Hike #1497; Hatboro to Frankford

Hike #1497; 7/24/22 Hatboro to Frankford with Wilma Vargas, Professor John DiFiore, James DeLotto, Teresa I., Mike Heaney, Diane Reider, Justin Gurbisz, Brittany Weider, and Peter Fleszar

This next hike would be a point to point I put together for two reasons: it was along water the entire day to make amends for the previous week’s waterless heat disaster, and because most of the right of way is easy enough that if I had my son, I could push his carriage on it.

This was in part a repeat of a hike I had done before, only the previous time I’d done it we started in Abington and then got on the Pennypack Creek. This time, I would start and end on the Pennypack Creek rather than add other stuff. My goal was to be along the water the entire time and make it a really truly enjoyable and easier hike.

I think we definitely pulled this one off pretty well, and it ended up being really very interesting.

I made the meeting point Pleasant Hill Park on the Delaware River, a little bit north of the Pennypack Greenway, which would add a little bit of the waterfront to the hike that I thought might be cool.

The problem was, this park closed rather early and I didn’t want to get stuck too late. The problem we’d face before the end was that we’d end up taking too long.

Still, we used the meeting point, and then shuttled with as few cars as possible north to the starting point, which would be Pennypack Road near Hatboro PA.

As we pulled in to the end of the road, almost all of the parking spots were already taken. Fortunately, we had one walker was on his way out and provided us with the parking spot we needed to get the hike started from that spot.

Pennypack Creek Road used to continue on through, but is now gated at this point and a trail just beyond. It is a very nice, shaded route through the woods.

I wore my beat up old Kean shoes that my friend Annika had given me, which at this point I was holding together with two zip ties, much to everyone's amusement. It does hold together the shoe pretty well. I find them to be some of the best name brand shoes I've used.

It was another extremely hot day, and I was ready to get in the water the first chance we got. There were some spots that went right down to the Pennypack Creek, and I was pretty much in them right away.

Delotto and Brittany were both in with me right away as well. It just felt so perfect.

The trail soon came out to Mason’s Mill Road, and we crossed directly to continue on the trail. We continued on the route that was closest to the creek through this part.

Pretty soon, we reached Creek Road, which is closed to traffic these days. It crosses over the Pennypack Creek on a lovely single span stone arch, 34 feet long, built in 1840 and still in good shape. We walked out onto it to have a look around before continuing along the creek, which was full of rocks through this area. It looked more like something up in the mountains than one would think down in Huntingdon Valley by Philadelphia.

There were multiple different ways we could have gone from Creek Road. There were trails on both sides of the Pennypack from here, and at this point the only one I had done was the old Newtown Branch of the Reading Railroad on the other side.

This time, I was planning on sticking to the west side of the creek for the earlier part, on mostly closed old Creek Road, but then at this point we found another foot path closer to the creek I was not aware of before.

We followed the foot path, which officially dead ends when we got to an old spring house, built in the 1700s for the farmstead just uphill from the trail.
Although the trail officially ended, the old Creek Road was just barely up the slope behind the springhouse, so we just climbed up there to reach the road.
The house right at the top was quite a sight, and beyond it, further back from the road, was a beautiful stone church building.

The church building was the chapel of The Lord's New Church in Huntingdon Valley.
The church was founded by Reverend Theodore Pitcairn in 1937.

Pitcairn purchased the old farm dating to the 1700s and transformed it in the style of early French farm groups, with architecture designed by George Howe.

The chapel was built in French Romanesque style with Pennsylvania barn inspiration, and 12th century columns in the entrance and on the porch
The chapel was originally designed as an art studio for Pitcairn's father in law, Phillipe Smith.
It was transformed to the chapel prior to 1970.
We continued down Creek Road Trail from this point along the slopes above the Pennypack into Huntingdon Valley. The trail descended closer to the creek, and there were more trails that broke off to the right that I would have loved to try to explore, but there’s simply not enough time in a day for it.

As we walked, there were more good spots to take a dip off to the left, but perhaps none was better than a spot to the left with deep slack water provided by a partially destroyed dam. 

