Hike #1255; Warrington to Doylestown

Hike #1255; Warrington to Doylestown

9/15/19 Warrington, Hartsville, Warwick, and Doylestown with Justin Gurbisz, Kevin Kowalick, Kathryn Cataldo, Shane Blische, Lyz Abeth, Ric Giantisco, John DiFiore, Brad Baesic, Lai Haobo, and Colin Webb

It had been a while since I did a big group hike on the Neshaminy Creek series. It’s been a fantastic series, but the only ones in months were impromptu small group weekdays.

Development path exploring

It seems like we do these hikes and reach points that merit a lot more attention than others. The first few on the Neshaminy were pretty cut and dry, up along the creek in one direction, until we got to Newtown. There, we had lots of little tributaries and tons of other trails all through the watershed, including Tyler State Park, the college lands, Heritage Conservancy Lands, and much more. In fact, there’s still more to do there. When we had done a whole lot of the stuff around Newtown and Tyler, we moved on to the north, toward Jamison, and then found a lot more.

Development path at Warrington

The Little Neshaminy Creek breaks away from the main creek in Rushland, and is a substantial tributary itself. Of course, I spent a great deal of time researching that tributary and have been including it in the series as well.
This time, my plan was to incorporate sections of both the main Neshaminy and Little Neshaminy, and then to finally hit Rushland Ridge Winery for a visit and tasting, because it was closed the last two times we went by there. I figured it would be a great one for enjoying the water on a hot day, and I could use some of the best of past stuff we’d seen for the group.

Little Neshaminy Creek at Warrington Twp

It was also a great opportunity for a sort of end of Summer celebration. Brittany had told me she wanted to have an end of Summer party at her house, and this wasn’t too far overall.

Apartment walking fun

And so, she had a sort of garage cookout with burgers and dogs, and we hung out there for a bit the night before.
I couldn’t believe more people didn’t show up for it. It seemed like it would be a really nice time. We enjoyed our time there, but there really weren’t many that showed up.
I was up late because I had to pick up Jillane from work, and then got up early again for the hike. I’ve been running myself ragged quite a lot lately. Still, I was prepared for a good day.

Little Neshaminy Creek at Kemper Park

I made the meeting point in a strip mall next to the movie theater just south of Doylestown PA, along Route 611. It would then be a very easy car shuttle from there south to the start point, and the next hikes in this series could take us to the larger trail system around the outside of Doylestown. I’d never connected a hike to there before, so this would be another cool step to reach.
The start point of the hike was at the Eastern Mountain Sports in a plaza known as The Shops at Valley Square, in Warrington Township. From there, we’d make our way toward the Little Neshaminy Creek.

Little Neshaminy Creek at Kemper Park

My route took us through the plaza with it’s sidewalks and such to the east a bit, and out across a lot to Valley Square Blvd. We turned right briefly on this, and then a paved trail turned off to the right into the swath of trees along a little wetland and then retention pond.
We followed this trail to it’s end on North Main Street. We turned right briefly and crossed over Valley Square Blvd again, then turned left into another retail area. We skirted the south side of the parking lot, and then another trail exited this spot into some woods to the south.

Weirdly growing Beech tree

This trail took us out to Street Road, Rt 132, where we turned to the left.
These development paths apparently are sort of closed. The first one of them we stepped onto had no trespassing signs on them, for what reason I cannot begin to guess.
On Street Road, we soon crossed over the Little Neshaminy Creek. I gathered everyone together to talk about it a bit, and what I love about it. It was much smaller in this area than other sections we had followed before.

Little Neshaminy

Next to the creek, there was one little park, oddly named Shank Tot Lot with a playground. I don’t know who’s brilliant idea it was to name a playground in such a way that makes it sound like you’re stabbing toddlers, but whatever.

Little Neshaminy

We continued down Street Road and then turned left into the Park at Westminster Apartments. We were able to turn through and follow some of the sidewalk paths through this complex rather than just stay on roads the entire time which made things better.
We exited the apartments onto Valley Road and turned left, north, toward the Little Neshaminy again.
We continued until Valley Road crossed over the creek, and then we turned right into Kemper Park.
I was concerned about this section, because the maps showed it being a dead end trail.

Little Neshaminy Creek and Haobo

I let everyone know before we started walking this section of trail that it might well be an out and back, and that possibly we might split the group. I was prepared to walk the creek, while I knew others wouldn’t want to do that so much.

