On October 20th, 2017, BISC 3 – Environmental Science was cancelled and we were given a free day to work on our EACAP project. The River Dawgz met at Penn State Berks and car pooled together to the Glenside area of Reading, Pennsylvania. Prior to beginning our journey and search for the trail, we mapped out the Glenside area using Google Maps and City-Data.com website for the Reading neighborhood. Also, we drew the Barta bus routes onto the map helping to indicate where bus stops would possibly be located.
After driving around Glenside for about a half hour, we realized that the Schuylkill River Trail could not be reached from the eastern side of the map. Finally, we came to the realization that the Tulpehocken Creek and Schuylkill River joined to form a fork. Therefore, we drove towards the Tulpehocken Creek to Stonecliffe Action Park. When we arrived at this destination, we spotted a sign signifying that we were in the Schuylkill River National & State Heritage Area. We walked the trail, took pictures of the beauty in nature, and picked up trash or waste if and when we spotted any. Throughout our walk, we noticed a run-down building painted in graffiti, a smoke tower, and gears that appeared to create electricity at one point in time. We wonder what the significance of this building, gears, and smoke tower were for. As we progress with our project, we plan to draw and finalize our map in hopes to promote Glenside Elementary students to come to the Schuylkill River Trail to enjoy nature and the beauty of this national heritage area.
This is great! WOuld love to see more pictures posted. Seems like you got a lot done in such a short time. I think it would be great to find a way to connect the school to the trail.