Hike #1424; Nockamixon State Park to Frenchtown

Hike #1424: 6/24/21 Nockamixon State Park to Frenchtown with Kris ?, Kirk Rohn, Shayna Michaels, Justin Gurbisz, Sarah Jones, Serious Sean Dougherty, Divya ?, Carolyn Gockel Gordon, Heshi ?, Stephen Argentina, Professor John DiFiore, Brittany Weider, Sue Bennett, Luke Freselone, Violet Chen, and Jenny Tull

This point to point hike would be an outstanding adventure featuring trails and back roads that I both knew or wanted to do for quite some time.

The bones of this hike came out of a special day I had had several years back.

I don't always scout these hikes ahead of time. In fact, I rarely scout them at all, except some of these local ones.
One day, I got a call from someone I respect very much for his work on the history of the canals of New Jersey, Robert Barth.
He invited me on a hike he and his wife Linda, also a great historian, would be taking with David Barber and his wife on the Delaware Canal.
I had been a canal fan all my life, and Mr. Barber's books on both the Lehigh Canal and the Delaware and Hudson Canal had accompanied me on countless miles of hiking. I jumped on the opportunity and took benefit time off of work to do this short but wonderful hike.
To some, celebrities are television and movie stars, but to me, historians like Barber were as much or more so. I was starstruck walking side by side with the man who's work had guided me for so much distance. He and his wife had both bushwhacked the craziest sections of the Lehigh Canal for miles, and I had great respect for what they did having done it all myself as well at this point.

After our meeting and hike, I drove the others back to their cars, and decided to use the remainder of the day to have a look around this part of Bucks County.
In doing so, I found a couple of public roads that were not on maps, and several other dirt roads that would be perfect for Summer night hikes.
On this route, I drove much of the hike we did here backwards. I discovered the covered bridges, and drove my car through the water of Municipal Drive, probably the only vehicular ford left in Bucks County.

It took me a few years to finally put this hike together in such a way to make it work, but I felt I had a winning route. We met in Frenchtown at the lots by the Station Cafe, and shuttled to the start.

Our start point would be Nockamixon State Park's Haycock Boat Launch near the northern end of the lake. The boat launches are twenty four hours, so this was a good place for us to start.

One of the farms destroyed for Lake Nockamixon

The dam for this lake was completed by the state in 1973, and it took about a year for it to fill up. The lake was proposed first in 1958 for recreation, as part of a plan to have state parks available to all PA residents within twenty five minutes of their homes. Unfortunately, the construction of these areas also resulted in the destruction of many historic structures.

I find it surprising that this one was actually built for no purpose other than recreation when most of them I hear about were typically Water Bond Act or some sort of flood protection or for drinking water supply.

We started walking from the boat launch out to Mountain View Drive and crossed the northernmost finger of the reservoir where they Haycock Creek feeds in.

Once on the other side of the bridge, a trail cuts into the woods to the right side. We followed the trail down and then right along the waterfront for a bit. It wasn't long before we reached the first nice pool, which looked across at the boat launch.

I went for a swim there pretty early on. I don't think many were ready to join me this early into the hike. I don't actually recall if anyone did at this point, but they would soon. When I first started doing hikes at this lake, none of the trails on the northeast side were shown on the maps at all. They were all sort of informal fishing trails and such. There was pretty much also just one trail and no way to get lost. The last couple of times I tried to go through this part of the park, I had the trouble trying to find where to go because there were so many mountain biking trails weaving around in every direction.

I had some weird wine with me that I'd gotten for free from some sort of weird house sale the week before. Jillane and I took a trip out toward Somerville due to some posting she saw about a piece of furniture we'd need for the baby coming I think, and while there, the people cleaning out this house had all of this wine left over from someone's anniversary party, so we had that for this one.

I knew my next hike here, this one, would have to start with this section of the trail system so that we could see better and not get lost. The first bit was fine, and we remained along the water.

