Perkiomen Trail – Part 3 – Spring Mount to Green Lane

Friday, August 20th, we returned to the Spring Mount Trailhead. This is a rail trail. Starting out you cross the Perkiomen Creek on a bridge that gives you some really beautiful views of the creek. This is a leisurely ride through mostly shaded areas with numerous views of the Perkiomen Creek. This trail passes the location of the Philadelphia Folk Festival which was to begin the following day. There were a number of people on the trail obviously there to participate in this longstanding musical venue.

Once you approach Green Lane the trail crosses Route 29. You need to be alert here and pay attention to the traffic to cross over to Green Lane Park. There are several hills to climb but once you reach the summit in Green Lane Park you are rewarded with a beautiful view of the lake. As it was midmorning Friday this was a very peaceful and tranquil setting. After a brief stop at the lake’s edge for a snack we rode back to Spring Mount Trailhead.

The bridge that is under construction at Spring Mount is actually part of the trail’s path. There is a detour that connects you with the trail on the other side of the bridge. We explored this detour. We picked up the trail on the other side of the bridge until we arrived at the point in the trail where it started to climb up the mountain. We are assuming that this is the same section that we stopped at on our previous adventure (see Perkiomen Trail – Part 2 ).

Keep on Trekkin'

Perkiomen Trail – Part 2 – Hollywood to Cedar Road

Sunday, August 15th, we continued our journey to explore this trail (see Perkiomen Trail – Part 1). We drove to the Hollywood Trailhead. It is located in one of the lesser populated areas of the trail. Traveling north, the trail is wide and paved macadam for a bit and then returns to crushed stone. The trail mostly follows an old railroad bed but there are parts of the trail where the land has been reclaimed by property owners and the trail circumnavigates around these areas. In downtown Schwenksville, the trail travels closely behind the buildings on Main St. We passed a bike-friendly breakfast-lunch eatery. We thought it’d be a nice place to stop but we had already eaten and were interested in exploring more of the trail.

Once you leave Schwenksville the trail turns right and heads up the hill. This was a bit challenging so we stopped at a bench at the top of the hill for a breather. The Cedar Road Trailhead is close by. The trail then proceeds down hill. When we got to a spot where a sign indicated the slope was a 12% grade we decided to turn around. We were disappointed but were dreading the thought of having to climb back up this hill on our return. Our map indicates that from the Cedar Road Trailhead to the Spring Mount Trailhead is only a mile.

Once we got back to the car and loaded the bikes we proceeded to locate the Spring Mount Trailhead. It’s about a mile off of Route 73. There is a bridge there that is closed and under construction. We returned home knowing that we wanted to come back soon and explore the rest of this trail.

Keep on Trekkin'