Dingmans Ferry, PA?

[BlackGoat]

Hi,

Does anyone have any experience camping around Dingmans Ferry? I have hiked past it on the AT but have never stopped. My wife and 2yr old daughter want to get out and go camping and it looked like a viable spot that we could all 'hang' at. The main reason for going this far out of NJ is because I haven't found any NJ sites that allow dogs and we got two of them.

Thanks,

DG

[Ramblinrev]

My understanding is that the Delaware Water Gap National area does not allow camping,even along the AT, _except_ at a particular hike in site on the AT. Beyond that it is commercial campgrounds only. I could be wrong but that's what I remember from somewhere.

[Knotty]

I tend to view at group camp grounds with a jaundiced eye, but here's one.

http://www.dingmanscampground.com/

[SkyDog]

I tend to view at group camp grounds with a jaundiced eye, but here's one.

http://www.dingmanscampground.com/

For a few years before the MAAHA hangs, some of us would get together every year on Vets Day at Dingman's C.G. Great place, great hosts, LOTS of trees, and they run a shuttle across the bridge to the AT. Lots of nearby trails on PA side for day hikes. Huge C.G. with group areas! Trail and trees to hang from along the river. BE CAREFUL with dogs if then water is high - very strong currents there!

Now and then, a bear or two in C.G. Usual stuff about watching dogs...

HIGHLY recommended!

J.D.

[BlackGoat]

For a few years before the MAAHA hangs, some of us would get together every year on Vets Day at Dingman's C.G. Great place, great hosts, LOTS of trees, and they run a shuttle across the bridge to the AT. Lots of nearby trails on PA side for day hikes. Huge C.G. with group areas! Trail and trees to hang from along the river. BE CAREFUL with dogs if then water is high - very strong currents there!

Now and then, a bear or two in C.G. Usual stuff about watching dogs...

HIGHLY recommended!

J.D.

That is great info! I also despise going to a campground, however with a small child and two half-cat dogs I don't think trucking up the AT is much of an option so this camp ground may be it for this trip.


Thanks again,

DG

[Knotty]

That's great news JD. This camp is only 45 min from my house and may be useful for introducing friends and family to the hammock world.

[SkyDog]

Oh-No has been there a couple times and will (I think) vouch for the C.G. Rosaleen (forget her name here) too. New, very nice Camp Store is pretty well stocked with hot coffee in the morning, supplies, and firewood. State law sez don't bring your own wood, insects, etc. There's a supermarket 15-20 miles NORTH of the entrance. Don't go South - major traffic esp. weekends.

We were always there in November (Vets Day) and it was cold (rain/sleet/snow); but, always enjoyable. We hung near the showers which had HOT water even at that time of year. That's fairly close to the entrance and about a 20 minute walk to the river - it's a BIG area. Trees abundant thru-out the upper area, then down a tree covered hill to a really big open area which could fit 7 or 8 or more football fields. Then the river bank has lotsa trees. We even got to see an eagle grab a fish out of the river!

Their website has details AND pics of the flooding. The bear is NOT dead - had to be tranquilized. You guys DON'T qualify; but, I always rented and paid for the site(s) and got my 50% Mature discount

J.D.

[SkyDog]

Forgot to mention... Coming from NJ, your best bet is probably across the Dingmans Ferry toll bridge. IIRDC, a buck...
<http://www.dingmansbridge.com/>

Go to that site and enter the contest for a free book of tickets!

