Sunday, September 29, 2019
Two short trails today. First the
Sleighton Park Trail, a paved pathway that circumnavigates Sleighton Park off Valley Road and W Forge Road.
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| Sleighton Park |
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| Just off W Forge Road, the path heads W ... |
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| ... and heads E around soccer fields |
We followed the 0.73 mile path counterclockwise.
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| Malus sp/Crabapple Tree fruit |
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| A few large erratics left by glaciers |
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| Juglans nigra/Eastern Black Walnut Tree full of fruit |
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| Black Walnut Tree fruit |
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| Black Walnut husk and nut |
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The Abominable Snowman rises up
under invasive vines |
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| Uh-oh, the path is blocked by pipeline construction |
Buildings north of Sleighton Park were abandoned, which we attributed to the pipeline work. However, further research reveals that there is a whole abandoned complex of the former
Sleighton Farm School Village.
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We stayed on the park side of the construction fence;
here a tiny portion of the path is seen |
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| Autumn is slowly approaching from the east |
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| Kent rescued a Wilson Junior Football from the dry retention pond |
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| Sleighton Park playground |
Next we drove to the
Millennium Trail at Memorial Park. We cannot determine why the area on E Baltimore Pike just before Media is called Memorial Park. It was dedicated on November 11, 1999 and has a United States flag, but the only plaques are for the Media Waterworks across the street and the Fussell Recreational Skating Area.
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| An observation deck in Memorial Park |
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The view from the deck is "slack water behind the water plant's dam,"
which was a sort of finger off Ridley Creek and once was used for ice skating |
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| The Millennium Trail starts at the north end of the park |
The lollipop trail is said to be a half-mile in length, round-trip.
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| Crossed under power lines |
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Since the last time we saw the Persicaria perfoliata/
Mile-a-minute vines, they have developed berries |
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| A spot of color attracted our eye along Ridley Creek |
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A good fishing spot? - with the remains of a campfire
and a pail with plastic liner for trash |
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| Beech tree graffiti |
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| One of only two Millennium Trail markers we saw |
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Apparently high water levels eroded under a tree
that then collapsed, resulting in this gap |
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| This tree is being under-eroded as well |
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| Likely Fomitopsis betulina/Beech Polypore |
The woods were too overgrown to see any wetland meadow across Ridley Creek. We did see an
Odocoileus virginianus/Northern White-tailed Deer.
We followed a loop that brought us to the tributary coming off Mineral Hill, and also a trail that went uphill to a pavilion.
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| A fallen split tree |
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| A well-made pavilion with a near-perfect concrete floor |
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The pavilion used to have electricity,
but was never grounded |
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| The light fixtures with ceramic sockets |
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| All the vertical posts rested on an inch of concrete |
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| Former comfort station |
We then noticed "Private Property" signs, rather than the "Posted No Hunting" signs typically seen along Middletown Township trails. We turned around and headed back to the car.
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| Funny that we missed these stone walls on the way in! |
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| Looking right through the trunk of a tree |
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Acorns were so numerous that it was like
stepping on marbles and sliding! |
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Kent discovered this "ladder" and rope swing;
we hope the creek is deep enough! |
