Hike #1384; Mohican Outdoors Center to Marksboro

 

Hike #1384: 1/3/21 Mohican Outdoors Center to Marksboro with Elizabeth Manner, James Quinn, John DiFiore, and Jeremy

This next hike would be a point to point trip out of our buddy Jack Lowry's Capricorn Party at the Mohican Outdoors Center in Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.

It had been a while since I'd done the trails through that area, and so I wanted to get back. I also wanted to see what the new land steward, Aaron Razz had been doing at White Lake, just to make sure things were on the up and up.
So there were a lot of good reasons to head back to that area.
Jack had asked me to come up with something out of the center a while back, so I blocked out the date and made sure that I'd have something that worked out for it by then.

I didn't get to attend the party there the night before, which I understand was a very good time. Many went to it and most that went to the party didn't end up attending the hike.
It was getting a little crazy with the snow as well. I wasn't counting on it being as crazy as it got, and I'd have preferred to not have to deal with it, but I figured it was mostly doable.
We met in Marksboro by White Lake, where the old New York, Susquehanna, and Western Railroad station used to be, now a Paulinskill Valley Trail state parking area. We then shuttled with my van to the starting point at Mohican Outdoors Center.
When we got there, we hung out for a bit, and Brittany was sitting by the fire place.

She had already decided that she wasn't going to attend the hike, and so we were just waiting or Jack and Sarah to get up and we'd start to head out on our way.
I forget who, but somebody told me that they went off to another building nearby, and that they probably wouldn't be getting up any time soon. So, we just started heading on our way and apparently just missed them!

Sean also decided that he didn't want to try doing the hike either, because he'd just gotten too tired to be trudging through the snow after staying up most of the night.
I gave him the keys to my van, and he'd be able to take it back to the starting point. He figured then, if it wasn't too bad, that he'd come and find us and pass the keys back off.
The roads were pretty rough, and it was not easy to get up the long dirt road to Camp Mohican. 
Sean has a lot of experience driving those weird LLV mail trucks through, so I know he could handle it.

My plan from here was originally that we might go up to the ridge on the Appalachian Trail, and then make our way to the north end of the Ridge and Valley Trail, as proposed.
That ridge was really dangerous in slippery conditions though; thee is one bit where it is just a rock on the south rock face with a near vertical drop. I wasn't going to do that for this one.
Ridge and Valley Trail was proposed years ago by Bob Canase of the Ridge and Valley Conservancy, and I first hiked some of it around 2006 on a hike out of Mohican. For that one, we bushwhacked and back road walked a long way, and then accidentally found our way onto the Ridge and Valley Trail through the Carrazone Tract.
While I was living at White Lake, I did a ton of work on this trail, including putting up an entire box of new blazes. I really fell in love with it, because the plan was so outstanding.
The trail would eventually connect the Appalachian Trail to the Paulins Kill Valley Trail. Now, we have plans to eventually connect it through the rest of the Ridge and Valley geological province to the Warren Highlands Trail.
Since I moved from White Lake, some of the original trail plan is not what it was. There are new trails in place in some areas, and there are old ones that were open, but are now closed in and almost impassable.
It was really odd to see the improvements and losses along the way.
Rather than the AT, I decided we would follow the Rattlesnake Swamp Trail to the east from the center.
This trail stays lower, skirts the edge of its namesake swamp, and then terminates at the AT not far from where the Ridge and Valley Trail was supposed to join it.

We continued along the southeast shore of Catfish Pond, past a fire pit, to the trail head for the Rattlesnake Swamp Trail, and headed west. This is actually a spur of the main trail, because the main one connects up to the Appalachian Trail to the right. We stayed on the lower route this time.

It was really quite beautiful on the trail with all of the snow gathered on the Rhododendrons and Mountain Laurels. 

We continued on until the intersection with the Appalachian Trail, continued straight at the intersection, and then came to a woods road intersection on the right side.
This abandoned road route might be an earlier alignment of Millbrook Road which is now to the north of here. It has a zig zag and the Appalachian Trail follows it to the road ahead. Below, it just switchbacks down to near the intersection with Sand Pond Road.

The Ridge and Valley Trail was never blazed to this point. The reason for this is National Park Service rules. They don't allow for any new trails to connect with the Appalachian Trail without a crazy amount of planning and permits. As such, Bob Canase had planned to just have it connect to Millbrook Road at a popular climbing spot known as Rick's Rocks a short distance from the AT.

Even that never came to pass because it's so difficult to do anything involving the AT.
Fortunately, Bob had showed me his entire plan by way of a driving tour with little walks along the way.

