Hike #1593; Montgomery Center to Horsham

Hike #1593: 2/25/24 Montgomery Center to Horsham with Matthew Davis, Jenny Tull, Professor John DiFiore, Jaqueline Leon, Heshi Bucholz, Kirk Rohn, Justin Gurbisz, Alyssa Lidman, Evan "Joe Millionaire" Van Rossum, Carolyn Gockel Gordon, Brittany Weider, Shane Blische, and Everen

This next hike would be a point to point, and near end to my long term Neshaminy Creek series. After the hike, I realized there are still a bunch of other things in the watershed to hit, but for the most part, the main branches of the Neshaminy Creek were covered with this one, and we branched into another area.

This had the makings of a really great hike right from the start, with a few oddball things that I wasn't sure how they would work out. 

It would also turn out to be ridiculously dramatic for a brief time, but we'd make up for it with a good day.

I was really happy that Matt Davis decided to come along this time. He hadn't been able to make it out as much lately, but we have a tight brother thing because we worked so closely to bring Metrotrails to its initial non-profit level so many years ago.

The hike provided for an opportunity to discuss a little bit of the future, and how the intention was to put Jenny into the position of Secretary, to replace Shelly Janes because she moved to the mid west.

We didn't end up going over a whole lot of this, but the discussions did take place a little bit of the time, and it had to start somewhere.

On the way, Matt and I spun through New Hope to pick up Shane on the way there. Usually, when I do hikes down that way, I scoop him up on the way since he still doesn't drive yet.

He's been behind on getting a job and driver's license, but I understand he finally got the latter, but is still not mobile even in his late twenties.

For someone who relies so heavily on others to get around, he can be quite demanding, but overall he's a good guy with a great sense for history that we've always appreciated.

Unfortunately, this time, he was already drunk by the time we picked him up, and even before we got started, he was laying into me during the drive, saying "M'ke just likes to hear himself talk".

I chose a large parking lot near P J Whelihan's Restaurant in Horsham PA as the meeting point, which would be our end point. This hike took some considerable planning to slap together.

I knew I wanted to do the Horsham Power Line Trail, which is a five-mile route itself. I also wanted to knock out the last bit of the Neshaminy Creek I hadn't followed, which was the most questionably accessible bit, so I had the hike start with that.

There was also a 2.7 mile section of the Route 202 Parkway Trail that I'd not yet done, but I'd finished all of that to the north as parts of other hikes.

I had to figure out a way of slapping together those three greenways with stuff in between, which was both fun and challenging, and it took several times scaling and piecing together to figure out what would work.

After meeting in Horsham, we shuttled with as few vehicles as possible to the northwest, to start at Montgomery Square.

The parking for the start of our hike would be the Montgomery Square Mall. We'd walk directly from there to begin trying to follow the Little Neshaminy Creek. 

This was the majority of what was left of the creek I'd not followed. I'd followed most of the main branches, but I found that there's a tiny bit more of the main creek I haven't followed on that, for a future trip.

The Little Neshaminy at least would be done this time. It looks like it begins in the wetlands and retention ponds around the Montgomery Center area.

We left the parking area, and carefully dashed across Rt 309/Bethlehem Pike. There was a cleared utility right of way that followed closely to the edge of the creek heading sort of northeast.

The route was a bit bumpy, and there were occasionally some small trees and such over it, which required a lift over, but overall it was pretty easy.

Still, it required both hands and some hard pushing for this first bit. It was cold out, but I broke a sweat pretty quickly because of how much work it was.

We weaved around between a development on the right, and industry or something to the left, then some townhouses. There were a couple of mowed accesses to the utility path from there as we walked.

We continued on until the right of way became more impassable ahead, but there was a pretty pond along the route. We had to go uphill and around this pond in what looked like a big back yard.

There was a beautiful stone house just uphill in the yard. According to the 1877 J. D. Scott Atlas of Montgomery County, this had been the home of J. Heckler.

The pond below was probably associated with the historic old farmhouse.

We walked quickly around the back of the pond, and then there was a steep mowed path downhill soon, which returned to the once again clear right of way along the Little Neshaminy.

I had to hang on tight and watch my footing on the mud going through the slope, and then the route was bumpy again. We pushed on ahead, parallel with development on both sides, and came to a spot where the right of way crossed to the other side of the stream.

