French Creek - Cooks Glen Road Trails

Date of Hike: Friday, August 28, 2015

Total Distance: 2.03 Miles

Avg speed: 1.78 MPH

Avg moving speed: 2.61 MPH

Moving Time: 46:39

Total Time: 1:08:13

Conditions: Sunny, 80 Degrees

Difficulty: Easy, Moderate

After hiking at the Sanatoga County Preserve and deciding not to hike at the Linfield County Preserve, I ended up at one of my favorite fishing spots alongside French Creek just off Cooks Glen Road.

Approximate address:
60 Cooks Glen Road
Spring City, PA 19475
GPS: 40.1547708,-75.6400639

When you arrive and if you're approaching from Pughtown Road (from the north), there's a small parking area on the western (right hand) side of Cooks Glen Road just after you cross over French Creek.

As I mentioned, this is one of my favorite spots on French Creek to go fishing so I'm familiar with some of the trails that run along both sides of French Creek in this area. Eventually, the trails on the northern side of the creek will run into private property and you'll be forced to either turn back or cross over to the trails on the opposite side of the creek. On the southern side, the trails continue a distance further, I believe to the Sheeder Mill Farm where you can rent horses for trail riding. How far they go, I don't really know. It was my intention to find out but I ended up getting turned around on the trail.

French Creek is one of the few in the area where you can fish for trout just about all year round. The below view is looking upstream from the bridge on Cooks Glen Road. Looking into the water just beneath me, there were a few nice looking trout swimming around.

Looking downstream from the bridge on Cooks Glen Road

You'll find a trail head almost directly across from the parking area and from there, you'll be heading east.

Bridge at Cooks Glen Road

I didn't take many pictures of the trail in this area. They're in decent condition for being fishing trails with a few low spots that are usually muddy but nothing to worry about. They're easy to go around or through if necessary.

A picture of the trail! This is looking back towards the bridge on Cooks Glen Road which is a few hundred yards back.

A little further to the east, you'll begin to run into the equestrian trails which are in pretty good condition and easily passable.

An unknown stream runs into French Creek. Just upstream is this rocky spot with a few small waterfalls.

Alongside the unknown stream is this patch of rocks that stretch for a good distance.

Once I was done checking out the small stream, I turned back towards French Creek and located the horse trail again. You can see that these trails are in fairly good condition.

The horse trails also split off in different directions which was why I ended up getting turned around. At this point, both French Creek and one of the equestrian trails cut to the northeast (left) and was the direction I went.

At this spot, I was at the furthest point I had been to while fishing and had never explored beyond. If you look in the below picture, you'll see a cable crossing over the creek and the remnants of a sign hanging in the middle. This is the beginning of a fly fishing only zone on French Creek and the reason I've never gone further. I enjoy fishing but have never learned to fly fish.

Looking upstream from the area where the fly fishing only zone begins. A short distance upstream from the dock across the creek is the relative area where the trail on the opposite side runs into private property.

Somewhere in this area was where I ended up getting turned around and instead of continuing eastward along French Creek, the trail I took brought me south away from the creek.

Somewhere along the trail, I ran into private property but didn't notice until I saw this sign after passing through it. Sorry about that!

Looking into another area that was roped off and a deer that was looking back at me.

I'm not sure what these trails were at one time but a lot of them were wide enough that machinery could have driven on them. Giving the historical nature of the area with mills that were located not too far away, I have to wonder if these roads used to be traveled from one location to another during the Colonial and Industrial periods.

Some of these trails run to private property again. I ended up having to turn around a few times before eventually making my way back to French Creek.

Back to French Creek

Concrete pillar in the middle of the woods? What for?

The trail I took eventually brought me to the side of Sawmill Road. At this point, I was almost back to the car.

There are two different trail heads on Sawmill Road

Trail head on Sawmill Road

Heading back to the car, on the corner of Sawmill and Cooks Glen Roads, there's another trail head entrance that I didn't check out. Eventually, I plan on returning to see where it leads.

That was it with my tour of this section of French Creek for the time being. While some of the trails in this area are private property, some of it also looks like it's public land that can be used for hiking or horseback riding. The fun part is that there are no trail maps and the trails head off in several different directions so you don't really know which one(s) will bring you to private property until you're on them. In all, it was a nice but short hike. I plan on eventually returning to see where these trails end up but there won't be any rush.

Until next time, happy adventures and happy hiking!

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Sanatoga County Preserve

Date of Hike: Friday, August 28, 2015

Total Distance: 2.98 Miles

Avg speed: 1.9 MPH

Avg moving speed: 2.61 MPH

Moving Time: 1:08:17

Total Time: 1:33:56

Conditions: Sunny, 80 Degrees

Difficulty: Easy

This is the first of two different places I went hiking on Friday, the 28th of August with my first adventure taking me to the Sanatoga County Preserve. I've had my eyes on this place for quite a while and quite honestly, I'm glad I waited. More on this is a bit.

