Hike #1001; Newtown PA Loop

Hike #1001; Newtown PA Loop

1/5-1/6/17 Newtown and Neshaminy with Sean TheRed Reardon and Brittany Audrey

I realized along the way that my temporary assignment to Washington’s Crossing put me very close to Newtown PA. I have realized I had a lot of opportunities to do different night hikes, but hadn’t been considering the fact that Newtown, and therefore Tyler State Park, were so close.
I had done Tyler as part of a night hike once before, in 2009 with Wyatt Hassler and Commando Tom. Why I haven’t made it back to do any other trips since then I have no good excuse. It’s really a great area for it, and there’s been more I have wanted to explore.
I put together what looked to be a great loop hike. People tend to sign up for loop hikes more and I thought this would be a real winner, but only Brittany and Red Sean were really interested.

Neshaminy Bridge

I had put together a route that I really didn’t know how well it would work from the start. Starting at a strip mall on the south side of Newtown, on 532, we’d walk along Neshaminy Creek up stream.
Sean was running late, and would meet us further along, and so Brittany and I walked up the road to the road crossing of the creek, then cut into the woods along the Neshaminy to follow it up stream.
To my surprise, this tract of land is all owned by the Heritage Conservancy.
I was blown away that we could actually walk this. There was no undergrowth, and there were a lot of mountain biking trails passing through at first.

Big Beech tree

There were many giant trees, starting with an enormous Beech, then later some Sycamores and Poplar.
The slope along the Neshaminy was quite hike and provided a bit of a view toward Newtown. It was relatively close to the development to the south, but far enough away that we didn’t feel like we were in or near a neighborhood.
We continued along, and the trails got less and less obvious, probably because of inlets to the river. There was one spot where we came across some kids giant fort built on the slope above the river.

Kids' fort

There was no obvious way to get into the thing, but obviously a lot of work had gone into constructing it.
We had to descend a bit, and soon crossed over a small tributary. Because we had gotten so much rain recently, it was very muddy and slippery.
It was all worth it to go through because the features of the property were so great. We passed a nearly hollow old Sycamore, followed by a nice level area where we were able to walk right along the shore of the Neshaminy. We could see a person walking on the other side, so there must be some sort of land there too, though not sure if it’s public or not.
We got freaked out at one point because there was what appeared to be a dark figure standing along the bank of the creek. It turned out to be just a dead tree piece that had been burnt to a crisp into the shape resembling a human figure.

Brittany in a tree

We went up and down a couple of times from the side of the river to the slopes above. We had to cross at least three different small streams flowing in, which could be slick, but got through it. The last one we went by had a clearing on the other side leading right up to someone’s back yard, and the slope along the creek was far too steep to continue on, especially with it starting to get dark. We opted instead to climb up and make our way out behind some town houses. We followed a dry wash to the back yard of one of them, and then opted not to walk along the backs of the places. We took to the roads parallel with the creek.

Neshaminy

We came to St. Leonard’s Road, and turned right. We remained at the top of the slope, and found a nice little side trail to an overlook over the creek at a steeper place than any of them we had seen even yet.

Giant White Oak on the Neshaminy

The road started to descend a bit, and we continued to the right side of it to what appeared to be a power line clearing. When we got to the intersection with Rt 332, we thought we could walk behind the galvanized rail to follow it to the east, but it got rather tough. We cut back into the tree line ot the right, to the power line, which ended up actually being the earlier route of Rt 332. After a pile of debris, the paved former road was very obvious and easy to walk. It looked as though it had been abandoned for not so long.
In researching it, the road was rerouted between 1966 and 1973 at some time.

Old highway route.

We followed the old road down hill, and it took us out on the new road just a bit down hill. We kept to the right, and soon came to an historic farm house as well as an old barn which now appears to be used as a community theater.
I pointed out that there were abutments to the right, which would have been the predecessor to the modern bridge over the Neshaminy. I found out that this was the site of a covered bridge, but that it had burned down in the 1950s. We followed along where the edge of that bridge was, then descended to the side of the Neshaminy. A trail led from the historic mill, which was built in 1819, to the rest of Tyler State Park on the other side.

Spring Garden Mill Covered Bridge

We continued up stream along the Neshaminy from here. We stayed off of the main trails at first, along side the river because the paved or wide improved ones to the west would probably have rangers driving them or something.

1819 Spring garden Mill

It wasn’t long before we reached a more official trail, which we followed further along the shore of the Neshaminy. The trail took us to the very nice arc shaped dam across the creek.
We continued walking this trail up stream from here, which was quite lovely.
As we walked, and we approached the pedestrian causeway near the community college, I saw a light ahead. We stopped, and when I was sure I saw something we started backtracking. We were probably talking a bit too loud. I was ready to run off into the woods at this point. We got to an outlook along the river, and then could see the figure. It was a person with their flashlight out on the opposite side of the creek, and there was a white park truck just beyond.

