Hike #1653; Gwynedd/Pennlyn/Ambler Loop

Hike #1653: 3/30/25 Gwynedd/Penllyn/Ambler Loop with Robin Deitz, Violet Chen, Joli ?, Galya, Jenny Tull, Diane Reider, Professor John DiFiore, David Adams, Kirk Rohn, and Everen

This next hike would be another very interesting loop in our Wissahickon Watershed series, which has been just wonderful.

There are so many trails I may never have considered using in the past down there, and there are so many variations of the same loops that can just go on, it absolutely amazes me.

I had already done several hikes in this series, and I'd already done others starting from or passing directly through the same meeting point, at the Gwynedd Commons area. This intersection has several trails that start very close to this spot.

Much of the hike would cross over stuff we had done before, but the majority would still be all new to us. I had been saying that we could just keep doing these loop hikes and shift where that loop goes over slightly, and it would cross a few times, but still be an all new trip.

The first plan I had for this one was back to the Trewellyn Trail System we had done some of previous times.

The very first bit would totally be repeating what we'd done before.

On the south side of the parking lot of Gwynedd Commons is Welsh Road, and the intersection with Darden Drive, which goes into a development.

We headed across Welsh Road carefully and onto Darden Drive only briefly on the left side, and the first bit of the Trewellyn trail system heads off to the left to skirt the backs of residences.

We emerged onto Sloan Way next, and where we had previously continued across on the trail system, this time we would do something new.

We turned left on Sloan, which had no good sidewalks at all after the first side street, and then turned right just after Kellogg Drive and before Rt 309 on the next bit of trail.

The path was separated from 309 by a big wall, but not the houses. It was really open for a bit, but then cut west parallel with a tree line and lots of bamboo.

The trail emerged near the end of Tuck Court, and we turned left on a paved trail that connects two ends of the development via a bridge and old road route. There was an old dam remnant in the Trewellyn Creek just to the south of the crossing.

On the other side, back where we had been before again, we turned left onto the trail system again.

After a pleasant section of woods, the Middle Trewellyn Trail broke off to the left, also paved.

The trail crossed the brook on another bridge, then ascended rather steeply to the edge of a retention pond, then turned to the left. 

The trail turned to the east and then crossed over Fairland Drive. At this point, it went from a mowed open area with a few trees into a more heavily wooded area and gradually ascended a bit. 

In this swath of woods, we came across two nicely done Gnome homes made of tree trunks with windows and such added to them. Ev got out of the stroller to have a closer look at these.

We continued on along this path to the east until it got closer to Rt 309, and it tuned ninety degrees to the south.

The pavement had stopped, and for a short time the trail followed the original alignment of the Bethlehem Pike.

The 42 mile road between Philadelphia and Bethlehem Pa was the colonial King's Road developed in the 1760s on what had been a native route known as the Minsi Trail.

The road was tolled and became the Bethlehem Turnpike in 1804, and remained so until 1910. Most of it was given the Rt 309 designation in 1926.

I could tell almost right away that this segment of trail was the old road route.

We reached the rear of some more houses, and the trail weaved away from the old highway route, around the homes, and then crossed over Fairland Drive.

We continued through another swath of woods to the south, around a small meadow area, and then out to Tintern Drive.

We turned right on Tintern Drive, which is a dead end residential street. We didn't have to travel very far on this before we came to the cul de sac, where another section of trail entered the woods near the end.

 It looped to the right closely in sight of where it had just been, and then paralleled Tintern Drive heading back to the east again. Soon, there was an intersection where a trail to the right turned into a meadow area.

We turned to the right and continued. The trail meandered a bit as a crushed stone path, and then became paved as it descended to a point behind the Spring House Village strip mall.

The path continued behind the Giant supermarket, and then came to an end when we got to Moore Drive. At that point, we just continued straight across through the grass on the west side of the lawn behind the businesses.

We continued all the way out to the Sumneytown Pike and turned to the left. There were no good walkways or sidewalks along this stretch of road, and it was probably the worst spot on the entire hike, but fortunately it was short.

