kind-of scary walk

Yesterday the Montco Challenge card fell out of the visor and into my lap. I counted up my walks and saw that I had to do two more walks to do before reaching the next level. And there's about a month left to complete all three stages. Since I had no plans today, I decided to try to complete level two.

I chose the Powerline Trail, and the Chester Valley Trail. The Powerline Trail was right off County Line Road near Rt. 202. The Chester Valley Trail was off 202 in King of Prussia. The two walks were maybe a half-hour apart.

Or so I thought. As with the other times I've done these Montco trails, the trail heads are hard to find. At least for me. Maybe not if you know the area. Which I don't.

Today was no different.

I wrote a long, extended post about trying to find the trail head, but frankly, it sounded like whining. So I just deleted it. I did find the trail four times, but did not find the parking. I was about to give up.

On my way back to Rt. 202, I saw the trail again on the left. It looks like it pauses and then continues on the other side of County Line Rd.! I turned at the next corner, which was a McMansion housing development. An odd place I thought for a trail head. But I figured I could park on the street and pick up the trail. No need. There was a parking lot and a port-o-potty. The lot and trail were not marked. Nor was their a symbol marker for the walk.

Walking under a power line is a little disconcerting. Especially when the first thing you see is a caution size. But the trail was fairly busy with dog walkers. 

It was breezy and the power lines were moving.  I went maybe a half mile and another trail joined it in a Y.  Now which one was the power line and which was the new trail? I didn't know. The new one was all kinds of marked. It even had signs telling you about plants and creeks and such. Even one about dog poop. Of which there was plenty. Even rich people don't clean up after their dogs.

Clearly the powerline was headed straight ahead, but I wanted to see what was to the right. So into the woods I went, and followed the trail up a hill, past a bird blind, and to a parking lot. This was a huge park and it had bathrooms that were open.

The Bradford Dam trail and if you followed itinto the woods for 1.2 miles you'd get to the dam. I decided that exploring, alone, in the woods was not a good idea. I turned around and came back to the original trail. The dam trail split off to the right and back into the woods in about a 1.4 miles.

 I followed the Powerline Trail for about a mile until it came to a cross street.  This bridge looked like part of the trail but it went nowhere. If you followed the powerline, it wasn't apparent where it went next, so I turned around and came back. There were power lines as far as I could see.

I'd be interested in doing the dam trail another time. Not so much this one. In the summer this would be a hot walk. There was no shade anywhere.

I hopped in the car and headed to King of Prussia on 202. I've forgotten how congested this portion is.. Arriving in KOP was obvious—202 turned into a giant strip mall. I missed my turn. I had to go about 10 miles to turn around. Coming back I saw the trail, but again there was no parking. I was concentrating so hard on looking for a turnoff, that I missed the 202 split on the left and ended up on the Schuylkill. I decided the cosmos was giving me a sign and I should just go home. Finishing pt. 2 of the challenge was not important. I wasn't doing all three. But then fate stepped in again. Originally, I was looking for Gulph Rd. The first exit said Gulph Rd.  So I took it, and headed back to KPO  on Gulph Rd. I could see the malls a half mile ahead of me. Then the train station and I thought, damn, I must have missed it, and then there it was—in the Park and Ride Lot. The sign was faded, but it was there.

This trail is only about 2 miles long, but it uses bridges to cross all the highways. It was so cool.

Miles/Steps:   No idea
Bathrooms:     I-4.5 the bathroom at the park was wonderful. Didn't check the port-o-potty
Weather:        Perfect. 70s, sunny, breezy
Wildlife:          None
Extras:           2 weeks now without my fitbit. I started looking and they no longer make mine. I either need to go back to the little one that's like a pedometer, or get a bracelet one. I'll never wear the bracelet. So that's either the little one which doesn't count stairs, or none at all. Don't know.