Fortunately, there was a simple spot to the left, where I could just bring the stroller down and across it, then back up the other side.

We soon emerged on Horsham Road, Rt 463, and carefully crossed. We crossed and turned right.

Across, we had a nice view of the old Joseph Ambler Inn property, on the small hill above the creek.

The original 1784 fieldstone farmhouse was constructed by Ambler and is original to the property. The stone bank barn and house addition were constructed by John Robert's about 1820. The land passed through many owners after Ambler and Roberts.

12 acres were purchased in 1983 by Richard Allman, who opened it as a bed and breakfast. He converted the barn to a bar and restaurant in 1987.

The circa 1850s Thomas Wilson house was saved from demolition and moved to the property by Mr Allman in 1997, and the 1794 John Roberts house too was saved from demolition and moved to the site in 2003, fittingly facing the barn built by the same man.

The buildings are beautifully kept, and set a fine example for preservation and lucrative business success.

After a short bit walking Horsham Road, we turned to the left through the grass, and then left again onto a paved trail to the west side of the Montgomery Township Police Department and Municipal Building. A totem pole was erected at the entrance to the park trail.

We continued on this path through the edge of the property to reach a gazebo in the back of the property. We took a short break while I checked the map to be sure of where we were going next.

The plan was to continue on the Little Neshaminy Creek from here. The cleared utility right of way continued from where we got off of it, but it crossed the stream just after the road, so this little detour through the municipal park was a good thing.

There was an informal path connection back over to the utility clearing, so we used that and continued, now to the northeast for a bit more.

Pretty soon, we emerged from there onto Stump Road. There was a good sidewalk along this, so we began following that to the north for a bit. 

We came close to some more townhouses, and so I turned the stroller off and under some evergreen trees a bit farther away from Stump Road for a nicer ambiance. We continued along to the northeast a bit more, and passed by a large retention pond with a tributary passing through the middle.

We followed the sidewalk on the edge of Stump Road just a little bit more, to the intersection with Steeplechase Drive to the left, and Willow Lane to the right.

We crossed over Stump Road, went just past Willow Lane, and then there is a slight clearing behind the houses, with really no markings, to the right.

Brittany had given me some sort of drink at the start, which I didn't get to have; I passed it around, and the rest of the group finished it. I also had some wine with me, which I didn't get to have. I passed it around, and it was just about gone by the time we got to this point. Shane had taken some of the stuff I'd brought and guzzled it. I managed to get one swig of his Weyerbacher Sunday Morning Stout that he'd brought. I didn't really have a chance to have anything with all of the terrain we'd been going through, which required both hands to push the stroller.

I had found out going over maps that this was an obscure trail entrance to Windlestrae Park, which we'd walked through on a couple of different hikes before.

I think everyone was rather surprised that this trail turned out to be anything, because it was odd walking along some of the backs of houses at first.

The trail turned slightly to the left away from the houses, and then into the woods. Pretty soon, we were well into the woods of the park.

I was glad to be on easier, flatter trails after a bit of a rough start. Jenny wanted something else to drink, and I wanted to finally get to something after pushing so hard for so long.

Ev had fallen asleep as soon as we got on the trail system of Windlestrae Park. I got down on my knees and started rooting through my stuff, looking for my drinks.

Among the things I'd picked up, sort of to celebrate quasi end of the Neshaminy series, were the rare Weyerbacher brews, Blasphemy and Enormity. I had picked up small bottles of each at the brewery the week prior.

While I was trying to sort through the already small opening with which to locate items, Shane was being obnoxious and reaching through my stuff, making my finding anything tougher.

I repeatedly told him to stop, to which he kept responding "It's fine...it's fine". I told him, "NO, it's NOT fine, it's my stuff, leave it alone, I'm trying to find something".

He refused to listen and kept grabbing at stuff, then took one of my expensive Weyerbacher bottles. I told him to give it back, and he wouldn't, still repeating "It's fine", and saying that he's just looking. 

I grabbed the bottle back, but he didn't let go until the sharper top of the cap cut his fingertip. Then, he got mad at me for "cutting him", and proceeded to smear his blood on my face.

