Hike #1616: 7/28/24 Port Jervis and Sparrow Bush Loop with Robin Deitz, Diane Reider, Dan Lurie, Stephen Argentina, Kirk Rohn, and Sue Bennett
This next trip would be a loop in the Port Jervis area watershed, something I put together because I knew we could get to some swim spots, and because I figured it would be pretty relaxing.
The previous week at Hickory Run had been overall relaxing except for only about one mile, which wasn't all that terrible, and I wanted to keep that kind of feeling going.
I was also in somewhat higher spirits by the start of this one, because I had finally procured a new car for my use.
It had been weeks since an uninsured driver crashed into my Honda Element, destroying it, and leaving me without transportation. Thankfully, my brother, Tea Biscuit, came through and helped me by loaning me his car, which carried me to the last couple of hikes.
I had gotten a message through Metrotrails from a fellow by the name of Bob Mundy, who has a business in dealing with used cars. He explained to me that he's been selling cars for years, and that he's affiliated with a Cars for Cash lot, and that they do not sell cars to individuals.
However, Mr. Mundy appreciated what I do, and wanted to help me to find something good to keep Metrotrails going. He talked to the lot owner and had an exception made for me.
When he asked what I was looking for, I said probably a Honda, maybe a CRV or an Odyssey. The group had voted on the Odyssey for getting people around more easily, and I am forced to agree. Also, there is some sort of funny hype about the new "Deadpool and Wolverine" movie about how the "Honda Odyssey rocks hard". It seemed like the right trend time to get this car.
I got it for probably several thousand less than it could have sold for.
It was also a relief that I haggled with my insurance company over what they wanted to pay me under my uninsured motorist coverage for the Element. At another friend's recommendation, I sent them prices of similar Elements in the vicinity of my home, with year and mileage, all of which were more expensive.
I was originally only going to get about a grand for it, and then I ended up getting about 6 grand. They ended up paying me more for the vehicle than I bought it for over three years ago!
I was feeling much better about everything at that point.
The car was incredibly comfortable, and it has far more amenities than any car I've ever owned before. I can't get used to all of the options I have in the thing.
So, I set up a hike that would be a loop, and an overall relaxing one.
I have very much enjoyed the Port Jervis Watershed area in the past, and I knew much of the trail system was going to be just great for the stroller.
In fact, I had just walked some of these trails back in June, when we came up to stay at a camp site on the D&H Canal for Ev's mother's birthday.
She wanted to do a hike, and it was the easiest thing to go and do, so we headed up there. She couldn't handle the distance, but I took Ev way up into the mountains and got a good feel for what trails we would be able to handle with the stroller and which ones we wouldn't.
Since we didn't do a full day that time, I looked ahead to the group and how I could work out that hike as something everyone would enjoy.
Rather than starting in Port Jervis itself, which is the normal customary thing for me on this, I decided we would do the Sparrowbush Boat Launch on the Delaware River as the meeting point.
I had two main reasons for this. First, it would put the crummiest portion of the hike at the very beginning, with the most road walking. Second, because it would put us right at the river for the end of the day, and we could go in for a dip and cool off before heading on home.
The only bit of it that might be a little difficult would be some of it near the very start, where there was a little bushwhacking, but I had done it before Ev was born, and knew we could somehow get through.
I was a little worried about parking for the start, but I figured at 9 am we wouldn't have too much of a problem getting in there.
Boat launches turn into crazy swimming parties, and until police come and break them up, no one even uses the launches for boating anymore. They are all beaches used by people coming from cities. It gets to the point that boats can't even get in because they put pop up tents right on the ramps.
When I got up to Sparrow Bush, I was surprised to see that the area was in fact already filling up.
People were rolling on in the entire time we were parked at the site. The group was small, and some were running late, so I used some of the time to clean out a bit.
I had the new car, but I had piled everything from the Element into it a few days before.
I said goodbye to my original stroller at this site, and threw it into the dumpster in the lot.
