< kencox design >

While out on a long ride today, I stopped to chat with Dave Bartoo (Park Head-Honcho), and he handed me a brand new official map of the park! It covers the trail systems of White Clay Creek S.P. AND Middle Run, and even the developing Redd Park. All trails are included, and the map is quite easy to read. The large printed map was produced by the White Clay Creek Watershed Management organization (www.whiteclay.org) and is printed on waterproof Yupo paper which can’t be torn. It also includes helpful information on park rules and etiquette, as well as history, directions, and which trails are open to which activities. The information covers the Pennsylvania side of the park as well, and there’s even some info on nearby Fair Hill. The cherry on top is beautiful photography, and top notch graphic design.

Finally, this beautiful park has a proper printed map! Visit the park office (750 Thompson Station Road, Newark, DE) today to pick up your copy.

There are plans to make this new map available online in the future. In the meantime, I’m going to keep my map posted, but this will likely be the final version. Once the official map is available online, I’ll divert traffic to the official map and take mine down.

Thanks again to everyone who helped me produce the Unofficial Trail Map. Your encouraging emails and often surprisingly generous donations really helped me justify the time and effort I spent on the project.

See you on the trails,
< ken >

The Unofficial White Clay Creek & Middle Run Trail Map now includes Redd Park, the City of Newark Property which connects the Newark Reservoir to Middle Run & White Clay. The trail system in Redd Park is still in its infancy so it isn’t buff engineered singletrack (yet), but it is rideable and a potential alternate to slogging up Paper Mill Road if you ride into the park from Newark. Just tread lightly for now and give these non-engineered trails a little extra time after it rains.

Back by popular demand, the Unofficial White Clay Creek & Middle Run Trail Map again includes mileage for each and every trail segment in the park. I had removed the segment mileage back when I revamped the map to version 2.0, and had intended to include the lengths of each of the named trails at a later date. Several users emailed me requesting the mileage be added back in as before, so if you happened to be out today and saw a rider stopping at every junction to madly scribble little numbers on folded up pieces of paper, that was me filling in the last of the mileage segments I was missing. While I was at it, I also re-measured many sections that have been re-routed recently, including Whitley, and sections of Lenape, and double-checked a lot of the existing measurements. Each and every trail segment is now measured to the nearest 1/100 of a mile (about 52′), and that includes riding any of the technical trail features along the way. Enjoy!

I’ve updated the Unofficial White Clay Creek & Middle Run Trail Map to include the re-routings on the Lenape Trail, as well as the awesome new “Chunnel” tunnel crossing. If you haven’t discovered it yet, some crafty trailbuilders have made it possible to ride through the surprisingly roomy drainage tube under Paper Mill Rd., which nicely alleviates having to dodge busy traffic and hop the guardrail above. The tube is pretty long, but rideable without lights (as long as you aren’t scared of the dark!). There is a shallow stream running along the bottom, so use caution if it’s cold enough for ice, or if it has recently rained (not that you’d EVER ride when the trails were soft!). Hikers will get their feet wet. I’ve actually known about this improvement since the fall, but it was unclear whether the state was going to permit such unorthodox use of the drainage tube. Since it is still open, I’m thinking we either got a green light, or were cast a blind eye.

Speaking of the state, I also noticed that the “official” park map in the kiosks has been updated. While it is certainly an improvement over the old map, which was horribly out-of-date, there are some curious omissions (such as the Cart Path) which have me scratching my head. While the Middle Run trails have been re-drawn correctly on the new map, they STILL aren’t named, so it looks like a big bowl of spaghetti. Perhaps there’s some obscure state regulation which forbids naming county park trails on a state park map that I’m not aware of. Their map does add topographic notation, but I still think my simple system of arrows is easier for the non-cartographer to read - though I could be wrong, and will be giving this some thought in the future. What was most disappointing though is that there remains no information on how park users can obtain the official printed map, or if they’re even available at all. Ugh!

It’s always been my hope that the state would eventually produce a map of the property good enough that I could retire my mapping efforts with a clear conscience, but it looks like I’ll be continuing to be the unofficial mapper for a while longer.