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2021 Spring Newsletter
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Recent Posts

Earth Day volunteer event Sun 4/21
Philadelphia and Montgomery County Communities Unite to Extend Cresheim Trail
Big Volunteer Workday Sat 3/16
January volunteer workday CANCELED
2024 Volunteer Workdays

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Donate to Cresheim Trail online (Square)

We encourage you to join our group by making a donation ($50 suggested) online at our Square page or by mail to:

Friends of the Cresheim Trail

PO Box 4341

Philadelphia, PA 19118

Contact Us

Email: info@cresheimtrail.org

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Interested in a first look into the future? Join u

Interested in a first look into the future? Join us! On Saturday, March 16th, we’ll host a volunteer workday to do early work on the official next phase of the Cresheim Trail: the section between Germantown and Stenton Avenues.

This section will follow the alignment of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Fort Washington (AKA Cresheim) Branch, opened in 1891 and last used for passenger rail service in the 1950s. It passes through the tunnel under the @septaphilly Chestnut Hill East Line, built by the Reading Railroad in the 1930s. The section was brought into agreement between PECO and the City of Philadelphia (with Friends of the Cresheim Trail as stewardship partner) in 2018, thanks to legislation from @cindybassphilly.

This will eventually become an official part of @thecircuittrails network — a project FOCT is actively working on. Currently, the corridor is passable from the ramp at Germantown Avenue (next to the Trolley Car Diner construction site) to roughly Crittenden Street, with a side connection into Wissahickon East.

At this workday, we will make it passable to Stenton, where there will be a turnaround and a loop back through small woods adjacent to Cresheim Valley Drive. Save the date for now: Saturday, March 16th, at 9am. We’ll announce meetup location details soon.

#cresheimtrail #onthecircuit #trailbuilding #chestnuthillpa #gomtairy

WELP. Ain’t no day like a snow day but ain’t n

WELP. Ain’t no day like a snow day but ain’t no workday on a snow day. Ergo, we must CANCEL this Sunday’s planned volunteer workday.

That makes two snow day cancellations in a row, so we’re gonna go big on our next one: Saturday, March 16th. Save the date and put a dot in your calendar app, it’s gonna be a doozy. Details soon.

In the meantime, get out there and enjoy the snow this weekend!

#cresheimtrail

Happy belated snow day, y’all. Just a reminder

Happy belated snow day, y’all.

Just a reminder: It’s an even month which means we’ll have a volunteer work *Sunday*. We’ll pay a visit to the Friends Loop and check in on the trail we built last April with our friends from @chestnuthillcommunity and @fowissahickon — we’ll put some attention on the old quarry the loop passes through (pic 3) by clearing invasive shrubs and vines. We’ll also do some minor trail work, and we’ll have some live stake plants to put in the ground near the boardwalk across the Avenue.

That’s happening THIS SUNDAY, February 18th. We’ll meet at 9am at Mermaid Park, the green space on Germantown Avenue between Mermaid Inn and Chestnut Hill Flower & Garden.

Join us! And save the date: We’ve got big plans for our March volunteer workday, scheduled for Saturday March 16th.

#cresheimtrail #volunteer #trailbuilding

The past, present, and future of the Cresheim Trai

The past, present, and future of the Cresheim Trail are interlocked with SEPTA’s Chestnut Hill West Line, and Friends of the Cresheim Trail certainly supports keeping the train running.

The CHW bridge is one of the most notable landmarks on the existing trail. Our boardwalk carries the trail over a muddy area directly under the bridge, and riding the rocky downhill hits a little harder when a train is crossing.

The immediate future phases of the CT (which we’re planning now) follow the old Fort Washington (AKA Cresheim) Branch, built in the 1890s by the Pennsylvania Railroad as a spur off of the Chestnut Hill (West) line they built just a few years earlier. And SEPTA’s own plans for the CHW Line will have a major positive impact on the CT.

FOCT joins our neighbors in supporting the Governor’s proposal to help fund SEPTA, as transit is critical to not only our area, but the entire Philly region. Thank you to @savethetrain_septa and all our neighbors in Mt Airy, Chestnut Hill, and Germantown who have been leading this effort!

