The Friends of the Cresheim Trail
The Friends of the Cresheim Trail
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Recent Posts

  • Cresheim Trail volunteer workday POSTPONED to Sat 6/14
  • Cresheim Valley Drive Spring Cleanup – Love Your Park – Sat 5/17
  • Fundraiser Sat 4/19, Volunteer Workday Sun 4/20
  • FOCT Announces Leadership Transition and Continued Momentum
  • Volunteer Workday Sat 3/15

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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

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Email: info@cresheimtrail.org

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🚨 CT ALERT 🚨 Sorry folks, something has com 🚨 CT ALERT 🚨 Sorry folks, something has come up and we must postpone our volunteer workday planned for this Sunday. We are going to try again next Saturday, June 14th, same trail time, same trail channel. The plan and meetup spot remain the same, we just need to kick it to next weekend when we’ll have all our personnel and equipment. Our apologies to the Sunday regulars - we’ll run it back at the next Sunday workday, in August. SO: Let’s plan on meeting on northbound Cresheim Valley Drive, 9AM next Saturday, June 14th. Regret the late shakeup, but we’ll still take care of business. Thanks for understanding. #cresheimtrail
The June Cresheim Trail volunteer workday is happe The June Cresheim Trail volunteer workday is happening THIS SUNDAY. And this one will be a “mobile workday,” meaning we’ll grab our tools and take a hike. As we’ve moved into unofficial summer territory, we’ve got some vegetation trimming to do, pretty much all the way up to the Lincoln Drive trailhead. There’s also some other trail work to get to like updating grade reversals (to improve the flow of water across and off of the trail) and re-armoring the rock approach near the SEPTA Chestnut Hill West bridge. We’ll meet at 9am at the classic CT workday spot, on *northbound* Cresheim Valley Drive opposite Navajo Street. This spot is now well defined by the tree tubes and cages from our recent plantings, so if you’re driving, please be sure to park well enough off of the Drive but mind the trees. You can also park on Germantown Avenue - the meetup spot is a 3-minute walk from the trailhead next to the trestle. #cresheimtrail
Oh what could have been. A nice big #TBT shoutout Oh what could have been. A nice big #TBT shoutout to the Philadelphia Department of Records, whose digital archive at PhillyHistory.org is a treasure trove of Philadelphiana. These photos show the late 1950s scene at Stenton Avenue, where it crossed over the Pennsylvania Railroad Fort Washington Branch. The train had recently discontinued passenger service and the northern portion of it was already being turned into the Fort Washington Expressway, PA-309. The old bridge in most of the photos (built in the 1890s) was replaced by the one in the last pic, a highway-era bridge as part of Stenton's widening. When PennDOT most recently improved Stenton Avenue, in the 90s, the railroad had been gone for decades. Because of that, it was much simpler and much cheaper to put the new deck on fill, rather than an expensive new bridge. And because of that, we'll need to dig a tunnel to continue the Cresheim Trail into Montgomery County. We're working on it! It's a few years and a few million dollars off, but we're determined to get it there. In the meantime, enjoy these photos and keep em handy the next time you do a loop on the rough draft. #cresheimtrail
HEADS UP: Just a reminder to everyone that SEPTA w HEADS UP: Just a reminder to everyone that SEPTA will soon be performing repairs on the bridge that carries the Chestnut Hill East Line over Cresheim Creek, the Cresheim Rail Trail, and Cresheim Valley Drive. This will involve partial to full closures of the Drive and Trail. The targeted dates are as follows: • Tue 5/27: Site preparation and equipment mobilization • Sun 6/15: Primary work to begin, intermittent Drive and Trail closures • Sun 8/31: Work to be completed, full Drive and Trail access resumes Please note that while SEPTA will do its best to keep Cresheim Valley Drive and the trail open as much as possible, there will be a lot of heavy machinery in motion, so be prepared to turn around if you encounter an active work site. #cresheimtrail
Friends of the Cresheim Trail stand in solidarity Friends of the Cresheim Trail stand in solidarity with @savethetrain_septa and all of the good people fighting for SEPTA to get the funding it deserves. The trail passes under both Chestnut Hill regional rail lines and the future crossing of Germantown Avenue is dependent upon their continuation. And we’re proud to have a trailhead directly across the street from Richard Allen Lane Station. The Chestnut Hill West Line is baked into the quality of life in Northwest Philadelphia, a historic asset with a central role in how the entire area came to be, from the bottom of Germantown to the top of Chestnut Hill. Eliminating it would be disastrous, from the obvious removal of a critical transportation option and the addition of traffic to job loss and devalued properties, not to mention the loss of one of the primary components of the area’s identity. Full funding for SEPTA!