There is a paved trail, part of the start of the Penllyn Pike Trail, which starts a few feet down into the grass from where the Willow Run flows beneath the highway.

Before we turned onto the path, we could see straight ahead a good view to the historic Spring House Tavern in the little community of Spring House, which is just north of Ambler.

The location has been a prominent stop since the Spring House Hotel was first established at the crossroads in 1719. It was an important stopping point between Philadelphia and Bethlehem, where the Bethlehem Pike and Sumneytown Pike intersected.

The original tavern building burned down, but at the time it was still at prominent and important crossroads, so it was rebuilt in 1888 on the original foundation and remains in business today.

We turned and followed the path to the south briefly, and then reached the bridge where the trail crosses Willow Run. At this point, we again intersected with where we had walked on a previous hike after coming off of a development.

We followed the trail to the front of a townhouse development called The Carriages at Lower Gwynedd. We walked through the lot to the end, then crossed Penllyn Pike onto the Penllyn Pike Trail, which parallels the east side of the road.

In a short distance, we were parallel with the lovely George Rieger Mansion, a lovely building, now part of the Silver Stream Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. 

The home was built about 1897-98 in Victorian and Queen Ann styles, of granite with handsome turret section and gate and wall structures capped with Indiana Limestone. 

The estate was known as the Willow Run Farm, for the Wissahickon tributary that flows through it, and was integrated in the landscape with ponds and bridges.

George Rieger was a manufacturer/Brewster for the Louis Bergdall Brewing Company, also known as the City Park Brewery. 

Many additions and alterations are present, but the home retains it's historic charm, as does its adjacent carriage house.

I walked to the edge of the road to try to get the best shot possible of the home. 

From here, we continued on the Penllyn Pike Trail in the way we had done on the previous hike, heading south. It's a really nice and relaxing walk, and still feels like it's a trail even though it's beside the somewhat busy Penllyn Pike.

The road is lined with historic homes, which I always like to look at, and then I end up looking up information on them when I get home. 

Penllyn Pike was another early native trade route, and was improved upon to become a major tolled turnpike in the early 1800s. One of the next historic homes I noted was a large yellowish one built in 1829. The 1877 J D Scott Atlas of Montgomery County shows this as the home of an A J Hoover.

The trail soon turns through the front of the Bethlehem Baptist Church property. 

This was an odd spot because I thought previously it was just an event venue, but it is in fact now a church, but this was a rather recent development.

The building looked like an estate mansion for one of those rich city slickers who owned large businesses, so I knew there must be some sort of back story to it. Surprisingly, it took a while to figure out exactly what that was.

This three story mansion in Spring House Pa does indeed have an interesting history. It started out as a private mansion over a century ago, and I was not able to figure out the exact year of construction or the original owner. In 1974, it became the Beth Or synagogue. 

The building served Beth Or until around 2006, when the congregation outgrew the site. When they moved, the Bethlehem Baptist Church moved in, having outgrown their 1888 old church building in Penllyn nearby.

The site still serves the church congregation today, and there were lots of people showing up as we went by.

The trail continued across the church grounds, and then crossed over Dager Road on a crosswalk. Across the street is a large estate property that was preserved by one of the conservancies.

The buildings surrounded by sprawling meadows is known as the Meadow Farm. Penllyn Pike Trail turns to the right, mowed paths lead into the estate, but this time we turned to the left to follow this other trail we'd not done before parallel with Dager Road.

I stopped the group to give them the history I had found out about the Meadow Farm after the last time we wet by.

The 1877 J D Scott Atlas of Montgomery County shows this as the farm of A. F. Hoover. It seems the original home was added upon and the current look and additions date to about 1922. 

It was owned then by Albert L. Smith of the Smith Barney Investment Firm. It was then conveyed to the Lippincott family of publishing fame, who published the story of the Trapp Family Singers, which became the beloved film "The Sound of Music". It is said that Maria Von Trapp stayed at this home while writing her story.

John pulled up some songs from "The Sound of Music" on his phone, and I started shouting in a degrading, high female voice that I did not need a Governess.