It was a sad moment, and I thought to do something more with it, or make a big deal of it, but I didn't. Away it went after pushing it over 2,500 miles. I can't help but wonder how much farther it might have taken me if it had not been in the car wreck.
I still didn't have my personalized plates with my last name transferred to the new van (a 2012 anyway), and that would be something to be worked on over the coming weeks.
One of the other big deals that had just been an exciting development was that Metrotrails was officially approved as a Federal level 501(c)3 non profit organization.
Metrotrails has been a non profit since 2010, but the official business title was "A New Jersey Non Profit Corporation". Jenny Tull had been working on making the jump to federal, and it went through. Some groups don't get approval right away, so it was really cool that we were giving the green light.
There is still stress, but this hike was going to be one where there would be less of it and I'd make certain.
While I was getting stuff in order, Stephen, who had been gone for some time, took Ev and brought him over by the railroad tracks. The Millrift Bridge of the former Erie Railroad crosses over the Delaware River at this location, and he took him over to see the tracks.
The New York and Erie Railroad had already been established to Port Jervis, and got authorization to cross the Delaware into Pennsylvania at this point in 1841. The east side of the Delaware was already occupied by the Delaware and Hudson Canal, which opened in this area in 1828, and it remained on the east side as far as the Lackawaxen area.
Millrift is the name of the settlement on the Pennsylvania side from the bridge, which is where it gets its name, but originally the railroad named the site "Turnover". It was changed I think in 1884 when the United States Post Office established an office there, and called it Millrift.
The canal used to cross beneath the original bridge as well, to right about where we were parked. A major basin known as Bolton Basin, which also had a store and hotel, was located just on the other side of the bridge. Today, you really can't see anything of the site at all. It is almost completely grown in with Japanese Knotweed.
We started walking through the boat launch area, and then on the far side of it, the towpath resumes with very recognizable canal prism, and some rip rap rock on the berm wall.
One of the reasons I incorporated this into the hike was because no one in the group had ever done it before. When I did the Delaware and Hudson series through here, I bushwhacked through the knotweed and ended up through Bolton Basin to the road to the boat launch, which is known simply as "The Hook".
The others went out to Rt 97 and simply walked that, while I remained on the canal alone. It was such a cool little section, I wanted the others to get a chance to see it.
A segment of the old canal was somewhat recently filled in at a point back beyond the launch, but I'm not sure why. It looks particularly sad with all of the debris.
The section afforded us good views to the Delaware River to the cliffs on the other side, which people often refer to as the "elephant feet" for their odd appearance.
The canal remnants disappeared beneath the railroad again, where there was once a bridge. Here, we had to go up to the tracks and then parallel them on what used to be another set of tracks for a short bit. This was some of the toughest stuff we had to deal with as far as the stroller goes. Ev walked most of it, but we needed to get out of there quickly.
I had bushwhacked down almost immediately when I walked this myself, and then made my way to the north, toward Darraugh Road. This time, I tried to find a more appropriate opening to get Ev and the stroller out more easily.
There was not really any good choices, so I went for any kind of opening. I found a pretty good spot, or the best thing I was going to find anyway, and got the stroller down the slope. Ev remained with the others, holding their hands and walking down the slope at the best place himself.
We managed to get through the woods, and then out to Darraugh Road where we turned right.
By this point where we came out, the canal was already directly along this road to the north, and a little of it was still holding water in this stretch.
We continued ahead, and soon passed by the entrance to Tri County Propane, which had more of their section cleared a bit.
As we went by, in the water was what appeared to be an alligator! It was moving around a bit with the head clearly sticking above the water, but the lower part of it might have been nothing at all. It looked like it might just have been a floating head.
I was pretty sure at this point that it was a gag thing, because there would be no way an alligator would make is way this far up the Delaware to this point.
After posting the photos of the area, the great Delaware and Hudson Canal expert Mr. Bill Merchant commented that back in its days of operation, an alligator WAS in fact found in the Delaware and Hudson Canal, and it made newspapers!
