Hike #1114; Newtown Area Neshaminy

Hike #1114; Newtown Area Neshaminy

3/17/18 Newtown Area Neshaminy with Justin Gurbisz, Ellie Zabeth, Stephen Argentina, Craig Craig, Shane Blische, Megan Itell, Jason Itell, David Goldberg, Jas Kumpikevicius, and Laura Nycum

Our next hike would be the fourth in our series to hike the entire Neshaminy Creek. This one would pick up where we left off on the previous one that went so great, and try to trace it as best we could, along with tributaries, to the north and familiar ground at Tyler State Park.

Starting off...

The series is intended to bring us closer to Philadelphia for our friends more local to there during times when we don’t have any other hikes in that area. I’d fallen back in love with the Neshaminy lately, after having hiked much of it several years ago, and this series was going great.
This time, I decided to make our meeting and end point Helen Randle Park, another of those little ball field parks I’d probably never use for anything else at any time. It was awesome when I got there to see my old friend Jason Kumpas, whom I’d not seen in a couple of years probably. Further Jason and Megan Itelll were out, so it kind of felt like old times a bit, even though Jason and Megan still show up not un-often.

Entering Core Creek park

From the park, my plan was to shuttle everyone to the south, to the St. Mary Medical Center where we could begin the hike. The paved trail system from Core Creek Park, along a tributary of the Neshaminy, joins with the property of the medical center making it an obvious choice.
We cut from the parking lot on the west side of the hospital across a retention pond on the other side of the access road, then picked up a paved pathway on the other side. This took us directly into the Core Creek Park, which is a Bucks County Park.

Lake Luxembourg

It’s actually a pretty huge park, where on maps it really doesn’t look like it has much to see in it. Jason K was particularly impressed with how much was there.

Core Creek Park

We headed from the paved path, which went at an angle as I recall, and cut more directly toward another paved trail that ran a bit closer to the edge of the lake.
The trail took us over near a boating complex area and continued northward along the shore of the lake.
The area of Core Creek has a rich history, like most of the area around surrounding Bucks County. Of course, it dates back to William Penn.
The first 1000 acres of property was purchased from Penn by Thomas Croasdale in 1682.

Lovely Core Creek Park

The property remained in the Croasdale family until Thomas Croasdale’s grandson fell upon financial problems and was forced to sell it in 1733 to John Watson.

Weird tree in Core Creek Park

Another portion of the land was purchased by Thomas Jenks in 1731. Jenks was a prominent figure in the Langhorne PA area, and was responsible for the construction of many area buildings.
One such prominent place was a fulling mill on what is now the east side of the park. Locals would bring their sheep’s wool to this mill to be processed. The road on the east side of the park still bears the name “Fulling Mill Road”. Even General George Washington ordered cloth here during the Revolution.

Tributary of Core Creek

The mill was raided by British soldiers who commandeered Washington’s ordered cloth.
This was not the end of significant history for the Core Creek properties. The fertile lands and wide flood plains caught the eye of royalty during the second World War.
Luxembourg was occupied by Nazi Germany in 1941, and so Charlotte and Felix Clervaux, the prior being the Grand Dutchess of Luxembourg, purchased 247 acres of former John Watson’s acquisition to be used as their private royal farm.

Lake Luxembourg

They purchased fifty more acres in 1943.
The Dutchess lived on site and tried to preserve morale back home from safety afar. She moved back home in 1945 after the Nazi occupation ended, and remained the Monarch until 1964. Prior to her death at age 89, she sold the Bucks County property which was then acquired by Bucks County government. The Core Creek was dammed in 1975 as part of an effort to curb flooding on the Neshaminy Creek down stream. It was named Lake Luxembourg in honor of the Dutchess.

Lake Luxembourg

We continued walking around the edge of the lake on the paved trail beyond the boat area. There was a really pretty section along a wood line that had a little pavilion.

Lake Luxembourg

We walked through the pavilion thing, and then checked out an interestingly growing tree that could be stood on.
We continued around the wood line, and little paths led off into the woods. We’d just had some major storms, but it looked like not too many blow downs were still around. A few branches here and there.
We continued on to a restroom area that was open, so we took a little break. I went in and sang “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter”, which was a 1935 Fats Waller song. When everyone was out, we walked on through some sparse woods to Tollgate Road.

Woodbourne Road crossing

We turned right and walked along Tollgate Road. I was hoping that we’d be able to get closer to the edge of the lake, but surprisingly no one, not even the mountain bikers who are very active at Core Creek, have cleared anything around the perimeter.
We followed this road out to Fulling Mill Road, which probably used to continue into the area now inundated by water, and the mill site I would say is likely under water. There was a house straight ahead where we went left on Fulling Mill, and I think the driveway was the old road.

An old road trace and knocked flat grasses from snow

I was hoping we’d get to the perimeter of the lake here too, but that wasn’t going to happen.
Down under the water level, there was once a complex of buildings and a bridge over the Core Creek. I assume the fulling mill must have been there.
We turned left and headed north of Fulling Mill Road for a short distance, then turned to the right on Ellis Road. We passed by fields and then a few residences heading east, but still couldn’t get right along the shore of the lake until we got close to the intersection with Woodbourne.

Knocked down grass from snow

Woodbourne Road now crosses over the finger of Lake Luxembourg, but the road used to go just down from it to cross shortly to the west of where it crosses now. There was a little side path to the edge of the reservoir we checked out which must have been the earlier road route.
We took in the view of the lake, and then climbed steeply up to the edge of the road to cross. Once on the other side, I watched for where we could possibly follow a path along the shore of the lake.

Lake Luxembourg

I made my way down to the edge of the lake, an then had to head in land slightly because it was too wet, then too weedy. I waited for the rest of the group to try to catch up and Craig gve me a special drink he’d brought for me to try.
After a while of waiting, the others were not catching up. Jason K went back to see what was going on. It turned out, they got to the shore and just started following that rather than follow me in land. We would have to try to catch up a little further ahead at the next clearing.
We walked through some woods parallel with Woodbourne, where there was an historic house on the slope opposite. The grasses were well knocked down in the woods from snow.

