Swarthmore, PA Crum Creek Meadow and Crum Woods (8/22/2020)

Saturday, August 22, 2020
Today we combined two hikes: Crum Creek Meadow and Crum Ridge & Campus Long. These hikes used markers and waypoints from trails established by Swarthmore College Scott Arboretum, many named for acclaimed botanists and horticulturists. However, the Scott Arboretum brochure and map of Crum Woods Trails does not mention markers and waypoints. This was a 10,000 step hike, mostly because we did it in a generally uphill direction!

Oxbow Cabin (2014, by Johnathan Malloy) is
located near the Crum Meadow entrance at
the end of Field House Lane (KSS)

An old obstacle on Valley Walk

Valley Walk - just missed being an obstacle

Crum Creek; in the 18C the Swedes named it Crumkill/Crooked Creek

A new obstacle on the trail following the creek north

A six-inch fish in Crum Creek

View of the Holly Collection, with over 350 of the 400 species,
which is a designated National Holly Arboretum
by the Holly Society of America

Placid Crum Creek

Crum Creek floodplain, with old leaves caught in the
protective fencing around newly planted trees

Some of the gneiss/a tough metamorphic rock that
causes the creek to keep changing directions

Hmm, here the path is composed of fine sand

Crumhenge was originally laid out (1980s) in one circle around a firepit; it was deconstructed in
2015 while SEPTA rebuilt the railroad trestle over Crum Creek, and in 2017 the stones were
this time all laid out horizontally in two circles around the firepit

The firepit is actually a "bonfire" pit!

Rodger's Grove Memorial (2008); the grove is a riparian forest buffer
that replaced the invasive Polygonum cuspidatum/knotweed

Upright stones mark the way to Crumhenge on Valley Walk

View of Crumhenge from Bartram Path

Crum Creek bathers

There are several ongoing research sites in Crum Woods

Crum Woods Fungi

Cob Hut (2018, by Ahmet Kayagil) is located on Painter Path
below the Danawell Hall Complex

Cob Hut interior (KSS)

Bartram Path Rhododendrons

Hollow bark at the top of what might be a birch tree

Alligator Rock can be seen from Bartram Path

One end of Bartram Path is near
the Swarthmore College water tower

Weather station at the Martin Hall greenhouse

Swarthmore College Scott Building/Map House

Lycoris aurea/Golden Spider Lily buds

Danawell Hall and Hallowell Hall; there is a mirror building
to the left of Danawell Hall - Dana Hall (2014), all resident halls