Cross the bridge from NJ and you're there! Go South a half mile or so - C.G. is on the left.
~~~~~~~~~~~
You're gonna love it! That whole Delaware River Valley & the Water Gap!

Knotty! Suggestion: A Gathering/Hang on the river! Rent canoes upstream, 1 or 2 nights hanging *anywhere* you want along the river. Canoe rental folks bring you back. I did that several times back in the 60's & '70's and we always got an extra canoe for beverages

[Knotty]

The Dingmans Ferry bridge is a classic. Steel frame with wood slats for the roadway. The bridge is privately owned and the people make their living on the tolls. It's worth the toll just to drive across it.

Did a few Delaware River canoe/camping trips when I was in college. Just stealth camped along the way on two of the trips. Woke up in the middle of the night scared to death when a freight train roared thru. I didn't even notice that we were next to railroad tracks. Stayed at Worthington on the third trip.

[BlackGoat]

So we took a weekend trip to the Dingmans Ferry Campground last weekend. The traffic from central NJ to the DWG is always horrendous even when leaving at 3pm on a Friday afternoon. We didn't actually arrive at the campsite until shortly before 6pm. I tried to stay positive during the long drive, given the fact I was going to a campground and not going to a trail head, but alas this trip was for the family and my two year olds first camping trip. When we arrived at the campsite I was shocked to see that it was a ghost town, there were only four other campsites used out of the 110+ available and none of them were even visible to ours.

Campground:
The trees are truly abundant and seem to have been planted by a hammocker, because I had a lot of hanging possibilities in my own campsite. I did a walking tour of the all the campsites and it is a huge campground for NJ/PA and is full of trees in almost every campsite. Even the ones along the river had possibilities. This is apparently the off-season for the campground; I am guessing it gets heavier use in the summer months. Even the store didn't keep regular hours since no one was there.
The facilities are great for a campground; my wife was impressed they had hand soap in the bathrooms and hot water. Not to mention the free hot showers, something that we haven't seen anywhere else.
The camp staff was very friendly, the campground host stopped by and talked about my hammock setup and let me know they have a lot of hammockers come through there and love to have more.

Trip Report:
We stayed from Friday night until Sunday morning. Friday night turned off cold, according to the weather report it was around 35 degree F. Luckily we were prepared and didn't have too much issue. I did have some warmth issues in the hammock. I think this was because I used the weather shield over top of my under quilt and the condensation that formed in the cold air caused my under quilt to wet out. I also used a 15 degree sleeping bag as a top quilt and it just didn't seem warm enough on top. I slept in a shorts and t-shirt, so had to get up and put on some warmer clothes in the early morning hours. I was able to go back to sleep until 6 am and then went and took a walk to the river to warm up and watch the sunrise. It was gorgeous morning and there were two bald eagles hunting along the river. So getting up early was definitely worth the cold morning. Saturday turned out to be a very nice and warm day. We played in the river until about noon and then took off to hike the Indian Falls trail. This was a great trail to stretch your legs on, not to mention the gorgeous scenery and waterfalls.

Saturday night was much warmer and we enjoyed carne asada and tortillas cooked over the fire. The sky became overcast later in the evening and it looked like rain. I decided to swap out my sleeping bag with a warmer bag and I used my sun dried under quilt alone without the weather shield. I slept extremely warm and through the night, except to wake up on occasion to the rain pouring down on the tarp. I did get concerned a couple of times, when I thought that I could feel rain drops hitting the foot box. I reached up and felt it and it was dry so I went back to sleep. In the morning I realized the cause, my tarp lines on the foot box side of the tarp appeared to have stretched or the stakes shifted with the rain and the tarp was touching the foot box. Thank goodness for the Spinn material, because it kept me dry even with me rubbing against it throughout the night.

I was surprised by the tarp lines stretching. I used braided mason line on the guy lines and Opie’s continuous ridgeline. I couldn't tell which one stretched to be honest, my original guess was that it was the mason line, but the more I looked at it, I couldn't rule out the ridgeline stretching or the stakes shifting. We got a ton of rain that night and it really soaked the ground and the lines. I could squeeze water out of them by hand for hours. I set it up to quickly to determine the root cause.

It was still pouring when I got up in the morning, so I decided to forgo a fire and breakfast and to break camp. I really love the tarp hammock combo and being able to put everything away while under the protection of the tarp. We did have one casualty and that was the tent my wife and daughter used gave up the ghost and started to let water in on the sides, luckily they had an air mattress in the tent and never really got wet. I cut off the salvageable parts of the tent I wanted for future projects and the rest ended up in the dumpster as we left the camp. I didn't feel too bad, because my wife informed me that the next time everyone will sleep in hammocks. They didn't want to this time, considering it was my daughters’ first trip and we didn't know how she would do. I will try to post some pictures later.

All in all, I have a feeling we will be back, it was a great place to get away from it all. I can’t wait for it to warm up a bit more so we can play in the Delaware some more and go swim in the waterfall pools.

Black goat