Skippack Creek

A long time ago, I bought this book.  I have the one for Central Pennsylvania, too. For a while, we made a point of doing as many as we could, but had kind of gotten off track lately.

So this last weekend, desperate for some outdoor activity, we revisited the book and came up with a nice hike through Evansburg State Park in Montgomery County.  No, we didn't pick it based on its name, and yes, this wonderful hike is basically in suburban Philly!

We did a 4.7 mile loop hike which took us up one side of Skippack Creek, across it, and then down the other side.  There are a lot of old farmsteads in and near the park.  It was interesting to imagine the days when travel by creek probably would have been far simpler than travel any other way.

I didn't get a good photo of this part, but at one point, we were walking through the brushy flood plain close to the creek, with a farm field on one side, and then a hemlock-covered cliff rising across the stream.  It reminded me very much of the family farm.  Down to the details of how the stream flows!  

Elsewhere, there weren't a lot of signs of spring, except for a very muddy trail.  But I did find a few cheerier signs of warm weather. 

These daffodils were a day or two from popping open, and also were another sign of human habitation at some point (daffodils naturalize but aren't really wildflowers).  I also found a twig from a tree that had fallen to the forest floor.  The blooms were very small, but surprisingly colorful.

I felt like a poor woodsman this trip, because I don't know what kind of tree the blooming twig belongs to, and I don't know the name of the small trees that these long-lasting whitish leaves from last fall were hanging on to, either!