Hike #1512; Delaware Water Gap to Stroudsburg

Hike #1512; 10/29/22 Delaware Water Gap to Stroudsburg with Lerch (Michael Clark), Cara Ashley, Justin Gurbisz, Kirk Rohn, Brittany Weider, Steve Sanbeg, Diane Reider, Jon Wilson, April Hamilton, Jack Powers, ?, Michele Valerio, Kat Cataldo, Kevin Kowalick, and Everen

This next hike came about because we always do a south Pocono trip around this time of year, usually for our friend Michele Valerio's birthday, but this time Lerch contacted me ahead of time and asked if I would come up with a hike that would fit in with the party event he and his girlfriend Cara had planned out.

Cara has a place in Stroudsburg that was set up perfectly for this, and it looked like the location was ripe for doing a whole lot of great stuff I'd been wanting to do, as well as some favorite old stuff I'd done before. I agreed to put it together and came up with a few potential routes. It seemed like the best idea was to go from the Delaware Water Gap north through various properties.

I figured I would probably start at Resort Point in Delaware Water Gap, head uphill and cover some of the historic trails originally associated with the Kittatinny Hotel, and then head down through the Cherry Valley National Wildlife Refuge, which was formerly a golf course. 

We would then go over the Godfrey Ridge on another trail system I'd never done, disconnected from the stuff I'd done on the east side of it. 

We would finish out the hike by meandering through different lands along the creeks to the supermarket just below Cara's house.

At the time of planning, I did not know that I would have Ev with me most every weekend. His mom all of a sudden out of the blue started telling me to take him, apparently because she's dating or at least talking to other guys I'm told, and while I'd have been really upset by that in the past, I'm now just very thankful that I can spend this much more time with my son. My only main concern is that I don't want him exposed to the losers she's talking to.

This day in age, everyone talks to everyone about everything, and so I was already prepared to start bringing Ev at most any time, and so I had been planning every hike to have two different versions, one strollerable, one not. 

Fortunately, this one had a lot of possibilities, and it was easy to make it mostly strollerable. The only questionable part really would be the Glen Run Nature Preserve. This preserve was fully open to mountain biking, and so I assumed I'd be able to get the stroller through most of that pretty well, but had a backup plan for back roads if need be.

We met in the morning at the Aldi's, and had a pretty good sized crew. We then shuttled in as few cars as possible back toward the Delaware Water Gap. I shifted the planned starting point to be at the Cherry Creek Trail in Minisink Park. That would give us a good strollerable option at the very start that would be quite pretty. I'd brought Ev through on that on one hike before and it was nice.

Kirk was running late and said he would meet us in the town of Delaware Water Gap.

We started walking from the parking lot in the park, close to the edge of the Brodhead Creek.

The trail brought us down from the edges of the ball fields into the woods along the flood plains and confluences of the Brodhead Creek and Cherry Creek with the Delaware River. The trail was all crushed stone aggregate which made for very comfortable strollering. I walked with Lerch and caught up with him for a bit, and gave him one of my Double Dog 18 brews from Flying Dog, which he liked.

This hike was the annual costume hike, and so a lot of the group had some sort of weird thing on. It was Ev's second Halloween; last year he was a vantriliquest dummy, but this time year he really found that he loved ducks, so he got a duck suit that really sort of doubles as an every day sweat suit with a zipper for cooler weather.

I just wore my velvet cape since I didn't have much else to go with, and Lerch was dressed as someone with black hair in his eyes. I commented that it looked like he was Chris Gaines, the pop rock music alter ego of Garth Brooks from the 1990s, which he intended to have a movie surrounding, but never came to pass. I couldn't think of the name Chris Gaines at the time, but that was it.

Cara had a Super Mario Bros thing on, I think Brittany had pajamas or something, and I don't really remember what everyone else was dressed as! I know Kirk had a camoflaug shirt on that claimed he was hiding when we found him.

Chris Gaines

We continued on the trail, which had some side paths to the left. The first one was just to an information waymarker, and then the second path went down to what looked like a boat put-in or emergency access Lerch had thought, but it was insanely shallow unless at times of flood.

