Cockscomb Trail to Ironhorse Loop

 On May 15, 2021, we hiked an extended loop through Money Rocks County Park and Welsh Mountain Preserve, and along the trail noticed another hike we thought would be interesting.  Today, May 20, we ventured out and followed the Cockscomb (Red Blazed) Trail through Money Rocks County Park, down a connector trail to the blue-blazed Ironhorse Loop Trail.  It wasn't a long hike -- only 5 miles -- but we were able to fit it in first thing in the morning before the day's hot temperatures set in.

[Ed.: We set a record today with TWO half-faced selfies.  In this case, Kathy was the one who lost half her face in each case.  Read on.]

Here we are at the trailhead.  Not ones to linger before setting out on our hike, we didn't notice that David only got half of Kathy's face.  Be assured the other half is still there.

The first part of the trail is very much like the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania -- very rocky and uneven, with lots of opportunities to twist ankles:

We climbed a bit and neared the Welsh Mountain Preserve, when we ran across this side trail marked with cairns.  From our map, we believed this could be the connector to the Ironhorse Trail, but we weren't sure, and feeling that we hadn't hiked west far enough on the Cockscomb Trail, we continued further.

A little further on, we found an interesting pile of rocks.  It appeared that someone had broken up one or two bigger boulders into many smaller rocks -- possibly looking for quartz, as we could see white and rosy quartz in some of the rocks.  On the other hand, the pattern of the rocks looked as if someone had previously built a cairn of them, which was later toppled.  We decided to "rebuild" the cairn.  Here, Kathy does the heavy lifting:

Our instincts were right to continue on the red-blazed trail, even though we later discovered that the two cairns did mark one connector to the Ironhorse Trail.  We reached an obviously well-hiked connector trail, took it north down the slope of the ridge, and eventually reached the Ironhorse Trail:

The Ironhorse Trail was extraordinarily level and of a very even, low grade.  It had been cleared of trees much wider than a normal road, and there was evidence of substantial build-up of the grade in places.  This made us suspicious that the trail had been an old railroad bed:

Our suspicions were all but confirmed when we reached an area where large piles of what looked like old railroad ties were jumbled on both sides of the trail:

As it turns out, our research later today revealed that the Ironhorse Trail follows the bed of the New Holland Branch railway.  It started out in 1854 as the East Brandywine Railroad, with the intent to connect the farms and villages along the rural portions of the Brandywine River with the lucrative markets within larger cities. The railroad would provide freight and passengers along the Brandywine River a connection to the Pennsylvania Railroad at Downington. The first half of the line opened westward from Downington to Waynesburg, and expanded further west as service along the route increased. Ultimately it reached "Conestoga Junction", just east of Lancaster, PA.  Changing hands many times, from the East Brandywine and Waynesburg Railroad, to the Downington and Lancaster Railroad, the line finally came under the control of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1903, and was renamed the Holland Branch. Within the next few decades, service along the line began to decline as the automobile started making its presence known. Passenger service ceased in 1930; freight service ended in the 1960s, with the eastern majority of the line finally being abandoned by Penn Central in 1972.

We were just getting into the groove of following the old railbed, when we arrived at a barrier erected by the nearby New Enterprise Sand & Gravel Quarry, discouraging hikers from proceeding further:

This caused us to look about for blazes telling us where our path lay.  We ultimately found blazed pointing up the hill, and followed those to the top side of the loop, which we followed back to our original connector trail.  Along the way, we spotted this old log slide (we had found the top of it earlier as we crossed above on the Cockscomb Trail).  We imagined the loggers putting the logs in the slide and sending them down to the railroad siding.

A little further on, we ran into two hefty little toads.  One of them was willing to pose for a portrait, and so we obliged him/her:

Our return hike was uneventful.  We retraced our steps, thanks to the electronic bread crumbs on Kathy's GPS, and made it back to the Jeep in time for a tasty picnic lunch before heading out for other errands.

David does not take responsibility for the loss of half of Kathy's face in this selfy.  Kathy was holding the camera.

Stay healthy, my friends!