Hike #1228; Jamison Neshaminy Loop
6/13/19 Jamison PA Loop with Shane Blische and Dan Asnis
This next hike would be the next in the Neshaminy Creek series I’d been working on for a long while. Whenever there’s a free weekend, I throw one of these ones back on there when I don’t know what else to post. It works out conveniently, and there’s a lot to see.
Trail out of Jamison
It had been a while since I posted the last Neshaminy hike, which ended in Jamison PA at a grocery store, which in the bit of time between these two hikes had closed. I think it was a Giant or something.
My original plan was that if enough people came, it would be a point to point hike. If not, I could make it into a loop one and cover some other group. My plan B also was something I didn’t want to try to do with a very large group. There are a lot of things to do when we get to this area, just as there were in the lower Neshaminy. We always discover more stuff we missed.
Path out of Jamison
In the lower section, we often went back and did both sides of the creek to see everything we could, and then there’s the separate feeder tributaries. That gets to be an even bigger deal all upstream from Rushland, because the Little Neshaminy Creek breaks off of the main one, and I want to follow that as well. Just a little upstream from Jamison, the Neshaminy breaks into a couple of different branches, which makes it that much more complicated. We found out on the last one that in addition, the developments in the area are ripe with multi use trails around them. Tons to do here.
Closed off Mill Road
It was disappointing that only Shane and Dan had interest in this one, because there really is a lot of interesting stuff to see, but oh well. In a way, it was good because it allowed us to do a section of stuff I wouldn’t do with the big group. It was more of a throw back to the old hikes.
I picked up Shane in New Hope on my way, and we went to my scheduled meeting point, which was a ways up stream on the main Neshaminy from where we actually looped form in Jamison. Dan was running late, so I just had him go to Jamison to meet up with us.
Mill Road
We shifted my original plan to follow the Neshaminy downstream first, and to cover some of the next park I’d been really excited about: Dark Hollow Park. I was looking forward to some more formal trails to take us all over the place, but there wasn’t really a good map of it. This spurred me to use the All Trails site, which at least had something, albeit confusing.
My plan was to loop using the Neshaminy, the Little Neshaminy, and then some other trails and such heading back to Jamison at the angle in between. We would use an old Reading Railroad branch in part.
Mill Road bridge
We started at the shopping center and got some wine at the start, and then headed along Mill Road to the north. There was a grassy swath at first, and then a paved trail that took us along the road which was quite pleasant.
A side path broke off to the left near some ball courts, and we were separated from Mill Road by way of a line of trees. We crossed over School Road and the paved path continued, but we turned to the right to take Mill Road down hill. There was a “bridge closed” sign at the top, and a lot of rocks and crap over the road, but easy to walk down hill on it.
Mill Road bridge
We continued down hill and there was a parking area for Dark Hollow Park on the left. We then approached the old closed bridge, a handsome through truss structure over the Neshaminy.
The double span Whipple Through Truss bridge was constructed in 1888, and closed to vehicular traffic in 2011. It was then closed to even pedestrian traffic in 2016. The future of this historic structure is yet to be seen.
The bridge site on this one states “imminent failure” for it. It’s got to be a pretty big deal if people can’t even walk over it. The first span is pretty long, and the second on short.
Mill Road bridge
Shane and I were able to climb around the barrier to walk over it anyway. A Sycamore tree and some vines were growing through it at the far span. There were some nice river views.
Neshaminy scene
We went down below, and even though it was so early in the hike, Shane and I already took a dip in the creek, which felt pretty good.
We also walked in the creek down stream a little bit. It was looking like this would be the best way to walk, but there was no good trail in sight from that point, so we headed back to the bridge and climbed the muddy path back up to the road level.
We headed from here back up the road a bit, and found the trail heading into the woods going up stream to the right.
Mill Road Bridge
The trail wasn’t bad at first. It looked pretty well traveled. But then, there were a few trees down over the route. It had also been incredibly rainy the entire season, and where the trail was probably well traveled before, was probably less so now.
Neshaminy
It was insanely slippery as well, so it was obvious that water flows down the thing quite regularly. We got over the fallen trees, and various other paths branched off and around obstacles like the trees and deeply rutted wash areas. Following this trail wasn’t easy after a while.