I soon realized that this side trail to the creek was the intended route of a trail that never got approved. I recall reading about the Cherry Creek Trail extension and how they wanted to bridge the creek but couldn't get approvals. After that they wanted to go beneath the railroad tracks, and they couldn't get that approval either. I think that's why that dead end trail is there.

Lerch as Chris Gaines?

We continued back the way we came after checking out the creek, then took another side trail that went to a deep little spot on the Cherry Creek with a view of the former Lackawanna Railroad bridge over the same. I have swam there in the Summer time; quite a nice spot.

We backtracked again there, and made our way back out to the ball fields we started along, but at the other side, then went out to the road and crossed the tracks at the grade crossing. We then continued south on Cherry Creek Trail along more ball fields where active games with kids were going on, then headed back into the woods parallel with the tracks.

After a bit, we got to the creek crossing, which was concrete cylinders placed into the creek. Lerch grabbed one side of the stroller and I grabbed the other and we walked Ev over it without a problem, then back up the other end.

The last time I had been to that point, it was flood level and in the dark, so I had to run across and pick Jillane up on the other side with Ev.

This time was fine, and we emerged with no problem at the municipal building area. We headed uphill a bit, crossed over Rt 80 on the access road bridge, and began walking into the little town of Delaware Water Gap.

We headed out along Waring Drive into the middle of town, and asked some people walking by which way the coffee shop was. This new coffee shop was a place the Kirk apparently frequents, and he told us to meet him there. We turned right and headed over toward that on Rt 611.

The next point of interest for me on this one was a spot where I wanted to set up one of my then and now compilations, at the Church of the Mountain.

The church was established in 1854 in the settlement then known as Dutotsville, for founder Antoine Dutot, who emigrated to America from Santo Domingo. Dutot set up the original Kittatinny House Hotel, and died in 1841 before the town became the American vacation capital.

The old church went through many alterations over the years, most notably it seems the addition of a wide steeple structure to the front and the rear connections. Still, its fame came after 1976 when the Church of the Mountain Hostel was established for weary Appalachian Trail​ hikers.

Hikers are limited to one free night and a total of two, and there are strict no alcohol or drug rules for visitors.

Table Rock, US Geological Survey, Library of Congress

When I was little and my grandfather started me hiking a lot in the Water Gap area, we would stop by the Church of the Mountain just to chat with the through hikers, because they always had incredible stories. 

Moran Stereoscopic of Table Rock (of Moran and Storey)

By the time I was about ten, I wanted to backpack the entire Appalachian Trail when I got old enough. My grandfather then purchased a copy of the National Geographic Mountain Adventure book about the Appalachian Trail, and I loved leafing through it.

Historic Water Gap trail map showing old trails

Eventually, my dream of hiking the entire AT faded and I instead focused on other connections, just because it became so trendy, and it seemed like everyone was doing it. Meeting someone that set out to do the entire trail was just a regular occurrence.

Jesse A. Graves, Monroe Co Historical Society

Still, the Church of the Mountain was and still is an awesome spot to stop and meet interesting people. 

Reportedly, the Church of the Mountain is the oldest hostel on the entire Appalachian Trail. Prior to the church, everything was rather informal and I guess there must not have been anything else of the sort along the way. The church must have set the precedent.

We continued just slightly past my photo spot, which I had to get up on a porch to get properly, and then met Kirk at the coffee shop.

All together, we crossed 611 and headed back to the south a bit again, past the Deer Head Inn, which is one of the only remaining old Water Gap hotels from the old days still intact and operating. It was built in 1885 as the Central House by Samuel Overfield. It's apparently the oldest jazz club still operating as well.

The Appalachian Trail goes uphill right next to Deer Head Inn, on Mountain Road.

We ascended here, and then turned left onto the access road to the parking for the Appalachian Trail near Lake Lenape.

At the parking area, there were a ton of cars, which is exactly why I chose not to park at any of these areas.

We walked along the Appalachian Trail from the lot, which follows the Mt. Minsi Fire Road for a bit. Even before it was a fire road, much of this road was associated with the old hotels of the region.

The Kittatinny House was down below along the Caldeno Creek (maps mistakenly call it "Caledonia Creek", which was farther west in PA, the iron furnace lands owned by Thaddeus Stevens. Caldeno is an amalgam of the names of the men who discovered the creek).