Another fantastic volunteer outing is in the books Another fantastic volunteer outing is in the books. Not even counting the folks from @streetsphiladelphia and @philaparkandrec, we had over 60 people come out to make Cresheim Valley Drive as clean as it’s gonna get. As always, THANK YOU to everyone who made it happen. Because of the great turnout, we were able to tackle a number of tasks. Most obviously, we cleared the .6-mile Drive between Germantown and Stenton Avenues, removing dozens of bags of trash, 23 hub caps, 9 tires and lots of car parts, 1 wooden ladder, and at least 1 spent nitrous tank. Parks & Rec used the road closure to remove lots of brush and deadfall from the shoulders of the Drive along with some of what we’ve cleared in the quarry part of the Friends Loop. While that was happening, members of the @fowissahickon Q-Team removed vines and vegetation from the stone wall along the Drive, part of its original design from the Olmsted Brothers over 100 years ago. On the upper side of the Friends Loop, a crew made several improvements to the new extension we built last month and trimmed back some vegetation. A crew also gave a good haircut to the rail trail corridor, including the enormous stand of knotweed close to Stenton Avenue. Reminder: Poison hemlock has begun growing in the corridor, so know what it looks like and avoid it. Finally, shoutout to @mtairytrashteam for not only supporting this cleanup and leading monthly ones of their own, but for bringing the fun task of marking storm drains with the orange “Drains to Wissahickon” decals. All in all, another successful outing! We’ll do the southern half of Cresheim Valley Drive in October, and our next volunteer workday is on Sunday, June 8th. We’ll share details a little closer to then. #cresheimtrail
Howdy, y’all. Two quick important items of busin Howdy, y’all. Two quick important items of business ahead an action packed, fun filled weekend: 1. Tomorrow’s Love Your Park cleanup of Cresheim Valley Drive is ON! The very latest National Weather Service model has rain in the 50% or less range for the morning, so we’re going for it. There’s been a light rain each of the last two times we’ve done this section, so now it’s tradition. Pack a rain jacket and a hat just in case and we’ll see you there. Reminder: If you’re driving, @chquakermeeting has generously offered their parking lot at 20 E Mermaid Lane. We’ll meet at 9am at Chestnut Hill Mermaid Park and go till 12 noon. We have some other light trail tasks if/when we finish the cleanup if you wanna stick around. 2. On Sunday just a little further up the avenue, stop by and see us at the Chestnut Hill Home & Garden Festival, 11am–5pm. We’ll be on the 8000 block of Germantown Ave and we’ll have all our latest merch: maps, t-shirts, wooder bottles, plus some of the classics like stainless steel cups and magnets. Come to one or come to two, we’ll be happy to see YOU. #cresheimtrail
Welp, here’s a fun PSA: As you may have read in Welp, here’s a fun PSA: As you may have read in the monthly Cresheim Trail newsletter this morning, poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) has been positively identified in the rail trail corridor near Stenton Avenue. (And if you’re not on the CT newsletter, you can sign up at the link in our bio or at the bottom of our homepage at cresheimtrail.org.) Poison hemlock (pic 1) is a toxic invasive plant that can grow up to 10 feet tall. It’s been spotted elsewhere in Philadelphia, including Cobbs Creek and the paved Wissahickon Trail below Forbidden Drive. Its leaves are fern-like, its stalks have purplish stripes, and its summer blooms resemble queen anne’s lace. While poison ivy can cause an itchy contact dermatitis rash, poison hemlock does not typically cause the same skin issues — unless it comes into contact with an open wound. And for heaven’s sake don’t ingest it. That’s how Socrates died, you know. Eastern poison ivy (toxicodendron radicans, pic 2) is the devil we know — and readily found along the Cresheim Trail and in the Wissahickon. Leaves of three, let it be. And finally, in pic 3: Ticks! Deer ticks (Ixodes scapularis), dog ticks (Dermacentor variabilis), lone star ticks (Amblyomma americanum), and groundhog ticks (Ixodes cookei) are the common ones in Pennsylvania, and each has the potential to transmit disease, from Lyme to Powassan. Stay well ahead of that worst case scenario and check yourself while in the woods, and always give a full body check when you get home. But other than that, the great outdoors are awesome! Be careful, have fun, rock on. #cresheimtrail

 

(c) 2025 The Friends of the Cresheim Trail

The Friends of the Cresheim Trail
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