Old Mine Road open

[MarkBNJ]

We had a thread here a few months back regarding the gate across Old Mine Road in the DWGNRA. The gate was located just north of the intersection with Kuhn Rd., and blocked off the section through Ennis Rd. I had a chance to get up there over the weekend and was thrilled to find the gate has been taken down, and the road is now passable, though in poor condition, from Kuhn to Ennis. This section has never been open in the six or seven years that I've been visiting the park, so it was pretty cool. Even neater when I found an 18th century stone farmhouse that I'd never seen before. I'll post some pictures of it when I get my gallery access straightened out.

On the negative side, the section of Old Mine Road from just south of the Vancampen "Inn" to where the one-lane dirt road joins the paved section north of Flatbrook is now closed by temporary barriers. Parts of this section were in really rough shape, and I suppose it washed out over the winter. Hopefully they'll get it reopened.

 

[Boyd]

Cool - I have been up there several times this year but haven't gone that far North on Old Mine Rd. Will have to check it out next time. The road to Crater Lake has been closed all year - any idea why? I hiked up there from Fairview Lake and the Northeast section of the road looked fine.

 

[46er]

We had a thread here a few months back regarding the gate across Old Mine Road in the DWGNRA. The gate was located just north of the intersection with Kuhn Rd., and blocked off the section through Ennis Rd.

I'm pretty sure that gate was from a landowner disputing the roads ownership. Its good that it is now opened. There are still a lot of areas closed from the damage caused by Irene. Van Campens Glen was still closed as a result of the death of a teen that fell from the falls in the gorge quite some time ago.

I found a nice little cabin that can be rented right near Peters Valley. We'll be up there for a few days this autumn. It's a pretty long day trip from here.

 

[Ben Ruset]

Mark,

One of these days we'll have to make a trip up there together. I was there last winter and found the road closed at Kuhn Rd. I also had one of my scariest exploring moments scrambling down a very steep ravine to get some pictures by a river. I wasn't so sure how I'd get back up.

 

[MarkBNJ]

I'm not sure why the road up to Crater Lake is closed, Boyd. Haven't been up that way in years. I wouldn't doubt it's the same general deterioration that you see throughout the park's road system. The last couple of winters haven't been kind, and in any case other than the public facilities down around Columbia, and Millbrook, the park doesn't seem to get much attention.

46er, that's also my understanding about the dispute. There was another thread posted here about the Federal Magistrate's finding that the road was the property of the NPS. As for Van Campen's Glen, that incident was very sad. My two eldest daughters both knew the young man who died. But I wasn't aware that they Glen had been closed. That's unfortunate. It's a beautiful place, and after all, kids will do stupid things.

Ben, any time, just let me know when you're free. I will say this, though: we should probably either wait for the cold snaps in the fall, or stay in the vehicles. There were mad ticks out there Sunday, and I wasn't even bushwhacking. I stepped into ankle high grass a couple of times to take pictures, and literally had two or three of the little bastards crawling up my leg. On my way home I found two more, and then another later just getting ready to settle in under my hairline. I literally was in contact with vegetation for about five minutes total the whole afternoon. Must be the long, wet spring we've had up here.

 

[Boyd]

Thanks. I wondered why Van Campens has been closed. I think they stopped paying attention to Millbrook recently. The rest rooms there have been closed all season and the parking lot has been empty every time I've been there. There used to be a nice little store in the old house at the corner of Old Mine and Crater Lake Rd, good place to get a piece of fruit or a sandwich. That has been closed for several years now also.

Wow, I have been hiking around up there almost once a week recently and haven't seen a single tick. I try to avoid high grass, but it's getting hard to do that this time of year. I went through a lot of it around Crater Lake though.

OTOH, ticks have been very bad in the pines this year. But I think they may have peaked down South now. After we get some good hot weather they seem to start fading, but that's usually not until July or August. I know that Al disagrees on this, but that's what I've always noticed. Heh, maybe I just get more skillful at avoiding them as the summer wears on.

 

[MarkBNJ]

I wonder if the tick population is different up around the lake due to the elevation change, or temperature differences? On Sunday I was down in the valley the whole way, and there were a lot of them.

I used to visit that same little store (they called it a deli, but as far as I can tell that was always aspirational). The place was called Delaware House or something like that. I wasn't surprised when it folded. There just isn't that much traffic on those roads north of Millbrook, even on nice weekends. You'd think they would have gotten some fishermen and hunters, but apparently however many they did get it wasn't enough.

Peters Valley is the one place in the Wallpack area that seems to stay pretty busy.

 

[Boyd]

Yeah... the main reason I go up there is to get away from the flatlands and climb a mountain - it's a good way to remind myself how I need to get into better shape. Hiked up to Sunfish Pond from Old Mine Rd a couple weeks ago and man, that sure took the wind out of me!

Haven't really spent any time near the river, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were more ticks there.

 

[46er]

I'm not sure why the road up to Crater Lake is closed,

I think they stopped paying attention to Millbrook recently.

Crater lake and Millbrook Village were both victims of Irene. Millbrook had a lot of damage as shown in the video.

Closure info;

http://www.nps.gov/dewa/planyourvisit/area-and-road-closures.htm

 

[MarkBNJ]

Meant to upload this earlier today. Here's a pic of the old stone farmhouse I saw on Old Mine Rd. north of Kuhn.

 

[JerseyGenesis]

Glad to hear that the gate on the Old Mine Road is down but the all the other closures are troubling. I don't see the NPS repairing them any time soon. The Delaware View House, which had most recently been a general store, may have closed because it was not doing a lot of business but it more likely an an incident back in 2009 that sealed it's fate. The guy running the store was having problems with bears so he created something, problaby near his garbage cans, that would shock the bears. A 7 year old girl touched what ever he set up and was electocuted. Fortunately, she survived and the store owner was arrested. A link to the story is below.

http://www.neagle.com/news/x2141124010/Child-Electrocuted-In-Recreation-Area

 

[MarkBNJ]

Wow, first I've heard of that incident. Talk about a dumb idea. That's about as boneheaded as they come. I think I met that guy a couple of times back in '08 when I stopped in for a bottle of water. There never was much traffic, and he was usually puttering around the place painting or something.

 

[Badfish740]

I'll chime in since I tend to frequent the Gap/Stokes/Walpack much more than the pines these days. I know a guy who has a camper up at Bear Creek Campground (just down the road from the Walpack Inn) and he said the road to Blue Mountain Lake/Crater Lake really took a beating from Irene as 46er said. Fixable for sure, but they can't seem to get funding to do anything up there, or at least it takes forever. A shame since my little girl is nine months old and loves nothing more than to sit in the shallows and splash around-we were looking forward to taking her this Summer and it doesn't look like the road will be open the way things are going.