Considering this, the Port Jervis area is actually the southernmost point reached on the entire canal between Honesdale and Kingston, so if there was one somewhere it would likely be there!
Still, I doubt it was anything to be concerned about, but I got the photo of it and posted it, so I'll let everyone else be the judge on whether it was real or not.
Some of the group tried hitting it with rocks to see if it would move, and while it floated around a bit, there was no apparent reaction to the rocks.
We continued ahead on Darraugh Lane for a bit, with the tracks on the right and canal on the left, to the intersection with Eddy Farm Lane. To the right, this went into a sort of private resort area, but I wanted to go over and have a look at the rail crossing anyway.
This was apparently an important spot on the Erie Railroad, because it was sort of the yard limit on the eastbound approach to Port Jervis.
I had an historic picture that looked to be a glass plate negative of the site, and it seemed to match this place rather perfectly, with the former tower site as well as a bridge over a small tributary. I set up a then and now photo compilation here, and then we headed back out to Rt 97 to the north, and turned to the right. We followed 97 east through the Sparrowbush area to the intersection of Sleepy Hollow Road where we turned right.
We continued around a corner, and then beneath a large, and very wide deck girder bridge that carried the many tracks of the former Erie Railroad yard approach overhead.
It was a pretty cool bridge to go under, and Ev liked it. We turned hard left on the other side, and then continued along the Delaware River on Sleepy Hollow Road toward Port Jervis. There were some pretty good river views along the way.
The road was a little narrower than I would have liked, but it improved at the approach to Erie Street.
From there, we just continued on sidewalks, and made our way into the first of the neighborhoods of Port Jervis.
Along this stretch, we passed by the old Second Reformed Church on W Main Street. Built in 1890, it appears to no longer be used as a church, and had several vehicles parked in the driveway as if it were a private home or business at this point. We could see where the steeply used to be, but it had been removed from the top.
Thanks to Fred Miller for the added information on it.
We moved on further ahead, and at the intersection of River Street, there was the West End Memorial Park. There were nice little memorials to different public servants there including all of the past mayors of Port Jervis. There was also a bridge that went over nothing, but apparently this is supposed to be something symbolic.
We walked the short pedestrian path through this park, which is sort of the end area one can get on of the Delaware River greenway through Port Jervis. We reached Ferry Street, where obviously the ferry once was in the years before bridges.
We walked to the right to the end of the road, where there was a public swimming beach, but they were charging an admission to swim in the river. Of course, we didn't want to bother with that, so we turned left at the entrance, where the formal trail begins to follow the edge of West End Bridge along River Road.
We continued pleasantly along the pathway, and soon reached the historic site of a railroad bridge across the Delaware River which, had it not been washed out, might have connected downstream to Bushkill. The line only made it to Matamoras and plans to extend never came to pass.
The section of the Delaware River gmfrom Matamoras to Bushkill is the only stretch of the entire River that never had a railroad or canal built along it.
The railroad was the Milford, Matamoras, and New York Railroad. The tracks were laid to the Rosetown section of Matamoras, and it was graded all the way through to Milford, but never fully built.
The Pumpkin Flood of 1903 apparently took out the last rail bridge here and it was never rebuilt, and even stranded an engine on the Matamoras PA side for a while until it was eventually cut up and scrapped.
We continued ahead along the path, and there was another historic marker noting the timber rafting operations that were common on the Delaware River from 1764 to 1908, to Easton or Philadelphia for ship building purposes.
Through the trees to the right were occasional views of Heaters Hill, the northern end of the Pocono Rim formation on the Pennsylvania side.
Soon, there was an informal path that led down to the Delaware to the right. I was already working up a sweat and I wanted to see what was down there. I hurried down and took a quick dip in the river to cool off, which was great.
While there, there was an odd circular depression in the rocks, which to me looked too big to be natural, but apparently this could either be from current or even from fish habitat. I'd not really known about them before.
