Hike #649; Skippack

 Hike #649; Skippack

9/2/12 Skippack; Graterford, Skippack, Evansburg and Oaks with Jillane Becker, Derek Baker, Jason Itell, Shep Glennon, and Nilam Shah

The group in Evansburg State Park

My next hike would be one that I'd planned a good while back, but never got around to doing. I have had a lot of plans as of late, for exciting, big trips, but the problem was there are these weekends in between. There are plenty of hikes I can do, but the question is, which one would I do this week?

I keep trying to go in a different direction each week, and so I had to look at opposite where I had just been, and it had been a while since I'd been in the Philly direction.  I looked at the area and realized I'd not explored Evansburg State Park yet. I wanted to hike it's entire length, northwest to southeast, and connect with the Perkiomen Trail, as well as the Skippack Trail that connects it.I arranged to meet my group at the Lower Perkiomen Valley Park trail head in Oaks, on New Mill Road. We would then shuttle as few cars as possible north to Graterford where the Skippack Trail broke away from the Perkiomen. It was cool that Shep was able to join us again for the first time in two years. His sense of humor is great and keeps things lively.

We started by following the Perkiomen Trail north from a small parking lot, to where it crosses the creek on an old railroad trestle. The trestle was part of a spur line. The main line that went north was built over in Graterford, so the trail goes over the creek to follow the other side mostly. The spur once went to a nearby jail. We crossed the bridge, turned left and where Perkiomen Trail heads north, Skippack Trail continues along the Perkiomen Creek south, under the trestle. The trestle had one higher section which we figured might have been for trains to pass beneath, possibly another line at one time?Skippack Trail only followed the creek to the next power line, then turned left to follow the power line up hill to the east. It crossed Perkiomen Creek Road, Bridge Road, and Mt Airy Road staying on the power line. To the right of the trail, we spotted some tomatoes growing, and so we ate some. They were terrific, and many were rotting. They weren't being picked, and were just going to waste, so we felt no remorse for taking them. Horseback riders were passing us after, and they didn't say anything about us eating them. We then passed a corn field, full of white sweet corn, which was also great. I ate a couple of those as well, and stuffed a few in the pack.

The next road we got to was Bean Drive. There, the trail turned left abruptly and a spur led right to apartments. We followed this out past a horse field, then turned right to follow the edge of it. The horses using the trails were scared to death of us. Not exactly the brightest things.

We crossed a tiny creek and continued on straight. Soon, the trail split again. To the right, a sign read that it led to Evansburg State Park. Derek and Nilam were ahead, and assumed that's the way we were goin, but we weren't. We called them, and finally they came back. The rest of us turned left and crossed Heckler Road and entered a park area with ball fields to take a break. Once we were all together, we turned left along the fields, where the trail forked again. We stayed to the south side of the fields, and then passed another side path along a ball field to the right, and continued through an overgrown area. The paths were paved, so it was nothing difficult.The trail turned to the north, and then joined other trails that looped around what seemed like every little ball field of any kind, or tennis court, or restroom, etc. There was an extremely nice restroom in this park.

We continued to the left past another baseball diamond and then across a parking lot to Creamery Road (apparently there's a village in the area known simply as "Creamery"). We followed the sidewalk across Creamery Road heading sort of north, then the trail cut into a field area to the right. We passed by a lovely little pond, and continued mostly north, then followed the Skippack Village Trail slightly west and north to Mensch Road. We turned left after crossing this, then came to another paved trail to the right. It led between tall fences and between yards, past a burnt building, and then past a tiny tributary on the backs of what appeared to be town houses. We discussed the difference between Town Houses and Apartments, and I said it was probably about thirty thousand dollars. We then got into more detail, and I mentioned that town houses might have shingles where apartments often have flat roofs. Honestly I guess it's an ownership issue, where you can own a townhouse or something, and rent an apartment, but I don't know.We followed the trail to a parking lot for a restaurant in Skippack Village, and headed down hill through a quaint little covered bridge, which was pretty but not authentic. It did, however, have authentic signs hanging on and inside of it.

Where we came out, an old hotel had an authentic trolley car as well, sitting along it's edge.

Skippack was a cute little craft town, the kind that makes one wonder how they ever sustain themselves with nothing but high end retail and eateries. We did stop for some pizza, but only Jason and I had any. We found a neat little bench for Derek to sit on as well.Jillane and Shep went into some sort of old west trading post place, and Jillane got some nice earrings which she put on right away. I lent Shep some money so he could get something too. Soon, we were heading east from town on Skippack Pike, and I'd wished I'd gotten more to drink.We came to the intersection of Old Evansburg Road, and checked out an old barn and house on the corner, then continued on Skippack Pike a bit more to the bridge over it's namesake creek. There was a set of piers to the creek which looked like it probably held some sort of utility pipe bridge at one time. A trail, not in great shape, went into the woods on the close side of the creek, our planned route. Although the trail was well shown on the map, it was not well kept at first. We had to bully through weeds to get onto it at all, then had our legs caressed by every leaf along the way, much of which was Poison Ivy.

The trail did continue to improve as we headed down stream along Skippack Creek. Jason and I tried a few times during the hike to take a dip in the water, but it was always too low, and barely deeper than our ankles. Quite a disappointment.Eventually, the trail crossed Kratz Road, and descended to cross a tributary, then climbed to an abandoned part of Lesher Road. After a break, we continued across Lesher and onto a better trail way. The trail this time climbed to higher above the creek, rather than stay down in the flood plain like it had been. We were able to make a stop at a day use area where we could refill our water bottles. The water was pretty good.