The Dager Road Trail was pleasant in the same way that the Penllyn Pike one was. It leads out to the Wissahickon High School along the road. We crossed the Penllyn Brook on a large prefab foot bridge on the way.

We didn't get all the way to the high school. My plan all along was to turn to the right when we got to the edges of their ball fields and head south. 

There was no good path directly from the Dager Road trail to the edge of the fields as soon as we were parallel with them, but there was soon a connecting path in on the right.

We followed along a parking lot, and then headed south to a large swath of trees in the middle of the school property. A crushed stone path continued through the property to the south from here.

We took a little break just as we got into the wooded section, which was quite nice. A lot of people other than just the school crowd was using the trail going by.

We came out of the woods and turned left along a field edge. This took us to an intersection of paths where we turned to the right. A pedestrian path led us south where we passed another school building, and came out on Knight Road.

We turned right on Knight, and reached where Buckley goes right. Knight is cut off and there is only a pedestrian connection to the next bit of Knight Road. We took this, and then turned left on the lower part of Buckley Road.

Soon, we reached Brights Lane and turned left. This took us through a neighborhood and out to Penn-Ambler Road. We crossed the road directly, and immediately were on the trails of Penn-Ambler Park. We turned left onto a gravel trail that weaved around into the woods.

We went south into the park, and then emerged at a parking area where there was a playground. We stopped there so that Ev could play for a bit.

The playground was surrounded by chain link fencing, and where we came through was not really great so I had to lift the stroller and Ev over the fence. Ev must have been tired because he was very cross with me for lifting it over. He had it in his head that we would take the stroller all the way around the outside in order to get into the playground.

Apparently, I ruined his entire process and he would not play on the playground, but he did start running laps around the thing.

After the break, we continued on the trail to the south side of the park, and the started following the paved trail on the west side of the park, heading north. This was close to the train tracks, and I recall one went by as we were walking near to it.

When we reached the north side of the park, where the trail loops back around to head back south, we went down a rather steep slope back to Penn-Ambler Road. We'd have to follow the road for just a bit heading to the north.

The road came very close to the railroad tracks again, and we kept far to the right side, and briefly went through a grassy area around some trees to stay off of the busy road. We had to head back onto it only briefly heading toward the Penllyn Station.

There was a very nice old stone house as we went by on the left side of the road.

The 1877 J D Scott Atlas of Montgomery County shows this as the home of G Geatrell.

Soon, we approached the historic Penllyn Station on the former North Penn Branch of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, built here as the North Pennsylvania Railroad in the 1850s. The line was completed through this area about 1857, and the original Penllyn Station was made of wood. There was a separate freight station that lasted until 2005.

The current station was built by the Reading about 1903.

The line was leased to the Philadelphia and Reading in 1879.

The line traveled north from Philadelphia to Bethlehem Pa. The original plan was to extend it all the way to Waverly New York. 

Passenger service continued to Bethlehem until 1981 when it was scaled back. The rails remained in place after that for many years, but removal began around 2011 when construction began on Saucon Rail Trail at the north end. Today, it is trail from Quakertown to Bethlehem. 

Talks of reactivating passenger service to Quakertown have persisted over the years, but never got farther than discussion. 

A recent government study recommended reactivation of the entire branch to Bethlehem. The right of way was double tracked all the way through, so there is room for rail with trail, although complicated. 

Events such as Musikfest, Celtic Classic, and year round concerts and casino suggest such a reactivation could be beneficial to the area.

For the time being, passenger services available to Lansdale and to Doylestown via the branch.

We have hiked almost all of that line at some point, or parallel with some active bits. I just haven't done between Sellersville and points just barely north of here.

There is a cool underpass and steps to get down beneath the tracks and back up the other side. Ev loved this the last time we reached this spot off of the end of Penllyn Pike Trail, so we went through it again. He was eager to get out of the stroller to do this one.

We the walked along the station platform to the south, and then out to Pershing Road behind it where we continued north.