Giant tree along Lake Luxembourg

It almost looked like an old style of hay gathering I thought, the way the grasses were bundled up and such from the weight of the snow.
We headed through more woods and eventually came out to a clearing where model airplanes are flown. The rest of the group emerged from the woods to the right of us, and we were able to continue on. We crossed over the little air strip area and then entered some more woods. We crossed over a little tributary, then reached one of the regular trails of the park.

Trail in Core Creek park

We could tell about where we needed to be because a mountain biker was coming by as we entered the woods. When we got to the path, we started following it to the right, which took us somewhat closer to the edge of the lake.
None of this trail system could be found on the official park map, which is pretty crazy. There’s really a very substantial amount of trails passing through these woods. We headed south a bit to the area near the soccer fields and such where we had turned away from the park on the previous Neshaminy hike.

Core Creek Park

There were a few trees down over this section of the park, but at first they were pretty easy to get around. There were also some beautiful, giant ones along the trail closer to the waterfront. We continued around the active recreation area and then reached where the trail goes down and over a nice puncheon at an inlet.
We turned right at the other side, and soon reached where we had intersected with this trail on the previous hike. At that point, we continued along the shore of Lake Luxembourg more closely heading to the west.

Blow downs

We had gone across fields the previous time when I discovered that this section of trails existed.
This time, we headed through another section of woods, which was nice and easy. We got off of the “official” trail at some points because there were better but narrower ones that took us closer to the edge of the lake.
When we got to where there was another tributary coming in, the trail again went down to cross another puncheon. This time it was quite a bit more difficult though.
A tree had fallen over the trail, and the entire crown was covering the puncheon. We had to climb through the stuff like a jungle gym to get on through, but we managed.
We continued on along the shore of the lake, and the trails became more prominently used as we got closer to more parking areas.
We soon reached a lovely little dock out onto the water where we took a break to enjoy the view. I decided it was a pretty good spot for us to get our group shot, so everyone got out on the middle of the dock for the good back drop.

Lake Luxembourg

We headed away from the first dock to the west, and soon came to a second one, which offered us another view of Lake Luxembourg, this time closer to the dam.

Dock

We soon reached the Dutchess Lane parking area, named again for the Dutchess of Luxembourg, and took another break where there was a restroom.
We hung around and played on the playgrounds there a bit, but then had to keep moving to the southwest. We headed toward the main dam area, and then could see the trail heading off into the woods to the left. We started following that and passed through woods to reach Park Road.

Dock

We cut across the street and onto the trail we had been on along the previous Neshaminy hike and turned to the right, heading west.
We continued on and crossed over a closed park access road to continue following the Core Creek. The dam was somewhat visible along Park Road to the right, and we descended rather steeply on the other side.
There was certainly at one time a dam in the area before, but not certain where it was. There’d have to have been because of the mill and raceway reaching it along the section.

Dock and dam

There was once a dam and small pond in the middle of the present lake for the fulling mill as well, and there may have been other erased by the present Lake Luxembourg.
On the previous hike, we had taken one of two trails that go west, the upper one. That trail follows mostly on the old mill race that powered the mill at Bridgetown. I noted this trip that there also seemed to possibly be a lower raceway.

ECKECKECKECK

The trail on this west side of the park forms a loop, with the upper one following the raceway to Bridgetown Mill, and the lower one remaining closer to Core Creek itself. I chose to follow the latter because we’d not done that part before.
We headed down hill and started following the route along the creek, which was quite pretty, but also muddy from all of the melt off we’d been having. The creek was flowing well.

Goofing off

We weaved back and forth along the creek. Much of the time we were directly beside it, but other times it would had back up hill onto presumably another raceway, and then go back down hill again. Mountain bikers made these trails, which always tend to be very circuitous. I stayed up front, but of course many of the others in the group that had been behind used the opportunity to cut corners and catch up a bit faster. We continued past some really interestingly growing giant old trees while following this section.

Trail at Core Creek

Eventually, when we could hear the sounds of cars, the trail started to go up hill on it’s return loop. We headed up hill and joined the mill race to Bridgetown again, and turned to the left briefly until there was the opportunity for us to cut back out to Bridgetown Pike to the south. I had to cut over a pile of slash wood and such to get to the road, and we turned to the right to follow it east, to the intersection with Route 413.

Weird tree along Core Creek

Some of the history, including the marker along the highway there, attributed the construction of the mill to the mid 1800s, but most history sources mention more.

Mill race remnant?

There was evidence of stone work that was probably a bit newer along the lower raceway we’d seen along the Core Creek, but some of them would have to have dated back further, because the original Bridgetown Mill was said to have been constructed in 1704.
The mill was built by Jonas Preston at the confluence of the Neshaminy Creek and Core Creek.
In 1777 Joseph Jenks purchased The Bridgetown Mill. Joseph Jenks was a prominent family of Quakers in Bucks County. They traced their decent from Thomas Jenks (1699-1797).

Core Creek

Jenks was born in England and traveled with his parents to Pennsylvania in 1700. In 1731 he married and in 1734 established his 818-acre homestead in Middletown Township.

Tiers of raceways?

The senior Jenks was the same who established the fulling mill, only about a mile and a half up stream from the Bridgetown (Preston) mill.
Thomas Jenks became a political leader, and served on Colonial Assembly, Constitutional Convention, and the State Senate.
Joseph Jenks, his son, operated the Bridgetown Mill as well as his father’s fulling mill during the late 1700s and early 1800s. In turn, his son William Jenks took over the family business and also farmed the adjacent fifty one acres.

Lower raceway

The beautiful miller’s house on the same property as the historic mill, which stands in ruins with no roof today, was built in 1791 by Joseph Jenks and presented to his son William and wife Mary. It was referred to as the Bridgetown Mill House.
Bridgetown Mill and house were bequeathed by William to his son, also named Joseph, who continued to operate and became quite wealthy as a merchant miller. The mill remained in the Jenks family until 1847 when it was sold to Samual Comfort, who operated it.

