Fall Color on the Devil's Hole Loop Trail

 This story is an example of a hiking trail that offered us much more than we anticipated when we planned the hike.  Devil's Hole Loop Trail is described in All Trails, a hiker website, as follows:

"Devil's Hole Loop is a 4.5 mile moderately trafficked loop trail located near Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania that features beautiful wild flowers and is rated as moderate. The trail is primarily used for hiking and nature trips and is best used from April until October."

We thought we would have a nice walk in the woods with some late fall colors.  Boy, did we underestimate this hike!  Here we our, in our pre-trail innocence:

The trail did not even wait a quarter mile before surprising us.  No sooner did we get past the Game Lands gate, than we entered a long, narrow, downward sloping tunnel of gigantic rhododendrons.  They were so big that they dwarfed us:

We thought, "Hey, what a great, unexpected reward!"  Already we were happy with our hike.  But just wait.

Here was our first view of Devil's Hole Creek:

Apparently there is no firm record why this area is known as Devil's Hole.  One of the local legends is that there was a bottomless lake in the area and anyone who swam in it sank and went to Hell—hence the name “Devil’s Hole.” The lake is said to have disappeared after the large flood that hit the area in 1955.  It is possible to imagine that the rocky terrain hides large caverns or spaces underground -- although none are known -- which might have swallowed up the lake when a flood or earthquake shifted the terrain.

We knew none of this as we hiked, but we did know that this stream was very pretty and drew us further and further into our hike.

Some hikers describe this trail as rocky, indistinct and unmarked.  That is all true, but we feel lucky enough to have experience trail-finding and bushwhacking, and we soon learned that the entire trail follows old woods roads.  At every turn, the trail was distinct enough for us to find it, and it led us through some beautiful terrain:

If you read the AllTrails description above, you will notice that it says nothing about stream crossings.  We just want you, and any future hikers, to know that this hike involves FIVE stream crossings.  While none have formal improvements such as bridges, etc.,  There are many rocks in convenient places, and we were able to accomplish all our crossings (admittedly in the Fall during lower water levels) simply by rock-hopping.  Here, David demonstrates the correct procedure for dancing across the water without getting any toes wet:

Within a mile or so, we came across these unsigned ruins situated near the creek.  We had no idea what they might be:

According to the website, Atlas Obscura, which we consulted after our hike, these ruins may have been built in the 1920's or 1930's, and could have been a ski lodge, resort, speakeasy or magnificent home.  As surprising as it may be, no one has found records to confirm what the ruins were.  The website states, "Whatever it was, it’s suspected that the building met its demise in the mid-1950s, either by a large fire or possibly [the flood that hit this area in 1955, referred to above]."

The most credible explanation of the ruins appears on a website called, "DCSki," which documents ski resorts, including a section exploring "lost ski area."  The author of the section on Devil's Hole did a substantial amount of investigation and analysis on the site and concludes, with significant credibility, that it was a ski resort.  He found remnants of old ski tow lines and what appear to be graded ski runs.  He buttresses his arguments with information from satellite photos and topographical maps.

Still, however, no one knows what the resort was, its name, or any further details.

We just could not ponder these mysteries for very long, because the late fall colors, and the leaves falling like snow around us, kept distracting us.  We were lucky to keep our footing on the rocky trail, we were so taken with the foliage:

We have spent October moving into a mountain cottage in Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania which will be our Covid Retreat for the winter of 2020-2021.  Unfortunately, we've done more than our share of cleaning and dusting and vacuuming and wet-mopping -- whether of our new cottage retreat or to store our motorhome in the driveway for the winter.  One thing we are familiar with is dust.  We marvel where dust can gather and how dusty things can get.  Yet, as we took this break from our labors and enjoyed the mountain scenery, we marvelled at how UNdirty and UNdusty the woods are!  Look at those crisp, clean lines and colors.  Not a dust mote to be found.  Even the fungi are beautiful, crispy white, without a smudge of dirt:

Our hike was advertised to be 4.1 miles.  With a side-trail out to a viewpoint, where we decided to stop for lunch, the total mileage was 5.5 miles.  At about halfway, we found the end of the sidetrail, which was marked with a fire ring and wooden cairn, and we recognized that we had gotten to our "viewpoint."  While there was no clear view from this spot, however, we nevertheless stopped and ate our lunch:

While eating lunch, we discovered a short, steep trail down the hillside toward the far stream valley.  Kathy led the way and found a beautiful viewpoint that reminded us of some of the views from Raccoon Ridge on the Appalachian Trail near the Mohican Outdoor Center, which we frequented with our Appalachian Mountain Club friends some 10-15 years ago (has it been that long???):

We finished lunch and returned to the main trail, which now began its steady descent back to Devil's Hole Creek.  Along the way, we marveled at complete hillsides filled with red splashes of high-bush blueberry bushes.  In this particular spot, one yellow-green-leafed plant dares to erupt through the riot of red:

We walked across a wide, flat plain that was so remarkable, it caused David to remark, "This must have been a very large river at one time, because it created such a big floodplain."  More likely, perhaps, is that we were hiking across the former lakebed of Devil's Hole Lake!

The silvery-blue colors evoked by the rocks and fog struck a calming counterpoint to the colorful fall leaves:

This trail was not done with its surprises.  At about mile 4 we ran into an old stone cabin -- obviously once a residence but now apparently an informal winter warming hut.  It was intact, with a good, though old and primitive roof.  It sat at a point where our old woods road trail suddenly became a very distinct gravel, then macadam, road.  Either this was the home of a settler who carved a road up to his place, or it was the residence of a watchman who kept a keen eye on highway construction equipment a quarter of a mile or so down the old road.

All we know is that it is now known as, "The Cabin":

And if you thought that there was no highway construction equipment for the cabin resident to watch over, well, my friend, think again.  David found this piece of machinery whose pistons are as shiny stainless steel as they day they were born.  The equipment seemed to be used in a rock and gravel mining operation for the construction of nearby roads, but we learned no more than that.  David was pleased just to sit on the seat of history:

From here, we hiked back down to Devil's Hole Creek, crossed it one last time, and climbed back up through the Rhododendron Tunnel to the trailhead parking lot, where we met some young hikers that had popped over to explore the trail but had stopped at the creek without really crossing it or exploring it, and had no idea what adventures this trail would offer them, if only they would accept the invitation and dive across Devil's Hole Creek.