At that point, I was furious. I stood up, ordered him to get away, and threw my fist up. I told him if he didn't back off that I was going to hit him, and I certainly would have. Then, he started shouting obscenities at me, and despite everyone's attempts to mellow him out, he kept antagonizing and instigating toward me.

I really had no further patience for any more of his crap. Jenny came over and wiped the blood off of my face, I got my stuff sorted out, and we were on our way down the trail.

The Little Neshaminy Creek was to our right, and we followed it further into Windlestrae Park. 

The property was once owned by Baptist Minister Joshua Jones, who splintered from older congregations. His historic farmhouse is still standing in the park on the other side of the creek.

After a bit, we reached a foot bridge over the Little Neshaminy, where we had been before, and that sort of ended the series along the Little Neshaminy. We re-grouped, and I announced to the group that we'd pretty much finished the Neshaminy series with this point, and the hike would continue to finish our next greenway.

While I was trying to address the group, Shane stood off to the side shouting, name calling, and shouting "Ah, who cares". I'd had enough of him and told him he's done, call his mom to pick him up and go home. He's not welcome with us if he's going to conduct himself in such a fashion. 

He still persisted, and others in the group got him to shut up and step back from me again.

We went from a narrow trail route to a wide mowed one, out into the Zehr Tract of Windlestrae Park. We followed this trail gently uphill, and along the edges of ball fields when we left the woods. We then paused for a break at a parking area where there was a porta john for those who needed it.

From here, we headed out the access lane to the park, out toward Stump Road again. We turned slightly to the left before the road came out, through the grass, and then went almost straight across onto the property of the Montgomeryville School.

We went up a steep slope, and then through grass adjacent to a large retention pond. After the pond, we went around some ball courts, and then directly across an open ball field to the southwest.

I got well ahead of the rest of the group here, who had found balls in the fields and were kicking them around in the direction we were walking.

At the south side of the field, where we had been on hikes before, we turned right, through a line of trees, and this little connecting trail from the school emerges onto the Route 202 Parkway Trail.

This trail is an interesting multi use route that connects the Doylestown area with Montgomeryville. I'd hiked it all to the north from this location, in segments with other hikes because a full hike on just this would suck so badly. As a piece of a hike, it's actually quite enjoyable.

I wanted to make sure the group knew where we were going, so I waited, and announced that the next 2.7 miles were going to finish off the Rt 202 Parkway Trail that had been used in segments on at least three previous hikes.

While I was there, Shane came up to right across from me. I asked "Are you feeling any better?", and he took a ball they had been kicking, covered in mud, and smeared it onto my face.

Again, he was lucky he didn't get clobbered, but I wasn't even angry at this point. Now, he was just pathetic, and he was making a fool of himself in front of everyone.

I headed out onto the 202 Parkway Trail, turned left, and we began following it to the southwest. Much of this was basically parallel with what we'd already done on this hike, but a very different experience.

The trail weaved off to the left from Rt 202 and became a bit more pleasant for a bit, and soon we reached Rt 463, Horsham Road.

I waited for the group to all catch up at this point, and everyone arrived except for Shane. The group told me that he was calling for a ride out, which was definitely a good thing at this point.

He sent me a hateful and belligerent text message saying that he hopes Ev gets taken away from me. I didn't even dignify that kind of foul behavior with an answer.

We crossed over Horsham Road and continued down the road ahead. As we walked, a familiar car went by and I heard Shane yell something out the window. Our mutual friend, Bill Stephens, had come and picked him up. I think this was a good thing, because Bill has the ability to be a good middle man I think.

Shane proceeded to block me on social media, and remove me from any groups that he has any administrative power over. I in turn removed him in leadership role in Metrotrails, and blocked him from commenting on the page, just because I don't need him starting any drama on there. 

It was a good thing I did it, because he went on to spread lies saying that I owe him an apology, because I was totally drunk. I suppose he was too drunk to even realize that I didn't even get a chance to start drinking, save for a swig of his beer. 

My name was slandered around among folks I know for a while after that, and any mutual friend who posts any photos of me gets a response of an angry react from Shane.

That was the last I heard from him as of this writing months later. Some actually believed his story that I was at some sort of fault.

At this point, I feel that by attempting to engage with him, I do him no good. I'm not nearly the first person he's lashed out at and broken connections with, and in each scenario I have seen, he accepts little or no blame for what happened. 

