Hike #1568: 9/3/23 Cliff Park to Dingman's Ferry with Jenny Tull, Carolyn Gockel Gordon, Serious Sean Dougherty, Alyssa Lidman, Evan "Joe Millionaire" Van Rossum, Brittany Weider, Sue Bennett, Professor John DiFiore, Violet and Sam Chen, Anne M, Diane Reider, and Everen
This next hike would be a point to point in the Pocono Rim area, on stuff I'd pretty much done before, maybe a little I hadn't but also probably the first time I'd done bits of the McDade Trail since it was completed.
This Summer, I'd been having some trouble deciding which hikes to do, because I wanted swim spots, but I also wanted it to be stroller friendly for Ev much of the time.
I had already done hikes on the McDade Trail all the way between its southern terminus and Dingmans Ferry, and I had yet to do the last leg of it as a group hike, so I figured this would be a good one. In addition, I could slap some of the Cliff Park stuff into the mix and have a really scenic trip.
We met in the morning at Dingmans Ferry, at a lot on the corner of Rt 209 and Dingmans Falls Road. I figured this was an easy spot to see and we wouldn't have a problem.
What I did not count on was the fact that this lot had literally no cell service whatsoever.
If that wasn't bad enough, there were problems with meetup.com when I posted this, and I could not change the pinned location of the meeting point. It was posting as if the meeting point were up at Dingmans Falls itself and not the lot at the lower end of the road.
I figured if I got there early enough, people would see me there, but unfortunately, a lot of people got there earlier than me. Some were waiting at the falls, and some were waiting up the road at another lot off of 209.
While we were waiting for everyone to get together in the lot, there were several cars that came by, pulled in, and left. It was a little confusing. So close to a waterfall, it is no wonder.
I told one group of them going by that if they wanted to go to the falls, they could park much closer,and they were soon off.
Eventually, we all came together somehow, and then shuttled with as few cars as possible to the start. I think we did it in two or three, and it was a good thing there were not more. We could not have fit everyone.
The start point was the Cliff Park parking area near the Cliff Park golf course. This area never used to have anyone in it, but now, the parking lot was completely loaded and then some.
There were cars parked in every spot and everything that wasn't a spot. On the way there, closer to Raymondskill Falls, national park service rangers were working shuttle service at three locations to bus people in to the site.
This was literally insane. I couldn't believe they were encouraging and supporting that amount of people using such a small area.
I was shocked that a spot like Hackers Falls, which was always kind of a hidden little place, would be so overrun with people.
When we got to the trail head, we waited around a bit for me to get my stroller together. I let Ev run free as soon as I gave him a fresh diaper, but I had a bunch of stuff I had to get into the stroller to start.
Other people were milling about the parking area, but it was already so full and most of the people were already out and on the trails.
It seems that all of the city people that came in carried all sorts of grilling stuff and such, and were basically setting up camp at the falls all day. I was surprised that some of the people we'd find there had even made it that far. It isn't really the easiest hike. It's not hard by any means either, but it's also not just a spot that you park the car and walk a few feet.
We headed into the woods and gradually uphill on the Buchanan Trail to the west a bit, and when we hit the crest of land, another side trail went to the right, down into a bit of a gully. This was Hackers Trail.
The trail meandered a bit, and was never really too hard for the stroller, especially with Ev walking the area on his own.
Eventually, we got down to Hackers Falls on the Raymondskill Creek. As expected, it was loaded with people, but I was surprised to see only maybe two or three were actually in the water. Despite the fact that so many people were there, some of us went in for a dip anyway.
I carried Ev down to the shore on the rocks, and sat him down behind a log where he could walk back and forth and watch me, but not get beyond it to fall in.
The water was cold but felt great. I swam right up to the falls, which no one else was doing, and headed back.
The rocks just below the surface were so slippery, it was nearly impossible to walk on them. It was pretty much necessary to get down right away and then crawl our way out to the middle where it was way over our heads.
After a good dip, we headed back to the trail. I carried Ev over the slippery stuff, and no sooner did I get him up there, he was ready to head back up the trail himself. Sue headed up with him for a bit, and he was happy to just be moving on further.