The dam site still has some masonry in place just downstream, but it almost looks natural right now because it is so far gone.
The creek looked well deep enough, so I did a running jump off of the slope into it. The water felt great, and I floated around for a bit. I don’t think anyone else wanted to go in because it looked like it was going to be too hard to climb back up to the edge from here. The water was a bit lower than average due to the drought, but it was kind of slippery on the side anyway.

When I got in there, I didn’t see a good way out, so I ended up swimming downstream to the dam site, climbing up the rocks, and then came out through a sort of lawn like area at the lower end. Delotto also went in here, but I think he was more easily able to climb back up near where he jumped from.

We continued along the road, and then came to Huntingdon Road where there was a beautiful old house on the right. From here, we had to go down what looked to be someone’s driveway, but was actually the continuation of Creek Road. It brought us into woods, and there might have been a remnant of an old dam to the right.

In the section ahead, we passed through the Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust property. There were some lovely ponds on the right side, opposite the creek, and they seemed to sit higher than the road/trail.

Much of the trail had recently been restored. The old pavement or whatever the surface had been was replaced by new crushed stone aggregate. It had recently been damaged by Hurricane Ida.

We continued on the road up to an old intersection. None of these roads were open to vehicular traffic, but this was where Creek Road crossed over Paper Mill Road.

At this point, we took a little side trip to the left on old Paper Mill Road to the Paper Mill Road Bridge. This was another historic bridge over the Pennypack of stone arch construction. This one was built in 1817 and remained in pretty good shape.

We headed back to Creek Road Trail to continue downstream. Directly on the other side at this point was the former Newtown Branch of the Reading, directly parallel, but I had already done this section so I wanted to stay on Creek Road Trail.

As we headed south, there was broken up pavement that was kind of a mess, but not too bad walking, and some good creek views. We stopped yet again and I got in the water.

Pretty soon, the trail started going slightly uphill, and the property managers have apparently chosen to use expensive pavers on this stretch to keep it from eroding. It was in the process of being laid out when we walked through. All I could think was that there must be a fortune invested in these park lands.

We soon came to another parking area where the Raytharn Trail came in from meadows to the northwest. 

All of this could be parts of other hikes, but there is just too much stuff to do, so we couldn’t get to that this time. There was also an interesting tree that appeared to be looping and rooted in two locations, and an enormous Pin Oak here.
We walked the old road from the parking area here out to Terwood Road.
This was probably the worst tiny bit of the entire hike. There was absolutely no shoulder on Terwood at all. We had to turn left here, and traffic was barreling toward us.

We made it through because we really didn’t have to go far on this road. Just a bit ahead we turned left on Fetter’s Mill Road. The road currently doesn’t go through due to bridge closure, so it was a great one to walk.

We descended somewhat to where the buildings were, old homesteads and the old Fetters Mill itself. The milling community here was established in 1740, and it is now part of the Fetters Mill Historic District.
We approached the old bridge over the Pennypack here, a single span Pratt through truss built in 1883. The first time I had been to this site, the bridge was still open and I set up a then and now photo compilation from the hill on the other side. The bridge was closed in 2017 to be rehabilitated and strengthened, but that hasn’t happened yet.

We crossed and then viewed the saddest part of the entire hike, the loss of the original Bryn Athyn Station on the old Newtown Branch.

There is still a station at Bryn Athyn, but one that dates to closer to the turn of the twentieth century. It serves at the Bryn Athyn post office now.
The original station was a larger structure from the beginning of the line, probably 1878, which was a home style station where the Station Agent would live upstairs. Many stations like this were torn down or like this one, sold off to private interests. Sadly, the original station was completely consumed by fire in January of 2022.

Willow Grove Fire Dept photo

The rail line was first built through to Newtown in 1878 as the Philadelphia, Newtown, and New York, Railroad. The line was built to sort of block the “National Railway” which later became the main Reading Railroad line to New York city.

Historic view of the original station

This was not the only line to be built in such a way.

We had done a series to trace the route of the Somerset and Mercer Railroad, which broke off of the Bel Del Railroad below Washington’s Crossing, and connected to other lines in Millstone. Some of that was rather haphazard construction, done fast to block the other line. This similar line was funded by the Pennsylvania Railroad, and it was planned that it would continue north of Newtown and connect with the Somerset and Mercer in NJ, but this never came to fruition.

1964 photographer unknown

The National Railway’s Delaware and Bound Brook project was built anyway, and the line became part of the Reading Railroad system.