There was a very good view here of the Mid Delaware Bridge between Port Jervis NY and Matamoras Pa. Built in 1939 by R C Ritz Construction Company.
This replaced an adjacent Barrett Bridge of similar style, which had replaced an 1872 suspension bridge.
Cooled off, I headed back up the hill to the group and we continued on the trail to the east. The trail actually sort of ended by Riverside Creamery, where we had hoped to get some ice cream, but they were not open for the day yet. A girl was there doing opening procedures, but not quite ready yet.
In back, there was a beautiful view of the bridge, the Delaware, and Heaters Hill, and a painter standing there doing a portrait of it all. We stopped and chatted with him for a bit about what he was doing, which was really cool.
It was a funny interaction because Stephen engaged with some good conversation, except for the fact that he made it sound like it was all good, except what he was working on. His wording unintentionally came out sounding like a diss, and it wasn't meant as such. I saw the artist sort of get a shocked look for a moment, and then the split-second humorous realization of misinterpretation and articulation.
There was an old farming implement Ev was checking out next to the place, and we had a really good little break. We then moved on along the Delaware downstream, Water Street to a left on Pike Street, then a right on King Street for a few blocks.
Soon, we reached Riverside Park, and cut to the right, up a grassy slope and onto a paved pathway atop a flood protection berm which afforded great views of the Delaware River, Matamoras, Heaters Hill, and ahead, to High Point NJ on the Kittatinny Ridge, with the monument that sits at 1,803 above sea level. Behind us and beyond Port Jervis, we could see the peaks of Elks Brox Park, Mount William and Mount Peter as they have historically been known.
We walked along the top of this path for a little while until it sort of came to an end. The greenway continues on, but we headed down into the grassy park and to a playground where Ev could play for a bit. I went over the maps and looked at our options for a lunch stop at this point.
On the opposite end of the park, there was some event being set up for. I figured it was some country music festival or something based on the music that was playing, but I think they said it was a sort of theatre troupe or something as I recall. We walked by them setting up and they invited us to come back to the event later. Unfortunately, we would be deep in the woods of the watershed area by the time that happened.
We continued ahead and to the grade crossing of the tracks across from the lovely Port Jervis station.
The grade was not open to traffic, and a gate on either side, but we could walk across.
We were just in time, a train was arriving just as we got there, so Ev got to see the passenger train pass close by to us right at the station. A real treat.
This old depot was built in 1892 in Queen Ann Style, designed by Architects Grattan & Jennings. The stop was established in 1847, and is reportedly the fifth station building to serve the site.
The station building was taken out of rail service in 1974 and now houses other businesses, but the railroad still sees commuter service here daily.
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| Port Jervis Station in 1965 |
We continued across and into town, past the front of the station into the heart of the downtown.
One side of the street was under construction so we had to shift sides. We considered going to the old Erie Hotel restaurant, which we'd gone to before and enjoyed, but we didn't want to be taking two hours for lunch this time, so we went with simplicity.
Ahead, there was Village at Bruno's Pizza, so we went in there for a little lunch stop, and it was good.
While everyone else was still eating, and Ev was playing with the rest of the group, I ran back down the street to the Fox & Hare Brewing company to get something good to drink.
I had bought my first ever growler from this place, of a very strong beer that I very much liked, so I figured I'd see what else they had.
They did have one strong one, which I forget the name of at the moment, but it was good and over 10% abv. I cracked it at the pizza place and we enjoyed it for a while along the hike ahead.
We went to the north past the memorials in Orange Square Veterans Park, in the middle of town, the made our way up through town across Main Street, and then onto Orange Street.
We crossed over Canal Street, which was the historic route of the Delaware and Hudson Canal through town, abandoned since 1899. I understand that some of this section had been completed earlier than 1828, when the full canal from Kingston to Honesdale was completed.
We turned left when we got to Reservoir Avenue, and then continued to a point where there was a pull off parking on the right, just before the Port Jervis Filtration Plant.
