Off the Beaten…Stream?

I promised you the story about our hike in the Delaware State Forest, PA. So here is some backstory. Lake Minisink is surrounded by the Delaware State forest with which I have a love/hate relationship. To be more accurate, I love it and it hates me with such a passion as to come up with creative new ways to try to kill me every year for nearly 20 years.

While there are plenty of stories about how this particular forest and lake duo have turned the elements against me, today we will focus on water. As you can see, it was VERY wet on this particular hike. And as we made our way around, it became less of a hike over land and more of a test of boot waterproofing techniques. Most of the time, we followed a stream which was once a trail as we walked through the forest. Soon however, even that became a bit of a challenge and we had to get more creative.

One of our first big challenges was this impressive beaver dam that needed to be traversed. Crossing over this small stream was a puzzle whose reward was dry feet. In this picture I have wet feet, in case you are wondering how I faired. In a moment of cold wet footed contemplation, I started to think about Alaska again. There would be plenty of wet cold feet in my future, of this I was sure.

Our second river crossing was a little more difficult than the beaver dam and began to remind me of my many games of Oregon Trail that ended in disaster. Saw Mill Creek, pictured here, proved to be a little too much for us to traverse, despite being the recommended crossing for the “trail” we were following. While we made it about half way across, the other half proved to be too little rocks and too much water in between for a successful crossing. Another lesson I felt the need to share with Nick and Seningen. Those poor souls are going to want to punch me in the throat when they see my thoughts on future training…

Because of the torrent that was once known as Saw Mill Creek, we had to make some creative bushwhacking choices. I watched as our hiking pace dropped significantly. Fortunately John Gray, a long time friend and army staff sergeant, was happy to explain to me the equations that the US Army had for pacing in such terrain. As he explained the different terrains and their effect on marching speed- my brain began tossing around concerns about Denali. The mileage suddenly seemed much bigger thinking about bushwhacking than it had when I had been trail thinking.

Thanks for sticking with me for this long, here is John reenacting the Lion King with his hat as a reward for your dedication. Overall the hike was eye opening for the future, challenging in the moment, and honestly everything I could have hoped for. I wish I could give you any idea about how to recreate this hike, but lacking the Bob MacMillan Navigation System, I don’t think I could. So in terms of a trail review you will have to take my word for it that it even existed.