The Kittatinny House started out as a 29 room hotel under Dutot, and over the years the site expanded to a 500 room hotel. The next most prestigious one was on the hillside to the left of the current AT and fire road, the Water Gap House, built in 1872 by Luke Brodhead. That facility could take 275 guests.

The entire area was full of hiking trails that were far greater than what we see today. All of the creeks had wooden catwalks around them, stairways and pavilions. Even Lake Lenape which we approached next once had a couple of pavilions around the edges.

I had everyone hold up at Lake Lenape and gave the group the history of the Delaware Water Gap, and went over what our next step would be.

I had saved to my phone several historic stereoscopic photographs from the 1800s featuring sites around the Delaware Water Gap area when these hotels were in their heyday. They would be some of the oldest photos I'd ever use for my then and now compilations.

One of the most prominent of these photographers was Jesse A. Graves (1835-1895). In 1867, Graves and his family moved to the Delaware Water Gap, which at the time was known simply as the "Borough of Water Gap" after Dutotsville fell out of favor. 

He established a photography and photographic supply business, and photographed the beauty of the area as well as the buildings and hotels in the town and surrounding area. Business was very good, and he had to hire additional help to keep up with it all.

Graves was one of the greatest promotors of the area and served to make it, for a time, the vacation capital of the world. If only for a short time, it was for a long time second only to Saratoga Springs NY.

It's not often we see such high quality photos from the 1860s and 70s, but Graves is responsible for many, and many of them are numbered.

There are also some other stereoscopics of the area by Moran and Storey, although I don't know as much about them.

We headed from the lake up the Minsi Fire Road, and the Appalachian Trail turned to the left. Along this route, there are a couple of old rock shelters in the hills to the right. Some of these were fruitful when excavated for artifacts in the past, but area pretty much considered dry of such things today.

We continued rather steeply, and I watched to the right for evidence of more rock shelters to compare some more photos. 

After we passed the first shelter that is very obvious off of the fire road, we spotted what looked like a second one much further back. Lerch and I headed off of the road and into the woods while the others stayed with Ev while we checked it out. It was just the shadowing from afar that made the area look like it could have been anything from the historic photos, so we continued back to the woods road.

We made our way ahead, and climbed a bit until we reached the side path to the right that leads down closer to the Caldeno Creek. We turned right almost immediately after reaching that trail, which was historically known as Sylvan Way.

The Table Rock Trail continues uphill, and I was able to get Ev up and over logs and such to climb this tiny foot path. I had done it once before the previous spring by myself, so I wasn't worried about it this time.

Pretty soon, we passed through some evergreens and came out at the impressive Table Rock.

This odd, almost level rock seems to almost flow. I always loved the spot since the first time I started hiking there, and I would usually use this as an alternative to the regular Minsi Fire Road while heading up the mountain.

Not more than twenty some years ago, the area was still more regularly visited. In fact, there was a time not so long ago that people were permitted to drive up there. 

I set up a then and now compilation using a US Geological Survey image of the rock, which I was able to identify by chance.

I was talking with Lerch, and I looked off to my right and noticed the cracks in the rocks. I thought they looked like they matched one of the images I had saved and opened it up to check. I was right, and was almost already on the spot I needed to take the modern photo.

I pushed Ev in the stroller on the slightly slanted ground until it started to level off a bit more. I then re-grouped and brought everyone over to where the start of the fence was. 

We could see the old Delaware Water Gap view to some extent. It was much more impressive back in the sixties when the fences were put up, probably with the establishment of Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in 1965. 

We all went out to the edge of the cliff, and I set up another then and now, this time of the view of the gap before it had grown in.

Once were were done at this point, I led everyone down the old Sylvan Way Trail, which I knew went down beyond the edge of the Table Rock to above the Caldeno Creek. I knew the creek was down through a thick forest of Rhododendron, but with the large group I could have someone stay with Ev while I scouted some of these little historic postcard image spots.

We meandered through the Rhododendrons until we reached a washed out spot to the right. It was more of a spot where water rushed down in heavy rains than a path. 

There were tree roots all exposed that would have to be climbed over or through to get down, but I could hear rushing water. I had to go and have a look at it.

I climbed over a few bad spots with tree roots, but overall not too bad.

