The Friends VOL XII ISSUE 1 SPRING/ SUMMER 2019 INSIDE THIS ISSUE NEW TRAIL MAP ....................... 1 Friends Publish RECRUITING VOLUNTEERS ........ 2 New Trail Map PHILLIP SCHMIDT ..................... 3 by Gary Sawyer, Board Member and Trails Chair LAUREL HILL STATE PARK .......... 4 Spring hiking season is coming soon, when people visit the park to FRIENDS PICNIC ....................... 5 walk the woodland trails, marvel at the profusion of blooming flora, and enjoy the fresh air. In addition to the overall park map provided by the PHOTO CONTESTS ................... 6 state, the Friends have made available a handy color 8 ½ by 11 map that focuses on the popular trails within the park. We had a version of this map CALENDAR OF EVENTS that was out of print for awhile, but very popular with park visitors, so we N MONTHLY TRAIL WORK commissioned a new updated one. First Saturday of each month, 9AM. N 0 1/4 1/2 KILOMETER 0 1/4 1/2 MILE Friends of STREAM CLEAN-UP RIDLEY Saturday, April 13 CREEK 0 1/4 1/2 KILOMETER ad STATE PARK Ro lle See article for details. 0 1/4 1/2v MILEi dy ra G #8 #9 C h a p e FRIENDS ANNUAL PICNIC l H i l l Saturday, June 2 R d . See article for details. Bishop Hollow Rd. PHOTO CONTESTS Wednesday, June 26th at 6PM #16 and Wednesday September 4th #13 See article for details. #12 #11 #17 #14 FRIENDS OF RIDLEY CREEK HIKING & WALKING TRAILS STATE PARK NEWSLETTER WHITE PARKING ORANGE 352 RESTROOM # BLUE 15 PARK OFFICE YELLOW PARK P MULTI-USE ENTRANCE ain Editor ......................... Joan Nikelsky ter GARDEN LOOP Ro ad Design .....................Mark Dougherty This map includes the most current information, including some trail re-routes in recent years. On the back of the two-sided sheet with the map is a description of each trail, including location, distance, and elevation. The map uses GPS recorded tracks while walking the trails, which you can download at our website https://www.friendsofrcsp.org/trailmap.html. continued page 2 Friends of RCSP Voicemail - Please contact your Friends at any time with your comments and/or questions. Leave a message at 484-442-0223, and someone will get back to you ASAP! Best Access Distance Elevation Trail map continued Blue Trail. A “lollipop” trail with a small loop. Areas 9, 14 2.3 miles* 350’ gain Some of the data collected from the GPS 285’ drop tracks are included to the right. (area 9 to 14) Much appreciation goes to the Friends Orange Trail. A “lollipop” trail with a large Gradyville 1.7miles* 160’ gain loop. Much of trail along creek. Road, near 250’ drop volunteer Mark Dougherty, a graphic creek designer (www.greyseastudio.com) who White Trail. A loop trail around much of the Areas 9, 16, 17 4.3 miles 690’ gain and designed the map. The Friends selected park drop Baker Printing in Media to print 20,000 Yellow Trail. A linear trail from the Mansion Mansion, 3.7 miles 550’ gain copies (5 boxes!), which should supply parking lot to Area 16 Areas 16, 17 540’ drop curious hikers for years to come. Just Equestrian Trail (short loop). Area 8, 2.6 miles* 230’ gain ask at the park office if you want a copy. A “lollipop” trail with a large loop around the Gradyville Rd. 400’ drop north side of the Park. *Distance does not include return on “stick” of lollipop. Recruiting Volunteers for Annual Streams Cleanup by Friends President, Jack Miller On Saturday April 13, the Friends of Ridley Creek State Once we clear the area around and under the bridge, we Park will be working with the Chester Ridley Crum (CRC) are free to leave and go home. We do not need to spend Watershed Association on their 22nd Annual CRC Streams the whole time at the cleanup site if we finish ahead of Cleanup from 9:00 to 11:30 am. We invite you to join us! schedule. There will be a thank you picnic at a future date Consider it a project to commemorate Earth Day. for all volunteers who participated – when you are not Our work area will be the bridge on Gradyville Road covered in mud! where the road crosses over Ridley Creek. When traveling To access our work site, please enter Ridley Creek State down Gradyville Road from the east, this bridge is at the Park at the Gradyville Road entrance (from Providence bottom of the hill just before the Ridley Creek State Park Road). Proceed to Area 8 at the top of the hill near the entrance. The equestrian trail runs under the bridge at horse