At first, the trail was super easy to push the stroller along, but then heading uphill ahead got to be really tough. Ev walked it, and a little of the time John carried him on his shoulders.
Once we were at the top of the incline, I was out of breath, but most of the tougher stuff was done. We turned to the right on another trail, which weaved around (I think more of the Hackers Trail), and then we headed up to the Cliff Trail. I recall we went straight across an intersection on a woods road on a rather steep route, which led to a very narrow path. It wasn't officially part of the Cliff Trail for sure, but it was close to it.
We continued along on this, which had been maintained somewhat because there were trees cut off of it, but it was quite narrow. A few fallen trees required that I had a hand to lift the stroller over.
Closer to the cliffs, I made Ev ride in the stroller. I didn't want to chance him getting close to any two hundred foot drops or suddenly running without realization of how high up we were.
Serious Sean had his electric guitar on him, so there was some fun singing going on. One of the first I remember of the day was Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. Buffet had just died a few days prior, and so that little homage was a sort of necessary tribute.
Lots of other stuff followed. He broke into the Beatles' Blackbird near the top of the first major ascent.
We continued along the informal trail for a bit, and then soon got to the official Cliff Trail. This brought us almost directly to Tri State Overlook.
Although this overlook is the farthest to the south in the Cliff Park system of trails, it is the best for seeing three states. We could see the High Point Monument in New Jersey in the distance, the bends in the river, and beyond to New York, so it was all visible from here.
I had an historic postcard image I found was taken at that location, and so I emulated it with a then and now compilation.
High Point Monument was completed in 1930, so the historic postcard image, which does not feature the monument, must date to before then, and actually before 1928 likely because the base of it was built then.
We checked out the view for a bit, and then moved on back to the trail. The actual Cliff Trail doesn't go along the cliff, and walking this in the past, I'd walk closer to the edge of the cliff, but this time I'd stay farther away to protect Ev.
It was a really pleasant walk ahead. As we went, Sean started playing the riff from "You're the One That I Want" from Grease. We ended up singing it, and screwed up some lyrics.
I went on about how that song, as well as "Sandy" were not in the original theatre production of Grease, but were added for the movie version.
I also added that I felt "Those Magic Changes" is one of the best compositions in the show, but it was relegated to a background music thing in one of the dance scenes in the movie. In the play, the song was sung by the character Doody, but those scenes were not in the movie, and the song was sung by Louis S. Louis on the soundtrack.
Actually, John Travolta played Doodie in a theatrical version of the play prior to becoming leading man in the movie.
Sean ended up playing "Those Magic Changes" next, and I sang it probably one key higher than it is supposed to be, because I had a bit of trouble hitting the notes. I could do it if I warmed up a bit, but I just never get to singing much anymore. This was also Sean's first full hike he'd been out with us on in a very long time. He always joined late or something.
We continued on down the trail, and we also ended up singing "Summer Lovin'", one of the biggest hits from Grease.
Ahead, we came to the Minisink Overlook next. This was a little side trip up to the view to the right from the main trail, which wasn't too bad.
I got some pretty good views that I think pretty well match historic postcard with modern view at this location as well. There are so many more trees these days it is unbelievable.
We continued walking ahead, and there was another side trail that went to Riverview Overlook, and I think we skipped that one. I really shouldn't have, because I probably would have gotten another good compilation, but oh well.
We continued on the trail ahead, singing and carrying on, and eventually came to where the Quarry Path Trail went downhill to the right. We continued straight on Cliff Trail toward the Milford Knob.
Milford Knob Trail came in from the right just before we got to the knob itself, which afforded us exellent views up the Delaware River Valley, into Milford PA, and of the Pocono Rim ahead.
I had one historic postcard scene to emulate from this point, and we had a little break to take in the view.
From here, I knew there was a trail that went down to the bottom of the knob, and I had climbed up it before with a local guiding us how to do it, but I'd never tried going down it. I kind of had to assume about where the trail was supposed to go down.
It was easy enough at first. We just went to the left, and made our way along the path of lease resistance.
This found us going down to the left, then hard left, then into a bit of a saddle, then back up again. it was frustrating.
