a new trail!

Today while driving to Manayunk I discovered a new trail. Now when I head south I generally go 378, and then thru Coopersburg and turn at the old Pinebrook Junior College. It's now houses. Right after the former college property, and before the old golf course, I saw a sign —Liberty Bell Trolley Trail with an arrow pointing right. I put it on my to do list coming home.

On the way home I turned at the sign and arrived in a 6 car parking lot, with handicapped spaces. The stats of the trail are above. If you do an out and back, you're only going to do about a mile. Great place I'm sure to walk the dog. Not a destination hike. But it had a logo and fancy trail markers.

That begs the question why.

I looked it up online. And like the Saucon Rail Trail (SRT) that came together in pieces, this one is also part of a larger project. There's other little pieces in Hatfield, Landsdale, Perkasie and East Norriton Township. From TrailLink.com "Plans call for the trail to follow the route of the former Liberty Bell Trolley Line from Quakertown south to Allentown, {Wait. Isn't Allentown North of Quakertown?} a total of 25 miles. In addition to providing a multi-use trail through the northern Philadelphia suburbs, extensions north to the Saucon Rail Trail and south to the Schuylkill River Trail, along with connections to numerous other local trails, the Liberty Bell Trail will eventually form part of a long-distance Greenway that will connect the Philadelphia and Allentown-Bethlehem metropolitan areas.  

It will be hard to connect this with the SRT.  For one, it's on the other side of 309. Nobody in their right mind is going to cross 309 to hike/bike.

One day when I'm in the hood, I will walk this trail.