Tohickon Valley

Tohickon Valley, Tohickon Valley Park (9/28/2009)

This is hike #72 ("Tohickon Valley Trail") in Hiking Pennsylvania (2nd edition). Tohickon Valley Park is a county park located near the village of Point Pleasant, Pennsylvania, a little town on the banks of the Delaware River. It's a bit north of Lumberville, where we recently hiked the Delaware Canal tow path after crossing the beautiful pedestrian bridge from Bull's Island on the New Jersey side. Today's weather had showers in the forecast for as early as 1 PM. But the showers were delayed and my friend Andy and I were able to complete the entire hike with a sunny, blue sky and a soothing cool breeze that accompanied us nearly the entire way.

The first 2.5 miles of the hike takes place in the Tohickon Valley Park, and includes a beautiful trek along a lovely canyon ridge overlooking the creek. This area, known as High Rocks, is very popular with rock climbers and it's easy to see why. The second part of the hike, west of Stover Park Road, takes place in (I think) Ralph Stover State Park, and involves a beautiful walk along the bank of Tohickon Creek, the creek we admired from the high rocks earlier in the hike.

Sadly there are no good trail maps online for either park which is surprising considering the many side trails and blazed trails that we saw. In fact, instead of retracing the first 2.5 miles back to the car, as described in the book, Andy and I turned the eastern part of this hike into a partial loop by following a yellow-blazed trail which wasn't on any map nor in the book. Total distance covered today was nearly 7.3 miles in less than four hours.

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