Core Creek

The mill and properties were sold yet again in 1876, this time to Benjamin Woodman.
The mill continued to operate until 1939.
The property and buildings remained in the Woodman family until 1953.
The old mill was used for storage and such, and still had a roof on it until at least the 1980s, but at some point was collapsed and/or removed. The property was again sold in 1995 with the mill and mill house, the last eight or so acres of the original 818 acre tract.

Core Creek

The Bridgetown Mill House opened up as an Inn in 1998, and a full kitchen restaurant service opened making it a true inn in 2003.

Old colonial

We approached the intersection, and on the left side was a beautiful old stone house, which had obviously had additions put on it at least four different times. I can find very little mentioned about this house at all. I would imagine it was probably the original miller’s house associated with Bridgetown Mill. I’ve tried looking into this building, but could find nothing on it at all other than the statement that it is a colonial homestead. I would assume it was probably a Jenks residence, but I can’t be sure. It doesn’t even specify if it’s part of the tract that has the mill and mill house, or if it’s on Bucks County property.

Old Bridgetown bridge

We walked across the road and onto the property adjacent to the old Bridgetown Mill. We then continued ahead to check out the old Bridgetown Bridge.

Historic Bridgetown Mill

The old bridge is a double span Pony Truss built in 1907 across the Neshaminy Creek. A new bridge was built adjacent to it to carry the traffic of Bridgetown Pike.

Trail by Bridgetown Mill

There was a little path leading to the left from the bridge, kind of grown over with moss and such, along the back of the property of the Bridgetown Mill House. I figured we would cut across this, because the route I planned to take was to go south on Route 413. This nice little trail led us right along the shores of the Neshaminy Creek, which was perfect.
We followed the path as far as we could and then head to head back out to Route 413.

Old house across the Neshaminy

On the previous hike, we followed trails along the Neshaminy from Playwicki Park to the former Pennsylvania Railroad bed, and then followed it shortly to 413 to Bridgetown. This time, I wanted to cover some of the same area, but a bit of different ground we didn’t do the last time. My plan was to walk the abandoned lower grade of the Pennsylvania Railroad west to Playwicki, and then take on a different route to the north. We followed 413 south for a bit, and then reached the two Pennsylvania Railroad overpasses.

Neshaminy

The two parallel rail lines were both Pennsylvania Railroad, part of the Trenton Cutoff.
This was part of a 48 mile line constructed by PRR and opened in 1892.
It’s purpose was to get freight to New York City and bypass Philadelphia, instead keeping to the suburbs.
The southernmost of the two bridges is still active Norfolk Southern operated tracks, and the northern one is the original 1890s route, which is now abandoned, but still very nice and clear.

Tree along Core Creek

The southern line was built about 1904 and had a better grade for faster service. Apparently freight could use one and go slower while the speedier trains could avoid any sluggish trains on the lower one when both were in operation. The newer one was built mostly because the heavy trains would slow so much on the dip to cross the Neshaminy. The older viaduct closer to Playwicki Park required a loss of elevation, and the newer structure allowed for faster service. A furnace somewhere along the way brought about heavier business.

Fallen tree on Core Creek

We made our way between the two bridges carrying the lines over top of 413 on an access road to the southern grade. We climbed up the slope to the right ot the rail grade, and then took a nice little break.
Once we stopped at the top, we gave Shane some time to go into his historic dissertation on the Pennsylvania Railroad and this line’s relation to the Atglen and Susquehanna Branch to the west (Enola Low Grade Line), Downingtown high line, and more.
While we were sitting, an older gent walked by us on the grade heading west.

Core Creek

Shane watched cautiously and brought up that the guy was walking by. I didn’t see any threat from him, but a nearby property had signs warning there were cameras and such.
We started walking down the grade heading to the west, and gained upon the main slowly but surely. I’m not sure he knew we were there until we were right up behind him closely. I said hello to him and for some reason felt anxious to strike up confersation with him. I didn’t know he’d have as much information as he did.

Along the Pennsy

When I struck up the conversation, Shane was getting far behind, either having conversation with Justin, or running frantically down hills to take pictures of all of the historic culvert structures, only to catch up and fall behind again trying to document them.
In speaking to the main, I found that he was a former engineer for this very railroad! He started working for the Penn-Central, which was a merger between Pennsylvania Railroad and New York Central, in I think he said 1971.

Along the Pennsy

He said he went on from Penn-Central and operated I think Amtrack or something for passenger for about a year, and then worked for Conrail, followed by CSX, and had retired I think he said in 2013 or 14.
He said he not only worked this line, he worked a lot of former Pennsylvania Railroad sections all the way west to the Susquehanna, including the Enola Low Grade line I had just hiked with Jillane not too long before this.

Former Pennsylvania RR

Shane had mentioned something about the year this particular bit of track had been removed, and the man confirmed that they were actually removed much more recently than we had thought, although I cannot remember the year he said.
I think he told us that his name was Jack or something. I should have written this down earlier to have it right. What he had to tell us only got more interesting as we walked with him.

Old signal thingy

He said he was I think fourth generation working in railroads. Shocked, I asked him who his earliest relative was working for. He said “The Camden and Amboy”. That’s pretty much the first one! The Camden and Amboy was the first regular civilian passenger service railroad, if you don’t count the informal usage of the coal company railroads in Pennsylvania. The John Bull, the locomotive that operated on it, remains to this day the oldest self propelled vehicle in the world. Eventually C&A became part of Pennsylvania RR.

The Pennsy

The main went on to say that he has two daughters, and that they are now both engineers themselves, although not in the same way. One of them is now an engineer I believe with NASA, and the other is something else of academically challenging criteria I can’t remember. I said he needed to get them behind the wheels of a train to keep that family history going, and then Stephen said something about “spreading your seed to space”, to which everyone looked awkwardly at him for his even more awkward comment.

Old rail underpass

I think Jason K. slapped him or something.
We paused at a bridge underpass, and the man told us about the regular road that used to pass beneath it into what is now Playwicki Park. He said the road went beneath the original line, and over top of the newer one on a bridge. I can’t remember what the name of the road was. Shane went down to take photos of the culvert, and while we stood there, asked the main if by any chance he had worked on the Bel Del, or Belvidere and Delaware Railroad, which became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system rather early on, and is Shane’s favorite line.