Approximate address:

118 Sanatoga Road
Pottstown, PA 19465
GPS: 40.2304457,-75.5970713

If you're having any doubts, just stay on Sanatoga Road until you get to where it's roped off and you can't drive any further, you won't be able to miss it. You likely won't need one but if you're looking for a trail map, you can find one here (page 5).

Unfortunately, the below picture didn't come out too well but it's just basic information about hunting on the preserve.

When you get to the point where the road is roped off and you won't be able to go any further, this is what you'll see when you look down Sanatoga Road.

On your approach to the parking area (it's not really much of a parking area, there's enough space for maybe a few cars and that's about it), you'll see this yellow gate to your left. I pulled in here to turn the car around and almost changed my mind about hiking the preserve. Once I took a closer look, I noticed there was a trail so I decided to stick around and check it out.

At this point, I'm heading northwest (more west than north) and for the most part, the trail which really looked like an unpaved farming road was in ok condition.

Right about as you get to this opening is where the trail basically comes to an end. You can still see it but you can also tell that these trails are not used much, nor are they being maintained. My guess is that this land is usually used during hunting season and not really for recreational hiking.

I found a side trail that cut to the south and decided to check it out. It eventually came to a dead end where I likely could have kept going but it was overgrown and pretty close to private property so I turned back.

Pretty much the end of the trail

Back out to the open field, I then turned to the northwest again. I didn't get much further though. I tried in a few different areas to find another trail but each time I turned, it eventually led to a dead end. I likely could have kept moving but the weeds were getting taller and I wasn't really willing to keep going.

First of a few dead ends

Second of two different dead ends I ran into in this section of the preserve

Once I reached the above dead end, I turned back towards the car. To the north of where the trail is, there's a cornfield in the middle of the preserve.

Back to the car, I hopped over the ropes to head north on Sanatoga Road. They're hard to see in this picture but whatever flowers were on these plants (right side) smelled awesome!

Following Sanatoga Road north

When you get to the end of Sanatoga Road, you'll see this barricade where at one time, there used to be a bridge crossing over the Schuylkill River. I can't seem to find much information about when the bridge was demolished and an internet search about the bridge turned out some results but no mention of when the bridge was removed. My guess is around the early 2000's.

There's enough room to squeeze around the wooden fence to the edge of the road for a somewhat clear shot of the remains of the bridge.

As you're facing the barricade, there's a trail to your left side heading in a westerly direction.

The trail will bring you right next to the Schuylkill River and give you a better view of the bridge ruins.

Ok, so why did I take a picture like this? It turns out that the Sanatoga County Preserve is one of several (I believe 20 or more) silt basins alongside the Schuylkill River where coal silt was dredged from the river back in the 1940's and 1950's. At one point in time, the Schuylkill River was so polluted from the mining industry and careless dumping of coal silt that the water had turned black.

The Schuylkill River Project aimed at de-silting (dredging) the Schuylkill River was instituted in 1945 and to this day, you can still see remnants of coal alongside and close to the river. Much of what you see below are small pieces of coal.

If you'd like to learn more about the Schuylkill River Project, the mining industry, and the history surrounding the Schuylkill River, check out this book written by Chari Towne titled A River Again.

The trail that was running alongside the Schuylkill River seemed to be in better shape than the ones in the southern section of the preserve. You could see that someone had been through and had cut down quite a bit of weeds to keep the trail passable.

Once I reached this point, I decided it was time to turn back. I'm not sure why but being at this preserve creeped me out a little bit. I don't think there was anything to worry about but for some reason, I had a strange vibe about the place and I don't usually get that kind of feeling being anywhere outside.

I found an opening next to the trail where I could get up close to the Schuylkill River and took a few shots. First looking upstream, the other downstream.

On the trail heading back to the ruins of the bridge and Sanatoga Road.

Looking south on Sanatoga Road

Almost back to where the car was parked. 

That was it for my hike at the Sanatoga County Preserve. In all, it was ok but not something I'll be breaking the door down to do again. After all the hikes I've been on over the last few seasons, I can safely say that I've been to far better places than this. Was it worth checking out? Sure. Will I do it again? Not likely.

If in time this place gets better developed and the trails are more defined, I may return to check it out again but really, I don't see that happening anytime soon. I also wanted to check out the Linfield County Preserve which is a short drive away but upon my arrival, it looked to be in about the same condition as the Sanatoga County Preserve so I decided to head elsewhere.

A short distance from either preserve is the now abandoned but restored town of Fricks Lock. In 1969, the town was purchased by PECO who claimed eminent domain, closed and boarded up the buildings where it stayed that way until 2013 when Excelon restored the exterior of nine buildings within the town. Tours are now given every other Saturday from May through October. For more information, click here.

Although not the best of adventures, I hope you enjoyed it anyway. Until next time, happy hiking and happy exploring!

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Southeastern PA Hiking