I started today at Smedley Park at the Leiper Smedley trail head. I still wasn't in an out and back mood. Honestly I rarely am. Unless my time is limited I much prefer to do loop walks or hikes. It was easy to make today's walk a loop by picking up the Crum Creek Trail for the return to Smedley Park. Click here for a Crum Creek Trail map. Page two of the pdf is the trail map. The red line shows part of the Lieper Smedley Trail. My start was off the map to the left. The yellow line is the Crum Creek Trail.
The LP part of the hike is easy to follow. It's paved all the way from Baltimore Pike to Avondale road. The CC part was more challenging since it is not blazed. I've tried the CC trail before from the Plush Mill road end and got lost shortly after the trolley tracks. I ended up on side trail and onto the Swarthmore College Campus. The entrance of the trail from Avondale road is not all that clear although I could see efforts being made to make it more clear. Trees have been planted along both sides of what should be the trail. Once you get past the apartment building on Yale Avenue it becomes more obvious on its own.
The loop is an interesting contrast of urban hiking. The LP trail follows the Blue Route and the CC trail the creek. You can hear traffic the whole way. I saw few running groups and two dog walkers along the way. These photos show the to sides of this loop.
The most annoying part of the loop is walking back up the hill on Plush Mill Road after leaving the CC trail to get back to LP to get back to the car. However, despite having no blazes anywhere between Yale Ave and Plush Mill Road there were two sets of blazes on Plush Mill road that seemed to indicate the trail continues on the other side of Plush Mill. I'm guessing it continues along the creek then under Baltimore Pike into Smedley Park. That'd be awesome if it does. I'll have to check that out another time.
Judging by time I estimate this loop was about 5 maybe 5.5 miles.
Keep Smiling and Keep Moving
-Paula
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