At least for now, cutting ties is probably the best thing for him. He needs to step up and get a real job, a car, and find some level of independence. I don't know that he is capable of respect until he is able to function as an adult, and can sympathize with the burden of working full time, paying bills, and still making time to do these hikes. The sense of entitlement has evolved from unbecoming to just unacceptable. 

It made me sad, because I'd like to still be his friend, but at the same time, I don't want to be an enabler. I've got enough of that in my life causing me grief, and I need to manage the hikes as my oasis.

We continued across a townhouse access road, then made our way to a second access called Terrace Lane I think. There, the trail crosses 202 to the north side, then turns left and crosses Costco Drive.

We continued along the southbound side for a bit, with a wide berth between traffic at first, but then narrower as we ascended a bridge that carries road and trail over Rt 309/Bethlehem Pike.

Beyond there, the trail weaves around in a loop, passes a parking area, then passes beneath 202 next to Bethlehem Pike, then turns right to follow the south side of the highway again.

We took a break before this last turn at the parking area, to let the group get back together yet again, and to change Ev's diaper and use the trash cans available there.

We continued on the trail, which went up and away from 202 a bit more in this next section, as the highway shifted to almost perfectly south.

When the highway and trail started shifting to the southwest again, we were almost to the end of the trail. The paved path came back close to the highway once more, and we emerged at Welsh Road.

This next bit was one that I wasn't particularly happy about when I scaled it off, but there wasn't really many other options. 

It would only be about a half a mile along Welsh Road, but it didn't have a great shoulder. We just turned to the left after crossing at the end of the road, and stayed to the right out of traffic.

This can sometimes be a pain with the stroller, but I managed this time pretty well.

Just after the intersection with Gwynedd View Road, there was an abandoned farm on the right side of the road, with a long lane back to it.

This was the old Byrne Farm of Gwynedd. It was a Hoffman farm property in the mid 1800s, purchased by the Byrne family in 1937.

A sawmill once stood on the property, in the lowlands on a tributary to the Trewellyn Creek.

Dr. Byrne sold the property in 2015 to the Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association, at a fraction of its market value, in memory of his daughter. The property currently remains closed to the public, but there are plans to eventually make trails through the property. What will become of the buildings is anyone's guess, but I'm assuming they'll be torn down.

Just barely after the Byrne tract, we cut onto mowed grass, through some ornamental trees, and into the property of Oxford Park.

Just through the tree line, there was a paved trail that went around the property. We turned right, to follow the west side of it.

After passing a ball field, the trail went into a section of woods. It then crossed a little bridge over the Trewellyn Creek, and weaved around to the left.

The trail weaved around to the east and then the north again, through the woods, over the Trewellyn Creek again. Joe Millionaire carried Ev on his shoulders through this section, and when we emerged from the woods, there was a playground. We stopped there for a bit to let Ev play.

There were other people around, and I figured it must have looked pretty funny having all of these adults hanging out there, while there was only one kid with us playing.

I spent the time at the playground going over our trajectory for the remainder of the hike, and we decided we would stop for our lunch break at the Iron Hill Brewery nearby.

Once we were done with the break, I put Ev back in the stroller, and we crossed to the right from Oxford Park over Cambridge Drive. We cut through grass from here to the east, and soon reached a paved trail where we turned right.

When the trail reached the woods line, the pavement I recall ended. There were bits of puncheons over wet areas, and it ended up being a really nice walk. I wasn't expecting it to be as nice as it was, it being a path around an apartment complex (called Hunt Club Apartments).

The trail weaved around to the south of the complex, and there was a side trail and sign reading to Gwynedd Trails. There is so much more stuff in this area to explore, it is mind boggling.

We kept to the main trail shown on my maps, and then cut to the north parallel with Evans Road.

We continued on the path until it started going to the left, west, and took a side path. This brought us to the corner of Welsh Road and Evans Road.

We crossed here, and then began following Evans Road uphill on the other side.

This odd road came to a weird end, where the double yellow line just disappeared into grass before the top.

We passed behind the Gwynedd Shopping Center through the rear of the building, turned to the right at the end, and then headed east across Bethlehem Pike to another strip mall, called The Shoppes at English Village. Iron Hill Brewery was the northernmost thing in the place.