It started to get pretty badly overgrown, but we pushed through. It got closer to the edge of the creek, and then came to where a tributary flowed in. There was no good way to get around, so we had to go down and step across it. On the other side, it was like being on an island.
Mill Road Bridge
It probably is one in high water. There was a giant Sycamore at the edge, which was pretty.
The trail as I recall came out to a long section of power line which kind of sucked. It was used through this area as an ATV trail, and there was no marking whatsoever. The trail turned to the left to continue along the Neshaminy down stream. We followed this, which was sometimes rough.
We meandered through more woods, and came to a spot on this little tributary where there were stones lined across and a path ascending a hillside. This was our route.
Mill Road Bridge
This secluded section of the Neshaminy Creek has a very sharp turn in it with high bluffs that are referred to as the Palisades of the Neshaminy, although I don’t think of them as being nearly as dramatic as the ones further down by Tyler State Park.
Mill Road bridge
In this area, where the river makes it’s crazy turn, is where the Lenape native Americans gave the stream it’s name. The word “Neshaminy” means “place where we drank twice”, because the creek changes directions so abruptly.
We crossed the rocks and followed the path up hill rather steeply. The trail seemed almost to disappear heading to the top, but then emerged on a much wider, good path, kept clear obviously by ATVs. There were some random orange blazes on it here.
Trail in Dark Hollow Park
I turned to the left on the trail to see where it went, and if there was a view.
It came out at the end of a cultivated field, and then basically followed the edge of it gradually down hill to the left. We wouldn’t go this way this time. Instead, I wanted to go to the right and try to find a trail to the development paths.
We turned through woods, which was pleasant for a while, and soon emerged at the same power line clearing we had been on before. Trail followed the power line both left and right, and there was no view up to the left unfortunately.
The Neshaminy
There were two trails going sort of straight from the power line. One had a no trespassing sign, but the other was good, and looked to be one that lined up with the one I saw on All Trails.
We headed into the scrubby woods ahead, all young growth but with abundant shade, heading to the west. Some of the weeds crossed the path, but it was still easier walking than what we had done.
The trail soon took us out right on the edge of the paved trail around the development
Giant Sycamore
The nearest roads were Lockleigh Drive and Dillon Drive. We turned to the right on the path immediately to get out of sight from the houses (even though this was all legal) and into more of the shade. Shane and I went just barely far enough that Dan could still see us.
Rock crossing!
We continued to the right, and the trail stayed mostly pleasantly shaded. It weaved around out into the open and back into shade, and followed pleasant land contours.
A trail in Dark Hollow Park
It was usually within sight of houses, but not to the point that it was un-enjoyable. The path eventually took us out on Lockleigh Road. We turned to the right here, where there was still a good line of trees in a swath to the edge. We then found another path going into the woods to the right and decided to take it.
We crossed a little plank bridge, and then came across a trail cam. I’m sure we were in the photo, as I heard it take it’s picture. The trail, not surprisingly, came out to a private back yard.
Dark Hollow Park
We backtracked the way we’d come, and then back out to Lockleigh Drive. We turned right and headed out to Dark Hollow Road. There was a paved trail on the other side of that we had done as part of the previous hike, and we got back on that to head to the west.
We simply followed Dark Hollow Road after the trail ended. I saw a police officer ahead and wondered if he was out looking for us like the last hike we’d done out there, but this time was only three of us, not a big group.
Connecting trail from Dark Hollow to developments
My next plan was to get to this other paved trail we discovered on that last hike. That time, we headed to the north onto a section of ball fields, but I saw where this other path went to the west, back where we had come from. It could be made into a circuit using the other trails.
So, we followed Dark Hollow just a bit until we got to this trail on the left that went out into the woods.
We turned, and followed the trail for a while until it started passing behind homes.
Wilkinson Road
We then came to an open field area where the trail turned to the right. It turned left again and then closely paralleled Watson Road.