On Neshaminy Viaduct

I called Shane to come back up to the rail bed because he was going to want to hear about this.
The man told us that he was approved to go up to Riegelsville or something I think it was, and that he'd gone up to Flemington maybe once, where Shane now works on Black River and Western Railroad. He mentioned that it was a fun type of trip to take because they'd park the engine overnight and they'd get off and drink and such.

1904 new Neshaminy viaduct

We stood and talked to the man for quite a long time from this point, because there was so much good information. What an amazing coincidence to have found him.

Neshaminy Creek from the viaduct

Fortunately, most in the group were really patient, and even if they weren't paying attention, appreciated that this was a great opportunity to learn something from someone who knew something intimately from a bygone era.
The man lived nearby, and was walking to a friend’s house. He said he walked that right of way relatively often, but we caught him at a very fortunate time that was out of the ordinary.
Shane adds his historic dissertation to our journal here:

Photo by Shane

The Trenton Cutoff was built as a bypass freight line to alleviate congestion on the Northeast Corridor and Keystone line to Harrisburg between 1890 and 1892.
The original three mile alignment near Langhorn had higher gradients, and with rising steel shipments to steel mills in Morrisville, Conshohoken and Phoenixville, a new alignment was built beside the 1892 alignment in 1914.
The new alingment was later electrified in the 1930s for GG1, E44 and E33 locomotives to operate on the line hauling long distance freight trains.
The original alignment was kept as a secondary route for lower priority freight trains.
Together, with the Philadelphia and Thorndale line and the Atglen & Susquehanna line (the Enola Low Grade), these three lines formed the super bypass freight line between Morrisville and Harrisburg, P.A.

Historic photo

Trenton Cutoff scene from Dave Hopson Collection

Historic photo

PRR fantrip on the Trenton Cutoff running between New York City and Harrisburg, 1957 Ed Kapriske photo

Historic photo

Trenton Cutoff scene from the Dave Hopson Collection

Photo by Shane

Following Conrail's launch in 1976, the older Trenton Cutoff alignment met the chopping block and was soon abandoned with track removed by 1980. The newer Trenton Cutoff alignment was de-electrified in 1982 and single tracked in 1992. Norfolk Southern is the owner-operator of the Trenton Cutoff today and runs a few long trains on the line per day. While hiking the old alignment we met a former Penn Central engineer named Jacob who lives in Langhorn.
He told us the history of the line and what it was like running trains on the Trenton Cutoff, Philadelphia & Thorndale and Atglen & Susquehanna. He even ran trains on the Belvidere Division!!!

Our group atop the old road underpass, photo by Shane

Neshaminy Viaduct

We said goodbye to the guy because we really did have to keep going. We then crossed over the old Neshaminy Viaduct from the 1890s. We could see north into Playwicky Park, and to the south we could see the later 1904 Pennsylvania Railroad viaduct pretty clearly. We continued across the bridge and made our way toward the overpass for the Bridgetown Pike. This was the same road we used earlier, much further along.

Pennsy RR

My plan at this point must have confused some. We were heading parallel with the downstream Neshaminy back in the direction we had come on the previous hike.
The next good access I had to the west bank of the Neshaminy was accessed furhter up through the developments, and I didn't much care for the boring road walk along the Bridgetown Pike, and the Neshaminy Viaduct on the Pennsylvania Railroad is always worth doing again.

Mill Creek

We could backtrack, save some of the road walk, and cut off a section of the Neshaminy that had no access to it through the developments to the north, and then have a better hiking route with a more minimal road walk as I saw it. Of course, I'd never walked any of this section of the creek anyway, so it was all speculative.
We climbed down a path from the railroad bed to Langhorne Ave where it intersects the Bridgetown Pike. I'd come down this way on a hike once before, in October 2007.

Along the road

We headed north/east on Bridgetown Pike and crossed the Mill Creek. To the left, a non profit land along the Mill Creek leads further into Holland. I'd hiked this on hikes both in aforementioned 2007 as well as late Summer 2009. We had some nice views of the tributary as we passed by, and we continued walking Bridgetown Pike east.
The road was narrow and not really good for walking. A little park area to the right provided enough room for us to get over on the grass for a bit. It looked like a closed little resort or camp area. We then crossed over the Pine Run, another tributary of the Neshaminy.

Mirror shot

The section ahead was again very narrow and bad for navigating by foot. I wouldn't try to do this section again. It was definitely the worst section of the entire hike. Still, we managed to get up hill on that bit, and it didn't get better until we reached the property of the Breezy Point Day School. There was a wider area making for easier walking along side the road there. There were workers out in the yard of the place taking care of a giant White Pine that had fallen on the property in the recent storms. We continued a bit further on street.

Mirror fun

We continued up the road a bit more from here. My next plan was an open area I'd seen on aerials that would take us up into a development rather than road walking the entire time.
It workedo out pretty well. We turned to the left through the open grassy area which turned out to be a sort of nameless park, leading from Bridgetown Pike to Watergrate Drive. We walked at an angle east northeast, and reached Watergate Drive.

Connection up from Bridgetown Pike

We turned left on East Ridge Circle heading north, then turned right on Pepperell Drive. This took us to East Holland Road, where we continued straight across on Stallion Circle.
We avoided the main roads this way, but otherwise the road walking was boring. We turned the next left onto Spruce Street, and then the next left on Hemlock Drive out to Stoneyford Road. Across here, we had a nice trail or path alongside following it.

Stream tributary

One other development path left the road and headed off into another development, but we continued on Stoneyford. This took us past the Langhorne Rod and Gun Club property. I thought we might be able to use some of that to get closer to the Neshaminy, but I could hear the guns blaring away. We'd stay away from that place.
Although there was a good sidewalk, there was an undeveloped field to the left, which had a line of trees and skirted a retention pond, so we walked that to cut a corner and break up the road walking on Stoneyford Road. By the time we came off of that, we were just about to the entrance to a small park with ball fields on the right.