We reached Penllyn Pike, and the crossed into the parking lot of Penllyn Pizza, like we had done previously. This was another spot where our previous hike overlapped again.

This time, I think we might have stopped briefly, but I don't quite remember. I know we went by the place, reached the fill for the railroad tracks, and turned left where there is a nice concrete bridge over a stream. We could then walk up between a couple of houses and out onto East Avenue.

We found out last time we could do this because we saw another kid come through and do it, and I asked him if it was a cool way to go.

We made our way north on East Ave, turned left on North Ave, and then right on Pershing Road.

I think Ev fell asleep somewhere in this area. We passed another playground, and he was too far out of it at this point to go on it.

We continued to the north on the trail we had used last time, up to Talus Field. Last time, we took the trails to the right that went out and all around the east side of Penllyn Park and then Penllyn Woods, but this time I wanted to do different ones than last time. 

We walked straight along the left side of the fields, and then past a couple of baseball diamonds. Off of the second baseball diamond was a small pond that was quite pretty. It had a bit of a trail cleared around it, so we used this, and the first connecting trail into the woods heading north. 

Penllyn-Blue Bell Pike Bridge over the Wissahickon Creek in Penllyn Pa, from the Wissahickon Valley Historical Society/Emmy Simon Postcard Collection.

We meandered through the woods for a bit, on very nice trails which were much easier than the ones we had followed the previous time (those, I found out, were apparently equestrian trails).

Soon, we emerged on the Wissahickon Green Ribbon Trail at a point that was just a little north of where we had connected to it on another previous hike. We'd have only a little bit of overlap south to where the Crossways Trail intersects. 

We continued along the creek to the south, and then reached the Crossways Bridge where we had been before.

There was another path directly across from this, but the Wissahickon Green Ribbon Trail was marked going out inland a bit more. Apparently, it used to stay in the woods closer to the creek earlier.

We made our way along a short paved bit of trail just before the Crossways Bridge, but other than that, it was just natural surface.

I thought the trail would come out to follow Township Line Road, as we were approaching it, but we were not along it for long when we cut back into the woods to the right in Penllyn Natural Area.

The trail weaved around, rather close to the creek in a scenic section. There were a few roots and such to go over, but nothing too terrible.

Soon, the trail emerged on the edge of the road, and we continued to the right.  Just ahead, we came to the intersection of an abandoned road and approach to a former bridge, with stone walls narrowing to the approach to where the deck was.

This was the former site of the origial Penllyn-Blue Bell Pike Bridge over the Wissahickon Creek. Most remnants of the bridge are now gone, replaced by a newer structure just downstream.

We headed out to the current Penllyn Pike route and headed to the east. A little abandoned side road took us into some sort of a parking lot. There were no Green Ribbon Trail blazes or signs through this area, probably the most confusing spot on the entire trail, but I could see where it continued ahead on Google Maps, so I wasn't too worried.

I had never followed the trail in this direction before, so I wasn't exactly sure what to do, nor did I remember it all that clearly.

Directly across from this lot was the original Bethlehem Baptist Church of Penllyn, founded 1888. This was the one that the congregation outgrew and moved to the former synagogue up the road in Spring House we had just passed earlier. The old church is now home to China Grace Christian Church.

There were still no kinds of trail markings of any kind. We continued on to the east, and Penllyn Pike and "Old Penllyn Pike" broke apart from one another, and we turned right on Old Penllyn Pike.

We passed three houses, and then the trail turned to the right into the woods, to the steep slope along the edge, high above the creek.

On the other side, the Cedarbrook Country Club was in plain view. It came back to me just then why I didn't remember this particular section.

The trail might have been rerouted at some point, although I did hike it through at least once here, but one of the two times through on it, we ended up on the golf course.

My old friend Conrad and his then wife Teresa hiked while I was recovering from the fire years ago, all along this. 

Somehow on that occasion, we had made a wrong turn and walked into the golf course. Maybe it used to follow the golf course a bit more closely and had been rerouted, but I'm not sure.

