Cell-phone tours, though rare, are not unprecedented. Valley Forge National Historical Park has them in English and Spanish. Laurel Hill Cemetery started a cell-phone tour in 2009, highlighting the oldest section of the burial ground.
Along the Perkiomen Trail, the Pennypacker site is 11. Callers hear about the state's 23d governor and then are directed to the home along Route 73 where the family's life in 1906 is replicated, down to the paint box used by daughter Josephina.
Assistant site administrator Linda Callegari sees the cell-phone tour as a bridge between the county's recreational and historic offerings.
"We're excited about the possibility that people will discover us," she said. "They'll start out taking a bike ride, but they'll end up having an historical experience."
Joan Aichele, membership chairwoman for the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club, said she thought the cell-phone tour would be a hit with club members.
The club finds that families are hitting the trails in increasing numbers, and that is changing the nature of the leisure-time industry, she said.
"Kids just don't want to go out and do nothing. You've got to entertain them," Aichele said.
The tour material is varied. Segments tell how Green Lane Reservoir was formed; how ice chunks from the Perkiomen Creek were once shipped to Philadelphia's restaurants; about the habits of the barred owl and black vulture; and about the lives of the Leni-Lenape.
The cell-phone tour debuted July 18, and has attracted at least 50 callers so far, says Rich Wood, regional trails manager for Montgomery County. It was the brainchild of Kathleen Lambert, a county intern who is a graduate student at Temple University.
