn't much to it, just a meandering woodland path. The trail loops around back to other trails, and near it's end was a side trail to a rock shelter, which was used by ancient native Americans at one point possibly as long as four thousand years ago. We headed down to it, and there were some really pretty ice formations around. The trails were not standard blazed, so we weren't really sure which way to go from down there. It looked like a trail continued, but we soon realized that the route to the shelter was a dead end and we had meandered off.

Delaware Aqueduct

We headed back off trail after we saw a private homes and buildings. We eventually had to backtrack back when we got to the rock shelter the way we'd come, and reached the Battleground Trail. This took us through more woods and out to a great big boulder. Legend has it that Capt. Joseph Brant and his army of Tories and natives placed this rock upright to honor their dead, because the site is just up the slope from the battle. Brant's army was said to suffer only seven or so casualties, and ten more were dangerously wounded.

Lock #1 site

We turned left on the Quarry Trail, which headed through more woods and past some quarry sites. We skirted one and passed over a couple of pits as well. A little bit beyond we came to an intersection of paths and headed down to Minisink Road.
We turned right and followed the road the way we had driven up, to get down to the Delaware Aqueduct where we pick up the Delaware and Hudson Canal once more.

Lock #2 site

We had left off previously at the Zane Gray Museum on the Pennsylvania side, and we missed seeing a couple of lock sites and such, so we would go across first.
The Delaware Aqueduct was not the original route of the Delaware and Hudson Canal. Originally, the canal had a slack water ferry crossing just to the north to the mouth of the Lackawaxen River. Boats would then pass through the first two locks in Pennsylvania to continue on.

Zane Grey Musuem

The trouble with this crossing was constant conflicts with loggers. Log rafts from the southern Catskills and both sides of the Delaware up stream on their way down would crash into canal boats or break apart going over the dam which provided slack water for the boats up stream. The loggers would become angry and destroy the dam, and costly and time consuming troubles plagued the canal.
A proposal for aqueducts from John A. Roeblings was decided upon, because he had already had a successful suspension aqueduct constructed in Pittsburg PA area in 1845.

Delaware Aqueduct

The reroute of the canal was planned by Roebling and Russel F. Lord. Two aqueducts would carry the canal across the Delaware and Lackawaxen Rivers, and three new locks in Minisink Ford on the NY side would bring boats up to the new level. Further, Roebling would also design aqueducts to span the Neversink River and Rondout Creek further to the east.

Delaware Aqueduct and the old canal route.

The reroute of the canal was completed in 1849, and it shaved an entire day of travel off of the trip from Honesdale to Kingston, even with the added three locks, numbered 70, 71, and 72, and known as Driscol's Locks.
The dam was kept in place because it provided feeder water into the old canal, which also remained to feed water into it further down stream. The dam lasted until the end of the canal, which is surprising because it's existence was one of the problems the loggers had as directly related to the dam.

Site of Lock #72, buried.

When the canal was abandoned in 1899, the old aqueduct was converted into a highway bridge, where vehicles would simply move through the trough that once carried the water. Over the years, the walls of the trough were removed, and it more closely resembled a typical suspension bridge.
In 1908, Charles Spruks bought the defunct Delaware Aqueduct for use as a bridge between his lands in Sullivan County and timber customers in Pennsylvania. As a side business, he built a tollhouse to collect fees from local travellers. Successive owners maintained this business for the next seventy years.

After the road came through...

Until the 1950s, the tollhouse served both as office and residence of those who collected tolls and repaired the bridge. After 1955, it served only as office and tollbooth since most of the subsequent tollkeepers lived in Minisink Ford. In 1979, the toll operation closed. The tollhouse became an interpretive center when it and the bridge were purchased in 1980 by the National Park Service.

Toll house

PHOTOS FROM SURVEY HAER NY-205
In the late 1990s, efforts were made to restore the aqueduct to it's original look. The towpaths on either side, which were sawed off when the canal was abandoned, were restored, and a trough replicated. Concrete was put in the base to replicate the original weight of the water, and ice diverters were placed on the upstream ends of the piers. Today, the aqueduct looks much the way it did in the canal days. It is known to be the oldest suspension bridge in America.