In 1876 the Great Frog War of Hopewell took place and Delaware &Bound Brook came out as victors, which destroyed the Newtown & New York Railroad's chance of ever reaching to New York City.
Although the Pennsylvania Railroad funded these initiatives to block what would become a through Reading Railroad route, the Newtown line too became part of the Reading Railroad system.

Service continued through to Newtown, even after Reading Railroad merged into Conrail in 1976 and railroad traffic was reaching a national low. The line had been electrified as far as the Fox Chase Station by 1966, and diesel shuttles continued through the early eighties.

A lot of work went into the branch north of Fox Chase even into more recent years, with replacement of ties, and replacement of the old style spikes with expensive pandrol clips. 

Still, the section just above Fox Chase to the Montgomery/Bucks County line was converted to trail. More recently, the section from the county line through Southampton was also converted to trail, but the last segment up to Newtown still has rail in place, although it is disconnected.

This is one of those lines that should never have been let go. It provided through passenger service all the way from Newtown, through all of these communities, directly in to Philadelphia. The problem is SEPTA doesn’t want to run anything but electric, and didn’t want to spend the money to upgrade above Fox Chase.

I set up another then and now photo compilation of the newer Bryn Athyn Station, and then we made our lunch stop at the All Aboard Café, a food truck stop that operates at the parking lot for the trail.

I think I got some sort of chicken sandwich or something that was offered on the menu and it was quite great. We then sat around and relaxed at picnic benches under big umbrellas which was quite relaxing.

Eventually, we moved on and our route would take us on the railroad bed to the south for a bit because there is no trail all the way through. Most of the way there is, in the Betheyres Woods Trail, but we didn’t do that one this time.

It is quite bothersome that it was deemed necessary to open this rail trail on this really viable commuter line, when almost the entire distance of the trail (at least when it terminated near the county line) already had multi use trail directly parallel with it. The Creek Road Trail was paved much of the way, or at least crushed stone, and serves the purpose of connecting through these lands. With little work, it could have been connected all the way through, but the powers that be would not entertain such options.

We continued south on the railroad bed, and pretty soon who showed up on the trail but Pete!

Pete had been pulling these surprise meetings on us for a while, going back to when we were doing the Standing Stone Trail and Tuscarora series in Pennsylvania, and he would bring us delicious beers, freezing cold too!

This time was no different, and he had a cooler with him with some really tasty IPA I think it was. This was quite a welcome experience, and so I shared some other thing I had open with him. I think it was a Triple Dog IPA.

We continued south along the line, crossed over the Pennypack, and then crossed over Terwood Road. The rail bed took us very close to some buildings, then across Route 63 and over a parking area for the trail in Betheyres.

Pretty soon, we reached the crossing of the former Reading Railroad Trenton line. A train went by just as we were getting there. Some waited to cross while other people, not even just our group, hurried across the tracks.

We continued across the tracks to the south on the railroad bed and passed beneath abutments of an old bridge site, probably some earlier road alignment, and there was a signal tower that Delotto climbed up. 

I posted photos of it, which had no signs saying to stay off of it or anything, and people got all sorts of bent out of shape about anyone climbing up it.

We crossed beneath the Huntingdon Pike, and then continued to the south further to cross the Pennypack again on an old through girder bridge. This was apparently originally a covered bridge that carried the railroad over at this point.

The railroad bed was on a pleasant route above the Pennypack in the next section, on a rather high shelf. We continued on and past a bench that was recently placed with bars through them to hold it while cement set.

It wasn’t much farther ahead before a trail broke off to the left from the rail bed. We turned here and didn’t see the rail bed again for the rest of the hike, as we would be following closely to the Pennypack Creek the rest of the way after it turned off.

The path took us down to a nice little picnic grove with a small building and a stony beach on the creek. This would be our next break stop. It was amazing that no one at all was around in this beautiful little spot.

After the refreshing dip, we continued on the path along the stream. I had taken this same route when I first hiked the Pennypack years ago. I had intended to follow a different route, but this one was pretty good, so we just kept with it.
We ended up crossing the creek after a bit of heading downstream, and then followed some foot trails that we might have followed the previous time, but I am not sure.
We ended up way uphill on the east side of the creek, and meandered along some rocky terrain until we came to the next spot I wanted to hit: the Indian Council Rock in Lorimer Park.

