Perkiomen Trail

I took advantage of the good weather and the free day to revisit the Perkiomen Trail in South Eastern PA. The trail follows the rail bed of part of the Reading Railway and is nearly 20 miles long.  I've been on this trail a few times in the past always starting from the Southern end so this time I was determined to start on the Northern end.  

I had a difficult time finding the trailhead and parking lots... The trail winds in and around the city of Green Lane but doesn't actually have any parking... I finally found the Crusher Road trailhead... This is about 2.7 miles from the actual start of the trail...

The trail is a mix of paved sections and crushed gravel... There are lots of bridges that cross over the Perkiomen Creek along the entire trail...

The trail is pretty hilly with rises and falls all along the trail... At about 5 miles (7.7 from the start) there is a 12% uphill grade ... Even in my lowest climbing gear I only had the steam for 3/4 of the accent... I was relieved to see others walking up as well...the nice thing is I'll get to fly down that hill on my way back...

The trail is well maintained and in good shape ... The southern end has quite a few street crossings and some of them are quite harry... I turned around at 15 miles ... Which was about 2.5 to the southern end of the trail at Lower Perkiomen Park... I've started from that trailhead several times so I didn't feel compelled to go all the way to the end...

A few of the places along the trail to eat appear to be closed or undergoing renovations which meant I had to wait till Collegeville to stop for lunch ... The Collegeville Diner had good food and friendly service but they were busy and removed my stuff from the table when I went to use the restroom... I guess they thought I was done ... No dessert for me this time...

Along the creek I saw families playing and people fishing... I even saw a rope swing... There was also a good deal of trail traffic... Bikers, runners, and walkers all sharing the trail... While I didn't see any on the trail I know that certain sections of the trail are open to horse traffic as well ...

 All in all a good trail with hills to challenge and a nice surface... More parking and better signage would be helpful... The trail seems to be a bit of a secret to the locals... 4 out of 5 Trail Stats 30.1 miles 3 hours 10 minutes Max speed 27.5 mph (12% grade downhill) Average speed 9.52 mph