Lock #71 remnants

We reached the east end of it, and found that the towpath walkway on the south side was shut down. We had to cross on the north one, which provided us with the view of the confluence with the Lackawaxen River and the old canal route anyway.
Also on the east end, there is a tiny museum building along the south side with some brochures and photos of the earlier days of the bridge. It was surprising that it was left unmanned and unlocked.
Lock #72 was immediately under the highway on the east end, and there is an old large house that was probably there during the canal days. It seems to appear in the old photos, although it has been renovated to a great degree.

We could see the original canal route heading up stream, and there was a riffle in the river where the dam used to be. We got ot the other side, and Russ and Ewa were across on the south side in a parking area. There was a giant mock trunk bracing like what holds the aqueduct together there.
I checked out some of the historic signage, and we continued on along where the canal used to go.
Before the next house at an intersection, there was a sign to the right on a post that read "historic canal trace", although I didn't see it the first time out (Russ pointed it out on our return).

Old bridge site

We walked this to the crossing with Scenic Drive, and a sort of paved path continued ahead, and turned right beside the base of the fill for the former Erie Railroad tracks. The canal used to go under the tracks at this point, but there was no sign of the former bridge. I wasn't sure of that at the time, but we knew for certain later.
The path took us to the back of the cemetery at St. Mark's Church, and we had to step over a pile of sticks and such to get into it.
The old cemetery was really nice; one particular family plot, Meyer, was adorned with more decorative delineation than I've ever seen on such a plot before. We came back out to Scenic Drive, and the tomb of the aforementioned unknown soldier was very close to the road, in the slope above the river.
We continued ahead just a bit more to pass the Zane Grey Museum, formerly the home of prolific western novel author Zane Grey. He wrote famous works at this site including "Riders of the Purple Sage". We didn't notice it in the cemetery, but reportedly Grey's grave overlooks his house site there.
We continued on Scenic Drive past a river access spot where we could clearly see the old canal ferry site. There was once a hotel building on the north side of the mouth of the Lackawaxen, but now other homes are there. We could see the landing for the canal and towpath, and we moved on just a bit further around the corner to where we could see the former site of Lock #1. There was no stone that we could see there, but the site seemed pretty obvious. We soon reached and passed beneath the former Erie Railroad's bridge over the Lackawaxen, which was a curiosity as well.
The bridge had had the westernmost track completely removed, including all of the metal bracing that held up that central portion of the bridge, apparently with some kind of giant torch, and the rest of the bridge over the river was strengthened with a lot more metal in such a way that I've never seen anywhere else.

Beaver Creek Aqueduct site

On the other side of the Lackawaxen River from the bridge was the former site of Lock #2. Again, no stones were visible there, but it must have been the site.
With a clear view of where the locks were, there was no need to walk to the other side of the river to the sites.
They were mostly inaccessible in yards anyway.
We continued from the railroad underpass to a sort of western looking store called Twin River Junction (there is a junction where the Erie Railroad branch goes up the Lackawaxen River here, and the other goes up the Delaware).
I went in and saw that they had the kind of chocolate milk I like, so had to get some.

Shohola Barryville Bridge

We continue from here across an intersection to continue on Beisel Road. The canal used to be parallel with this road to the left, now in a grassy and muddy field area. We followed the road a short distance to the south end of the Lackawaxen Aqueduct. The south abutment is gone, but the north one is still in place. We had climbed on it on the previous hike in this series. While in the canal, I found a very old Pepsi bottle I brought with me. I'm still not sure how old it was. It must be at least from the sixties because the lettering is made into the glass rather than on something printed.
From here, we turned back along the old canal route. It was a little muddy right where the canal actually went, so everyone else walked the roads, but I continued through the canal and got my feet wet. It was filled in, but still really muddy.

Construction of Shohola Barryville Bridge from Debra Conway, 1940-41

The rest of the group continued back on Scenic Drive, but I crossed over Rt 590 into a park where the canal used to go. I think I lined it up right directly on where it was, and then climbed the embankment over the railroad tracks. I didn't see any sign of any bridge abutments, which was surprising. I came back out on the path we were on before, and then walked from Scenic Drive back on the historic canal trace to the aqueduct site. I got there well before the rest of the group, who had to go all the way back out and around.