Dam at Neshaminy Creek

I had thought the light was coming from our side of the creek, but it was the other. There was some sort of light moving just up the slope I think. This must have been a ranger that heard us when closing gates and such at the causeway, and just as I had thought the light was on the other side, he probably thought we were on his side.
We didn’t say a word, and moved back up the trail a little bit. When I cracked a stick or made too much noise, the light went out. We waited again for a little bit, then very quietly moved on up the trail a bit more. We got to where we could clearly see the park vehicle on the other side, with no lights on. We just tried to get out of there.
We soon joined the wider Wood Field Trail which continued up stream.
A wider road came in from the left, which was more unnerving, because anyone could just drive down it. When we reached the pedestrian causeway over the creek, we hurried across. It was surprising that so much debris was allowed to back up behind the causeway. It is causing quite an impoundment, and could likely break the thing or overflow. We got to the other side and then went left to the boat rental area, which was very nicely done.
Brittany heard the sound of a car lock beep, and so we hurried along, and entered a field area where I found a trail leading onto Bucks County Community College property. We followed this into the woods, and were definitely not in a vehicle accessible area any more. Red Sean arrived soon at the college, and we just had to get over to where he was.

Old pump

This was probably the toughest part of the hike. We were on a very narrow path along a steep slope down to the Neshaminy. It wasn’t slippery, but it was quite a drop. I remained conscious of it. We soon passed an old pump house building to the left. We checked out the inside to see that there was still an old rusty pump unit of some sort inside.
The trail seemed to disappear in a short while, but we found a path that went up hill a bit. The first time we got off of it there was a grassy field above, and we just descended to find it again. The second time there didn’t seem like anywhere else to go but up. There was an enormous rock outcropping, vertical. I tried going to the right of it but there was no good way up the steep slope of loose soil. We tried going to the left, and came to a nearly vertical but climbable face of rocks. I didn’t want to do that either, and started turning back to a better spot, but by that time Brittany had already started climbing the thing. Despite not wanting to do it because it looked crazy, I followed her up. Fortunately we did not slip and made it to the top just fine.
A path went around the buildings when we got to the top. It was well worn like people had climbed some of this before. They even had a barricade where we emerged.

Brittany slid into the woods on her roll

We kept to the left along the top of the slope and soon emerged from the woods into the parking area.
Sean was there, flashed a light a couple times, and said “hey!”. We freaked out again thinking it was security, because he spoke with such authority.
We walked together across more fields, which looked welcoming enough to roll down.
Brittany took the first roll, which ended up with her going off into the woods. Sean didn’t get as much speed, but made it further down the hill. I wasn’t even into trying this at the moment because I didn’t want to feel sick or bust anything in my backpack.

Hill roll

We walked around the perimeters of the ball fields at the college to see if there were any good paths to continue along the Neshaminy but found nothing. We opted to head out to be a deplorable walking route.
There was no shoulder whatsoever, and along the way there were two bridges over small creeks that had to be crossed. We hurried over one, but the other we had to climb down and rock hop the stream to get over. We passed one house along the road, and dodged several cars coming straight at us, then cut into fields to the left when we were again parallel with Tyler State Park lands.
The field perimeter was for the most part very nice, and part of it was even official trail. When we came close to the creek, we tried to cut into the woods to it, but the path we found seemed too overgrown to be trying in the dark.
At the top of a hill, we looked back and could see the lights from the community college parking lot brightly. It seemed amazing we’d come so far already.

Schofield Ford Bridge

We emerged in a parking lot where there was a map, and then turned to the left on a trail down some steps. Pretty soon we reached the Schofield Ford Covered Bridge.
This bridge was constructed in 1997 (the same year I started the hikes), to the specifications of the original Schofield Ford Bridge, built in 1873 and destroyed by fire in 1991. It is called a Town Truss bridge (most are usually burr arch), and the only difference to the original is that this one had added two windows at the center. We passed through the bridge and turned to the right onto the creek side trail to the north.

Schofield Ford Covered Bridge

The trail along the creek was very easy and nice. It continued to the northern end of the park, then cut to the left along some fields. It entered the woods again, then emerged from them at the western end of another field.