I forget if we actually ended up in the Tower Road parking area, but I don't think we did. I think this part the trail just found its way over one of the interesting flat rock formations. After passing around the next inlet, the trail went along the waterfront more closely perhaps than I remembered in the past, and we all had one really good swim spot. One of these trails in here was called Jaywalk Trail. The cyclist groups tend to give some of these trails odd names that aren't necessarily fitting.

Soon, we ended up on the Eastern Woods Trail, which also remains pretty close to the waterfront and continued to the south along the shore. My plan had been that we would follow this to Foellner Lane, which leads out toward the main dam, and then another trail cuts into the woods to the south of there.

What took me by surprise here was that there was what must have been a new trail closer to the water, parallel with Foellner Lane much of the way, so we didn't even have to do that road (not that it mattered because it is closed to traffic).

I recall we had one more good swim spot before pulling away from the water, and I let everyone know this would be the last one for a little bit.

We eventually did get to Foellner Lane, and followed it only briefly to the west toward the fence of the main dam, then cut into the woods along the steep slope above the Tohickon Creek flowing out of the reservoir. I stayed up front and watched closely to the right, because I wanted to make sure to show the group the Sentinel Rock to the right. It's an awesome rock balanced on a tiny bit of rock below. It looks like something out of an old western film, only it is in the deep woods of eastern Pennsylvania.

I spotted the rock below this time, and we went down to it. No one wanted to do the running jump to get out to it, because it does look precarious. I'd been out on it before, but decided not to this time. Of course, Justin went to get out on it and I got almost the same shot I'd gotten of myself on it years ago.

We continued along the trail from this point toward South Park Road. I'd never been beneath the bridge on this road, so we headed along a path that led right to the piers. They were situated in such a way that we had to jump out onto them from the rocks adjacent.

From this point, the hike would take us up to South Park Drive. I had once bushwhacked down the Tohickon Creek from this point, but I didn't want to take any chances trespassing this time. We followed the road to the east just for a little while, and then got off and skirted the fences of a tree farm to the right for a short bit.

We turned right from here onto Park Road for a little bit and passed some lovely pastoral scenery. There was a beautiful stone house and plenty of barns and such lining the road, which also had no shade.

We came to an intersection where we turned straight, but Creamery Road went both straight and right. We crossed a little brook, then turned to the right on Tohickon Valley Road. At a bend in that road, we turned to the left and onto a crushed stone trail that goes all the way around the Tinicum Township Park. We took a little break in the grass when we got here, and the group was doing yoga or something. I can't remember exactly.

We exited the park over by the northeast corner and a large pavilion, and then came out to Easton Road/Rt 611. We crossed directly, and there was a gas station directly across the street where we took another break.

I think both Luke and Serious Sean met up with us at this point. I had given Serious Sean a can of I think Leon Russian Imperial Stout or something, but then he left it on the table at the place. Amazingly, he went back later that night after the hike and it was still sitting there, so he got it!

I ate some kind of food that someone spotted me the money for at this place, and I can't remember what it was. We actually spent a reasonable amount of time in this store drooling over food, eating outside, and being silly.

We continued from this point on Tohickon Valley Road east from 611, then turned right on Durham Road at the next intersection. After a short distance here, we turned left on Headquarters Road.

The road walking was beautiful through this area with historic structures. There was a very nice old barn that was turned into a home.

We continued on Headquarters Road for a while, and came to the intersection with Red Hill Road. Here, Red Hill Road is the open road going right, but Headquarters Road is closed to the left. The bridge over the Tinicum Creek down there is still in place, and I don't recall checking out what kind it was, but it was closed to traffic. We simply crossed it and emerged where Sheep Hole Road came in on the left, and continued gradually uphill on Headquarters Road.

I'd love to hike Sheep Hole Road, which is unpaved, as well as nearby Bunker Hill Road in the future as well. These roads look outstanding and I could probably put together something really cool using them.

As we walked up Headquarters Road, Brittany was playing music on her bluetooth speaker, and we all kind of danced our way up the road.