Delaware Aqueduct

Together, we headed to the Delaware Aqueduct to cross over again. Justin took to the closed side, and even though there was a cop on the other side, he didn't say anything to him.
Once on the other side, we headed down along a path to the north. There is supposed to be a trail on the original towpath heading to where the canal used to cross, but it was pretty much grown over. We turned and started following the original canal towpath to the south, under the aqueduct bridge.
When we got well under it and beyond, I left the old towpath and climbed up to the left, to the later towpath. It was somewhat grown over, but I could walk it. I followed it south just a bit and soon reached the remains of Lock #71, which was in surprisingly good shape. Reportedly, the house up the hill from it and across Route 97 was the lock tender's house. There was still wood and metal in the lock channel, which was surprising.
The two routes soon came close together, but the exact spot where they diverged at the point of Lock #70 is obscured beneath Route 97 just ahead.
From here, we simply had to walk Route 97 along the Delaware down stream.
The canal remains obliterated by the highway through this next stretch.

Site of Lock #69

I was afraid going into this hike that it would be just mostly highway walking. We had a good start to it, and one of the reasons for starting with Minisink Battlefield was to offset some of the road walking sections. This hike would turn out to be far different than anticipated, however.
We continued ahead, and there was soon an Eagle watching blind on the right side. We all went in and had a little break. Justin referred to it as a giant urinal, because it was one of the only places we could duck away to take a pee. There was some odd art stuff on display at the thing.
After our break, we continued on our way along the highway. It was not nearly as bad as I'd thought. I was picturing huge amounts of traffic and noise, but there was almost no one on the road at all. Justin and I pretty much walked up the center of it for a good while, because we could easily. From time to time, we noticed some stone work to our left, from the berm side of the old canal.
I wasn't paying too close attention to the David Barber guide book that I'd been carrying with me, because I figured we'd be on the highway for so long. However, just to the right the canal broke off to a little river access point shown on Google maps as Lander's Canoe Trips. There was a good towpath side wall along this stretch which was quite surprising.

Site of Lock #68

The section led us to Dry Brook, which purged through the canal. I don't believe there was an aqueduct here from what I'd read. There was some stone work where the brook came under the highway and was admitted into the canal.
There was reportedly a waste weir in the area that allowed the excess water to flow out, but now the brook purges through the towpath wall just a bit further down. I hopped across on rocks, but some of the others went out and around to get across on the highway. Justin found a dead Opossum along the rocks. The poor thing must have frozen to death, unable to find shelter. Having pet Opossums has made me love them even more than I ever used to. They're really nice animals.

Old hook in the rocks

Once on the other side, we headed through the property of Landers Canoes. Most of the canal had been filled over, but a berm became recognizable on the far side. We cut through to what must have been the property of Kittatinny Canoes next, and the route was not recognizable. We just wandered on through. I was happy to just be off of the highway for a bit.

Rock ledge where the canal used to be

We soon reached a point where we had to climb steeply down. The canal had turned to closer to the river at some point and we didn't notice. A good section of deep cut canal was below us, and what appeared to be camp sites were set up in it. We climbed down, jumped down off of the wall on the berm side, and then started walking the southbound route to soon reach where a bridge used to cross. This must have at one time been the main road across. The abutment on the berm side was in great shape, while the towpath side was in not so great shape, but recognizable.
We came out to Route 97 again, and the canal disappeared under it briefly, then turned back again to the right in a short while. All of this Kittatinny Canoe property I now realize was somewhere I had camped with the boy scouts in 1996. We had canoed from Narrowsburg and camped at Barryville (this would be a Barryville address) and then continued the next day to Matamoras. I didn't recall the canal or it's remnants at the time.
I have a lot of memories of that trip, and this was just another of those experiences that ties it all together. I tried to picture where we were bumming around and goofing off. Russ pointed out a spot where there were shoes tied up in a tree. When we had camped there, we spent a while trying to knock shoes out of the trees to see if any were our size. Our friend Rich Triggs managed to knock a pair down and he wore them for the rest of the trip.