Trail on the Neshaminy

We entered the park area and skirted all of the ball fields to the right, heading east directly toward the Neshaminy. There was a small creek to the right of us that blocked access to the gun club property, but we weren't going to go back down stream anyway.
Some sparse young woods were at the ends of the ball fields, and there was a nice trail entering at the end. It led right to the edge of the Neshaminy, and then turned to the north following it up stream. It was exactly what I was looking for. Trees were larger directly along the water.

Big tree along the Neshaminy

I was concerned that the trail would end as soon as we got ot the end of the park. We passed some nice big trees, and could see to the left as we passed edges of the park, but we soon came to the end of it. The trail fortunately continued for a bit more, and more intimately hugged the edge of the Neshaminy with some quite lovely views. The development on the far side, Pennswood Village, was far enough en that we could barely even see the homes.

Trail along the Neshaminy

There did appear to be trail on the other side much of the way, and I had explored some of this on my hike in 2009, but I wasn't sure how far they'd go. This will probably be one of the subjects of another future Neshaminy hike.

Neshaminy

After a little while, the trail along the creek petered out a bit. Fortunately, the woods were so sparse, and the deer overbrowse is probably so high (maybe due to flooding as well), there were not a lot of weeds to fight through. We simply rambled through the woods somewhat close to the Neshaminy heading up stream for a bit.
There were a lot of weirdly growing trees and little pools we were able to observe heading up stream. It really started me wondering, when combined with areas down stream, there should absolutely be a trail along the edge of the Neshaminy. These areas were absolutely beautiful.
We had no problem following these woods all the way to where the former Newtown Branch of the Reading Railroad passed over the Neshaminy.

Navigable woods

We decided to take a break in that area, and Shane would give us another historic dissertation.
I'd been following the old Newtown Branch for years now at this point. I'd first reached this trestle site on the hike in 2009, where Wyatt Hassler and I crossed it, and then climbed down to go for a swim in the creek below. The creek was deep enough at the center pier, which could be climbed a bit, so that we could safely jump off into the water. Soon after that hike, the trestle was blocked off from people walking it, where it goes into the George School property to the north and development to the south.

Newtown trestle in 2009

The Newtown Branch was particularly controversial, because it should never have been removed.

Kissing trees

The branch is still active within Philadelphia city limits, but as soon as it enters Montgomery County, it is abandoned and the tracks removed in favor of a trail, all the way to the Bucks County line. This was particularly ridiculous because almost the entire distance has a parallel greenway along the Pennypack Creek that in most cases already had trails. The rail trail here was not needed. It was a waste of a good resource.

Sycamore on Neshaminy

Bucks County chose not to build the trail, and recognized the potential in the railroad. A town with the size and popularity of Newtown could absolutely benefit from direct rail connection to Philadelphia, and it's unbelievable that Montgomery County let it go. It was a weird political deal where the rich land owners didn't want the trains going near their homes we suspect.
Just last year, I organized a hike on the section of the Newtown Branch that I hadn't walked in Montgomery and southern Bucks Counties.

Neshaminy

I must say that the trail, as far as rail trails go, was surprisingly well used, but that can't justify it's removal as a railroad. When we hiked it, the last of the rails to the county line were being prepped for removal, and by now are totally gone. All of them in Bucks county are still in place.
We reached the base of the trestle and had a seat facing the creek for a break, and Shane started going into the history, and how it was originally intended as part of the effort to block the National Railroad system.

Shane's dissertation

Shane’s historic dissertation: The Newtown Branch started as the Philadelphia Newtown & New York Railroad with the concept of building a railroad to New York City.

Photo by Shane

The line began construction in 1873 and was soon leased by PRR to stymie construction of North Penn and Delaware & Bound Brook Railroads' National Railway project. PRR had the idea of linking the line with the Mercer & Somerset Railroad in New Jersey, but after the Great Frog War of 1876, the plan fell apart.
The Newtown Branch opened in 1878, and by 1879, the line was under the ownership of the North Penn Railroad, which in turn was leased by the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad.

Neshaminy trestle

The Philadelphia Newtown & New York Railroad remained as a paper railroad until 1945 when its corporate entity was officially absorbed into Reading Company. By the 1970s, RDG was in financial difficulty and soon was sucked into Conrail.
Freight on the Newtown Branch shriveled up during this time. Passenger service was firstly operated by Conrail, then relinquished to SEPTA which operated service to Newtown until January 1983. Nothing has crossed this bridge since.

Justin wandered off at some point to look for a way onto the bridge, but it's pretty tough to get up there with how well they have it blocked.

Neshaminy trestle

The bridge was once much lower, and we could see how it was heightened from original level with concrete capping the tops of the original masonry piers.
It was a good break at the trestle site, and some good history, and we were soon ready to go. A trail led under the trestle just a little further back and closer to the road. I had high hopes that this next section would be very easy to walk. There was a trail coming down to the trestle, and even a trash bin, from the Village Shires community to the west.

Neshaminy trestle

With apartment buildings and a sort of common open space area along the creek, it seemed obvious that there'd be a good path. At first, it wasn’t too bad.

The trestle through the weeds

As we moved further along, there were a few blow downs. The trail was obvious at first, but then started to disappear or break into different branches that disappeared. We tried to follow the one that looked to be most obvious, but even that was no good. We had only little room between the creek and the development for walking, and it was slow going trying to get through the underbrush. The slope along the creek was such that we couldn't get too close or we'd fall over the side.

Neshaminy view

It got to the point where I found myself crawling on my hands and knees to get through the mess. This stretch from the railroad trestle to Route 532, Buck Road, was one of the shortest stretches, but as I recall it, it was maybe the longest of the entire hike.
As we moved along, we eventually came to a clear access trail from the development to the creek, where there was a pretty good view. We regrouped here and were able to move on a bit easier. The trail only went to the backs of the homes, and there was only a tiny one our way.

Approaching Buck Road

At least at this point, we could see the bridge at the next crossing and start heading toward it.
We were much closer to the apartment buildings in the final stretch, so sometimes we were sort of uncomfortably close to them, but we managed to get by without much trouble to Buck Road.
As we neared the present bridge for Buck Road, I was surprised to come across the remains of a preveious bridge at the same spot. The edges of the abutments to the old bridge were in view as we approached.