It is said that native Americans used to meet at this location to plan their activities. We went to the top and took in the view of the park below and then headed down.

The trail down from Council Rock was steep and full of rocks and tree roots. At the base, there is a little pedestrian covered bridge over a small tributary, and an interesting rock shelter overhang below the rock. This area also surprisingly had fewer people in it.

There is a foot bridge across the creek below the rock, and so we walked across and through the parking lot to follow the creek on the west side. The last time I went through here I believe we continued on the east side.

We passed through nice woods, over a foot bridge across a tributary, and along another nice stretch of the river. 

We then emerged along the east side of the Fox Chase Farm. One mowed path led off along the farm as well.

The trail emerged from the edge of the farm at Pine Road, and I think this was the spot where we entered Philadelphia. We continued straight across.

We passed through a picnic ground and past a shelter which appeared to be 1930s CCC or WPA style construction. There were a few people hanging around at this point, but not a mob scene.

We moved on away from the area with the mowed grass and onto the trail into the woods ahead until we came to a very nice spot, barely away from the rest of the picnic area, where there was no one. We chose this as our next spot to take a dip, which was quite nice.
When we finally decided to move along, others from that area were just arriving.

We continued on the trail ahead at this point, which was something I’d not done before. My first trip through here, we chose to stay right on the creek, and we were wading because the trail disappeared. 

That wading got to be really super deep as we approached the next dam on the creek, and Serious Sean was there carrying his bicycle through it all. It was really a crazy fun hike.

This time we went a bit more tame. We stayed along the official trail and continued downstream to cross Verree Road.

We had a long beautiful stretch of trail on Creekside ahead from here through Pennypack Park. The creek shifted around, west and east along the way. 

After a while, we approached the former Reading Railroad’s Pennypack Viaduct, or Krewstown Viaduct. This line and the original bridge at the site would have been built in 1872, but the current structure is a very tall, closed spandrel arch for which I could find no build date. I suppose it is possible that there is a stone arch beneath the concrete, but I can’t find anything on that either. I’m betting this is not the original structure at that site.
I set up another then and now compilation of this site as well.

We passed beneath the behemoth bridge, and then crossed beneath one of the arches of the Krewstown Road Bridge, a concrete double arch built in 1907.

There was another long stretch of Creekside ahead. The trail remained on the right side of the creek through this section ahead as well.

After a bit, we passed beneath Bustleton Avenue. I don’t even recall if I jumped in the water or not between some of these spots. At one point, the group got ahead of me a bit and I just ran down, jumped in the stream and got back out again to get the sweat off me.
The lovely trails was lined with big trees, good shade, and pretty views the whole way.

After Bustleton, the trail crossed over the Pennypack on a bridge with ornate metal work on the railings, probably dating back to the 1920s or 30s. This was in the Lexington Park vicinity.

The trail brought us up close to Winchester Avenue, and then back down along the Pennypack’s east side again. In this area, it was the most crowded spot of the entire hike.

Most of the group I think kept going at this point, but Delotto and I mingled with the people a bit.

 I think he got there just a bit before me and was chatting with the people swimming, grilling, and partying. Delotto was running a bit low on water, and although I had some extra to give him, these folks graciously gave him some, and then even offered him some corn on the cob they were grilling. Then, he handed each of us a cold beer. It was a crummy one, but it was so cold that it was the best thing in the world at that moment. Delotto hugged the guy before we moved on down the trail.
There was a dam at this point that made the water perfect for bathing. Music was blaring away, but it was quite peaceful. 

The only problem I have with it is the fact that so much garbage gets left behind. 

We could already see full bags sitting beside the trail that I’m sure they expect someone will come and pick up before wildlife tears it apart. Big stream parties like this would be quite acceptable if it weren’t for all of the garbage left behind.

We continued ahead, and passed beneath the big arch bridge carrying Roosevelt Blvd, built in 1920. It was added to for widening over the years, with the original narrower bridge structure still in place between. 

It was so brutally hot at this point, and the rest of the group kept moving ahead. Delotto and I went off to the left and just laid in the creek for a few moments to finish our beers while they were still cold, and to take in the peaceful ambiance.