The canal in the narrows below Little Hawks Nest or Mitchie Hill

We continued along the nicely preserved canal through the campground to a point where a driveway followed the towpath, and we had to switch to the berm side. We got to a little area of dumpsters and then had to cut to the left out toward Route 97 again. We turned right to cross the Beaver Brook on the road bridge, and to the right we could see the remnants of the Beaver Brook aqueduct. This was a wooden trunk aqueduct that carried the canal over, and the north abutment was still in reasonable shape where we could kind of picture a structure being in it. The south abutment was in rough shape. I went down and took a photo from the other side before we continued on. The highway overtakes the former canal for a distance beyond again, and there was a closed restaurant, or rather seasonal, on the right side.

Site of Lock #67

I at first thought this was a lock site, but it could not have been. The next ones were further down. We continued along the highway with occasional berm side stones in place again.
The road started to widen when we got to the north side of Barryville. There was another hawk watch spot, but no building this time. There was then a small shack that looked like the advice stand for Lucy from Peanuts comics. We continued along the road into the settlement, and then got to a small “garage sale” area. There was a woman there selling stuff outside, as well as in this indoors store. Of course, we had to stop and look around.
There was so much stuff around with no rhyme or reason about how it was displayed. There was nothing we couldn’t live without buying, but it was fun to have a look.

A nice section of canal

We decided we were going to have lunch in Barryville. There was a pizza place we passed, but then remembered on the ride up that there was a place advertising tacos. This was the “Stickett Inn” right near where the aqueduct would have been to take the canal across the Halfway Brook. Lock #69 was apparently on the river side of Route 97 still, just before the road going over the Barryville bridge over the Delaware.
The area was an historic crossing site back as far as the days of the native Americans. It was a ford site the Lenape used on their walking route to the Long Island Sound. The first bridge was completed at this site in 1856 by Chauncey Thomas. He had tried to hired John Roebling for the job, and although he declined, he offered specifics on how to construct such a bridge to the inexperienced Thomas, who saw them through to the best of his ability.
The bridge was destroyed in stormy weather within three years of it’s construction, and was then immediately replaced. This bridge too was destroyed by a storm in 1866, and was replaced yet again, this time with an additional pier.
The bridge lasted until 1940, but it was very structurally deficient. After being opened to only very light traffic, a new bridge was constructed and completed in December 1941. The through truss structure lasted well to the first days of the 21st century when it too was found to be structurally deficient. It was replaced with the bride we see today, which really doesn’t have much character compared to the old one. The new bridge was completed in 2007.

Another nice section

We went into Stickett Inn, and I had one of the advertised tacos, but also a quesadilla. The place was also selling local hard cider, so I could not resist but sample some of this as well.
When we were all satisfied, we continued on our way, out across the Halfway Brook on the road bridge. On the other side, there is a bunch of rubble in the filled in canal. This was about the site of Lock #68. This and lock 69 were known as the Barryville Lower and Upper locks.
We started to follow the driveway beyond, which uses the canal, but a guy in one of the houses told us that it was a private road and that no one was permitted through. He wasn’t mean about it, but we couldn’t continue this way. We headed back toward Route 97.
We walked the highway a bit, and once we were just about beyond the last house, we started heading back through the woods toward the canal route. There was a good long section here that was not on the highway, and I didn’t want to miss it.
As we neared the river, we came upon a vertical cliff. There was no getting down it. We tried going down a couple of rock levels carefully, but there was no climbing down without ropes. I was not ready to give up, so I turned to the right a bit. There was the last house very close by, but it looked like no one was around. I kept getting closer, looking for another way. Everyone was about ready to give up and head back to the road. I hurried down, and found one section of rock I was able to jump off of safely, then I hurried down onto the former canal bed heading to along the river. I could see the others on the rocks above, but I didn’t look back much. I think Justin went down the way I did, but the others took the chance and went out closer to the house and ended up where I was.
The canal was gone here, but the rock face was obviously blasted out for it. We could see the drill marks among the ice and falling water along the slope. This was an incredible area. Russ had been down here before, after he’d belayed down the cliffs with a friend many years ago.

Into more narrows ahead...