We continued in the open, which was hotter, and then the trail turned, still in fields, to closely parallel Rushland Road. We continued on this until it came to the intersection with Zachary Lane where it ended. It was here that we followed Zachary Lane last time a short distance to the next little piece of trail around homes. This time, we would continue on Rushland Road the way we had gone before, only back the other direction past the farms.
Neshaminy Trestle
We headed up hill toward the Rushland Winery, where I had hoped to do a tasting, but they were closed again this time, so that wasn’t possible. We’d have to wait.
Rail cut
I found out about a second winery close by, and in the near future, the next time we have a bigger group hike, I hope to do one where we do tastings at both and make it a great one.
Little Neshaminy cliffs
We headed up Rushland Road past the winery, and then past the partly abandoned Hill Road, which I wanted to incorporate into a hike somehow. We also saw a driveway that looked to belong to a vacated house, because there was no evidence of anyone driving it, but we didn’t go look.
This time, rather than following Rushland Road directly down hill like we had done before, we turned to the right on Walton Road, which is now marked as a dead end, but used to be a through route. It has a missing bridge that once carried it across the Neshaminy Creek, as well as a second bridge that once connected Grenoble Road from the south across to Walton Road.
Former Reading line
We headed past a few homes, and then came to the intersection with Wilkinson Road which turned to the left. We turned here as well, and it turned out to be a lovely back road.
Old stone abutment, with later add ons
Wilkinson passed some beautiful old stone farmsteads that dated way back. In one case, it was specifically mentioned that it went back I think to the 1780s.
We continued down hill on Wilkinson, and eventually reached the edge of Sacketts Ford Road, where we turned right. The previous hike took us this way, so we returned to this point because it was where the Little Neshaminy Creek met the Neshaminy Creek.
There is conservancy property of sorts along the Little Neshaminy, but no noticable trail here. We instead headed just a little bit further east to the New Hope and Ivyland Railroad.
Grenoble Switch
The New Hope and Ivyland has been an interesting one to me for a long long time. It’s used as an excursion line to the north out of New Hope, and still used as a major SEPTA commuter line south of Ivyland, but I had really never hiked any part of it.
Back when I started doing the hikes, I covered just about every active line with a couple of friends within anywhere reasonably reachable.
For whatever reason, the New Hope and Ivyland escaped me for a long while. Maybe I figured it was too busy or too active and I didn’t want to bother with it.
Grenoble siding
In this case, the section below Rushland and even further up from there was in rather bad shape and didn’t often move equipment across, so it would work out for this hike, plus it followed directly along the Little Neshaminy Creek.
We climbed up to the top, and I walked out and back across the Neshaminy Trestle to the other side.
The railroad was originally the New Hope Branch of the Reading Railroad, the originally desired extension of the North Pennsylvania Railroad, which only extended as far as Hartsville Station to the south.
My then and now at the trestle
It was completed as far as New Hope in 1891, and there were even plans for the railroad to continue north to Flemington at one time. I recently discovered some grading previously unrecognized on the New Jersey side along the Wickecheoke Creek, which wasn’t finished.
First train on the New Hop Branch, March 1891
The line remained in service for passengers and freight just over one hundred years, until 1952 when the Reading was trying to relinquish itself of such stub lines. It was some time after that a group of railroad enthusiasts got together to create an excursion service which became the New Hope and Iveyland Railroad.
They operated some sixteen miles of track, but in more recent years it has fallen into disrepair on sections such as the bit along the Neshaminy, and along the Mill Creek to the north, and so only equipment gets moved around on it.
Grenoble tipped car
After I did my out and back walk across the trestle, we started following the line to the south. At first it was past a house and a field, then through a cut, but soon was along the Little Neshaminy Creek in a quite beautiful section. Shane pointed out a quarry area to the left where stone was harvested for the bridge abutments and piers.
When the creek was in very close view, I opted to take a side trip down for a closer look at it, and to see the railroad culvert which carried a little tributary.
Tipped rail car
It was impressive that the vertical cliffs of the little Neshaminy were so large in this area. It’s curious that the railroad chose to cut through this cliff face rather than fill around it as well.
We climbed back up to the tracks again, and continued through another cut heading to the southwest. Some houses appeared on the left side of the tracks. There were a few trees down over it, which was further consolation that there would be no trains coming through here until it was totally clear.
