After dropping off some Thanksgiving leftovers to Karen’s parents (last weekend) we intended to round out the day with a short hike in Lancaster County PA. As we arrived at the trail we found our agenda might need to change. We had originally planned to hike the Tucquan Glen Loop Trail near Pequea PA, but when we got there the parking areas were closed. We found out later that this was the result of people disrespecting the parking area and social distancing guidelines. So Karen inspected the map and noticed Silver Mine Park was fairly close. She had been there as a child and thought it would be fun to visit again.
We checked the park map when we arrived and it appeared we could get our daily 2 mile walk in if we hiked the whole park from end to end. The paths are flat and mostly paved. We started toward the area that Karen remembered attending a concert as a child, which was sort of a peninsula bounded by Pequea Creek. After walking most of the park we checked our distance and were close enough to the goal to head back to the jeep. On the way back we noticed a trail marker for “Shortcut Trail” with a path climbing a steep hill toward a field at the top. Assuming it was a short cut back to parking we started the climb. We hadn’t quite reached to top when we found a degraded rock foundation, so I bounded up for a photo opportunity. While smugly posing for my picture Karen pointed out that I almost stepped on a black snake! We waited for the snake to retreat off the path then continued our climb and found our way back past the recreation area and lake to where we had parked.
On the hike we saw remnants of the old Pequea Trolly line (according to the plaque in the park), which was part of a hub and spoke system around Lancaster over 100 years ago. We also learned that there are a few more trails in the area that have views of the actual silver mine and plan to explore those on another visit.