We walked the unmarked old woods road ahead, and there was a great seasonal view off to the right near the big curve above Rick's Rocks. It was even better with the snow on the ground to define everything.
We continued downhill and then came out to Millbrook Road.
A brief turn on the road to the right, and we reached the end of now abandoned Sand Pond Road on the left. We turned left there and headed only a slight distance down Sand Pond Road.

It's very vague, but there is an old boy scout trail that dates back to the 1950s or something, which breaks away from Sand Pond Road to the right, and goes all the way to YMCA Camp Mason.

The trail is no longer very easy to follow like it used to be. It was more sporadically blazed with tape or something as I recall. It needs to be remarked so that people can find it again.

Bob wanted to try to get permission for this, an existing trail to go through as Ridge and Valley Trail to the AT, but they declined the request for the time being.

Still, we were able to follow the route downhill well enough.
I lost it a couple of times heading down, but one must head to the dam over the Jacksonburg Creek, at the mouth of an expansive wetland. There were power lines crossing here that Bog had said they were the ones to be upgraded in the past.
It's kind of rough crossing the creek at this point, but we managed it on the old dam area.

From this point, there are some slate Ridge and Valley Trail blazes up, and some that I added years ago, but not many last.
I fortunately remembered where we had to go to get through.
Part of the trail follows through a sort of quarried out sand pit thing, which was apparently used by the township at some point.
We passed through there, and found our way onto a woods road that headed out toward the trail.

We followed this well trod trail from woods road to a foot path.

The route took us out to the Blair Creek, or one of the branches of Blair Creek anyway.
There were two paths, and the first one I hd never been on before. It had a long series of puncheons that led over wetlands dramatically.

We ended up having to turn back along this trail because it was so rough. Or I actually went through and the others had to turn back. The correct trail leads to the swinging bridge over the creek.

The property we were on transitioned from national park service land to Camp Mason land somewhere near the beaver pond area with the old dam we crossed just a bit earlier, which is how Ridge and Valley Trail blazes were permitted on this property.
A lot of times, private camps don't allow trails to go through them, but this particular camp approached the Warren County Municipal and Charitable Trust Fund Grant Committee many years ago to have their property preserved.

My understanding was that the county agreed to preserve the property so long as the public had access to it by way of a public route of the Ridge and Valley Trail.

The outstanding swinging bridge over Blair Creek was put in without the state permits usuall found on such things because they were told that they could have a bridge if it didn't touch the ground. This bridge was affixed to two trees, so they got away with it!

We made our way across the swinging bridge, and got a call from Jack that he might join us. I told him where the swinging bridge was, and although he didn't end up joining, he did visit the bridge.

I also got a call from Serious Sean in this area.
He had come back to drop off my keys, and so I let him know where about we'd be coming out of the woods.
We got across the swinging bridge, then the trail came out to Shannon Road.
The route went straight across, but it looked like no one was maintaining it any more. We went across, and then turned right on another abandoned road route. This section was visible this time of year from Shannon Road.
While we were on it, Serious Sean dashed into the woods to deliver my keys to me. He sitll didn't feel like joining up late, but I did direct him to the swinging bridge, and he ended up sending us a video of himself going across it.
We continued down the abandoned road route, then reached Birch Ridge Road.
From this point, the trail route is far different from what it had been when I did through hikes on this before.
The trail used to go directly across the road, through the property of the Princeton-Blairstown Center. I think I still was able to see some of the old slate Ridge and Valley Trail markes going in from there (they have since phazed out the slate markers in favor of plastic ones with a Ridge and Valley partial logo).
The trail went down from that point and headed east on a creek through what was known as Lightning Bug Hollow. It then connected through to the property owned by Al Carrazone. I was on the Municipal and Charitable board when that property was preserved for part of this trail.

Now, the route was going to be a bit different. Maybe some day that trail will go through again, but or the time being, we had to go left on Birch Run Road.

The next log of our trip would be through a relatively new Ridge and Valley Conservancy property known as Birch Ridge Ravine.
A small tributary of the Blair Creek flows down from the road, and the trail follows it.
This section of trail was extremely well marked, and very easy to follow compared to what we'd just been on.
At first, it wasn't much of a ravine at all. The creek was just in a sort of stony area of woods. It then dipped down into deeply eroded chasms.

The trail led us down to a confluence of the smaller stream with the larger Blair Creek, and turned left. Another confluence in the same area led to an attractive triangular confluence unlike any I'd seen before.

The area of this confluence is the one that is known as Lightning Bug Hollow.

The stretch along the creek here was particularly beautiful. The others started going ahead, and John was a bit behind. We both kind of paused for a moment to reflect on what an amazing tract of land this was.