Here, a somewhat new trail turns to the right and ascends the ridge. I think this one is now called Beginner's Berm Trail. It makes its way uphill a little steeply, then turns left and right a bit, and then follows a slope above old Reservoir #1. It then descends and joins an old woods road along that reservoir.
Reservoir #1 was recently renamed Brewers Reservoir. It was originally built in 1866 by the Port Jervis Waterworks Company. That system of reservoirs expanded to three of them through the turn of the century.
The three reservoirs were purchased by the city of Port Jervis in 1929 and is now part of its Department of Public Works. Trails have been established throughout the property in recent years.
I had just followed this trail for the first time in June with Jillane and Ev, and didn't make a full day of the hike, but figured it was a worthwhile route.
The trail continues on the slope to the woods road, and then east a little bit to the stream that flows into the first reservoir. It goes through a particularly wet area, which comes across as very uninviting at first, but actually is easy enough that I can push the stroller across it.
The trail took us through some rather high weeds, and then emerged on a very pleasant path with crushed stone surface next to some Norway Spruces.
We turned left here, back sort of in the direction we came, on a very easy and pleasant woods road. I think some of the first bit we were on was named the Deejay Downs Trail.
I had hiked that trail in the past as well, as it goes all the way to the Second Reservoir. Although I could get Ev through on the stroller, this time I was focused more on a relaxing route.
We continued back just a little further, over a small spring, to the Reservoir Road. We turned hard right at a sharp angle, which switched us from going west to east, only uphill.
It really isn't all that steep, but it's a bit of a workout. We made our way uphill for a bit, and stopped for a break when we got to the point where a power line crosses. From this point, we got a rather nice view of the High Point Monument in New Jersey again, as well as down into the little valley we had just ascended from.
From here, we continued uphill for a little while more, and then came to the intersection with the Lenni Lenape Trail. This trail also follows an old woods road to the right, but it is far less kept up.
The trail has grass growing through much of it, but overall is pretty easy walking for the stroller.
When I got to this point with Jillane, she was too exhausted to do a long hike, so she continued up the Reservoir Road, while I took Ev out to the right to weave back and meet back up with her. She wasn't able to walk back, so we had to walk all the way back to the car and come pick her up.
This time, we'd all continue through, and it was a very pleasant walk through.
The trail ascended only a bit more, and then followed a height of land for a while. It dipped down a little bit, and passed an area that looked like tailings piles, but I'm not sure what was ever mined in this area.
We passed a couple of crossing trails along the way, and another came in near the tailings piles. Soon after, we had another intersection where we went to the left to continue uphill. The Lenni Lenape Trail ends at this point, and we continued on Brant Path, which is named for the leader of the group of Hessians and Mohawk tribesmen during the Revolution who sacked local communities.
Brant Path took us uphill for a bit more, and then soon we were at a bend where we had a good view of Reservoir #3, built in 1900. It has somewhat recently been renamed Mirror Lake.
I considered jumping in for a dip, as I'd done in the past, but the water level was much lower than it had been on previous visits. We all did take a break here anyway, and Ev and I went down to the stony edge of the water that is usually inundated.
Once we were done with our break, we continued on the nice woods road, which shifted to the north a bit, and it led us out to Boxbaum Road, an unpaved road that passes through the Port Jervis Watershed.
We turned left on the road, which was also a pleasant walk, and headed west for a while.
When we got to a point where another trail broke off to the right, which I forget the name of, we turned. This trail went down to the edge of Reservoir #2, which was built in 1886. It was recently re-dubbed Deerpark Dam Lake. We turned right and followed the trail around the east to north side of the lake.
I stopped and took a dip along the way in this one in a nice and secluded spot. We continued around the north side, and it took us out to another unpaved road heading to the west.
We reached Upper Brook Road and turned left, and there was a nice old house ahead, near the dam for this reservoir. It might have been a caretaker's house, or maybe it pre-dated the reservoir. I'm not sure.