The bridge

We started walking the very pleasant away from Valley Road heading to the east. There was public land on the other side of Valley Road as well, but that appears also to be an out and back, so we didn’t bother with that one.
The trail continued out to a pavilion way out along the creek, in an open grassy area. Lots of houses were on the left, and in plain view from the park, but no good way out to the roads from the park. At the end, we opted to try to continue as far as we could. The trail did not continue on right away.

Bristol Rd Bridge

Shane was already in swimming by this point at an upstream deep spot. I walked into the creek and across to the other side to see if I could find an easy way out to the neighborhood to the south.
The Warminster Pumping Station was across the way, and I thought we might find a good way out there, but such was not the case.
I decided to just start wading the creek. I told the others that they would be best off just trying to walk back the way we came, and out and around on the nearest street to us.

Neshaminy Warwick Church

Just after a little inlet, there was another path on the north side of the Little Neshaminy, so we went up to walk it.
I had found that the rest of the group was also continuing in that same direction, and soon rejoined the path we were on.
The path wasn’t great, but it did even have foot bridges on it, which spanned little gullies, but were not cleared. They were quite a mess, and eventually the path could no longer be followed. We had to make our way back into the creek, while the rest of the group struggled to remain along the north side in the weeds or whatever.

Path along Meetinghouse Road

The pumping station to the right was not apparently just a water pumping station, but also some sort of sewage treatment plant. It got pretty smelly as we went by, and we didn’t want to go in the water through there for too long. A bit down stream and it would be alright, but we made our way back up to the north side of the creek through this area.
We thought we had a good path for a time, but were then out in the messy brush again. We managed to get through it until there was a sort of crescent shaped pond along the Little Neshaminy. The problem was, this was private land.

Imaginary bikes?

We regrouped here to figure out what we were doing. I wasn’t going to try to continue following the north side because it opened up widely to where the house was above. I wanted to stay lower and follow the creek to get out.
There looked to be a good spot down, and then we could wade the creek and make our way out to Bristol Road bridge on the other side.
We gave everyone a good amount of time to take their shoes off and such to come on through. Everyone but Haobo I think waded across, and he made his way on the far south back toward Bristol Road.
Once everyone was safe and out of the water, and I could see Haobo on the other side, we made our way toward the next road. There was a deep wash that was possible to walk through.
We followed the sort of dry wash up stream through the weeds for a bit. Lyz and Ric stayed pretty closely behind me, but everyone else was disappearing.

Must pretend to ride a bike...

Only a few of us pushed through this section, and then others decided to get back in the creek and walk up that.
When I got the word by phone what they had done, the rest of us headed to the bridge that carries the West Bristol Road out to cross the Neshaminy beneath in the river.
Once on the other side, we climbed steeply up and emerged on Meetinghouse Road. We turned right to a sharp bend, where we came upon the Neshaminy-Warwick Presbyterian Church, where we waited for the others to catch up with us.
They emerged pretty soon, and enjoyed some shade at the nice old church building.
The handsome old church dates back to about 1792, when it was built to replace the earlier church. Worship started in the original church at the sight in 1727. The adjoining Cemetery was a burial place dating back to the 1600s.

Moland House

The original church grounds was used as a hospital area for the Continental Army during the American Revolution. For 100 years, 1839 until 1939, the congregation split between here and another church across the creek in Hartsville. That church was torn down, and the congregation was reunified.
We continued up Meetinghouse Road from this point, and after a short while, there was a paved pathway parallel with the road. This was nice, because it served the purpose of a sidewalk, but it was farther away, and often behind a line of trees giving illusion of seclusion.

Garden at the Moland House

We continued along this nice route until we came to the intersection with Eddowes Road.
We turned to the right to follow this road to the southeast a bit.
I waited a few steps down it, and everyone was so into conversation that almost all of them were walking right by without making the turn.
There was a pedestrian lane on the right of the road rather than an independent pathway or sidewalk. This was a laugh for me because it had both the symbols for cyclists as well as a sort of pedestrian one. They just re-used the cyclist figure without the bike, which looked funny.

Moland House

We did a few poses as if we are only allowed to be in that lane if we are pretending to ride a bike, or if we’re busting out some awesome dance moves.

Moland House

The next intersection was with the Old York Road, the historic road route between Philadelphia and New York City. We’ve crossed over and/or followed this route countless times on all of our hikes going back so many years.
The road utilized much of the old native American trade routes. In New Jersey, it followed the Tuckaraming Trail, or Naraticong Trail. Much of the route in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania is followed closely parallel to Route 202. It was developed between 1711 and 1771.