farm and go to the trailer parking area. Walk this location. We hope to get enough Friends volunteers to downhill on the equestrian trail, along the pasture fence, clean up the stream and banks on both sides of the bridge. to Ridley Creek and you will be at the bridge. This walk For safety reasons, we do not intend to clean up along takes approximately 20 minutes. We can access both sides Gradyville Road. There will be a CRC Event sign placed on of the bridge from the trail under the bridge and can cross the bridge to make the area easy to find. Ridley Creek over the bridge to clean up the entire area. Each volunteer will be provided with work gloves, Parking along Gradyville Road is limited and dangerous bottled water, and granola bars. Volunteers will also for discharging passengers. Please be safe and go to the receive a CRC T-shirt for their participation on Saturday. suggested parking location at Area 8. If you come, wear a long sleeved shirt, long pants, and To sign up for this event, visit www.crcwatersheds.org be prepared to wade through the Creek to complete our and go to CRC Events, Streams Cleanup and click the box mission. We will clear the Creek of any debris and place the to register. Our site is #220. You will be asked to fill in your trash in trash bags for collection by CRC. Trash bags will be contact information and indicate your T-shirt size. You will placed in the dumpsters in Ridley Creek State Park at the get an E-mail verifying your signup has been completed. end of the event. Thanks for your help! Spring/ Summer Page 2 Volume XII Issue 1 One on One with the Park Manager by Friends member Lauren Bacigalupi It’s obvious if you spend any time with Ridley Park Manager Phil Schmidt that he loves his job, admires his team, and is fully committed to our beloved park. I was lucky enough to spend a Friday afternoon driving around the park grounds with him just chatting about what’s going on and what’s coming up to share with all of you. If you’ve been driving through the park lately, no doubt the potholes challenged your driving skills. Taking notes for this article was quite a challenge! Good news though - pothole repair is coming, including some on the Multi-Use Trail (MUT). Though Phil says this isn’t the best solution, it’s better than what we currently have and repaving isn’t quite in the budget yet. Remember all those ash trees that had to be removed? Though clean up is still underway, this spring be on the lookout for new plantings! Harrisburg approved funds to add new hardwood trees to fill in and we’re not talking saplings. They are planning on planting much more substantial trees to give them a better shot of succeeding. And... if you’d like to volunteer to do some more tree clean up, the Friends group is always looking for more mighty helpers! Speaking of volunteers - the PA Volunteer Corp, the group Our drive and chat couldn’t just be all business, so I that provides the park with students and recent grads for asked Phil, now that he’s been here over a year, what volunteer community projects, is slated to come our way was his favorite season at Ridley? While he said Fall, this summer. While Phil and his team are still deciding on he also admitted that he loves it any time it’s busy and which project they will do, it’s exciting to know they will be bustling at the park. Because so many people who there to help out. It’s likely they will help us with the invasive use our park are local, there is always a steady stream species around the park, but stay tuned for updates. of activity - and that’s great news! He also said the Did you know that Eagle Scouts come out to our park as reason he loves coming to work every day is not only part of their community work? Well, they do! In order to because of the park, but because of the people he gets graduate from their scouting program, they have to do a big to work with day in and day out. The mix of seasoned service project and they came to us. This time around, they professionals and new team members makes for a great are cleaning out and re-pointing the old horse trough right collaborative learning environment. Well, you can’t ask by the bridge leading from the mansion to the MUT. It’s a for more than that. I told him I was clearly jealous of cool piece of history that you may not have noticed before him! because so much had grown up around it.