When I reached the bottom, I was blown away that I'd found Caldeno Falls.

How could it be that after all of these years, an entire youth of exploring the most unknown of trails in Delaware Water Gap, followed by an adulthood of exploring even more of it, that I had never been to this spot before? I was actually kind of disappointed in myself for never seeking it out.

In all honesty, the first photos I had found of these falls made them look rather unimpressive compared with the places I'd been. Of course, photos are misleading, and I'd not seen the good ones. When I saw the Graves stereo views, I definitely wanted to see it.

These falls were very nice. Jack and his buddy climbed steeply down right behind me, and I was glad they did, because they could be the subjects in my photos, placed exactly where the people were in the historic photos.

I had both Graves and Moran and Storey images from the 1860s and 70s to use here. It was really mind blowing that I'd be setting up images that were 150 years old.

After I'd gotten all of the shots I had saved to my phone, the three of us started heading back up to Sylvan Way, and Diane was on her way down to check out the falls. She was glad she wet down as well, because they were really a sight on this day.

At the top, we continued to the right and headed gradually up parallel with the creek. This brought us back to the Minsi Fire Road, although I was planning to try to go to the right somewhere at this point. My excitement with having found Caldeno Falls caught me off guard and we went the wrong way.

We started walking down Minsi Fire Road to the right, but I was realizing we were taking a lot of time, and we had a long way to go. We needed to backtrack, and maybe if we got lucky we might find the correct route.

We continued back down Sylvan Way exactly the way we came. 

While we walked, I was at first feeling discouraged, but then saw a bit of a trail to the left. I wanted to have a quick look to see if it was the subject of any more old postcards.

When I got down to the creek, the rocks looked right for another old stereo view. I carefully made my way down the rocks from there, which was not very easy because I chose to wear my bowling shoes on this hike, not planning to be doing anything like this.

Pretty soon, I reached a vantage point that was very recognizable. It was the spot known as Diana's Bath.

The natural pool of water in the rocks on the Caldeno Creek makes for a refreshing deep spot, which looks almost exactly like it did in the historic photos. I was blown away that I hadn't seen anyone else set this one up before. It wasn't a terribly hard spot to get to, but again there was no marked trail to it.

I made my way down to the bath area, over the rocks which in postcards are labeled as the Moss Grotto.

Jack and Diane both followed me down this time. Diane stayed on a herd path along the right side, and Jack went down over the Moss Grotto with me. I had him sit on the rock in the same position as one of the earlier photos to try to emulate it. That required me to lay down on the rocks just over the flow of the creek in the opening below the natural bath. It came out pretty good, although the sun was shining directly where I needed to take the shot.

There are more cascades and historic photos I want to try to emulate between this spot and Caldeno Falls, but we really didn't have more time than for what we set up at Diana's Bath. 

There are plenty more photos of that I need to get other then and now shots of, but I'll have to go back for that.

We headed back up the way we came there, and I was feeling elated that we'd actually found those spots. If none of the rest of the hike worked out quite as planned, I'd seen some amazing stuff and was happy with it anyway.

We continued along the trail all the way back to Table Rock, and from there we tried to continue along the trail, which historically would have been part of Sylvan Way, toward Lake Lenape again.

The trail got pretty difficult at times. We had to push the stroller over the rocks, and I had to watch the pivoting front wheel to be sure it didn't turn too hard and break the bead, or go flat. 

It was some of the roughest stuff I'd ever brought Ev on in the stroller, but fortunately everyone came along to help get him through it. Jon was really helpful in these sections trying to get over rocks.

We reached a spot high above Lake Lenape, where I feel there probably were once famous stereo images taken from, but I didn't have the time to study it and figure it all out this time. I honestly wanted to get Ev safely out of there and move on to easier stuff.

Jon helped with the last couple of logs and such we had to get down along to reach Lake Lanape, and we turned left to head around the rear of the lake.

There was a secondary smaller pond out behind the main lake, and a trail goes across the top of the stone dam there. Beyond that, another side trail cuts a corner through the woods and comes back out at the Appalachian Trail parking area off of Mountain Road. We of course went for that option to get out of there.