Neshaminy view

I was shocked to even see pavement in place when we stopped up to the former west end.
I don't know a lot about the previous bridge to grace this site. It might have been a covered bridge, it might have been an old truss or something. Nothing I could find would show exactly what it was for sure. I know there were other covered bridges in the area that don't survive today. Regardless, we turned left on the old road route, which parallels the current route, out to the current Buck Road.

The bridge in place on Buck Road today is by no means in good shape. Official government assessment was that it was in "fair" condition. The concrete on top of the arch structure is deteriorating pretty badly. One assesment says it would take only $5000 to repair the bridge, which seems surprising based on what I know about these things.
The current bridge was built to replace it's predecessor in 1932. That's the limit to the information I have on it. There was no obvious abutment to the previous bridge on the northeast side.

Former bridge site

We crossed over Buck Road directly. No one had a clue where to go, and they all started assuming we'd be walking across the Buck Road bridge. I dashed across and up the steep slope on the other side, which is not in any way a trail, and the others looked back. It's sometimes funny to see them all turn around after making such an assumption.
The property we entered is owned by the Heritage Conservancy. The Heritage Conservancy is the Bucks and Montgomery County premier accredited land preservation group with a lot of interest in the Neshaminy and it's watershed.

Old Buck Road

Most of what is promoted is further north than where I've explored, closer to Dark Hollow, but they have many lands like the one we entered.
I had hiked this property twice before on similar hikes. Prior to re-starting my regular Neshaminy themed hikes, I put together two of them that featured the lands to the north of Buck Road.
I first looked at the property through aerial images when I was working at Washington's Crossing and looking for new places to explore. Brittany Weirder and I walked the property before Red Sean met up on that hike, and I found it to be quite amazing.

The old bridge site with pavement

I went back through the site with Justin and Shayna on another hike on one of those government holidays we both had off. My interest in the Neshaminy grew based on that, and it was because of those two hikes that I started looking at the downstream Neshaminy similarly. As it turned out, this section was not alone, and so many sections we had already done downstream were equally beautiful. We made our way into the Heritage Conservancy property on the high bluffs above the creek. These characteristics changed quite a bit as we made our way from the wide flood plains to the higher elevation lands.

1932 Buck Road bridge

There was sort of a trail on top of the hill in this area. There was nothing marked really, but we could tell where we needed to walk atop the bluffs heading north. There were stick forts and such along the slope of the bluff where kids from the neighboring houses come to play.
We made our way atop the bluffs for a while, and then headed down closer to the creek for a bit. I'd done this section two different ways on my previous visits.

Atop the bluffs in Heritage Conservancy

One time, the first, I believe I remained close to the creek the entire time, and when I returned we followed some sort of a utility easement that took us closer to the apartments and homes. We ended up following that route this time, because it would be more timely and probably safer. A fall in the leaves into the frigid creek would be bad.
We came to an area of bamboo along some private land, and we goofed off a bit. Jason grabbed a bunch of it and took off with it, claiming to be camoflauge or something.

Neshaminy view

Bamboo is an interesting thing because it's regarded as a bad invasive species.

Bamboo Shane

However, Bamboo nowhere near as bad as things like Autumn Olive, Ailanthus, Multiflora Rose, or Japanse Barberry. Those species are prolific, but Bamboo will rarely spread from the places it's planted. If you kill it, it's going to be gone, and there's little worry about it overtaking an entire forest. In fact, Bamboo is native to just about every continent. We just don't see it in New Jersey growing wild because it's more in the southeastern states.

Camo Jason

At the end of an open mowed area with the bamboo, we turned to the right, back into the woods along the Neshaminy. We weaved around through the woods on paths that didn't necessarily go straight. There were a few blow downs we had to get around, but the path we had followed previously was still rather obvious.
This time, we did come across one major change: the existance of bridges.

A little foot bridge

Someone was coming back onto the property and building some very nice foot bridges over the areas where tributaries flow into the Neshaminy. I believe one or two were in place during our previous visit, but this time there were more, and more substantial ones.
We made our way up stream over these structures and came to the spot where a giant Sycamore had fallen over one of the tributaries. This was a spot I'd visited both of the previous times and helped me to realize where exactly I was.

Neshaminy tributary

We crossed the stream on these trees, and continued on up stream.
As we continued, the slope got steeper to the left. We were able to get down on the stones along the creek for a short bit, but eventually had to make our way back up. There were more paths on the opposite side I have to eventually get to exploring, maybe on the next hike. The paths led us at times up closer to the houses, which got much closer to the edge of the slope, and we took a clear path that went steeply down to the creek side for one last easy section before it became too vertical a cliff to easily navigate toward Tyler State Park.In this area, I spotted the first flowers of the Spring, even though it was still not to be Spring for several more days, and definitely not the end of the cold weather.

Foot bridge

The properties along the creek went from Heritage Conservancy to some sort of homeowners association tied to the buildings we'd seen, but at the last slope we reached the state park property.
In this area, I spotted the first flowers of the Spring, even though it was still not to be Spring for several more days, and definitely not the end of the cold weather.
My original plan was for us all to hug the edge of the Neshaminy heading up stream into the proper section of Tyler State Park and it's trail system.

Big Sycamore

That route wasn't looking that inviting, and it'd be a long and tough walk at the bottom of the slope. If one of us fell in, which was a good possibility, it would be ugly.

Big Sycamore

It was decided instead that we'd take the route I'd taken on the previous hikes and go up the slope, beyond the last apartment building, to the area parallel with Saint Leonard's Road. By going this way, I could show everyone the abandoned former route of Newtown-Richboro Road anyway.
We climbed up the steep slope, and took in the nice views down to the Neshaminy, and continued northwest for a bit. There were cuts through some of the logs as if this was actually once part of the Tyler trail system.

