Friday, April 04, 2008

Boom, Bust, or Barkaboom?

by theseventhgeneration

Yesterday I decided to check up on a possible site mentioned here almost a year ago. Click here for the link.

After reading the post and looking at the map...



I was sure there was a nice rock pile on CR 38. The road is just upstream from the junction of the Bush Kill with the East Branch and affords a nice view of Pakatakan Mountain. I also wanted to nose around Paktakan Mountain, to see if I could find the Dry Brook Ridge Trail.

First, I'll get to the bust. The CR 38 "rock pile" is nothing more than a very large gravel bank. I'm not even certain it's picture-worthy, but I did snap some photos, so maybe a small shot here just to satisfy the curious:



CR-38 is a very short road. I'm sure I found the right pile. Well, to be honest, I drove up the road, turned around, stopped, took pictures of the gravel bank, stopped again to take a picture of Pakatakan Mountain (which can be seen quite nicely from CR-38), and, by then, a State Trooper pulled up behind me to see what was wrong, so I thought I should not keep nosing around there too much!

Now for the boom.

Pakatakan Mountain is beautiful. I found the trail I was looking for and also found something interesting near the trail head. Here is a close up:



And here is the whole thing, turned to the right and cropped to get the image within 9 MB's so I could upload it:



This is near the road in a very steep area. If you click on the photo above to enlarge it, you might be able to see a guy wire that is holding up a telephone pole on the road (left hand side). This is not an undisturbed area, but it is on the side of the mountain overlooking the East Branch of the Delaware River, near the base of the mountain.

Now, for the real "Barkaboom"...

On the drive out there, I passed 3 really nice rock piles. I was only able to photograph one because there was no place to pull over for the other two, but I'll figure something out and go back soon.

Here is how it looks from the road:



And this is a zoom shot:



Well worth the drive!

6 comments :

pwax said...

Nice finds.

Norman said...

That construction at the base of the cliff I find interesting, because it might be related to a rock shelter. Walls were often constructed under the drip line of rock shelters, and although this seems to be at right angles to the cliff, I'd want to explore it more fully.

theseventhgeneration said...

I plan on going back. This was just visible from the dead end road. When I got up there to take the picture, I got a little nervous that something might be denned under the outcrop. I didn't have my big stick!

pwax said...

It is interesting that the place you circled on the map seems to be the ultimate headwater of the brook. There are other tributaries and it would be worth looking at their headwaters.

Anonymous said...

There is a similar rock shelter in smithfield RI, near a series of small swamps and the head waters of a stream, not far from Nipsachuck, it seems it is all connected, and the area is loaded with mounds and several rock piles on huge granite boulders.
Dr. Fred Meli.
I have pictures if anyone is interested.

theseventhgeneration said...

Most of those tributaries start in the Catskill Park, where there are a lot of hiking trails. This area (Margaretville) is about half way between Masonville and Overlook Mountain.