Tipped rail car
Pretty soon, there was a switch and a piece of flat bed equipment on the side track to the left. This was the siding at the approach to the former Grenoble Station, a rather forgotten station stop on the line that served from the start of the line until about 1953. At some point, the station stop was moved up hill, and a path led down to the tracks for passengers, possibly after the station that stood here was demolished.
The Reading apparently demolished the station in the fifties, which is a horrible thing. It was, as per photos, among the more beautiful stations along the line.
Grenoble Station from Jim Maier Collection
Today, the site where the station once stood is just a sort of empty field adjacent to the tracks.
Tipped car at grenoble
The one odd thing about the site though is the tipped over passenger car that exists there. Shane related the story of what had happened at this site several years before.
Abandoned passenger car
As the story goes, a neighboring land owner adjacent to the station site saw the blue paited passenger car, originally from the Schuykill Valley, sitting on the tracks for years unattended, and decided to try to take it for scrap. He had a large machine and pushed it over from the tracks apparently with the intention of cutting it up.
Another story goes that he was tired of juveniles hanging out and partying in it. Regardless of what exactly the truth is, he tipped it over and was caught. With no simple way of flipping it upright, it has been sitting there for a great many years rusting away.
Shane and I walked to the near end of it and went in through an opening where we could see into the car. The base framework was till there enough to hold it together, but the car is definitely a total loss. It may have been anyway.
Bob Wittmaier posted photo of the Grenoble car
The wheel trucks might still be useful, but I don’t know enough about these things to make a certain judgement. We walked along the roof and found a hole we could go in.
The Grenoble car today
It was quite interesting to see the thing out there. I suppose it’s too hard to cut it up even for scrap at this point. The pieces they could cut wheel trucks into would be too big.
📷
After we climbed out, Shane climbed on the top of it to get a different angle look. We hung out here for a little while longer before moving on down the tracks to the south.
The next point of interest was Grenoble Road. This abandoned road used to go across the Little Neshaminy Creek on a bridge, and then up to Walton Road where we were before. When we reached the road, which was blocked on the other side of the tracks, we headed to the right down it to the former bridge site. The walls leading up to it were still intact, and there were braces leading in to the abutments that helped hold it together. We went around the former bridge site to the right, and then could clearly see the remaining pier in the river. Unfortunately, this pier won’t be lasting all that much longer. The entire south side of it has had it’s facing washed off, although the north side is still in place. The rubble rock inside and it’s contrast with the cut stone exterior was amazing to see, but also showed us that this won’t be around much longer.
📷
We went around to the other side of the south abutment, and could see that there was a path along the edge a bit. There were also signs that this property was preserved by the Heritage Conservancy, which is a great thing for recreation. Hopefully one day we’ll see trails along the Neshaminy tracing some of these properties we had followed in the past. It would honestly be an outstanding trail.
The path actually led us back to Grenoble Road close to the tracks again, so we just continued to follow those south for a little while more.
The tracks started to move away from the creek at this point, and then skirted some homes on the left, and crossed a power line. It started to open up quite a lot as we approached the grade crossing with Almhouse Road.
When we got to this crossing, we turned to the right for a bit. I wouldn’t dare try to follow the line much beyond Iveyland, as it becomes the very active SEPTA Hatboro branch.
Grenoble Station from Jim Maier Collection
We headed down hill on the road, and the other end of Walton Road came in on the right.
Capsized rail car
We crossed over the Little Neshaminy on the road, and then immediately cut into the woods to the left when it looked clear enough to do so. It started out nice.
Tipped rail car
Pretty soon, it started getting pretty overgrown. I started finding a few golf balls, so I was picking them up.
I usually try to avoid walking through golf courses during daylight hours, but I figured we could remain somewhat out of sight at this one coming up. We emerged on the edge of the Neshaminy Valley Golf Club. The slope was such that we weren’t really visible from any club house or anything, and there weren’t people within sight at first golfing. Further, the property we were skirting was all signed with Heritage Conservancy, so we could say we were there.