Sycamore crossing

When the slope reached too close to St. Leonard's Road, we got to right along it's edge, to where the road originally joined with old Newtown-Richboro Road.
Jason K started heading down hill on some sort of old road trace he spotted prior to where I was going. The old road route I was using has a path and seems to head down parallel with a disturbed area to a former intersection with Newtown-Richboro Road.

Along the Neshaminy

The section road still has pavement today, but is blocked off at either end. The current road alignment eliminates a hard corner that the old road made. The old road route is a cool looking, still paved route starting to grow over with moss.
Some of the group stayed with Jason, but most went with me. I only walked down a little bit of the old road route, until there was an easy right turn to take us off of it and into the woods on Tyler State Park land. I'd never walked that way before, and since this was the Neshaminy series, I wanted to remain closer to the creek than I had on the previous ones.

Neshaminy view

The area that is now Tyler State Park was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. George F. Tyler between 1919 and 1928 where they raised dairy cows, poultry, sheep, pigs, and riding horses.

Neshaminy view

The land was purchased for park use in 1964, and it was dedicated ten years later. Of course, the history of the area dates back far longer than that. Some of the homes on the property belonged to earlier farming families, some of which date back to the 1700s.
We walked through the woods, over a little tributary, and out toward the Neshaminy just up stream from the Spring Garden Mill, an historic mill building built in 1819, and repurposed in more recent years as a playhouse. There was a little stream that might have been mill race.

Spring Garden Mill Covered Bridge, built 1815, washed out 1955

I wanted to check out the Spring Garden Mill Covered Bridge site more closely. I'd been there before but had acquired more historic photos for then and now compositions.

Spring Garden Mill Covered Bridge site

The bridge was built in 1815, and washed away with the Flood of 1955. It was by that time already closed to all but pedestrian use because the newer bridge had already been installed. Even that bridge has been replaced today, with a much more recent modern structure.

Spring Garden Mill and the Flood of 55.

We walked up along the shore and I tried to set up some photos. I didn't quite get the right angle for the Spring Garden Mill itself. It doesn't really look anything like it did originally, with stucco and such on the outside, and the new porch to make it an attractive venue.

1892 image of Spring Garden Mill

The 1819 grist and saw mill built by Richard Imlay remained in use until the 1950s.
In 1781, members of the Doan outlaw band are reputed to have hidden their horses in a dense thicket near Dripping Spring, just before they rode into Newtown and robbed the County treasury. Newtown at this time was the County seat.

The Dripping Spring?

Where the old Newtown-Richboro Road turned, and where we had descended from it, we may have found what was referred to as "The Dripping Spring" in the rocks. This was definitely a natural water course, and didn't appear to be something that was moved around as a result of development or anything.
The Spring Garden Mill supposedly derives it's name from "The Dripping Spring" that was on the property, so it seems rather obvious that this must have been it.

Artifact; maybe old polow piece?

Someone found some sort of metal artifact along the spring while we were descending, but I'm rather clueless as to what it might have been. No knowing the history, it makes me think maybe I should have picked the thing up.
In studying the covered bridge site, the abutments were of particular interest because there appeared to be an archway built into part of it. I thought that maybe there was an earlier arch bridge that had been there.

Old covered bridge abutment

I thought maybe the covered bridge had replaced an arch and that some of the abutment was built with it, but it turns out that this was actually a weight bearing measure built into the abutment to support the weight of the Burr Arch Truss of the covered bridge.

Abandoned old Newtown-Richboro Road

A very interesting design that was used elsewhere as well.

Covered bridge site

We continued along past the mill, and went under the new Newtown-Richboro Road bridge on the trail connection and entered the main part of Tyler State Park. We cut onto an informal trail to the right in order to stay right along the Neshaminy, and then I pointed out the giant hollow Sycamore tree along the way. We remained off of the official trail and along the stony edge of the Neshaminy just a short bit until we got to where an official trail appeared closer to the arced dam just up stream.

The Neshaminy Creek's arced dam

We climbed up over some tree roots and such, and soon reached the level area at the top of the dam where the pedestrian only Neshaminy Creek Trail passed by.

Along the Neshaminy

We took a nice little break at the arced dam, then continued up stream a bit more. It was a familiar but lovely section along the water heading north. A very nice foot path intimate with the stream, and much easier walking than some of the unofficial stuff we'd been on.
The area that is now Tyler State Park was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. George F. Tyler between 1919 and 1928 where they raised dairy cows, poultry, sheep, pigs, and riding horses.

Me on the trail

The land was purchased for park use in 1964, and it was dedicated ten years later.
Of course, the history of the area dates back far longer than that. Some of the homes on the property belonged to earlier farming families, some of which date back to the 1700s.
While we walked along the creek and saw horse shoe prints, we started discussing the potential of doing a group horse back riding trip. Laura is involved in equestrian activities, and apparently there is a place to rent horses on the north side of Neshaminy State Park, with access to the trail system. This sound to me like it could be a really fun alternate thing to do for maybe an hour at the start of a hike. Maybe one or two hikes further into the Neshaminy series we can explore doing something like this.
Eventually, this path made it's way up to one of the wide multi use trails that are mostly old woods roads. This one was Wood Field Trail, coming in from the adjacent old farm lands.

Neshaminy Creek Trail

From foot path to woods road, the trail ascended to higher land and some nice seasonal views over the creek again. After a tributary crossing, the Wood Field Trail descended to a wide area where the pedestrian causeway led across to the east side. We headed over there, and then turned to the left, and headed into the boat rental area where there is a large pavilion thing. There were good restroom facilities there, with a double building and open breezeway thing in between. There was a giant fire pit in the very center of it.

Causeway

Like previous times I'd walked through this section, the fire pit was lit and burning. It's a rather interesting thing unlike I'd seen in other parks. There was no one around babysitting this fire, and it was directly under a building. A large floo above it brought the smoke out the roof. One would think this is too much of a fire hazard really to keep open, but somehow it's now a problem there.
We all decided that it was a nice spot, and worth taking a little break and enjoying the heat. We found seats all around the pit and relaxed for a little while.

Neshaminy

I forget what brought it up and what exactly the conversation was when we sat there, but I know Stephen and Jason I. were going back and forth all day with all sorts of interesting stuff.