On that occasion, I had been drinking Four Loco, and I had a large mason jar full of home made mead that my friend Crissy Carey gave me, and I was loopy as all hell. When we got to the golf course, I got into one of their turf machines and started doing 360s with it on the course. Conrad pleaded with me "Mike... as your ATTORNEY, I recommend getting off of that machine!"

It made for some very funny story to be recalled many times since then.

The stream bank was heavily eroded below, but the trail was well above it, hard packed, and aside from a few occasional tree roots, it was quite wonderful for walking.

I weaved around with Ev in the stroller. He only wanted to get out now and again to run across little boardwalk and puncheon sections that had been installed.

We made our way uphill a bit, and soon the trail emerged into a bit of the edge of the golf course and over some wood chip path.

There were some guys golfing who were close by, and they shouted out to me that it was pretty impressive what I was doing with the stroller. And in a suit and tie no less.

I often forget I'm even wearing a suit and tie on these things. It is quite comfortable, and what's funnier is, my friends are so used to it, that they too forget that there is anything uncommon about it!

We continued downhill as we went back into woods parallel with the course, further away from the creek, and passed over a few more wooden structures.

We came close to Mathers Road, where there was a connecting trail out, and we turned right through parallel woods on a long section of boardwalk. Soon, the trail emerged form the boardwalk onto the closed old road.

Mathers Road used to continue across the Wissahickon, but it is abandoned at the approach on either side.

We got to the stream, and I saw where we had headed into the golf course years ago on that drunken hike.

We turned left onto more footpath following the Wissahickon downstream.

We were parallel with a still body of water held back behind a very old mill dam. The trail made its way onto what I recognized as the raceway.

From there, I got the others to stay with Ev for a moment while I went over to have a closer look at the dam.

I suspect this structure won't last that much longer. One good flood will bust it for certain. It has lots of cracks through it, and the river is already trying to make its way around either side of it.

I walked out onto and across the dam to have a closer look and saw even more cracks. This might be a very old, possibly colonial mill dam, which was later covered over with concrete to protect the earlier cribbing. It's hard to say. It is certain that it served a mill because the raceway was so obvious.

After I had my looks and got a few nice photos, I headed back up to the trail and we continued just a little more downstream to the next crossing.

Mathers Crossing as it is named, for the former road just to the west of here, is another of the concrete stepping stone crossings we had been using before.

Ev loves these things, and always wants to get out of the stroller to walk across them himself.

I carried the stroller over this one, and we walked pleasantly to the east from here along good trail on the south side of the creek. It wasn't all that long before we came out to Avenue just out of Ambler.

The trail went up to the road, and we would be leaving it at this point.

We could see the railroad crossing on the SEPTA line just ahead, former Reading, and a train went by as we were at the road, so Ev was happy to see that.

We left the trail, turned left on Mt Pleasant Ave, and crossed the Wissahickon on the concrete bridge. There are historic photos of both stone and truss bridges crossing in this area, but I'm not sure which was which.

Maple Avenue, and then right on Ambler Alley, which is rather close to the Wissahickon but on the othe side of the creek.

The maps seemed to show that there was more preserved land we could potentially walk through on this side, but it all looked to be closed off.

There is one little bit further to the east than what we went, but I figured we would save that for another time and turned out to Maple Ave, then backtracked a bit.

There were some old industrial buildings as we walked along. I had never been through Ambler really before, so it was cool to see some of this.

Once a major industrial town, Ambler was known as the asbestos capital of the world. Not really a claim to fame I think any community would want today, but it was probably a huge thing way back when.

The settlement was originally named Wissahickon, and was renamed for Mary Johnson Ambler who helped organize rescue efforts during the Great Train Wreck of 1856.

On July 17th, 1856, two trains on the same track collided between Camp Hill and Fort Washington. Between 59 and 67 people were killed, and over 100 were injured in the wreck.

Mary Ambler, who resided near Wissahickon Station, was one of the heroes that came to the scene early and provided care for the injured.

It was one of the most significant train wrecks in the early history of railroading. 

We made our way west, back to Oak Street, and turned right, north. We went two blocks, then turned right on Railroad Avenue. 

