Hike #713; Valley Forge to Manayunk

 Hike #713; Valley Forge to Manayunk on Schuykill River Trail

7/14/13 Schuykill River Trail; Valley Forge to Manayunk with Conrad Blease, Teresa Montez, Rob Creamer, John Bradford Ladutko, Taylor Kappus, David "Captain Soup" Campbell, Justin Gurbisz, Stephen Argentina, Giuseppe De Caro,  Marion ?, ?, Gowri Shankar, and Eric Pace

The group on the trail near Shawmont

Our next hike would probably be the most overall boring hike of the Summer so far. There were a few sections of Schuykill River Trail I had never done between Manayunk and Valley Forge, and so I figured it'd be best to just get them out of the way and do some swimming in the Schuykill as well. Despite the fact that it wasn't the most incredible route and it was too brutally hot, we did manage to fit in some good stuff.

We met at the Wissahickon Train Station in Manayunk to shuttle north to Valley Forge. We used the same parking lot we'd used in the past for hikes out of there, and then headed east, then north past construction areas to the pedestrian route over the Schuykill River adjacent to Rt 422. This connects with the Schuykill River Trail at the other side. It was a great combo of people, many of whom I'd not seen in quite some time. My good friend Conrad and wife Teresa were there, and Taylor who I hadn't seen in years since she only recently moved back from North Carolina, as well as John Bradford who hadn't been on a hike since probably the previous fall or something.

The trail was flat and followed an abandoned railroad right of way for most of the way. We followed it as it paralleled Trooper Road, and Conrad was displeased especially with the rudeness of the cyclists going by. We were a huge group, and they could go around us. I didn't mind them saying "on your left" constantly, because at least they were courteous enough to say something, but some of them were downright rude and made comments as they went by us. Conrad, always quick with a comment just like when we first met, would come back hollering "You know...there's a great ROAD right there....for your ROAD BIKE!!!" citing that the guy was riding a road bike. The trail is paved, but oh well.

The trail went through some shade but became far too open. It was difficult to handle the extreme heat we were having. A few of us bushwhacked down to the Schuykill at one point where power lines came up over the right of way for a long stretch. I went in for a brief swim to cool off, but it wasn't that nice. No one else went down. The group got segmented because Conrad walks so fast, and the faster group went ahead.

We reconvened at one point and thought we found a good place to head down to the river as we were entering Norristown. A Creek flows in there. A few of us climbed down through the old trestle and headed along the creek, which had a controlled route lined with stone and concrete, but bums hanging out under the bridge said not to go that way, and that there were steps down to the river pretty soon ahead. We headed back up and made our way further along the trail. Eric opted to cut out at Norristown due to the heat. He would take a train back.

The steps we were looking for descended to Haws Avenue at a small park. As we reached the bottom of the stairs and the blessed shade that was offered there, we head a chiming musical sound. It was an ice cream truck! Never before have you seen so many adults so happy about an ice cream truck. We flagged down the driver and he pulled over for the group. Surprisingly, he had some really great prices. Some of the ice pops and such he was selling were less than most of the gas station convenience store prices. After indulging in this unexpected benefit, Teresa, John Bradford, and I scouted ahead to see if we could find a good swimming spot below. There was a great spot a short distance down an abandoned roadway from Haws Ave, lined with japanese wine berries which made it even better. A concrete pad where one could jump off into the Schuykill was just below, a great little spot. We spent a while here swimming and relaxing after the  huge distance we'd done out in the sunlight. Justin took the time on this break to get onto the closed off Haws Avenue bridge and climb around on it. He sat and watched us from a pier out in the middle of the river. I don't know how he even made it, having only gotten about an hour of sleep after a long night of urban exploring in Philly.

From here, we headed back up to the trail and made our way into town. We crossed the Stony Creek on a trestle, then the trail briefly left the railroad bed to parallel it to the south. It was too developed over at this point. We took a break at the train station where Eric cut out so that people could use the restrooms. Conrad made more comments to other people rudely commenting at us from bikes, with remarks such as "That's a nice ROAD BIKE. ROAD bikes go great on ROADS!"

We continued along the trail from here and passed beneath Rt 476. It didn't take long before the trail led us into Conshohoken. The Cross County Trail broke off at this point from us. I had hiked this section in early 2008 to the AMC dinner at Barren Hill, but I was missing sections of the Schuykill River Trail. In Conshohoken, we turned at the main drag, Fayette Street, to look for some food. We googled it and found some good eateries, and Teresa recommended a good mexican place. I was totally keen on that so decided right then I'd go there.

We headed up the street, and Conrad, Teresa, Guiseppe, and I think pretty much most of us stopped at the mexican place. Captain Soup, John Bradford, Taylor, and I think Rob all went further up the street to eat at a bar and grill which took much longer. We ended up having to wait for quite some time, but oh well.

When we finally got under way again, we returned to Schuykill River Trail for more rude cyclist comments. When a guy came riding down the road parallel with the trail Conrad led the group in a happy applause for the guy using the road. He seemed sort of disturbed and confused.

We had to leave the others at the bar and grill because it was taking too long, and they said they'd catch up. There was also one point where the trail had to go down hill, beneath railroad tracks via a road underpass, to the right, then to the left again. I forget where. Sort of a weird spot.

