Smedley Park Red Trail (2/4/2024)

Sunday, February 4, 2024

It feels like Spring!

Smedley Park bridge over Crum Creek where we will return

Following the Red Trail, we crossed
Crum Creek farther north

Following along Pine Ridge Run, ruins of a dam

"Back" of the dam that may have served the Lewis Paper
Mill, originally the Franklin Paper Mill (1826); Lewis had to
rebuild the mill twice due to fires, the second time in stone

The paper mill still stood in the park until the Blue Route/I-476 was finished in 1991, and then it was demolished. It was where the baseball fields are now located.

Floodplain manhole (to keep storm or floodwater out
of wastewater sewers) and perhaps a section of millrace

Crum Creek and the Red Trail go under
the SEPTA Trolley Rote 101

Muddy trail

Fallen logs covered with the invasive Reynoutria japonica/
Japanese Knotweed hang over Crum Creek

We could see the Pine Ridge SEPTA station

Mountain bikers were espcially grateful that fallen
logs were cut to keep the trail cleared

An amazing area of man-made dirt jumps for mountain bikes or dirt bikes

Bridges were also maintained for mountain bikers

Crossing back under I-476

The fate of Fagus grandifolia/American
Beech Trees are carved names and initials

Graffiti on noise abatement walls of I-476

The Red Trail goes through a picnic shelter

Another Lewis family owned cotton mills and built this
house (c mid 1800s?), which is now the Penn State
Cooperative Extension office located in Smedley Park

Penn State Extension Hillside Garden for native plants

Penn State Extension Pollinator Garden

Penn State Extension Environmental Center

Carolyn DiPaulo Shade Garden also has deer-resistant plants