French Creek Trail — Attraction in East Pikeland Township

BEAVER!!! BEWARE!!! This is an easy out and back trail. My dog and I frequent this trail often, especially in the summer, as there are plenty of spots for him to cool off in the water. Yesterday, however, we had our first negative experience 😞. We parked at Rapps Dam Rd and walked towards Hares Hill Rd with our dog (lab/shepherd) and our neighbor's dog (yellow lab). We have seen plenty of wild life on this trail over the years, blue heron, deer, fish, garter snakes, and turtles; yesterday however we unknowingly encountered a beaver. The dogs were in the water (by the bridge were the ADA trail ends) the lab was swimming and was attacked by the beaver; the beaver even tried to hold her down under water but thankfully she was able to break free and get to shore. I'll assume the beaver was protecting it's territory or that she took it by surprise and that was why it attacked her. We rushed her to her vet as she was either bit or clawed by the beaver and was bleeding. She needed 10 stitches and some inside as well. They did an x-ray to make sure there was no internal damage. If you are a dog owner that frequents this area or know someone who does, please be careful when allowing your dog to go in the water. There was no way for us to have known the beaver was in the water prior to the lab running towards the water and it was such a traumatic...

Great spot to bring dogs with plenty of areas to enter the creek for drinking or swimming along the trail. The best swimming spot is where the old locals used to have a swimming area with a diving board back in the day. The entire trail is 2 miles one way. The trail is very wide mostly but has side trails that run parallel that are much more narrow hugging the creek. The last 1/3 of the trail towards township line rd is much more narrow and woodsy but not difficult to walk. Has some nice benches along the water to stop for a quick picnic. Free dog trash...

Parking on hares Hill Rd at the bridge is small. Two paths run along the Brandywine. The main path is laced with sewer access heads. Those and other spots along the way have stagnant pools where the bugs will get real bad soon. The other path parallels the main path which is thin and mostly used by fisherman. There's two nice crossover bridges, the second being Rapps damn. I had my k9 with me and turned around because it started raining. I would have given it 5 stars but those dead water pools are going to be ugly if they...