#cresheimtrail

Probably goes without saying, but after the rain a

Probably goes without saying, but after the rain and fast melt of the recent snow, trail everywhere are super muddy, including Cresheim. Best to stick to harder surfaces like Forbidden Drive and SRT for a bit. Sometimes the best care for trails is to avoid em, and this is one of those times.

In other news, we’re plotting a pretty excellent first volunteer workday of the year on Sunday February 18th. Save the date and stay tuned for details.

#cresheimtrail #leavenotrace

Hate to do it folks, but we’re gonna cancel the

Hate to do it folks, but we’re gonna cancel the volunteer workday planned for this weekend. More snow’s on its way and it’s gonna be about 15º Saturday morning, so we’ll try again next month. Instead, wax up your boots, fill up your fat tires, layer up and get out into it. ❄️

Please note: Next month’s scheduled workday will be our first SUNDAY event of the year — Sunday, February 18th. (See previous post for announcement about this year’s Sat/Sun volunteer workdays.) Enjoy the winter weather and stay tuned for details.

#cresheimtrail

SAVE THE DATES: 2024 Cresheim Trail volunteer work

SAVE THE DATES: 2024 Cresheim Trail volunteer workdays! We’ve heard from a number of you that Saturdays don’t always work, so this year, we’ve added a Sunday option.

Beginning in just a couple weeks, we’ll alternate Saturdays and Sundays for our monthly events: Saturdays for odd months and Sundays for evens. We bumped June up a week on account of Father’s Day, but otherwise, plan on joining us the third weekend of each month. 9AM start time as usual, meetup locations posted in advance of each. Please note that these are working dates and are *subject to change*

We’ll be handling all the usual tasks: trail work, ecological work (invasive plant removal and native tree & shrub planting), biking features, litter cleanup, and hopefully working on some new sections of trail as well.

Friends of the Cresheim Trail will also be back at community events in Chestnut Hill, Mt Airy, Springfield Township, and Cheltenham Township. We’ll announce those dates as we have them. 2024, here we go!

#cresheimtrail

CRESHEIM TRAIL 2023: The Year That Was. Friends o

CRESHEIM TRAIL 2023: The Year That Was.

Friends of the Cresheim Trail is extremely grateful to everyone who helped us make 2023 an incredible year on the trail: volunteers, partners, donors, elected officials, friends, trail users. Thank you all. We got a lot done this year, and we have much to look forward to in 2024 and beyond. Some highlights…

Pic 1: We kept the boardwalk in photogenic, good working order with routine maintenance
2: With @philaparkandrec’s help, we opened a small but important trail segment: the first in the old railroad corridor the future trail will traverse
3: With help from @chestnuthillcommunity and @fowissahickon, we opened the Friends Loop, a ⅓-mile trail through an old quarry and parkland on the south end of Chestnut Hill
4: With support from @philastreets and help from @mtairytrashteam, we did two cleanups of Cresheim Valley Drive
5: We installed five new oak benches at the outdoor classroom, well used and loved by Houston School students (and teachers)
6: We had 14 volunteer workdays with 232 attendees totaling 725 hours
7: We installed our first round of trail posts: 15 total with more to come
8: We held our first ever fundraiser, Among Friends, raising almost $10K and watching @reprabb do cartwheels
9: We continued our ecological restoration work, planting over 100 new trees and shrubs in spring and fall
10: We’re finally ready to cross the bridge over Germantown Avenue

On that last note, while FOCT continued working with our consultants and applying for grants, @septaphilly announced they will restore the bridge over the avenue to provide access for their construction vehicles to the substation they’ll be rebuilding. The estimated timeline is two years and the end result will be use of the bridge for the Cresheim Trail and occasional SEPTA maintenance. Meanwhile, we are planning for the next segment of trail from Germantown Ave to Stenton Ave.

Help us keep momentum going. If you can, make a year-end, tax-deductible donation to help us do that! The link’s in our bio.

Thank you, thank you, and see you on the trail in 2024!

#cresheimtrail

(c) 2024 The Friends of the Cresheim Trail

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