2018 - Hike 14 - April 14th - Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area

Millbrook Village and VanCampens Glen

Orchard, Hamilton Ridge and Pioneer trails 

Posted by Chris 4/14/18

Basics:
Length - 6.7 miles
Elevation gain - Estimated at 700 feet
Nearest city - Blairstown, NJ
Difficulty - Moderate

The day:

The weather swung dramatically from cold to warm yesterday and today.  We went from snow flurries earlier this week to above 80 today.  Tomorrow will be much colder but let's just remember today?

The hike came from the Hiking New Jersey book which may not be in print any longer.  Despite living very close to the Water Gap we have very effectively ignored the hiking and trails in the Gap until now.  We made One attempt at a hike a few weeks ago off the same road (Old Mine Road) but it was snowy and our resolve wasn't as deep as the snow so we bailed.  Today we went further up Mine Road until the split with Millbrook-Blairstown road and parked at the Millbrook village lot.  An early start meant there was almost no traffic and just 1 other car when we started out. 

The hike was wonderful.  There is a lot of blow down from Winter's long and just now released grip on the land but that added to the adventure factor for sure.  It is my understanding that this area was planned to be flooded by a (long since cancelled) hydro electric dam project.  The land had been taken and the (few) residents removed etc.  In some ways this felt like a very wild area with no busy roads within earshot and absolutely nothing commercial or even residential in the area.  Despite that, there were all kinds of little rock walls and occasionally foundations and other signs of past habitation.  2 of the last 3 miles were just a few feet from a stream or creek and there were numerous gurgling and sometimes dramatically falling waters around.  This section of the trail was also where we had the most challenging clambers over downed trees etc, sometimes with just a narrow ledge between us and the water below.  It was basically right on the edge of being too difficult or scary to do but we got through it.

Pics are from both of us.  Movie by Brian.






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