After a good break, we continued on the trail, some of which was beginning to show some standard blazes, but they were not consistent. The trail was either called Skippack Creek Trail, or Mill Race Trail. Two different sections. The latter actually followed the edge of an old mill race followed by the berm of the same for a bit.

When we got to Mill Road (there were apparently something like seven mills on the creek within the park once), there was an old metal through style truss bridge that had been rehabilitated as a pedestrian bridge over the creek. We crossed on it and followed the south side of the creek for the only time in the hike, but not for too long.

Once the trail turned left to close in a loop, we headed out to walk along the creek, off trail. I carried Jillane across to walk the clearer other side, I walked down the middle of the creek, and Derek and Nilam opted to say on the shore. I guess Jason just got ahead. He sort of disappeared, and when I saw him next he was perched on top of the high stone wall of the Eight Arch Bridge, an historic stone bridge spanning the creek (it's sign reads "reconstructed" 1874, but it must be older). Derek and Nilam finally gave up and just walked in the water. We all headed down to the bridge, where a lot of branches and debris were pushed against it. For the only time in the hike, Jason and I were able to get totally into the water, and so we did and it was good.Derek and I helped pull Nilam and Shep up from the bridge, which the two of us climbed. There wasn't really a good path up to the top of it. We all headed to the north side of the bridge where Jillane was sitting by an old mill. We took a good break here, and Jillane explored old buildings nearby. Signs read that the barn had been reconstructed.When we were all ready to go, we followed a path from the mill to the creek and walked beneath one of the many arches of the bridge to the other side. The path along the creek soon disappeared, but we opted to climb steeply up hill and follow the top fo the slope. Jillane found some interesting old bottles and knick knacks along this section, because it had apparently been used as a dump over fifty years ago.We continued along the top of the hill, then crossed an old fields, still open. On the other side, we kept to the hill top mostly and then it got too difficult to walk. We decided it best to bushwhack back to the last road, Old Baptist Road, which maps indicate may have crossed the creek at one time, but we couldn't see any remnants. We followed the road north out to Germantown Pike and turned left, by another old church owned by boy scouts and an old cemetery. We then turned left on Evansburg Road and continued southwest. When we got to Ridge Road, we turned left and headed down hill toward the creek once more. On the areal images visible on my phone, I could barely make out what appeared to be an old roadway along the top of the hill above the flood plain. I figured if it's visible on the phone, we should be able to walk it. It ended up being more difficult than expected.

Jason and Derek were into the woods first, rooting around and looking for road remnants. They initially found some pavement but then seemed to lose it. I found the route leading past an old quarry cut, heading up hill. We all headed that way, and Jillane went through some more old bottles and such we had passed by.The road sort of disappeared again, but I was able to spot it. It eventually became difficult to see any of it when we got to a small tributary inlet. We had to climb down and up the other side. After that point, the route became more discernable once again, but it wasn't the same we'd been following, it was another informal trail closer to the creek. We followed it from here out to Cedar Lane, the next road.

On Cedar Lane, we turned left, heading gradually down hill. There were some nice old houses along it, the last of which was somewhat covered in vines and such. Before reaching the end of the road, there was a "road closed" sign. We figured it was a former bridge site that had been removed, but to our surprise, the old highway bridge was still there!It appears that the road was once known as Visitation Road, and that it was the through route from this point to a jail on the east side of the valley. We had thought it was probably unstable structurally, but maybe this one was abandoned as to insure less escape routes. Speculation on this once could be interesting. Regardless, the bridge was now in bad shape, with crumbling concrete exposing twisted old re-bar used to keep the bridge's shape. There were dangerous, large holes in the deck of the bridge that would make any driver question crossing it, if it weren't covered in large trees growing on it along both sides.

From here, we continued on the road out to the next parking area, where the Overlook Trail begins. The trail actually followed the abandoned roadway ahead, still paved. It then broke off to the left. We didn't follow that trail because it was getting too late. We stayed on the old roadway which soon followed the backs of people's yards. They were having some sort of party, but none of them spoke a word to us about trespassing or anything. The road soon became Lower Lewis Road, and was absorbed into the development roads. We continued left on Level Road and passed Arrowhead Elementary School. There, we found one of those speed radar signs that tells passersby their speed. Jason tried running at it first and I think hit 14 mph. We all started running at the thing, one at a time. Derek ended up being the big champion, with a whopping 16 miles per hour, and I was behind him with 15. My tendinitis in my right calf was killing me after this. As we walked away, little kids from the playground were over running at the sign in the same way. A little girl got ten mph or something.

We continued on Level Road, down hill (ha ha) to the bridge over the Perkiomen Creek in Arcola. The walkway on the bridge was closed, but we climbed over and walked on it anyway, and passed an old mill building. We turned right on Cider Mill Road and got on the Perkiomen Trail south. The others went ahead and Jillane and I took a break at a bench. My leg was killing me something terrible, so we both needed the break.We continued south to Upper Indian Head Road, where the trail turns left, then right along the creek where the rail bed goes through an industry, and soon made it out to the parking area in Oaks.We had a nice dinner at the Appalachian Brewery in Collegeville, just to the north, and our friends Conrad and Teresa joined us. It was a little pricey, but good food (or I thought so anyway).

It was nice to fill in yet another little gap that I had somehow missed while making our way further in every direction, an almost entirely new hike surrounded by the familiarity of previous ones. I could probably spend a life time just filling in the present gaps in my explorations. There really is so much to see.