List of places Washington stayed

Of course, with a road this old, you are bound to find historic homes along the way, which brought us to the next point of interest I had intended.
The Moland House was one of those many buildings that for a short time served as a military headquarters for General George Washington.
John Moland, a Philadelphia lawyer, purchased the property in 1741, and the house was built around 1750.
By the time of the American Revolution, Moland had passed, and his wife, Catherine, was still living in the home. Washington chose the site in 1777 as headquarters while he waited for military intelligence regarding British forces. From August 10th through 23rd, eleven thousand troops were encamped around the area along the Little Neshaminy Creek. It was also here that Count Casimir Pulaski and the Marquis de Lafayette joined the Revolution.

Historic marker at Moland House

The site is apparently skimmed over often among historians for it’s significance, but the long stay at the site is certainly worth mention.
The home had fallen into disrepair from late 1960s until concerned citizens began to take action in 1985 to save it. Now, the municipality owns it and it’s quite nice.

Moland House

There is a claim that the first time the Betsy Ross flag ever flew over the Continental Army was at this site, but there are contradicting claims in New Jersey that the Middlebrook Encampment owns that distinction. Through a special act of congress, that flag flies at that site twenty four hours a day.

Trail at the Moland House

We took a nice break here and read some of the historic markers, and then began to move along to the south.
I had found out that a Warwick trails plan called for the trail at the Moland House to be connected with the rest of their trail system, but it’s all still under development.
On the previous hike we had done around this area, Shane, Dan, and I had checked out that trail, which came to a dead end. The new alignment of York Road, parallel with the old one, has yet to have the trail built under it, but it wasn’t too hard for us to follow this time.

York Road underpass

We headed south from the house, and into the woods along the Little Neshaminy Creek. It was clear to the underpass at York Road, where we turned.
Beyond, it was just overgrown. There is a small tributary that separates us in this area from the paved trail that is complete on the other side. I figure they probably have to get things in order for that bridge before it connects.
There was a bit of weeds, but we got through it and made our way out to the paved trail. It would be quite a lot easier from this point for a long while afterwards, thankfully.

Colin found his spot

The trail took us to the north on a wide route, mowed around the paved route. We soon came to an intersection where straight led up toward a development, and to the right took us along the south of the development, where I had hiked the previous time.
This all, I believe, used to be a golf course section that was sold for a development. It seems that some of the paved paths are former redeveloped golf cart paths. This section is now known as Warwick Memorial Park. We continued to the east, and then reachd where the golf cart paths break off to the left, but we continued to a bridge over the creek.

Warwick trail

Like we had done the previous time, we stopped to take a dip here. It was brutally hot out by this time, and it was quite refreshing to get in the water, although the silt at the bottom was quite smelly. I think it was too hot out for it to bother us that much. I think Shane was the first in.
After our dip, we crossed over Creek Road and turned immediately to the left on a paved trail that ran parallel to it, but mostly behind a line of trees. I think it doubles as a golf cart path, because those go also ahead and into an area between the houses ahead.

A dip in Little Neshaminy Creek

Near a bend in the road is where we had come out on the previous trip through here, bushwhacking out of the golf course and through someone’s yard. We’d have an easier time this time.
We just stayed on the path heading to the east, but it ended after the end of the new development. Creek Road was still nice through this area and not heavily used.
We continued down hill through that, and there was a handsome stone house to the left that had been extended upon well beyond it’s original size. There was a pretty pond, and then a bridge over a stream.

Tributary bridge

Bridge #138 built in 1937 crossed a tributary to the Little Neshaminy Creek, but provided us with no access.
There was a vacant lot near here on the east side of the road with only a chimney in it, probably another old homestead.
We continued up Creek Road out into an open field area, then came to the intersection at Mearns Road.
It was here, at a little swath of shade, that I offered the group two alternatives. Each route would be different than the other, but one might be easier I told them.

An old house site

Across Mearns Road was the former New Hope Branch of the Reading Railroad, which is now part of the New Hope and Ivyland Railroad. We had followed it previously almost to this point, but didn’t do this section. If we were to follow that, we would get off of the roads sooner, and then could continue along to Grenoble, where abandoned Grenoble Road could be followed to the bridge site, and we could wade across the Little Neshaminy to get to the little used road on the other side. I was personally leaning more toward that way, because I was liking the idea of more shade and another dip.