Grenoble Station site
It would be the absolute truth that we were trying to follow the creek and that it just got too impenetrable to continue through on the Heritage Conservancy land.
We went by one group of golfers, and I offered them the balls I had found out in the woods, and the guy said “Nah, keep ‘em!”.
We continued walking along the extreme edge of the grass at the property boundary, which sometimes opened up to views of the Little Neshaminy, and we passed one more couple of golfers. The guy that was closer got the golf ball offer, to which he gladly accepted and thanked me.
Old Grenoble Road bridge
As we moved on, we remained pretty close to the creek, and then there was another group of golfers, a bigger one, getting closer. We turned off at a hole close to the creek that used to look like it went on through, but was closed off. There was junk blocking a bit of the paved cart path. We turned back and started heading up hill gradually to a high point where we could see the club house. There was no way here to get through the woods, and so we had to head back down. The path went briefly into the woods, so we chose to wait here until the group of golfers just below moved on.
Grenoble Road bridge site
When they were far enough, we headed back down hill in the direction we had come, to the blocked off cart path again and the hole on the edge of the course.
On the other side of a tree line was part of the Heritage Creek Golf Club. There is a new development going in through this area, and it seems to have overtaken what was once more of the golf club. It’s a strange place, because it looks as though only a small bit of the course remains along the creek, and the rest is houses under construction.
Grenoble Road bridge site
This course and the Neshaminy Valley one are both within sight of one another, but very difficult to connect. We managed to do it though, fighting through some weeds, and then emerged at the edge of the course near a foot bridge over the Little Neshaminy.
I looked at my maps quickly and tried to make a plan on what to do.
At first, it seemed like the best move was to hurry over the cart path, and then make our way along the same side of the creek heading to the west.
Grenoble Road bridge site
In retrospect, we should have continued this way, but there was another big group of golfers ahead, and I didn’t want to have a run in with any of them, so we went back.
Grenoble Road bridge site
We turned back the way we had come, and most of the golfers we had seen before had moved on, so we hurried across the cart bridge over the Little Neshaminy to the south side.
Grenoble Road bridge site
Once there, we skirted the far right side of the course kind of in the shade, and along the edge of the course. My plan was to follow this as far as we had to until we could cut to the left to get out.
I was a little too nervous to be thinking properly at this point, and saw on the map what I thought was a maintenance area for the golf course. It turned out to be a private home that just happened to have a nice garage.
We cut up hill and were walking out the driveway when a lady asked “Um, can I help you?”.
I explained what we were doing, and she said “nooo, this is our house”.
A couple of different kinds of Willows on the golf course
Fortunately, she didn’t freak out on us and understood what we were doing, and we were able to get out to the road with no problem. That road was Creek Road, where we turned right.
Warwick trail
A paved trail took us parallel with Creek Road without having to really be on it, and it was much more relaxing for a bit of time.
We reached an intersection where a paved trail went left, and another crossed Creek Road and then a pedestrian bridge over the creek on the other side. We turned and crossed.
On the other side, a sign pointed that to the right was the golf course, but to the left was the trail to Warwick Community Park. I was excited to see this, because that was exactly the area we needed to go. I had considered that park one of the possibles for passing through.
New trail in Warwick Twp
There was a trail closed sign over that new trail route, but I figured we could get away with it anyway. There were other people out using it.
Before moving on, Shane and I stopped and took a dip in the Little Neshaminy, which was much needed at this point with the combination of nerves and heat.
When we were ready, we continued on the trail, which split off toward the new development, and also continued to the left. We took the route to the left.
New trail section
The trail led along the south side of the new development and then into a swath of woods.
From here, it split again, north and south. Just to see, we took the route to the south first to see if there was a way through. We were not sure which route it would take to connect to Warwick Park.
It turns out, the route to the south will actually be the route after looking it up further.
We got to the end of the trail, which was just the Little Neshaminy Creek, but to the right there was a small tributary that flowed in and barred further movement without going through weeds.
Retention pond view
An historic house known as the Moland House, which I had wanted to visit, is just across the Old York Road, along the historic Old York Road route, and the trail will connect to there.