We ended up going right down into the gully area. This meant going over fallen trees and such. It was not in any way easy. Usually, in these situations, I carry Ev and someone else tries to help with the stroller, but here, Ev stayed with Joe Millionaire and the others, and walked a whole lot of it by himself, while I tried to navigate the stroller through the mess.
Eventually, we got done with the steep stuff, but we were not finding any good trail near to the bottom. There was a house sort of nearby if we'd go straight, but we had to keep to the right a bit from where we were coming down.
We passed around some fallen trees and such, and pretty soon the group found themselves on the Milford Glen path fortunately. We pushed toward that, and then were okay.
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| Lovers' Walk, Sawkill Glen, by H. Bisbing, from Scenes on the Sawkill, The Aldine, Vol. 7, No. 21, September 1875 |
We continued on the trail to the east for a bit, which meandered, but had no real tough stuff.
Pretty soon, we arrived at a nice set of steps that had been constructed somewhat recently down a steep slope and to the Mott Street Bridge over the Sawkill Creek.
Historic Mott Street Bridge in Milford Pennsylvania was built in 1902-03 by the Penn Bridge Company.
I had several historic photos to try to emulate at this site, most of them I had taken myslef over the years, at the old bridge. I fell behind a bit taking those, but then caught up with the others on the other side.
The bridge had been painted a beautiful bright shade of blue. The walkways on either side, which had been section off, were now gone in favor of the open main section of the bridge used as walkway.
We made our way out Mott Street to the end in the center of Milford, and turned right on East Hartford Street. Soon, we reached a Mexican restaurant known as Tequila Sunrise, and stopped for lunch.
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| 2011 |
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| 2016 |
We had a really nice sit down meal, and ate generously. I felt pretty stuffed after eating at this place, which was pretty good, although they gave me beans with my meal when I specifically said none.
Ev got to eat some of my beans, but even he wants the good stuff more than beans.
We turned to the right and headed down the street toward town, and then walked to the right to Log Cabin Brewing Company. I wanted to see if they had any good strong beers, and honestly none of them looked impressive.
None of the beers were over ten percent ABV so I didn't bother with any, but the closest, at 9 something, Sean bought a four pack of.
We headed on our way, and got into the Kennedy Park on the corner of Rt 209 and Hartford Street, and he gave me a coffee stout he purchased. It wasn't really great, but also not bad.
Sean hated it so much that he went back and asked if he could trade the three other cans for something he might like, and thankfully they let him do it.
I drank the one of the beers he didn't want, and I thought it was alright.
We headed down the street just a bit, turned hard to the right, and descended to the crossing of the Sawkill Creek. I had several historic photos I could have set up in this area, but for some reason I just wasn't feeling trying to do it at this point. I wanted to relax and get into the river. I have felt like I couldn't relax easily lately, and I didn't want the amount of thought that came along with setting up my then and nows.
After a slight ascent, we turned to the left on Milford Beach Road. This bit was a gamble, because the area is a pay one, and there is apparently a fee for walk ins, but the guy working the booth didn't make us pay one.
Ev fall fast asleep as soon as we continued on a level surface. As we got down by the toll booth, we wre just waved on through without an issue. We wouldn't be hanging out at the beach there anyway.
The last time I tried to hike through the Milford Beach area, they turned us away if we weren't willing to pay a couple of dollars per person, so fortunately we were out of there this year.
We got to the beach area, turned right along the parking area, and the northern terminus of the McDade Trail started off of the lot.
We headed along the edge of the recreation area, and then soon into a segment of woods to the north.
The road we took to the beach was the original main road, predecessor to Rt 209, and the older 1889 Milford-Montegue Bridge crossed over the river just downstream from the beach there.
It wasn't long before we got to the replacement for that, the newer Milford-Montegue Bridge, which was completed in 1953 almost simultaneously with the Portland-Columbia Toll Bridge, and the Delaware Water Gap Bridge.
The trail meandered though some very nice woods for a while, and then came out into some fields with good views of the cliffs we had been walking atop before.
The trail weaved north and then west again, and it was really hot out to be in the open area like this.
There was basically no tree cover at all for a while here. Just wide open fields and sun. We pushed on through it, and eventually came to another good section of woodlands. This was in the area of Pitman Orchard.