We walked for a bit along the larger Blair Creek, and soon came to a foot bridge that must have only recently been built across. I thought the trail was going to cross that, but it apparently goes to private land.

The trail actually crossed at another easy spot, and then climbed uphill a bit. Apparently, the property acquired from Al Carrazone was now known as Sunset Ridge Preserve. The trail meandered over a hill, and then onto a slope heading down toward Mr. Carrazone's house, which we could barely see.

The foot path emerged on some old woods roads at an intersection, and I recall there might have been an old foundation of a building back in that area. We could see one of Carrazone's ponds thorugh the trees in the snow.
The trail continued downhill gradually there on an old woods road which soon becomes paved Butler Road, a dead end street that comes off of Sunset Lake Road just to the south of there.
It felt like a little treat to get back on a paved road after all of the more uncertain slippery steps and trudging.

We turned right when we got to Sunset Lake Road, and then came upon parking on the left for White Lake Wildlife Management Area, which is a huge tract leading out to across Stillwater Road from White Lake.

This section of trail has always been a nightmare to maintain. It originally went into the woods just a little bit up Sunset Lake Road to the west of this point, but the state put in the parking area later. So, I put some blazes up from that point instead of from the slightly west originals.

Unfortuantely, this section was a big problem with hunters removing all of the trail markers from the area. Every time we put them up, they'd pull them down. Even worse, they shot the things. The slate markers are favorites for target practice, and the hunters don't want hikers going by where they're hunting.
I reblazed and cut this section again and again, only to have the markers removed, and the Japanese Barberry, which is awful on this property, come back in and take over again.

The trail meanders a bit, and I can usually find it because there are some wooden markers in this section as well. A while back, probably as a scout project or something, this section must have been part of a self guided nature tour.
The trail leads to a point on a rock outcrop where there is a view to he south over some private land. it then cuts through some small ridges to the west a bit, and descends from the higher elevation by way of an attractive rocky cleft in the rocks. The section is very similar to some of the Metacomet ridges in Connecticut the way the trail navigates the property, although the geological makeup is far different.

Once at the bottom of the slope, the trail disappars into the barberry. I pretty much gave up on finding it there, because it's such a pain. Trees had fallen across where it was still discernible, and getting around to where it used to be was harder than circumnavigating it all.

We eventually made our way back to the correct route again, and the slate markers kind of guided us through the property. We did happen to get a bit closer to an attractive glacial kettle pond that the trail never used to approach so closely, so that was cool.
I took us back off trail a bit more again where it used to come out toward Stillwater Road, because it gets so rough. Instead of the trail, we stayed in the cultivated field section that leads right out to where the trail crossed to enter the county's White Lake Natural Resource Area, where I used to live.

I was very happy to see that the trail was totally clear and well maintained. We passed the blue trail that I worked to develop while I lived there, meandered past where a cabin used to be, and then over some ridges, past the old lime kiln, and then the fen valley at the east side of the lake.
We climbed to the plateau where the old girl scout camp used to stand, and took a break at the fireplace that used to be the chimney of the mess hall. Tree roots grow elevated through that entire area because the began growing on top of the rotten debris of the building. When that infrastructure rotted away, the roots remained elevated.

We next came to the ruins of the Marl Works, the most popular ruin on the property.
This was where marl, a limestone based sediment made of ancient ground up shellfish, was dredged from the lake and processed. It was then hauled away on the NYS&W Railroad to Newark and the surrounding area where it was used to neurtralize their sewer systems.
In other seasons, the building also served as an industrial ice house complex.

We walked around the building, and then made our way along the Ridge and Valley Trail, which picks up the old railraod spur to serve the complex.
That spur swaps places with Spring Valley Road just ahead. The road was realigned around 1930 or something, and put on the railroad bed, while the trail then shifts to old Spring Valley Road, and crosses the outflow of White Lake on the old road bridge.
Then, the trail turns right and crosses Spring Valley Road at the intersection with Primrose Road and crosses a foot bridge over the outflow again.
The trail then follows the old switchback of original Spring Valley Road, and the railroad bed, which was on the current road alignment, can be seen in a cut on the down slope of the road. It joined with the NYS&W Railroad just a little ways to the east of the village of Marksboro.

We emerged right at the parking lot, and our cars were all there.
It was kind of nice to not have to go back to Mohican Outdoors Center after a day of trudging, and not having to deal with the stress of maybe getting stuck in the snow either going up there or coming down.
It's always a real pleasure to do so much stuff that is so familiar to me, and yet still be astounded by the beauty of a place that is so close to all of it, and yet never seen before.