Dingleberry Fire Ring

Stephen would have some sort of argument about something such as traffic control, and Jason would speak logically in terms of theory or refer to some study.

Dingleberry Fire Ring

Stephen would take it to places like asking who had done the study or something. It had been interesting to be a fly on the wall all day with such discussion, but it really culminated at the fire.
We somehow got onto the topic of dingleberries. How this came up I really have no idea. Although it is intirely possible my brand of humor could have been responsible for the evolution to this topic, I somehow think this time it found it's way to the group independent of me.

Neshaminy pretty

Somehow, despite the initially crude sounding choice of topic, it ended up turning to an intelligent (?) dialogue detailing the most practical and sanitary ways of dealing with the problem at hand. Those of us not contributing to said dialogue switched back and forth between shock and awe and completely inconsolable laughing fits.
The endearing conversation kept us sitting around the fire pit for far longer than probably any of us had anticipated doing. Maybe it was the sheer disbelief of the banter we had witnessed.

Lovely Neshaminy scene

Whatever the case, we continued on from here across the open picnic type grounds to the north. This led us to an open area where there was a sign saying we had left Tyler State Park, and entered the grounds of the Bucks County Community College.

Trail at the community college

The trail made it's way along the river, but there was no marking at all any more. It didn't matter, the route was very obvious, and soon was the only delineated route because the slope got so much steeper. We were basically following a side hill along the creek.
The section is one of the most beautiful, and it's outside of the state park property (although the other side of the creek was part of it).

Neshaminy view

We continued along to a precipice, then the trail turned hard right up hill. The first time I walked this section, Brittany and I had continued in the dark along the creek, then ended up climbing steeply up the outcropping known as Council Rock itself. It was a pretty scary moment, which didn't seem to bother her at all, but I wasn't going to bring the group that way.The trail appears to at one time have been part of the "official" trail system.

Indian Council Rock

There were even abutments for foot bridges over washes as we walked, which the trail now bypasses by going around them.
We continued on the path gradually up hill until we approached the college grounds. Straight ahead of us stood the beautiful Tyler Mansion.
The George F. Tyler Mansion was known as “Indian Council Rock” because it was built on a site reputed to have been a Lenape meeting site.

Tyler Mansion

The mansion was designed by architect Charles Willing and built in French-Normal Style in 1930-31 using native brownstone. It is the largest residence ever constructed in the history of Bucks County.

At the Tyler Mansion

The mansion now serves as the administration building for the Bucks County Community College.

Tyler Mansion

We walked along the edge of the mansion, and there was a tent set up on a garden platform thing on the right.

View from the Indian Council Rock

A guy in a suit I recall was just outside. It looked like they had some sort of graduation or shindig there of some sort. We didn't want to disturb them, and fortunately no one told us to leave.
We walked on toward the mansion building, which is truly a sight to behold. The Indian Council Rock is rather obvious to the west end of the mansion, overlooking the Neshaminy Valley and beyond. The trail continues around it, which we've followed in the past, but this time my plan was to walk the community college grounds, which were just across from the park where we'd met in the morning.

Tyler Mansion grounds

There was no way up onto the porch of the house, so we had to backtrack toward the tents for a little bit to make our way into the garden area.
The site was absolutely beautiful, with a lot of it most certainly the same vintage as the mansion itself.We made our way into the main garden area, where we turned to the left up a set of steps with statues and such around. We could look back at the mansion from another great angle.

Garden view

I dont't remember where exactly I heard, but on my Metrotrails page, I'd shared photos and history of the Tyler Mansion from a previous trip, and one of the responses I got was from a former employee that told us a series of tunnels connect from the Tyler Mansion to other buildings on the grounds. That sounds just amazing.
We started walking from the gardens to the east, into the campus area. There was a wide sort of mall area with modern buildings on either side, and pedestrian only walkways in the middle.

Cooper Homestead approach

When we got toward the end of it, I was rather shocked to see a very old stone farm house smack dab in the middle of all of it. The house was weirdly close to the edge of some of the new buildings, situated at an odd angle. It's amazing the structure was allowed to be kept with all of the new and expensive buildings all around it, but it's a really interesting piece.
I searched on line to see if I could figure out what the place was and it's significance. It looked like it could have been colonial, and it definitely had at least one addition at some point.

Cooper Homestead

I couldn't find anything to really tell me anything about the house except for the fact that it was known as the "Cooper Homestead".

Tight fitting Cooper Homestead

This I found out only be looking at the Bucks County Community College Campus Map. There was nothing else to say about it except that it serves as an office to one of their programs. I'm sure someone knows something about it, but I haven't found the answers yet.
We continued along and past a parking area, then through another section of the campus that served as an art park of sorts. There were pieces alon the pathway, and then a sculpture of a sort of John Lennonish looking man with a guitar on the right.

The buildings through this stretch were really nice. It think they were probably newer, but they seemed to emulate the ambiance of the Tyler Mansion.
Once through the last campus section, we entered the large parking lots and started walking gradually up hill. There was the shell ruin of an old barn building or house to the left, along the lot, as we started heading up hill. The sun was starting to go down, so I couldn't get a good photo of it as anything but a silhouette. We soon crossed Swamp Road, and climbed the steep grassy hill to get to Helen Randle Park and the end of the hike.

College sunset

This was really another great one for me. I'm absolutely loving the Neshaminy Creek and look forward to doing more sections of it. My work schedule is getting crazier as the Spring and Summer season approach, but I hope to fit at least a few of them in. Maybe I'll even do one of them as part of a night hike, because it's really not all that far away. Unfortunately, two of the weekend hikes per month at least are looking like they're going to be night hikes again like I had done through 2017 because there's really no other way around it. It's going to be exhausting, and it limits some of the stuff I'd like to do during the season, but we'll make the best of it.

Ham

I'll probably put some of the Neshaminy series on hold briefly for warmer months, because some of them look good for swimming, and the 911 Trail series is now getting us much closer to Philadelphia for our friends in that area, but we will most certainly come back to it soon. It's been too good not to. It seems everything we find is too good not to continue.