We got a really nice place to sit inside, near the corner of the building with a sort of wraparound booth that fit all of us. Ev stayed in his stroller at the inside of the "C" shape, which worked out great.

I can't remember if I ordered a burger or a pasta dish. Probably a burger because then Ev would eat some of it easily, but the pasta could have gone that way too.

I also tried one of their beers, which wasn't bad, but not my preferred strength.

After our really good lunch stop, we had another weird section where I had to come up with a route to connect to the next greenway, which would be the Horsham Power Trail.

Some odd art we saw at the end of the Horsham Power line Trail.

I had looked over these routes multiple ways, some of them considering only one of the three greenways considered here. When I found the mileage between the connections to be minimal road and not much distance, that is when I slapped them together.

We walked behind the building the brewery was in, and then headed into an apartment community that I think was called The Addison.

There are sidewalks along and between several of the buildings in this area, and lots of grass because the buildings were well separated. We headed generally northeast through this community, sometimes on the sidewalks, and sometimes just on the grass.

We emerged near the intersection of English Village Drive and Lower State Road, and then continued straight across Lower State onto Squire Drive.

We had to walk the entire length of this road because there was really no good way through. I messed with something on the way here, and I ended up losing a pair of my prescription sunglasses on the road or sidewalk. I considered going back looking for them, but then said screw it later in the day. It sucks because those ones were about forty dollars.

When we reached the end of Squire, we went left on Cedar Hill Road, and some of us stepped up to walk along the grass at the edge of Squire's Golf Club.

Out across the course, there was a solitary old farm house still standing in the center.

According to the 1877 J D Scott Atlas of the county, this was once the estate of Rose Fesmire, and the old house appears to be the same one that appears on these maps.
Squire's Golf Club has gotten the reputation as one of the last good old boy party clubs, and one of the last 20 in America that did not allow membership for women. Tall tales of men golfing nude, and even refusing female EMTs inside during times of emergency persist to this day.
Although this notion seems unbelievable today, the club was actually quite progressive when it opened in 1964, as it openly invited Jews to join and favored religious freedom, while that demographic was still barred by other clubs.
Whatever the case is today, old legends die hard.

We headed back down to Cedar Hill Road, followed it to the ninety degree bend to the right, and we turned left onto Biwood, which curved to the north, and then ended at the start of the Horsham Power Line Trail.

A trail continues straight to come through to the next development to the north, but we turned right, to follow the main trail. We paused for a few moments to do a group shot however.

We soon crossed Cedar Hill Road again, and a side trail led off to areas to the north.

Soon, we crossed Park Creek, which does flow north to the Neshaminy.

The next road we crossed to the east of this point was Rt 152 at  Horsham Township Park. More trails join here, and connect with a trail system to the north we had used in the Neshaminy Series. 

I'd like to get back out there and hit a few more of these trails because there are a substantial amount of them. I could probably milk another entire hike out of components of this one and a previous one.

We went to the south and skirted a development called Woods Edge at Horsham Valley, and soon after that, crossed Babylon Road. A short distance after that, another side trail broke off. An alternative to the power line trail runs parallel for a time just to the north.

We passed through Jarrett Road Park, and then crossed Victoria Lane. Soon after that we crossed Norristown Road.

There was a good stretch with no road crossings from here to Dresher Road in Lukens Park. From that point, the trail paralleled parking lots, and passed the scenic pond at The Patio at Horsham.

It was getting pretty dark at this point, and the trail ended at Prudential Road. Rock Road continued ahead and had a good sidewalk on the right side, so we continued to follow that into an area of office buildings. 

At the cul de sac at the end of the road, we turned left between buildings. We made our way to a sidewalk, turned right, and then left into more lots. Some of these lots had chain link fences, so we went to I think Johnson Controls, then went north through grass into the next lot, which took us out to Gibraltar Road right across from where we'd parked in the morning.

All in all, this was a great hike, and a great precursor to what will be coming up for us.

With completion of much of the Neshaminy series, my intention is to put similar focus on the Wissahickon Creek and all of the tributaries that flow into that. On this hike, we included some of the Trewellyn Creek, which is a tributary to the Wissahickon, so we've already sort of started.

It's a shame to that things did not culminate perfectly, but I'm really happy with how the hike went.