As we walked, Russ pointed out a giant hook in the rocks. This was used either to moor canal boats, or during construction of the canal. The hook I found also marks the property line between two properties along the river. A little further down, there was a second hook in a more solid cliff face.
There was a section with giant fallen rocks off of the cliff face, and then one nice calm area where there was no canal, but definite level surface that was some sort of remnant of it.
I was totally enamored by all of this to the point that I decided to bust open a bottle of Wayerbacher Blasphemy in celebration. I am carrying them with me for special occasions only, since it’s not easy to find and they don’t make it very often. I let everyone have a try of it, and I think overall everyone loved it.
Next, we came to an enormous cliff face. There was a blasted rock shelf along the edge, on which the canal must have sat. The rock walls remained high for a good while. We were able to move along the edge of the river alright, but had to occasionally climb over some fallen rocks. Just after the steepest section, there was a house to the left. It looked to be occupied only so often, so we just hurried on by and got on pretty good towpath beyond. We were able to walk this very nice section for a good distance.
It was impressive to see the amazing stone holding walls below the towpath in this narrow part of the river. This entire section made the entire trip worth it, even if we hadn’t included the Delaware Aqueduct. It blew my mind.
We continued out to where there was a house right along where the canal was, so we hurried on out to the edge of the Delaware. This was the lands of Camp Tel Yehudah, a Jewish camp along the river. We just stayed low to the river for a good while, and eventually came back up when we were further away from possibly occupied buildings.
The canal through the camp had been filled in, but the slightly higher towpath was pretty obvious. There were two sections of outdoor classrooms or something built in the former canal. We were able to walk through on the camp property pretty easily up until we reached the end of the fields. There, the towpath was wrecked pretty badly and logs and such were dumped over the edge of where it should be. There was a point of a slope remaining of where the towpath was.
There was a bit more of an intact section beyond, but then we reached a spot where a stream flowed through the canal, and then drained through a very deep purge section off into the Delaware. Another section of the camp was beyond. I thought to climb down and back up the other side, but then figured the berm side worked just as well, and would be less exposed. There were some camp buildings on the other side too. We turned left and followed the berm side along the canal, now a camp road, which was rutted really deep from water flowing through it out to the Delaware. We continued along this until a foot bridge took us across to the towpath side again. Another camp road led us along that to the south a bit.
We followed the canal to where the main entrance to the fenced in camp was. We could have gotten around the fence to the north onto Rt 97 if we wanted to, but I was able to lay down and crawl under a fence. I’m not sure how the others got through that. They might have gone a different way.
At the entrance roads was the buried site of Lock #67, known also as the Handsome Eddy Lock. Based on the terrain change it is probably under the driveways to a caretaker’s house directly. We didn’t have too close a look here because I wanted to get out of there.
Once we were off of the camp property, we turned directly to the right again toward the canal where it wasn’t filled in, with some barn buildings and such on the towpath side. We could easily get across on a bridge where there was a river access and a couple of guys fishing.

Lock #66

The canal was clear and open beyond. This was shown on the maps like it was a public road, but there were signs saying to keep out, and the fishermen told us it was private too. They weren’t unfriendly about it, and they said “and it’s only a problem if ya get caught! Who’s gonna know?”.
There was a house that used to be a restaurant or something right there as well. It said some name on it like “The Roost” or “The Cocoon” or something like that. Russ and Ewa went back to knock on the door to see if we could get permission. Matt, Justin, and I hung back along the driveway to see what came of it. Diane was talking to the fishermen more I think.
When they came back, they told us no one was home. We decided then and there that we would continue.
It was starting to get later, and therefore much darker. I was getting a bit nervous about it, but we were doing okay.
I was expecting the road to go off to another house out there, but it crossed the canal and went to another house above. There was some sort of summer cabin or something actually on the canal at a spot that got narrower. I at first was certain that this must have been the next lock site, and that they’d chosen to put the building on it as sort of a foundation, but that wasn’t the case. I suppose it’s possible that it could have been an earlier lock site, but it was not one now.
We continued on along the mowed towpath until it became rough again, and there were rock slides.
This entire section used to be used as a public road until the 1930s when the cliff collapses occurred and it was never opened back up. This section ahead was much like the previous messy section we had gone through. There was also a nice waste weir along the way.
I powered through this next section pretty fast. Justin, Diane, and I were up front. We came to a house, and just moved across quickly. The towpath was washed out, and we had to go down and hop across a spring, then back up to the towpath on the other side, basically through the yard. There didn’t appear to be anyone home. The towpath beyond was somewhat overgrown, but passable. We continued walking, and there were a few footbridges across the canal to access properties on the left side over the canal. We passed another house where it appeared no one was around, followed by one with lots of lights that was obviously occupied. At that point, the canal towpath left the undergrowth and emerged directly onto the access driveway to that house. We would have to be exposed from that point because the towpath and road are one.