We came out to more open area again, and then reached close to the edge of the Raymondskil Creek again. There were people fishing in this section, so despite wanting to get in pretty badly, we pushed on to wait for another site.
The trail moved on up close to Rt 209, and then crossed the Raymondskill just along the edge of the highway. On the other side, it turned through woods back out along the Delaware River.
There were some spots where we could reach the shore, but it wasn't really great. We'd have had to push hard through a lot of Japanese Knotweed in order to get to the water, so we held out until we had a good stony shore to go in.
When we did find a good spot, we spent a bit of time there cooling off. Some of the only spots in this stretch that were good for it were the ones where little streams flow in, because the Knotweed is not so thick.
We continued along, and the amount of land between the river and the cliffs got to be much narrower. I had hiked this before, but never with a stroller and I couldn't quite remember what to expect.
It got to be rather tough. I could push the stroller through most of it, but there were some tree roots and tough spots with steps and such.
Before we reached this spot, there was signage telling cyclists to remain on the edge of Rt 209 for a shared road route of the trail, as it was hiker only along the river. I figured I could still get through it.
There was a sign right before we headed to the rough stuff denoting this as the historic site where the Wyoming-Minisink Path once began. The path ascended Indian Point to Powwow Hill above on the Pocono Rim and continued on to the Susquehanna River.
The path was later used by colonists from Connecticut when they headed north to settle in the Wyoming Valley, where we had hiked just a few weeks prior at Forty Fort.
I'm going to have to check my maps, but when I was little, I used to search with my grandfather for these obscure trails that were shown on NY/NJ Trail Conference maps, including Cedar Point Trail.
The trail was shown as a steep spur that just went up from Rt 209 to an overlook. It last appeared on the 1988 Kittatinny Trails map series. I didn't have the NPS maps saved to my phone this time to look for other stuff, so I don't know where it might have been.
I would look for it right now, but my filing cabinet is blocked by Ev's toys and I cannot get to it without extreme difficulty and nowhere to move the stuff.
I would assume there must be something of interest up there, and I would love to climb it. There are some huge open areas of slope that most certainly have some views from them, so I'd love to go climb up it one day. I have a little while to wait before Ev can do that.
We continued along the foot path section of the trail over the rougher terrain, and Diane and Joe Millionaire were helping a lot in this section to keep Ev walking.
He was getting a little frustrated, but I couldn't put him back in the stroller at this point over the rough stuff.
We were coming soon to the Canashaugh area, where I'd hiked the trails at the top of the slope before, but not much recently. This was past Pocono Rim hikes.
Pretty soon after all of that, the trail came back up to the edge of Rt 209 and the Conashaugh parking area access. The surface went to crushed stone again, which was a relief.
We still had some more hard stuff up ahead, and the group was starting to get segmented.
The trail was pleasant and pretty close to Rt 209 for a bit, and we passed the old noted artist Marie Zimmerman Farm area.
We found one for spot to take a dip where another small stream flowed into the Delaware and there was an easy access. It was so hot out that we couldn't resist one more spot to get in. Much of the group turned back and left at this point.
It is also worth noting that Serious Sean proved that it was possible to drink honey whiskey through a mask.
We continued to push through this beautiful section of rough terrain, and eventually made our way back up to along Rt 209 where there was another access point, and the trail went back to crushed stone again.
We continued along that, and it wasn't long at all before the Delaware Cemetery came into view to the right. That put us where we had been the previous month, and we descended and ascended a bit along the Delaware, crossed Dingmans Turnpike followed soon by Dingman's Creek on a foot bridge, and then turned right on closed Dingmans Falls Road to head back to our cars.
I got Ev and I a ride back to my car at Cliff Park, and it was just getting dark by the time we arrived. It is kind of sad to see the days getting shorter, and the realization that I have to have these hikes be easier at the ends with the missing daylight.
It had been another really nice day to be out, with barely any road crossings at all. It was just a bit too hot to enjoy it as much, and the access points to the river were not as plentiful as in previous sections.
Still, I was glad to have organized hikes on the entire McDade and area trail system. It was really worth doing while I am still restricted to use of the stroller some of the time.
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