We continued gradually downhill, parallel with the dam, to the intersection with Boxbaum Road and Academy Ave. Here, we had a good view of the Deerpark Dam, and an old stone structure at the spillway.
The spillway actually went around to the right of the structure and cascaded down some rocks, which was quite pretty.
We continued from here down Academy Ave through some pleasant woods.
To the right of us, there was a very old bridge and road across the creek below. It probably predates the reservoir as well, maybe for logging or something. It goes off into private land so there's no exploring it. The bridge might also have been part of an older dam, because there was a lot of stone work.
I had fully decided on using Academy Ave because of the recent trip I'd done with Ev and Jillane. When she wasn't able to walk anymore, Ev and I had to go back to get the car and pick her up. In doing so, we ended up traveling up Academy Ave to reach her. The road was narrow and beautiful, and was exactly the type of thing I like to walk. Having no lines in the road is usually a good tell on whether it will be good walking or not. This one was great.
We descended on the road a bit through woods, and then it opened up into farmlands. There was a nice view to the right, an old bank barn with a heart on it, and to the left there were soon some old corn cribs and out buildings.
This area in the 1870s was known as Honesville, sort of separate from Sparrow Bush, and these farm buildings appear to have been part of the Gillson Farmstead as per the historic atlas maps of Orange County.
We descended on the pretty road to where it split in two, to the left and right down to Main Street, with a mirror in the middle of the intersection.
We turned steeply to the right down to the main street and continued ahead to Mama Grace Pizzeria and Deli, in an old storefront. I wasn't particularly hungry, but we got something just so Ev would have something to munch on toward the end.
After the break, we continued on ahead toward the end. Some of the group went ahead without us, and ended up taking the boring highway route. I wanted to go through the community and check out more of the historic homes along the way.
Next up was the Sparrowbush United Methodist Church, which was dedicated on Thanksgiving 1868.
This settlement was named for Henry L Sparrow, who owned a large tract of timber land known as "Sparrow's Bosk"
"Bosk" meant thicket or woods. Over time, the name evolved to "Sparrowbush".
One house ahead looked abandoned, and then there was another small old storefront that appeared to be closed.
One oddball thing we came across was a building that read "Scientific Services". I can't fathom what exactly those services might be, or how this little settlement warrants the existence of such a business. I made Ev a foil hat and got a funny photo of him in front of it.
We continued through the settlement until we got to Deerpark Veterans Memorial Park (Deerpark is the name of the municipality). We cut to the left from the Main Street, through the grass heading in mostly a northwest direction toward Routes 97 and 42.
There was a little playground Ev wanted to play on a bit as we walked through the grass.
We made our way out to the highways, near the intersection where 97 and 42 come together. Originally, 42 came down straight, but was moved. We could still see a little of the pavement through the grass, and into the yard it cuts through ahead.
We crossed over the road, and just walked some of the highway to the north for a bit. We passed an equipment rental place for "big boy toys", and then turned left onto the road known as "The Hook"
Indeed, on maps, the road does look like a large hook. We made our way along the road downhill, and then past where Bolton Basin used to be on the Delaware and Hudson Canal.
The entire area is so overgrown with Japanese Knotweed that we could barely see anything.
We went under the Millrift railroad bridge, and then back into the lot where we were parked. People had parked in insanely close to my car, and in doing so put a dent in the door, which was really annoying.
I tried not to let it bother me, and we headed over to the launch area and the stony beach to take a dip. Most of the group left, and it was just Ev, Kirk, and I enjoying the water. I think Stephen made his way over at some point as well.
It was a great way to end the day, refreshed and relaxed from the waters of the Delaware. There were still quite a few people partying down there, but not too terrible.
There are still a ton more trails in this area I've not yet done, in the Port Jervis watershed and otherwise.
One of these days, hopefully I'll get to covering more of them. For this day, I think we did a good and relaxing route.
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