2018 Hike 1, Skippack Creek Trail - Evansburg State Park PA

2018 Hike 1 - January 21st
Evansburg State Park PA
Shippack Creek loop trail
Posted by Chris 1/22/18

Basics:
Length - 4.7 miles
Elevation gain - not much
Nearest city - Collegeville PA
Difficulty - Easy physically.  Following the trail guide in the book required some basic navigational skills and a few times wasn't crystal clear but worked out.

The day:
We're off to a slow start but we seized the first remotely decent weekend day we've had in months and after a delicious bagel we headed east on US 22 and then rapidly down the Northeast Extension of the PA Turnpike to PA 63 and in about 7 miles we were at the trailhead.  The 50 hikes in Eastern PA book said that Evansburg state park was extremely obscure and hard to find but the car nav took us right there and there were a surprising number of people throughout the park while we were there even though there was still ice on the trails.

We arrived about 9 am and as we started out the ground looked muddy but was actually very stiff and frozen which was actually the better of the two possibilities.  There are a few very (1700's) old houses along the trail and of course the namesake creek is nearby for most of the trail.  Roughly stated, the loop goes along one side of the creek for about 2 miles near the water level then crosses the creek on a road bridge then climbs onto the higher bluff on the other side of creek, returns along that side of the creek and then crosses a very historic bridge back over the creek.  There are some little connecting bits in addition to this but most of the mileage and time is spent near one side or the other of the creek which is almost always in view.  By the time we were on the high bluff side of the hike things were starting to thaw and get muddy but we were done in 2 hours and enjoyed getting the first hike of the year done.

Brian overall liked this trail a little more than I did. 

Pluses :

  • Woodsy
  • Just right trail length
  • Quite a few foot bridges of various sizes and designs
  • Loop trail
  • Water features
  • Restroom at trail head was surprisingly open and functioning
  • State park brochure for the park was available at trailhead (PA is always good at this) 
Minuses:
  • For a barely decent winter day there were a lot of people on the trails
  • Trail seems prone to being muddy and I'd imagine buggy in the summer
  • The closer to the creek side of the trail isn't very interesting



Location: Evansburg State Park, 851 Mayhall Rd, Collegeville, PA 19426, USA

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