Schofield Ford Bridge

We continued at field edge for a while, and soon came to another trail, paved. We turned right on it for a while until I realized we were at the parks maintenance area. This was the White Pine Trail. I’m not exactly sure which trails we ended up on from there, so I just followed the phone GPS which took us to the east on what must have been Dairy Hill Trail. We descended through fields and eventually to the side of the Neshaminy Creek again. We continued on the wide trail, actually an old road, and we accidentally remained on it when I wanted to stay on the river. We backtracked and turned onto a footpath following the Neshaminy down stream.
We could see the college lights across the river, with the buildigns on the slopes, and we spotted the little pump house building as well. We took a brief break at one point where the lights from someone’s house, a live in caretaker, shone slightly through trees. A dog started barking like crazy with us there, so we figured we’d best get moving on down the trail.
We didn’t take too long before we got to where Mill Dairy Trail, a drivable road, came in on the right. This was an unnerving area because anyone could come up on us at any time. There was a steep slope on the other side of the road, and the creek to the left. We hurried to the causeway bridge we’d reached before, crossed again, and then this time turned to the right on the other side, on Tyler Drive Trail.
The trail was another wide road. Brittany noticed the saw chips where trees had recently been cleared, probably earlier in the day. As we walked, she soon saw that the white truck was still there just ahead, parked across the trail. We paused for a bit, but then realized no one was there. It had been parked as part of a blockade. The trail was closed due to the tree work going on.
We passed the truck and blockades, then continued down stream along Tyler Drive Trail until it turned away from the creek to the left. We continued gradually up hill here, and came to a restroom building to the left. I figured for sure it would be closed for the season, but we went to check anyway. The women’s room was locked, but the men’s was open! We went in and warmed up a little bit.
From here, we took Quarry Trail, another wide trail up hill to the east. We emerged in a parking ara, but then I saw on the aerial images that a path continued. We continued across the main park road onto Green Lane Trail, talking the whole time about our favorite songs.
The trail took us out to the access road to Council Rock High School, and we passed beneath the Newtown Bypass. At the Council Rock High School lot, we skirted it to the south, and followed the grassy swath heading to the east. Plow trucks were driving through salting. It was supposed to snow bad in a short while. We exited the area into an area behind the Village at Newtown shopping center.
We continued through parking lots and realized there was a Wendy’s there, so we just had to stop. I was getting kind of hungry, and it was probably smart to eat something.

Red Sean at the La Stalla

I felt pretty good with my two Jr. Cheeseburger Deluxe, but I also ended up eating a chicken nugget and some of Brittany’s fries. Felt a bit stuffed.
We left and made our way east across Edge Road, and then saw a bar, I think it was La Stalla. We decided to go on in.
Brittany got us a round of tequila shots, then I got us Four Horsemen shots, and Sean got us Yager. He didn’t care to drink on this one because he had told his girlfriend he wouldn’t. That doesn’t keep him from acting silly in the least bit.
Lerch had introduced me to the Four Horsemen shots on the hike on the Morris Canal where he broke his leg, and I found it to be quite smooth. The lady bartending this place did a good job as well.

Red Sean taking pics

We were soon ready to go, and we started walking to the south some more.
While we were inside, it had started snowing and already accumulation had covered the ground. The snow was coming down pretty well, and it was quite beautiful under the ambient light of the street lamps.
My plan had been to do a full loop, but since Sean’s car was further to the north, that actually added a little bit of distance, but would be simpler to get back. In retrospect, it’s a very good thing we did it this way.
We turned around and made our way back past Council Rock High School, then onto the Green Lane Trail. We somehow went a slightly different way to the west to get to Tyler Drive Trail, but still ended up at the same restroom we were at earlier. We used it one more time before moving on.
We followed Tyler Drive Trail to the north, back along the Neshaminy Creek to the causeway area.

Sean The Red

Once at the causeway, we continued to the boat rental area again, and checked out the really awesome fire pit thing that’s underneath it. We then left the building and headed slightly up hill toward the community college.
We came to a wide open field area, and crossed it directly to reach a parking area behind the rear of the college building.
We turned left on the road behind the place, and Sean put a cone on as a hat to pose with for silly photos. Just then, a security truck came up on us and told us the college was closed. I told him we were just taking funny pictures, and that we’d go. He was pretty nice, and we had no further problem.

We made our way a bit further to a walkway underpass below part of a building. We cut through to another sort of court yard area, then went to the left to exit the building area.
We were soon back in the main parking area and only had to walk a bit further before reaching Sean’s car, Sanguinius.
We piled in, and headed out to the exit of the college, and found that the gates had been locked on us!
It was a good thing we went to Sean’s car rather than mine and Brittany’s, because we wouldn’t have been able to drive in to get Sean to the car. Sean on the other hand, has four wheel drive, and was able to easily drive up onto the hill on the one side and go around the gate!

Cone Sean

The roads were getting really bad. My car slid really bad trying to get out of the parking area. I had to take my car to be repaired for the next day, so I had to drop it off at the end of the night. Thankfully, Sean was good enough to follow me to Washington, drop my car off, and then leave me off at home.
This ended up being another epic great time, a surreal experience in the snow and in a park using trails that were almost completely unfamiliar to me.