Abandoned
As planned, the trail will be built under Old York Road/Rt 563, and then connect over to the original Old York Road and reach an existing path at the house. Since we didn’t see a way through, we turned back the way we came and followed the trail to the north.
This took us out to a little closed parking area for the new Memorial Park, and the entrance to the new development.
We walked out to 563, but there was nowhere to go and it looked uninviting. We instead walked back into the development and skirted their retention pond on the left side.
Abandoned
We continued walking and got onto the Memorial Drive loop road, where houses were finished in some cases, and just starting in others. When we got to where there was one only just starting, I could see an abandoned former road through the woods to the north, and what appeared to be an abandoned cart path.
We headed up hill from the future house site through weeds and into the woods, and then cut back to the left a bit. We had missed where the road used to go up. When we got on it, we started heading back toward 563, but then noted an abandoned house to the right we had to see.
Abandoned
The place was a wreck, and sitting wide open without a single sign.
When we got inside, the entire main floor was collapsed into the basement. The building is for sure a total loss, but still completely full of all sorts of stuff. I figure this place was probably not vacant for all that long, but it doesn’t take long if there are busted pipes and moisture for things to rot away.
It’s a hazard that this place even exists. It’s in worse shape than even some of the worst buildings I’ve seen on park lands, and that’s saying a lot.
Abandoned
We wandered through but were very cautious, because th floor is collapsed in many places. Even the very front door has a hole just as you step inside.
The house reminded my of my grandfather’s place, and it even had the same front door. It was built in one of those classic ranch styles, but probably crappily done.
We wandered through different rooms for just a bit, and then moved on out to see if we could find the best way back to the store at Jamison. There was an abandoned cart path to the north, which seemed to go right to where we needed it to.
Cart path
As we followed this, the path led out surprisingly to a very active path. This path led all the way down to the course we were in when we wandered through the back yard by accident. Their club house for it was at the top, and I would imagine a course this small won’t last much longer. It’ll likely be sold to the developer and turned into more homes, because there’s almost nothing left.
As we reached the path, an employee stopped us and said we couldn’t be back there, and he told us we could walk the path to the north to get back out near the Wawa (which was where we were going anyway).
Abandoned club house
The path did a switchback route up hill rather steeply, which surprised me. It then passed yet another, much larger abandoned house. We’d already been seen, so there was no way we were checking this one out.
When we got back to the lot, the guy who directed us out was standing there, probably checking to make sure we did make our way out. I started a conversation saying that this was not like any golf course I’d seen before. I asked what was with that abandoned building we had just gone by, and he said that it was their former club house, but had been shut out for years.
This was probably the strangest still active golf course I had ever been through.
We continued out and across to the Wawa, and discussed whether we were going to try to get a bite to eat there, or if we were going to try to stop at more of a sit down place.
Most of us agreed we wanted to sit down somewhere cool, and so we decided on the Pour House, which was right there along Old York Road on the way back. We walked up the road past the Wawa, and the Pour House soon came into view to the right. It occupied an obviously historic building, but I know very little.
Jamison Pour House
The waitress we had said that she knew it was once some sort of coach stop, but that she knw little about the rest of it. It could be that the “Pour House” name is just an homage to the “Almhouse Road” which was the next intersection.
Special at the Pour House
There would certainly have been a poor house in the area for the road to have that name, but whether or not the current “Pour House” was that almhouse or not, I am not sure, and apparently neither were the employees that were on.
I decided to sample the special of the night, which was slabs of beef and turkey, with tasty sides. I chose broccoli and the mac and cheese ziti, which was all great.
From there, we were pretty much within sight of the cars, and finished in short order. Dan had enough time to get home to join his parents for their anniversary dinner, so all went well.
Crazy house
It was really an excellent hike with a good mix of stuff, just like I like, and it opened doors to many other future hikes. There are tons of things that can be done throughout the area year round, from the two wineries with the bigger groups, the Little Neshaminy has much more to see, the main creek has a lot to see, and there are lots of development paths with which to concoct loop hikes with. I figure that once we find all of the best stuff on small hikes like this one, we’ll be able to come up with a good anthology of these little ones and have a really spectacular group hike with both new and old stuff, but it will be better than any of them previously.
HAM
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