Where Ridge Valley Road continued straight, we turned right on Headquarters Road and continued to the east, around a ninety degree bend, and then turned right on Municipal Road.

This road also becomes unpaved and is very pleasant for walking. We took it gradually downhill to the Tinicum Creek in a place called Lily Valley, where the road fords the stream.

Some of the group were not quite prepared for this crossing. It's really not a big deal because it's not at all deep, and one could just take their shoes off and go across. Because of that, this took a little while. I layed in the water for a bit because it was so inviting.

I had considered going off of the road and walking in the stream to the east, but then decided against it because it was starting to get pretty dark.

We continued up Municipal Road on the other side, and paused to sit in someone's chairs they had sat out for garbage or something. We then made our way to Hollow Horn Road where we turned to the left. This took us gradually downhill to cross the Tinicum Creek again, this time on the Frankenfield Covered Bridge.

I'm always trying to incorporate whatever nearby historic covered bridge onto a hike somewhere, and this was one I'd only ever driven through before this hike.

Frankenfield Covered Bridge is a 130 foot long Town Lattice style covered bridge completed in 1872.

Just before the bridge, we joined with Cafferty Road and continued to follow that uphill on the other side.

After just a little bit of walking uphill, Hollow Horn Road continued to the right again. We turned here, onto what was another beautiful, narrow and little used road with no lines in it.

At the next intersection we hit Headquarters Road again. We turned right briefly, and then Headquarters Road turned hard left. We followed that slightly uphill and to the north.

We were having a fantastic time walking, dancing along, and chatting. It was getting later, but the time was just melting away.

We continued on Headquarters Road slightly downhill, and made our way into the little community of Erwinna, where we had come out before down Geigel Hill.

Erwinna is an unincorporated community of Tinicum Township named in honor of Colonel Arthur Erwin, who was leader of the Bucks County Militia during the American Revolution.

It was said that Erwin was the supplier of many boats used by General George Washington and the Continental Army during the crossing of the Delaware on Christmas Day, 1776. We turned right in the little community, and then crossed the Delaware Canal. We turned left on the towpath and followed it to the north. The moon was coming up, and it was just beautiful.

The ambient light and the fields were such a perfect piece of the last couple of miles. There are barely any houses nearby, and the sounds of night critters were all around.

I made sure everyone got close together as we approached the little settlement of Uhlerstown ahead. We could just barely see the silhouette of the Uhlerstown Covered Bridge crossing the canal ahead.

Michael Uhler, a canal boat builder and first postmaster, came to Uhlerstown in 1853 and began his business. He expanded upon the small settlement, and when he became postmaster, the town name was changed Uhlerstown, in 1871.

Prior to this, the village name was actually Mexico.

The 101 foot long covered bridge was first built in 1832 and is the only covered bridge still spanning the Delaware Canal.

When I had everyone close together, I led everyone out to Uhlerstown Hill Road by way of the pedestrian access along a private driveway to the right. I wanted to be sure to stay quiet and respectful going through this stretch as not to disturb the sleeping residents.

We followed Uhlerstown Hill Road to the right, and came out to River Road/Rt 32. We turned left briefly, and then right across the Uhlerstown-Frenchtown Bridge. The Uhlerstown-Frenchtown Bridge is a six span Warren through-truss over the Delaware River, constructed in 1931.

The original wooden covered bridge at the site was built in 1844, and partially destroyed in the Pumpkin Flood of 1903. It remained partially steel, part wooden covered until 1931.
Only the original piers and abutments were used for the current bridge.

We got across the bridge, and we were parked off to the right at the lot across from the Station Cafe, which occupies the old Belvidere Delaware Railroad station for Frenchtown.

I was really looking forward to being a father, but I knew especially after nights like this that the sacrifice of these night hikes was going to be the hardest part about it. There's really nothing like it, and I accepted that my responsibilities would be such that I just can't do two long hikes per week like this with a baby.