Soon, the road turned hard to the left beneath the former Reading Railroad under a girder bridge. There was an old coaling trestle to the right at this location, and the bridge underpass was shared with a tiny creek.

We continued north on Tennis Ave, to Reiff's Mill Road. The stream came from the right a bit, and it was ushered into this town area by way of a large concrete sluice.

Just ahead, we approached our lunch stop, Taqueria El Habenero. The place had a really nice cultural decor inside, but even nicer, they had perfect outdoor seating along the sidewalk.

This was great because Ev could run around like a maniac if he wanted to, but overall he was great.

I ordered a dish that was similar to the traditional combo I usually get at my favorite Mexican restaurant, Juanitos, in my home town of Washington NJ.

It was actually quite good, although spicier than I am used to from Juantitos. Ev didn't care for it as much when it was that spicy, and I wished I would have gotten the red sauce instead of green, but he didn't mind all that much.

Everyone was pretty happy with this as a lunch stop, and we were soon ready to be on our way.

We made our way up Reiffs Mill Road a bit more, then turned to the right into the property of the Barry Court Apartments. 

This was one of those spots where the hike was a gamble for me. I think I have things figured out, but until I get on the scene, I can't be sure what we will be in store for. Much of this later portion of the hike was like that, but all of it worked out very well.

I was hoping that we could walk through this apartment complex, which consists of four buildings, and then pass between the two north buildings and directly into Ricciardi Park, which has a loop trail around it. 

We passed through, and it was a little narrow, but there was indeed a way through from the apartments to the park. It was pretty steep getting up to the apartments, but the rest of it wasn't bad. 

We continued north through the park and up through to Hendrix Street after passing around the outside of some tennis courts. Only stairs led up to the street level, but I was able to bypass the outside of them with the stroller.

Violet's husband Sam showed up almost randomly again in this area. He's quite talented for finding his way to us wherever we might be! 

Through this entire stretch, Ev was exhausted and began falling asleep. 

We turned to the left on Hendricks Street, which became Knight Road heading to the west. I had seen on the Google maps that there was board of education property on the north side just a few blocks down, and what may have been a trail going into the property.

This second gamble also proved to be a great idea, because there was an excellent trail that headed directly into the property.

It soon reached an old dam on a brook, which no longer holds any water. Chain link had been erected to keep people from walking along the top of it.

I have no idea what the dam was for. It is not on the 1870s atlas maps of the area, nor would it be because it is part concrete construction. The only thing that might tell more is the Sanborn fire insurance maps, but I have not gotten around to looking up any of those yet.

The trail meandered through the woods, and side paths to the left led out to the fields of the Wissahickon Middle School. 

We eventually emerged in some soccer fields ourselves. Following these led us up to a concrete bridge over the little stream. We climbed a slight hill after this, and emerged onto the school's running track. We walked over this to the north toward the north end of the property.

We left the school property, which had a sort of seamless transition between it and apartment property to the left. We turned to the left between some buildings, and out into the apartment complex.

I should not have cut through the apartments as early as I did, because I know now that I missed seeing an historic schoolhouse.

Regardless, we made our way out to the Bethlehem Pike from the apartments, and followed the left side of this road to the north, using a couple of parking areas to keep us out of the way from the traffic a bit until we came to the intersection with Roberts Road. There, we crossed and turned to the right.

While on this stretch of the Bethlehem Pike, we passed by a very nice historic mile marker, reading 16 1/2 mile to P, for Philadelphia, and 7 to "chest hill".

We followed Roberts Road generally northeast to its dead end, and a trail continued in the woods from the end of it, into a area of bamboo. I used the shroud of brush and such to give Ev a diaper change.

The trail crossed a little bridge, then headed up to the dead end on Radcliffe Lane where we continued straight.

We followed the street to the north, to the intersection with Norristown Road, and crossed almost directly through the grass and parallel with the entrance road to the Spring House Innovation Park.

This looked like a corporate center, and it looked to be dead. We took a left turn a little ways in the entrance, onto a gravel pathway heading along a meadow to the west.