The view of the Roosevelt Ave bridge from the water edge was obscured by leaves, but still quite nice. I realized I had to set up yet another then and now compilation from this point as I’d had one saved to my phone before getting there.

We eventually got out of the water and started following the trail to the south. We passed beneath Holme Avenue, and continued south toward the underpass at Rhawn Street, but we didn’t go that far. I think I had to call someone in the group ahead of me to inform them of a shortcut we would take.

It had been my intention at the start of this to only follow along the Pennypack, but we were looking at the time and the amount of distance remaining, and it was going to both be well over fifteen miles, and well after the closing at the park at the end. I would have to cut some corners to figure things out here.

There was a side trail to the left that led uphill to Holmhurst Avenue and local access between Winchester Ave and Rhawn Street. 

By taking this route, we would skip one of the bends in the Pennypack Creek. I really wanted to go around it, and this would add some uphill to the hike, but we really needed the shortcut at this point.

We crossed over the connecting road at the top, then got back into the woods and gradually descended back to the edge of the Pennypack once again. We passed a parking area on the right, and then crossed the creek on a foot bridge.

In the woods ahead, there were once buildings, and there was a prominent old fireplace on the right side of the trail. 

It is possible these fireplaces were built for the park, but it looks to me like it could have once a homestead, probably early 1900s though judging by the stone. The park dates back pretty early though, so it could easily be an old amenity.

We continued through woods just a bit more then emerged into an open area and passed the Ed Kelley Amphitheater. 

The trail went back into the woods beyond here, and then passed beneath the arched bridge called the Echo Bridge apparently, which carries Welch Road over top. 

The trail continued along the right side of the creek as we continued downstream.

The creek goes around yet another sweeping bend in this section, and there was a beautiful rock outcrop along it. I took one more opportunity to jump in the water, and no one else joined me this time as we approached what would end up being the end of our trip. I think everyone else was feeling that the water was getting to be a bit pooey this far downstream.

Ahead, we crossed the Pennypack on another foot bridge heading south. Pretty soon after that, we reached a deck girder railroad bridge in the Holmesburg area. This was the former Pennsylvania Railroad’s Bustleton Branch. It was originally built as the Holmesburg and Bustleton Railroad in 1870, and served farming and commercial interests that were growing in the area, and it followed Pennypack Creek on the west side for a bit. One of the stations on it was actually a rehabilitated Revolutionary War era barn. 

The segment we were passing beneath is still active as a spur, but it no longer goes all the way through to Bustleton.

Beyond the bridge, the trail began to climb a bit, and reached Frankford Avenue right next to the bridge over the Pennypack.
This was always regarded as the oldest bridge in America still in use, built in 1697, it is three spans, seventy three feet long, under orders from William Penn for the King’s Highway.
It was since discovered that the Bound Brook Bridge in Bound Brook NJ, mostly covered over by railroad and new road construction, still has its intact arch work and carries a light amount of water beneath it, and since a road still travels over the top, it is actually the oldest used bridge in America, although much more obscure.

It was a shame that the bridge was not visible from where we were walking at this point, because I did want everyone to get to see it. We only saw the road going over it.

It would still have been a ways down the Pennypack Creek from this point to the Delaware River, and even farther if we were to have continued with the hike from here, and there would be almost no way we’d make it in time for closing if we didn’t take road shortcuts and moved at high speed.

We had already done over fifteen miles at this point, and so I was happy with cutting it short at this point.
We walked to the left on Frankford Avenue from here, and then reached the Liberty Bell Diner, which seemed like the perfect place to finish off our trip.

  We got a long table inside, and were able to sit and relax for some of the remaining time we had left before we had to be back to the cars.

I ordered some sort of chicken thing over pasta, which was quite excellent. It was like something I’d gotten at the Washington Diner in the past.

After a while of sitting and eating, someone in the group mentioned to me that it was starting to get late enough that the park would close and that we’d best get the cars. I used my Uber app to get a car there right away, and some of the others went out to get cars and bring them back. That way, we’d be able to get right back over before it was too late. It ended up working out quite well.
Everything came together to make this out to be the more relaxing day I had intended for it to be, and it was probably one of my favorite hikes of the entire Summer for that.
We have so much more to look at in the Pennypack region, just like everywhere, and this hike only opened more doors to things like that.