Lock #65

We continued out to the intersection with Tuthill Road. There was a sign reading not to trespass. It said that both sides of the road were private. I figured we had better wait up for the group there, and we’d have to walk Tuthill up hill to Route 97 and take that back to the cars.
Diane had dropped her jacket when we hurried across the first yard, but fortunately Russ had seen it and picked it up.
I said I thought we should go up to the road, but Russ pointed out that the sign read that both sides of the road were private, but that it did not specify the road itself. A brilliant notion. I was then convinced to continue. It was getting dark fast, but there were two more locks, 66 and 65, and I wanted to see them pretty badly.
We walked up the road a bit, and soon we came across Lock #66, also known as Lambert’s Lock. It was in great shape, but there was no lock house remaining any more.
There was one house on the right side, towpath side of the canal. We walked right by and didn’t have any trouble. Beyond that, the last house was the former lock tender’s house for Lock #65, known also as Decker’s Lock. I was getting pretty far ahead of the group by this point. As I reached the lock house, which was still occupied and had someone home, a motion detector light went on. When that happened, I took off running ahead.
The towpath had some stuff parked on it, and just became an unimproved route beyond. I paused only for a few moments to get as good a picture as I could of Lock $65. I then took off further. I assumed the rest of the group would have just turned back at the lock house and gone back to highway, but I found later that they’d followed me.

Getting darker...

Thinking the others were way ahead up the road and I was now racing that last bit of remaining daylight, I hurried over rocks and such heading south on the towpath. Some sections were pretty good. Some houses appeared on the left side of the towpath. There were lights on and I was getting a bit nervous. I looked kind of nuts with my blazer and sunglasses on. I pushed forward quickly, dreading the thought that a dog might bark and give me away. Fortunately, that did not happen. I continued for what seemed like forever.
I passed through a wooded section, and then past another house area. It was really dark by this point. There was a little water running through the floor of the canal, and it drained off at one point. When I saw the opportunity, I crossed the canal and started climbing up toward the road above. I could see the lights from it, but it was still pretty far up. I tried to call the others, but I had no phone service. I also tried loading my google maps this far, but I could not.
I had just started using my new phone I’d gotten from my brother, the Galaxy S7. This is the newest phone I’d used since I got my Android Optimus LG1 back in 2011. That older phone did have service in more places than this new one does. There is definitely a learning curve with it that I have to work out, and I suppose this was not the right one to be trying that with.

Hard to get through...

The one good thing about the phone was that I can get much better night photos with it. I took my last two of this trip with it because my regular camera was not working for it.
I climbed up hill and then hit the driveway to the last house. It was a bit of a relief. I turned right to follow it gradually up hill toward Rt 97. It joined where 97 was on it’s way down hill from where I had parked my van. I started walking further south, uncertain of where I had come out. When I started thinking about it, I realized that the next intersection and the lower elevation meant that I’d gone too far south. I soon turned back past the driveway and continued up hill. I saw some lights flashing my way when I got up there, then heart Matt hooting something to me. What a relief.
The others had found a driveway access earlier than I’d come up and used that to get back up to the cars.
I got everyone back to where they were parked with no trouble, and then we headed back to Barryville where we got some pizza to close out the day.
This was an absolutely amazing experience, and not at all what I was expecting of the section.

Map of the canal

I can only logically assume that the next one will be as good, if not better. Most of all, I’m looking forward to bullying through the narrow cliffs below Hawk’s Nest, where the canal is most certainly washed out to some great extent. Still, based on what we saw this time, I am optimistic that we will find something amazing.

HAM