Vancampens Glen

Vancampens Glen, Delaware Water Gap (12/22/2007)

This 5.5-mile circuit hike begins at the Millbrook historical village parking lot at the intersection of Old Mine Road and Route 602. Proceed north on the orange-blazed Orchard trail uphill to its end, making a left on the blue-blazed Hamilton Ridge trail. Take this trail to its western end. Turn left on the Pioneer trail and take it to its end at Old Mine Road, passing an old cemetery on your right. Turn left on Old Mine Road and walk for less than a hundred yards to the entrance of the Vancampens Glen area on the right. This is where we had to abort part of the hike, since the rocks that run along the brook were covered with ice (you can see photos of us trying), making this section of the yellow-blazed Vancampens Glen trail impassable. We went back to Old Mine Road and walked another 1/2-mile or so to the Upper Glen entrance to the Vamcampens Glen trail. Conditions were much more favorable here. We proceeded east along the yellow-blazed to its end and then followed an unblazed woods road back to Millbrook Village.

As you will see, during this hike we passed two abandoned houses (one on Old Mine Road and another off the Vancampens Glen trail at the top of a hill) I assume these houses belonged to folks who were forced out by the government during the 1970s fiasco regarding the damming of the Delaware river at Tocks Island. To read a fascinating account of the aborted dam project, check out this 11-part series that appeared in The Pocono Record in 2001.

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