As we left Conshohoken, I was surprised to see John Bradford show up on his bicycle. It turns out he works there and had stashed his bicycle in his office to pick up along the route! He borrowed the bike to ride back and check on the others who were a ways behind, but fine. I then went back to where I was, returned the bike to John Bradford, and he went ahead to harass Conrad with it. Conrad has very little patience for rude cyclists yelling "ON YOUR LEFT" only inches from our ears. He kept walking backwards waiting for one to approach and say that so that he could question it.

The funniest thing he did on the entire trip was, after two cyclists moving at a good rate of speed passed him on the left, shouting such in his ear, he took off running. As an avid runner at six foot five inches in height, Conrad easily took off in a sprint and overtook the first cyclist, shouting "ON YOUR LEFT" in his ear as he sped past him. Hearing and seeing the horror of this, and probably out of great fear the cyclist in front began to peddle harder. Conrad was still able to get up alongside of him, but not overtake him. I believe the cyclist's comment to Conrad was "You know...you're a first class ass hole....and I kinda like that."

Conrad was in rare form all day. Never a fan of extreme weather, he kept to the front of the group and entertained himself with taunting cyclists all day.

We continued on the trail further out of Conshohocken, and it entered an area of a bit more shade. We passed through a village area called Miquon, which I think I'd been to before on a past hike, but we followed the road rather than the trail (Miquon is the Lenape word for feather as I understand it). We got to one point where the trail used to go down a road, but the rail bed had been cleared ahead, and the trail moved to it. I hadn't walked this new extension either. It then continued down hill from the rail bed, which ahead became overgrown, and crossed the railroad tracks. A fast moving train crossed as we went by. On the other side, the trail descended on an old stone roadway to the former Shawmont Water Works. I'd done this section before, but it was much different now and not nearly as cool.

The trail now turned right from the old road, and was paved, where it followed the road before. The road was now gated. The road used to lead to the first big building of the Shawmont Water Works, and amazing gothic style structures with giant windows like that of an old church. Several other buildings were there in 2008 but now there were none. It was horrible to see them all gone, especially that beautiful first one. I expected the site would be the highlight of the hike, but nothing remained. Even the trail was crap compared to what it was. It used to be a simple dirt pathway, but now had either paved or crushed stone surface. The place we swam before above the Black Rock Dam now had no swimming signs and did not look nearly as inviting. What was once a nice bucolic setting was now a yuppified haven for fast moving foul mouthed cyclists racing past with no appreciation for what once was.

I went for a brief swim anyway, and a few others jumped in, but we made it quick. We moved on from here to the Manayunk Canal section, the only saving grace of the entire trail. A lot of this retained it's charm that I remembered. It being the oldest section of canal in America, I suppose efforts were made to keep it somewhat intact. We followed the towpath beyond where we'd followed it on previous trips. On those other ones we opted to walk the main street through scenic downtown Manayunk, but I had not finished the actual trail. It was quite scenic and had some nice vistas.

We got to one point where there was water cascading down from a small tunnel to the left. It was concrete in appearance at the entrance and wide enough to barely stand, so Justin and I both took an interest in it. I tried to get over from the right side, but the rocks were so slippery I just couldn't get up. Justin climbed over the bridge railing and leaped  a gap between a rock outcrop and the walkway guard rail, and when I saw him do it I had to follow. We made our way up along the slippery cascade to the mouth of the tunnel. It was tough getting into it and smelt of sulfer. I went past Justin and got my hands flat on the entrance, then used it to pull myself up into the tunnel. It went from concrete immediately to stone line. This probably dated back to at least the early 1800s and could very well have been an original sewer system section. It had shelf walls on both sides. We went up it for a ways, and it split in three directions of pipes. Ahead, the larger route, it became a round brick lined tunnel. We continued through that for a bit, and it led out to a larger storm drain room that was filled with so many branches and debris that it was impassable, so we turned back.

We passed beneath the Manayunk Viaduct, and continued out to where the Schuykill River Trail turned left to the main road. The canal trail though, not the bike route, went straight. It was marked "Manayunk Canal Walk" ahead. There were signs reading "no bikes". I'd already walked the official trail along the road before, so we followed this interesting canal walk section. Far below the canal walk we could see the site of the former guard lock where the canal let into the Schuykill River. Certainly towpath navigation would have existed below this point, but I know very little about the Schuykill Navigation Canal and where sections were. I've only been on short pieces that are in various conditions.

The "trail" if we can call it that went onto a deck area of a building, but then oddly led right to a bar! Apparently the canal walk goes within a couple of feet of the bar and through an open air section of outdoor restaurant, then makes it's way back out to the street and main Schuykill River Trail. It was clearly marked as the canal walk route where we came in, but not on the other side.

We continued from here along the main drag back to the "Great Wall of Manayunk" and the long stairs that lead up hill to the train station. We went through a tunnel beneath the street that led back out to the level of the station to finish off the hike.

Although the overall route wasn't that interesting compared to a lot of our routes, it had very nice bits to it that certainly made the day worthwhile. It also gave me justification for what we do. Although the Shawmont Waterworks were gone, and the trail was not the natural setting I recalled so happily, I am glad to have experienced it at that time.

Traveling so far for these hikes is not a waste. People can waste anything they want in life, as long as they don't waste time, because that investment can never be earned back. Each week for me is a unique experience I am thankful to have had.