We continued out of the lot and turned to the left on Mountain Road. Around this time, Kat and Kevin were ready to join us late. They were apparently only five or so minutes away, but the problem was I think GPS tries to send them around the Water Gap Country Club, which is now some sort of rehabilitation clinic or something. An in patient thing. It was still a golf course the last time I walked through it, and even this time it looked to be maintained as one.

When we reached the former entrance to the golf club, there were giant gates at the front of it and lots of no trespassing signs. I used to just walk on through on old Mountain Road, which was closed to traffic, but still open. I remember seeing people golfing when we went through, and one of us picked up a golf ball much to the dismay of a golfer who was planning on coming in and hitting it from that location.

None of that looked possible this time.

We waited at the intersection, and looked over our options while we waited for Kat and Kevin to come around.

When the two of them arrived, they both got big hugs, but Kevin got really big ones where I swung him back and forth a lot. Both of them ended up getting covid within two days of this hike, and none of us on the hike ended up with any of it, which was kind of surprising.

Lerch and I discussed going up part of the old road that went to Totts Gap Road, but that would be a lot of washed out route, mud puddles, and only to come back by a long ways to the south. 

I decided I wanted to backtrack through the neighborhoods a bit, which wasn't too far out of the way, and we'd then be on the back roads through the Cherry Valley on our way to the National Wildlife Refuge.

While discussing this, several people suggested we just walk through the golf course. It looked fine, and actually a family who had just parked at the entrance to the old woods road to hike walked directly across the street, near the imposing gates, and proceeded to have a picnic on the golf course lawn.

That made me feel a little better. They were right by security cameras and no one seemed to care. 

I decided that we too could walk across the course because no one was playing, and we weren't bothering anyone.

We cut to the right into the lawn, keeping farther to the right. I figured we'd stay as far off from the building as possible. Kevin and Kat parked their car at the head of the old road that goes out to Totts Gap Road to join us here.

We reached a golf course path that took us into a line of trees, then out to more open play area. We weaved to the left, headed downhill and over a bridge over a small tributary, then back up another side steeply. This brought us back to the main course area within sight of the building. We cut off of the paved path to the right there, and started heading down toward the lower end of the course. I started pushing Ev fast on the hill, but I tripped on the down slope and took a tumble. 

I didn't think I'd lose my footing so badly, or that I wouldn't be able to stop, but my bowling shoes again were not going to cooperate with me. 

I went down but didn't let go of the stroller, and it went down on the side, then flipped forward. Fortunately, I had Ev strapped in very well for this uneven terrain as well as everything we'd been going through. He was scared from going over, but thankfully he was perfectly fine. 

I was shaken up and really concerned at first too, and everyone ran over to me fast to help pick up the stuff that had fallen out from beneath the carriage, and everything was good.

We headed back uphill slightly at the farther west bit of the golf course, and there was an access road leading into a swath of woods heading west. I decided to head for that rather than out in the open, and it proved to be a good idea.

The section of woods took us out to a maintenance building that I think was originally associated with the golf course, on a road labeled online as Vista Circle.

We followed this out to a building, and there was a guy there on the other side talking on a phone. I went by in front of the group pushing the stroller, and he just gave a wave. He probably didn't belong there and didn't work there himself.

We pushed on ahead from here, and that road took us out to Wolf Hollow Drive, beyond the golf course, where we turned right.

As a side note, between being known as Dutotsville and Delaware Water Gap, the settlement was once known as Wolf Hollow. It then was Borough of Water Gap, then Delaware Water Gap.

We took this road ahead down a hill to the intersection with Totts Gap Hill Road, and there was another section of golf course directly across the street from there. 

We turned right briefly, and then left onto the golf course path which paralleled where we needed to go anyway.

We made our way through lines of trees and outstanding foliage parallel with Totts Gap Hill Road, down toward the Cherry Creek. 

It got steep when we got closer to Cherry Creek, and we turned right to get back out to Totts Gap Hill Road. There was a lawn mower going off to the east, and at first it looked like he was mowing the course, but he was on the other side of the road. We got back out to the road with no problem and continued left toward Cherry Creek Valley Road.

We turned left on Cherry Valley Road and crossed the Cherry Creek ahead near where there was a pretty pond on private land to the left.

The Cherry Creek was parallel with the road to the left for a bit. After the second bend in the road, the former golf course that is now the Cherry Valley National Wildlife Refuge appeared on the left. 