Rushland Ridge area

The other option was to continue on Mearns Road, then go left on Almshouse Road, and follow it up hill to Rushland Road, which we would take to Rushland Ridge Vineyards and Winery, which would only give us a short section of parallel trail, and the rest would be road.
Most of the group leaned toward doing the road section, and so we turned to the left on Mearns Road.
The tracks were closely parallel for a bit, and Shane walked on that for a bit. Before we moved off away from the tracks for good, I reminded everyone that it was not too late if they wanted to change their minds.

Most of the group was still either wanting to stay on the road or simply neutral, so we continued on the road.
We reached Almshouse Road, and then turned to the left to head slightly down hill, and crossed over the Little Neshaminy Creek.
We had followed this bit of road previously, and then cut off to the west side following the creek, but this time we would stay straight. On that hike, I was asking around what the origin of the road’s name was. I known an “almshouse” is typically the same as a poor house, and there is the bar called the “pour house”, but that’s apparently not it.

New Bridge on old Hill Road

I’d recently found out that the almshouse is now a stately manor house with a newer purpose, as per this article: https://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/news/20190304/lavo-story-behind-bucks-countys-almshouse-road?fbclid=IwAR1NLWLpXGzjeBLEzw46Y5kbadDKzqu9iCXm5EupmO-bRAtPm5o3THkhNzI
After crossing the bridge, the Neshaminy Valley Golf Club lands were on the left, and lands of the Heritage Conservancy, but we stayed to the right. As we headed up hill, the road was narrow and really crappy for walking.

New bridge on old Hill Road

I said screw this pretty early on in that slope, and headed off into the woods parallel with the road.
It really wasn’t too bad walking being in those woods. We were always within sight of Almshouse Road, but it was still pretty easy to walk. There were a few weeds, but nothing too bad, and occasional dips up and down where it had been dug out to help with drainage of the road.
Lyz, Ric, and I were pretty much right together pushing through this whole stretch, and we soon emerged onto Rushland Road close to it’s intersection with Almshouse. We continued to follow Rushland Road north.”

"Baesically" brothers!

Some guy driving a machine stopped and told us something while we were there, but I can’t remember quite what it was any more.

Pedestrian bridge at Dark Hollow Road

While we were walking through the woods, I think all of us must have been picking up errant golf balls that had made their way across Almshouse Road from the course, and by the time we walked a little distance down Rushland, we were throwing them all over the place, at each other, at the road, and seeing how far we could bounce them, or whatever.
We soon got to the intersection with Watson Road on the left and Grenoble Road on the right, where we would have come out had we taken the other way.

Pedestrian bridge at Dark Hollow

At this point, a paved trail makes it’s way from parallel with Watson to parallel with Rushland. We turned off to follow the path, but some of the group ended up staying on the road throwing their golf balls.
At some point, they must have hit a car or something, because someone had words with the group that was out on the road. Those of us off in the trees and shrubbery could hear some yelling coming between people out on the road. They soon joined us on the path, which continued for a little bit farther, to the intersection with Zachary Lane, and ended.

Dark Hollow Road pedestrian bridge

We came back out to Rushland Road and continued to walk gradually down hill to a large farm property where they had enormous mounds of mulch out in the near fields.

Bridge Shane

The road made a ninety degree bend to the southeast here, and started heading more steeply up hill. We stayed off in the grass to the left of the road, and at the top turned another ninety degrees to the left.
In just a short distance was the entrance to the Rushland Ridge Vineyard and Winery. We had passed here twice before hoping to stop for a tasting, and found it closed both times, so it was good to finally get in there. The first time, their dog chased us out and we managed to hold him for them, but we didn’t end up getting any wine out of it unfortunately.

A scene in Dark Hollow

We headed into the tasting area, and they were quite surprised that we were walking so far.
The lady working the place was one of the owners, Lisa Ullman.
The Ullman family began their wine making tradition when Lisa’s husband Ed and his father began planting at Kings Oak Vineyards in Huntingdon Valley, in 1968.
The Ullmans purchased their current farm on Rushland Ridge in 1986, and have around six acres in planting. Mrs. Ullman chatted with us for a while about the wines, and we discussed how the insects are really doing a number on their business. A whole crop of one sort was lost.

