| 2300 Feet of Elevation Gain at Delaware Water Gap Trip Report |
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| 2300 Feet of Elevation Gain at Delaware Water Gap   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: New Jersey/Pennsylvania, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 40.96227°N / 75.12314°W Date Climbed/Hiked: Mar 16, 2009 Activities: Hiking Season: Spring | Page By: MikeTX Created/Edited: Mar 20, 2009 / Mar 20, 2009 Object ID: 499498 Hits: 497 Loading... Page Score: 87.8% - 10 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
Spring Break - What to Do?Most advice I get about conditioning for an upcoming climb involves something like “just try to hike uphill as much as possible...it doesn’t even have to be a big hill”. When I get advice like this it reminds me that people who’ve never been to really flat areas have no idea how lucky they are to live in a place that has even just a little bit of topographic relief. The upper Texas coast is very flat with average elevation changes at around 1 foot per mile, and the town that I live in sits at about 25 feet above sea level. Trying to condition for trips to the mountains when you live in an area like this presents some unique challenges that only people from states like Texas, Louisiana and Florida would understand.
Needless to say, when I get a chance to do some hiking with actual hills, I jump at it. Spring break usually provides an opportunity for an outing, but I have to strike a delicate balance between my outdoor time and valuable time with my family. Sometimes the two are compatible, but not always. This year was one of those less compatible times, because our spring break destinations would be New York and Washington D.C. There would also be a visit with my wife’s relatives in Pennsylvania that no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t get very excited about. Let me just say that it has nothing to do with my wife’s relatives. In general, I’m ready to bail out of a family visit (even with my own family) after about two hours. I mean, how do you find stuff to talk about after that? My wife understands this about me and she didn’t have any problem with me heading for the hills while she visited.
Prior to our trip, I checked out some of the SP pages on the “mountains” in Pennsylvania to try and find something that would be fun and provide enough of a physical challenge at the same time. Anyone that’s hiked in Pennsylvania knows that it is difficult to get a lot of elevation gain there, so you have to be creative if you want to put in more than a couple of hours of uphill hiking. After some searching, I finally decided on hiking two “mountains” in the Delaware Water Gap area – Mount Tammany and Mount Minsi. Information from the NPS website indicates that you can get over 2300 feet of elevation gain between the two of them. That’s not a lot, but it’s not bad for this part of the country.
Mount Tammany On Monday, I ate breakfast on the road and arrived at the Dunnfield parking area on the New Jersey side of the gap around 10:30 in the morning. I got my gear together and looked for the trailhead. I had intended to hike up the Red Dot trail and down the Blue Dot trail, but I did not find the Red Dot trail right away (it was behind me). So, I headed up the Blue Dot trail at a quick pace – not running, but walking briskly. Today was a day to push myself a little. The weather was cool (around 50 or so) with light winds and mostly cloudy. While hiking, I was reminded of why I prefer the West so much compared to the East – trees pretty much obscured my view in all directions until I got almost all the way to the summit. I reached the summit in a little over an hour. I snapped a few pictures, ate a Cliff bar and drank some water. I headed back down the Red Dot trail, which was steeper and very rocky. The whole trip to the summit and back took me about two and a half hours.
I got back to the car, drank some water and headed for Mount Minsi across the interstate on the Pennsylvania side of the gap. I found the white blazes marking the Appalachian Trail that led through the underpass that I had driven through on the way to Dunnfield. This took some time and wondering around to figure out. I walked up the I-80 feeder road and made my way across the footbridge over the Delaware River. This was the most nerve-wracking part of my day with all the big trucks cruising by on the interstate. I could actually feel the bridge deflect every time one went by.
Mount Minsi After about a mile and a half of walking I finally made it to the trailhead at Lake Lenape. There were several groups of people that were making their way up the trail already. It was more crowded than I expected for a week day. The time was almost 2:00 in the afternoon and I was starting to feel kind of puny, so I stopped here and ate another Cliff bar and downed half a bottle of Gatorade. I felt a lot better after that, so I headed up that Appalachian Trail toward the summit of Mount Minsi. I passed a half-frozen pond and a stream crossing on the way up. The trail was well maintained, sometimes steep and always rocky. I also encountered a few other hikers and made some polite conversation. I reached the summit in a little over an hour, snapped a couple of pictures and called my wife on my cell phone. I also finished my Gatorade. Then I hiked back down the Appalachian Trail to Lake Lenape. I stopped and gave directions twice to other hikers on the way. I’m not sure why you would need directions though – I just told them to keep following the white marks.
I rested for a few minutes when I returned to the trailhead. The trip up to Minsi and back took about three hours. It was a little past 5:00 in the evening when I headed back across the footbridge to the New Jersey side where my car was.
A Good Conditioning HikeIt was a good trip and I gained a new appreciation for AT through-hikers. The trails I encountered were steep in some places and always very rocky. I think I hiked a little over 10 miles including the two summits and the trips across the interstate between New Jersey and Pennsylvania. It took about 6 and half hours to finish. Although the hike wasn’t very scenic, it was still a good outing. I would recommend this as a good conditioning hike for someone interested in hiking or climbing bigger mountains. Images
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Kittatinny Mountains