The paved former golf cart path came into view, and there was only one reasonable way to get through, and it was kind of tight, especially with the stroller. Still, it was only a few feet, and we got it through. From that point, it was easy going along the golf paths.

I had originally planned a lot of miles within the golf course, but we had done so much extra up on the Minsi area that I truncated this down to minimal. We would only do the trail that was most closely parallel with Cherry Valley Road.

We crossed Croasdale Road, and continued on the pathways to the east, which weaved around a bit and provided some nice views. 

When we reached the northwest side of the former course, we weaved to the right hard, and then left, in a way that looked like it was probably wrong at first, and then continued straight to the west where the path went left, onto a somewhat overgrown trail that led out to a private driveway. 

We scurried on through that and back to Cherry Creek Road to the west for a bit, on which we saw nice big trees and lovely pastoral views to the left. We soon came to the views of vineyards and such associated with Eagles Rest Cellars.

Our planned lunch stop would be at Eagles Rest, but I wasn't prepared for the fact that they didn't have any food or even a food truck that day. Usually they would have something like that, but they didn't this time.

Some of the group did tastings or flights or whatever, but I looked at stuff I figured I would like and just went with that. Sort of because blueberries grow up in this area on ridge tops, I decided to go with the blueberry wine. The name of the kind was I believe True North. That turned out to be a pretty solid choice because it was delicious.

We sat under a nice pavilion annexed to the main building where there was a guy performing live music before we left. It was really a nice spot for a break before moving on ahead.

From here, the next leg of the journey would be further on Cherry Valley Road to the west. We would then turn right on Route 191 for just a short bit, and then turn right into Glen Run Nature Preserve.

I had never been further than the parking lot to this. I had pulled in one day to check it out, and figured I would organize a hike there one day. 

Lerch had already done all of it, and assured us that some of the trails are basically woods roads, and compared to what we had already done, it would be a cake walk with the stroller.

Lerch and Cara as well as I think Michele and I don't remember who else left us at the winery in order to prepare for the after party.

The rest of us headed gradually uphill on the Godfrey Ridge from the parking area. The old woods road wasn't too terrible. There were some bumps and such, but I was able to push through it pretty well overall.

There was a white trail that was supposed to be foot traffic only on the woods road, and then other ones that weaved all over the place for the mountain bikers. We got to the height of the land, and then turned to the right on one of these mountain biking trails that was supposed to go to an overlook as a side trip. 

That trail continued on, but we opted to stay on the easier trail system this time because we'd already covered a good enough distance.

I checked with everyone on the mileage before we got into this preserve, to make sure we wouldn't be going way over, and that would determine exactly which route we'd take through the park.

The park has some really interesting history which I'd never heard of before this property.

It was once the Summer home of Samuel Collins, who was an art dealer from New York City. He served in the Civil War before moving into that trade, and then found himself moving to Stroudsburg some time in the late 1800s and lived at Harriet Hall on Main Street, which is now the site of the YMCA (the YMCA used to use the original 1862 Harriet Hall as its building, but demolished it in favor of the current building). 

The house in what is now Glen Run Nature Preserve was known as Churleigh Hall. The property was done up with fountains and landscaping, equestrian facilities, and a pond, as well as a view of over twenty miles.

Samuel and his wife, the former Clara Church had a great deal of problems as well. Their adopted daughter Lillian committed suicide from gun shot to the chest, which sounds questionable enough, in 1904, supposedly after the reading of a letter followed by tearing it to bits. Another woman from town was supposedly tryng to entice her from her home. So much of what was happening was surrounded by question. Samuel and Clara already could not afford Churleigh Hall, and so it became Churleigh Inn, a high end sort of vacation inn. Clara opened a salon or something like that.

The last time the Collins couple returned to Stroudsburg was in 1911, when they purchased land adjacent to their original land with the idea of subdividing and developing it, known as Collins Court. They failed in this as well, but the current road alignment in the modern development at least somewhat utilizes some of the planned routes.

Things looked even worse after the couple moved back to New York City. Apparently Clara was mentally ill and owed money to doctors, and even worse, Mr. Collins had been dealing in fake artworks to high profile buyers. On multiple occasions he was apparently caught selling fake pieces.