White Sangria

Kevin joined in and we started talking about the Spotted Lanternfly, which he is working with New Jersey DEP to combat now.
Most of us went for the tasting, which was pretty good. It was different than most tastings I’d gone to in the past, because this one started with dry white, moved on to the sweet white, then sweet red, and the culminated with the dry red. Typically, these places start with the dry whites and go to sweet, and then go with reds from dry to sweet, or they simply mix between red and white from dry to sweet. I do think I prefer the dry to sweet tastings, but this was an interesting difference.
When we had tasted everything, I selected the White Sangria as my drink for the rest of the day.
We hung out for a while and discussed some of their farming, and Mrs. Ullman told us how her son was doing well with his new hemp business, which he uses the family farm to grow.

Mill Road Bridge

He’s apparently doing this with no compensation, and Mrs. Ullman went on to say they loved him but that they’d better start getting some sort of kick backs if he’s going to be using their land and electric for this growing enterprise.
Their son did show up while we were there, and messed around with some of his crop in some sort of temperature controlled areas on the property behind the tasting room. He sort of let out a disinterested “hi mom” to her as he went about his business.

Mill Road bridge

Some of the group was out on the swingsets playing, and their dog, whom we had met before, was being very playful trying to either get us to play fetch, or to pull on the stick he was holding and then not let it go.
We were soon on our way, and headed back out the driveway to Rushland Road.
We turned right at the top, heading somewhat north, but then made a left turn when we got to Hill Road. We had scouted through this previously, and found that the road still goes through, but that it was closed to vehicle traffic in the middle.

Group at Mill Road bridge

We headed gradually down hill and past the only house along the road. Beyond, we entered the woods, and there was a very steep drop off right to the Neshaminy Creek.

Mill Road bridge

We continued down hill, and to the left where the road crossed over a small tributary. Last time, we had to step over this spot because there was no bridge there. This time, I was rather surprised to see a very nice wooden bridge had been built over that place.
I wasn’t sure that it was public land, but it looks like it might be officially part of some trail connection now.
We continued across and further down the abandoned section of the road, to where it’s used as a driveway again near the bottom at Dark Hollow Road. From here, the plan was to turn to the left up hill.

Mill Road bridge

We then turned to the right briefly, just so everyone could get a closer look at the prefabricated pedestrian bride over the Neshaminy Creek that replaced the earlier structure. I was told that the earlier one was a through truss there.
We walked up to the top of it, and Justin and Shane climbed to the top of either truss out to the middle of it.
Once we’d seen enough at this point, we turned around and started hiking back up Dark Hollow Road, heading up hill.

Ewer's Mill was apparently along Mill Road

The right side of Dark Hollow Road had some nice block type rock in the base of the tributary heading up hill. we continued until we reached the crest of the hill.

Apparently Mill Road bridge, and Ewer's Mill

At the top, a sort of driveway broke off to the right, parallel with where we had just come from, but remaining at the same elevation. We turned to the right here.

In the Neshaminy

It was only a short distance on this route before there was a paved trail going off to the left. we turned on this.
This trail took us out to Lockleigh Road where we turned to the right. We followed this road only a short distance, and then turned right again onto another development trail. We had followed this one on a previous hike, only it was out and around.
This time, we followed it in, and then stopped at the mowed trail that comes out of the Bucks County owned Dark Hollow Park. I turned when everyone could see where I was heading to the east.

Historic view of the Eight Arch Bridge

The trail passed through some young woods, and eventually headed down hill to the large power line clearing. Here, we turned to the left and headed steeply down hill.

Historic mill view adjacent to the Eight Arch Bridge

we remained on the power line clearing, which continued until it turned to the right and crossed over the Neshaminy Creek. we followed it to just before that point, and then I got in the creek. Some of the group followed the edge, and others waded through with me.

Neshaminy

It was relaxing being in the Neshaminy at this point. The trails that are supposed to be in this bit of Dark Hollow Park are pretty much grown over and tough to follow, though I’ve tried to bully through them twice before at this point.
We continued through the creek down stream until we hit the lovely old Mill Road bridge.
This two span through Whipple Truss bridge just to the north of Jamison was constructed in 1888 and closed to traffic in 2011. It remained open to pedestrians only for a time, but even that had been closed in more recent years.

Neshaminy Creek

It's future looks bleak, as imminent failure has been noted. I’ve heard that the bridge that was on Dark Hollow Road was similar to this one as well. I suppose it will be removed eventually.

Trail along the Neshaminy at Dark Hollow

This bridge is reportedly the former site of Ewer’s Mill, which was destroyed by fire in 1907. I didn’t note any remnants of it.
From here, I have only walked in the river up stream, never any further. Maps show that there was supposed to be a trail on the south side of the creek, but I’d not tried to follow it really. When I saw from the parking area adjacent to the bridge that there wasn’t really a good path going anywhere, I only chose to walk the stream in the past. I figured that if it were as bad as what was downstream from this same area, the upstream “trail” would also be terrible.