The trail became paved and headed out toward McKean Road. There, we turned right, and continued on paved trail parallel with, but not right beside the road, which was nice.

The trail continued to the north, across an entrance road, and then into a swath of woods and over a little foot bridge. We then approached the Rt 309/Fort Washington Expressway underpass.

We passed beneath the highway, and on the other side of the bridge, turned left on a crosswalk and into the property of the Ambler Area YMCA.

My planned route weaved up around the west side of the place, and the continued into the woods to the north.

Galya wanted to run into the YMCA to use the restroom, and I told her we would wait at the northeast side of the building for her to come around.

We followed the trail around the west side, and as we approached the west, there was a very nice, shady pavilion right where we needed it to be. A perfect place for a break ad to wait a bit. 

Ev was wide awake and happily out of the stroller at this point. I was surprised that he didn't want to be out of it more of the time, but I suppose toward the end was just as well.

Galya showed up, and we all made our way onto the path, which went into the woods just east of the pavilion, and then cut back to the west again briefly.

We skirted an area of solar panels on the north side, then turned ninety degrees to the south to follow them on the west side. We then came to a wider area with an access road. 

Around this area, Kirk noticed he was missing something. I think it was his phone or something. We waited around there for him to head back and check for it.

Ev had a blast just picking up little stones and climbing around trees with low crooks in them.

Soon everyone was back together, and we continued to the northwest. The first trail around the YMCA and its scenic retention ponds is called the Wooded Pond Trail.

We crossed Red Stoen Lane on a crosswalk, continued ahead, and then came out at the intersection of Peterman Lane and Cedar Hill Road. 

We continued straight just a short bit, and then another trail, not shown on Google maps, turned in to the right. This had not been a part of my plan, but I assumed it would go through, so we turned on it.

This is apparently called part of the Cedar Hill Trail system.

When the trail got to behind some of the houses, it turned left, parallel with the road, and descended a bit. 

Ev was still out of the stroller, running, and picking up tons of sticks.

The trail came right back out to Peterman Lane again, directly across from a handsome old barn building that was apparently spared when they had built this development.

The 1877 J D Scott Atlas of Montgomery County shows this as the farm of J Buzby farm, if I read it correctly.

Just after crossing a small brook, the paved Cedar Hill Trail turned to the right behind more homes. We all followed this into the swath of trees heading sort of northeast. 

The trail weaved around the buildings, and then came up to cross over Bardsley Lane. We were getting very close to the end of the hike.

The trail became unpaved again, and passed behind more homes. We came to a fork where we turned to the right, and it took us out to Walnut Farm Road. We headed north on the road out to the intersection with Welsh Road, and turned left.

From here, we just had to head back to Gwynedd Crossing to get back to our cars, which seemed simple enough, but it wasn't.

There was no pedestrian crossing at 309 and Welsh Road. We got there and crossing would have been maniacal with the stroller. I made Ev get back into it when we got out to Welsh Road because it doesn't really have any good space for pedestrians either.

We reached 309, and turned to the right, to head uphill a bit, and we would reach the next crosswalk that way. 

On the way, there was a rather interesting older house to the right side. Most everything else close to here looks to be new and boring construction, but this one I figured might have been old.

This was right by Gwynedd Crossing, the Horsham Twp side, and this building was part of the farm of Frederick Phander in the 1877 J D Scott Atlas of Montgomery County. It is not totally clear if the house that we were seeing was actually the original old farm house, but it might have been.

Kirk ran off to use a restroom or something as well, but he managed to dash across 309 and beat us to the cars anyway.

We all approached them from the north instead of the south where we had started in the morning.

It had again been another great day full of so much more than I ever would have imagined I would find out. The new Wissahickon series has become one of my big favorites for loops, and I feel anyone that is just staying on the official Green Ribbon Trail is missing out on some really amazing diversity.

At this point, I we were ready to finally move on from the Gwynedd Commons area as starting point, but I know we could still milk some very different hikes out of this area as well. Maybe in the future.