Clara apparently ended up in an asylum in South Jersey, and Samuel ended up in a poor house in Newark where he died of a heart attack. No one even knows where their remains are today as there is no mausoleum that was supposed to have been built, and no record of any graves anywhere. Even the young daughter Lillian's location is unknown.

As for the Churchleigh Inn, it hosted a major jazz concert event in 1920, which may have been the event to spur the very popular Pocono Jazz scene. The building suffered a fire in the annex in 1931, and then for years was owned by the Howett Family who operated it as the Mountaincrest Inn. 

The property was eventually sold to developers who did not wish to maintain the old Churchleigh Inn, and so it was burned down in the 1960s as a controlled burn or exercise of the local fire department. Today, apparently ruins of the home including stairs and foundation still exist, but we didn't make it to that site. 

After taking the side trip to the overlook to the south and returned to the main trail, Kat and Kevin turned back to go and find pizza somewhere on Rt 191, and the rest of us ended up at an intersection. I asked someone about how many miles we had already done, which would determine whether we would go left or right. We needed some more, so we went to the right on the woods road.

Along the way, we reached a very nice view at a power line crossing.

It was getting insanely hot out and I couldn't handle wearing my suit anymore, so I changed into shorts and unbuttoned my shirt. I couldn't believe how hot it was for October.

This woods road section took us east for a while through woods, and it came to an end. From there, we were on the green blazed trail, which took us to the north and down a slope.

There were switchbacks and a narrow treadway, which I took Ev down in the stroller, but the rest of the group ended up short cutting that direct the entire way through. We had to go slightly uphill again on the other side of this low area, and on the next hill we could see Route 611 below. 

We actually should have cut down to the right at this point somewhere to have an easier time getting out of there, but I didn't know what was going to happen.

The green trail took us out to the power line crossing again, and then we had the option of continuing straight on another woods road or cutting to the left or right on yellow mountain bike trails. We obviously went the more direct way. 

If we would have continued straight west on the woods roads, we would have come to the site of the Churleigh Inn, but we were running short on daylight and had to get out of these woods.

We opted to head down to the right at some point when we saw there was another woods road below us. We hit that, and I figured it was one that would come out on Godfrey's Gate Road to the north, because apparently one trail does come out down there.

We had an alright time pushing through this for a bit, but all of a sudden that road became very badly overgrown. 

We tried cutting off of the road to the left a bit into woods with no trail, but more sparse undergrowth to see if there was any other way through. We could see the backs of the houses on Godfreys Gate, so it seemed we would have some sort of way out possibly.

April cut away from us to see if there was a safe way out between any of the homes. Apparently, some of them are not lived in more than just weekends and no one was around even to ask if they'd mind, so we were able to just make our way out carefully to the edge of someone's driveway, and then out to the road. Jack and his buddy helped carry Ev in the stroller over some of the more ridiculous branches out there, and we were soon on our way.

It was a great feeling to be out on the road without anything really to worry about for a while.

We came out to Rt 191 which provided just enough room to safely walk along the right shoulder down to the bottom of the hill and into Stroudsburg.

As we were heading down the hill, two motorcycles were going by and slowed down slightly. When the front guy was going by, he yelled the question "HEY IS THIS METROTRAILS?" I responded happily "YEAH!" and we got a happy yeah return.

I found out via the facebook page when I posted the photos that this was a guy named Jay Kichline, and he apologized for potentially scaring the baby while shouting out, but he didn't and it was actually really cool to be recognized for what we do.

I used to be known for hiking in a suit everywhere, and now I'm known for pushing the stroller.

When we reached Rt 611 at the bottom, we just went straight across on Broad Street and walked on through along the more calm and less busy street for a few blocks. 

This was the neighborhood that was intended to be Collins Court, and only one of the streets today is called Collins Street in memory of the guy who originally laid the plan out, in the very center.

We turned left on Lenox Street, and the right on Park Ave, Rt 611 to cross over Interstate 80 and the McMichael Creek.