Monster tree in Dark Hollow

Some of us got in the stream and started walking up stream for a bit, while others remained on the shore and started heading the same way. They were not having a hard time.

Neshaminy view

By the time I realized that they weren’t having too much difficulty, we had reached a power line underpass. I climbed out from the stream and started walking the trail with them.

Neshaminy Creek

The path was actually surprisingly nice, weaving around along the shore of the river with a lot of really nice views. There was also a real monster of a tree up there I was glad not to miss.

We had a good long stretch of trail from here, and we even stopped to take another dip along the way.
After a little while, we reached the famous Eight Arch stone bridge on the Old York Road.
The lovely old stone arch span connects the settlements of Jamison and Furlong. Work began in 1801 and was completed in 1804.
Also known as Pettit's Bridge, it was taken out of service in the 1960s when the adjacent highway bridge was completed.
Today, it is open to pedestrian use only, and a sort of jump-off point for Dark Hollow Park.

Historic image of the eight arch bridge

My understanding is that this spot was once known as Bridge valley, but I’m not totally sure. There was supposedly a mill right at the edge of the bridge, possibly Ryan’s Mill.

The Eight Arch Bridge

We climbed up to the bridge for a break and walked across. The far side of it is now blocked off and treated as private property, on the north side, but the south side now has a parking area and trail access. The parking area is a turn that was the original intersection between Valley Road and Old York Road, severed by the new highway. Our route beyond this would be to follow Valley Road.
After our break, we continued walking underneath the new York Road bridge, and then climbed steeply up the other side.

Eight Arch Bridge

This was kind of a rough spot. We managed to get up to the top and climb over the railing, but we should have just walked around because it’d have been so much easier.

Along valley Road

As soon as we turned onto Valley Road, there were immediately old historic buildings in view. This was a very pleasant little back road to walk.
There was a nice little creek access point to the right, but no further trails going through. We had to remain on Valley Road for a bit.
The creek started turning away from the road to the right, and the road gained elevation heading more west. We just had to stay on Valley Road until we came back again to the intersection with Almshouse Road, where we turned to the right. That started taking us gradually back down hill toward the creek.

Umbrella

This section of road was really narrow, so I couldn’t wait to get off of it. I watched to the right through the woods for anything good we could potentially walk.

Ham

There was eventually an apartment complex that appeared to the right of the road. I took the first opportunity we had to turn to the right to skirt the edge of their mowed lawn. There was some sort of path that paralleled it on the side near to the road, so we followed that out to the first access road, Bridle Lane.
We crossed the lane, and then followed a grassy opening to a wide lawn behind the apartments. It was like a common area where it seemed no one would bother us.
We walked across this open area until there was an opening between buildings to the north back out to Bridel Lane. There, we turned slightly to the left, and there was a paved trail going into the woods to the west, away from the development.
We started following that into some pleasant woods. I guess this path is supposed to only be for members of their homeowners association, but oh well.

The path soon came very close again to the Neshaminy Creek. Tributaries were bridged with nice foot bridges.
The creek soon moved off to the right again, and the path kept to the left and emerged at another apartment complex. We continued out to the end of the path, at Eagle Lane, and then continued to follow Almshouse Road the short distance to the entrance to Barn Plaza on the right. From there, we just had to walk the bit across the lot in order to get back to where we had parked in the morning.

Ham

From there, it was an easy shot back to get to my car. Ric drove those of us who drived back, and most of us got together for dinner at the Applebees right there where we had finished hiking.
I really enjoyed this hike quite a lot. The Neshaminy Series at this point reaches yet another spot where it will branch us off in many different directions. We still have a good amount to do on the Little Neshaminy Creek from before we joined it on this one, and the main creek has other branches through this area. There ware a great many trails that break off as we get to the Doyelstown area, and I’ve never really hiked that town anyway. It certainly has historic sites and such I want to visit as a part of this series.
With weekends freeing up more as the year begins to wind down, I hope to revisit the Neshaminy more often, and maybe bring the series to a close, but there might be enough to carry us a couple more years worth honestly.

Trail along the Neshaminy

The next hike, whenever I get around to it, will be taking us into town and through the Central Park and Castle Valley area. I suspect more good times are imminent.

HAM