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bullseye
07-06-2009, 06:40
I'm taking 3 friends on an overnight trip and am looking for a spot where we can hike in and have a swimming hole close by. Maybe 6 miles or so to camp and can be a loop or out and back. Doesn't have to be AT, just local to PA,NJ,MD, N. VA, W. VA NY area.

fiddlehead
07-06-2009, 09:09
Hertleim campsite would be a good choice for legal swimming.
Dehart dam is the other choice in central PA.

Hoop Time
07-06-2009, 09:33
Hertleim campsite would be a good choice for legal swimming.
Dehart dam is the other choice in central PA.

Swimming is not allowed at DeHart Dam. The lake their is the main water reservoir for the city of Harrisburg and a few other municipalities. The area surrounding it is off limits to the public.

I think there used to be a small park there, and perhaps they used to allow swimming and fishing. Not sure when that changed. But it def. is not allowed these days.

There is a swimming hole on the Yellow Breeches at Boiling Springs. Just below the bridge, on the town side of the stream, there is a spot where folks have hung a rope for swinging out over and dropping into the stream. I have no idea how deep it is, just have seen kids there while fishing downstream.

The Boiling Springs swimming pool is nearby with water slides (and showers). It is open to the public (with a fee), but I doubt that is what you are looking for.

bullseye
07-06-2009, 16:48
I had read about Hertleim, but when I hiked through there a few years ago I don't recall seeing a trail to the lake. Does it come off the AT at the campsite?

Egads
07-06-2009, 19:14
Deja Vu

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?t=45630&highlight=swimming+holes

Sometimes best to use the search function first

Blissful
07-06-2009, 23:26
Dismal Creek Falls, VA
Good campsites too

bronconite
07-07-2009, 07:50
I had read about Hertleim, but when I hiked through there a few years ago I don't recall seeing a trail to the lake. Does it come off the AT at the campsite?

There are kind of a series of campsites right there. When you enter the main one, with the two tent platforms, go south a short distance downhill on the blue blazed trail. There is another campsite right at the dam breast.

emerald
07-07-2009, 12:27
Hertlein Campsite is named for J. Michael Hertlein, a BMECC member whose widow donated funds to construct a shelter at this location dedicated in 1930 which was removed in the early 1970s. The general area is more properly called Schubert's Gap.

What someone referred to as a lake is the remains of an early hydroelectric dam built just over 100 years ago by Blue Mountain Electric Company. It supplied electricity to at least Bethel and remained in business until acquired by Metropolitan Edison (Met Ed) in the late 1920s. Its president was Lloyd Showers another BMECC member better known for Showers' 500 Steps.

As club members have pointed out before, it's no place for horseplay, the "swimming hole" is quite cold and downhill of where everyone camps. There was a time I would lay on the dam breast and drink Indian-style from the impoundment. I now wonder about the wisdom of drinking from its source where it emerges from beneath the rock garden.

To my knowledge, Mill Creek has never run dry and were it to fail as a water source for hikers, there's always water in the impoundment.