We stopped in the middle of the bridge and I mentioned how we were now crossing over the (somewhat obliterated) former Wilkes Barre and Eastern Railroad. I went on to tell that it was a wholly owned subsidiary of the New York, Susquehanna, and Western Railroad, completed in 1893. I explained that at the time of completion, it was the most direct rail route from the anthracite coal to the eastern markets. The problem was, due to all of the crazy curves on the line, they had to impose a low speed limit, so the richer Lackawanna Railroad was able to straighten and better grade their route, and the Wilkes Barre and Eastern couldn't keep up. It was abandoned by the end of the 1930s.

I was laughing because Jack and his buddy were clearly paying attention to what I was saying, but so drunk off of the wine they'd purchased that they were hilarious. During my dissertation, I was hearing "Fuck your low speed limits!", followed by "Bitch!".

The two of them were just ramming through the woods earlier like crazy, which was hilarious to watch.

After getting across the creek, we turned left on Ann Street. 

When we got to the corner of 8th and Ann, we passed the Quaker Friends Burying Ground. This little area of plots is the only remaining bit of the original Quaker settlement tract set up by Daniel Stroud in 1811.

We continued ahead to 10t Street, turned right briefly, and then left through the back of a funeral home property in their lot out to Main Street. 

I had wanted to try to head to the south a bit somehow and go through the Stroudsburg Cemetery, but it was going to be too tough probably to get across the Pocono Creek this late in the hike. We just went across the bridge on Main Street instead. There was a nice quote from Van Gogh there.

We went over to Wawa on this little route, and then turned right into the road of the Morey Elementary School. The access road in back of it takes us right along the Pocono Creek, and then out behind the Stroudsburg High School.

We cut into the woods for a bit when we got to a good wooded section along the creek, and the foot paths were reasonable to walk through. They ended up just taking us back out to the access road though.

Kirk went in to use a porta john along the way there, and everyone jumped over to grab a picnic bench to block him in, but Kirk beat them to it and got out.

Eventually, we reached  paved path that went into the woods to the right, and along the Pocono Creek where we turned.

The trail took us behind a chain link fenced area and to the west, and my plan was to cross a pedestrian bridge over the Pocono Creek just ahead, which would take us to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of the Poconos building, and then out to streets that way.

When we got to the bridge, I was rather shocked to find it closed off. There was playwood blocking either side pretty high.

Pocono Creek was actually pretty shallow after all, and I could have just gone down and walked Ev across in that, but I didn't feel like it. I was actually able to cram myself between the plywood and onto the bridge without a problem, and most of us could.

We all got together and just passed Ev in the carriage over the wood on each side, and we were out with no problem. Some of the group went down and waded through the Pocono Creek anyway, since we were almost done.

From this point, going out to the left onto Columbus Ave would have been absolute crap. We could see the Aldi's where we were parked from the bridge area. All we had to do was go across a long mowed field, cross the Big Meadow Run, and climb a slope and we'd be up to the parking area.

This would end up being the toughest part of the whole hike I think. We got though the weeds, and then the slope was kind of insane. I would need everyone's help to get Ev up the slope in the stroller.

I was able to push some of it, but it took everyone holding onto trees and edging him on up, and making sure I had a grip at all times to be sure it was a safe movement. It went really great, and we were soon to the top pretty happy with the accomplishment.

We headed over to the parking area, and my brother Tea Biscuit was already there dressed in drag. Thankfully, since he hadn't started drinking yet, he was able to take the ride back and pick up my car for me when they left.

Several of the others used their cars to head up to the party, and only April, Ev and I continued on to walk there ourselves. 

We headed out the east of the the lot onto Phillips Street, turned left onto Northgate Road, then left again on Edgemont Drive. 

We were ushered into a lower level back of the house with an entrance to the basement level where they had the place decked out with awesome dim lights, a sort of dance floor area, a bar area with all sorts of stuff, and then a room full of sofas and such, which was perfect for Ev. We headed there and I let him down after being in the stroller for so long. He of course needed another diaper change, and then was ready to cruise around everywhere in his duck suit.

I saw lots of friends I hadn't seen in a bit like Ken Lidman, Scott Trinkle, Christian Alexander, and so many more. 

I finally met Lerch's sister for the first time after knowing him almost a decade. It was a really nice time, and Ev loved all of the attention he got. Lerch put a smoke machine on, and it was just really cool.

I wish I could have stayed longer, but I did need to get Ev to bed after the long and exciting day.