Just as the relationship between my husband and I started with music and concerts, it also started with bike riding. During the first summer after my husband Scott and I started dating during our junior years of college, we took a two-week bike trip from our hometown of Mifflinburg, PA, in Central Pennsylvania, to Niagara Falls via the Finger Lakes. This was well before the lightweight carbon bicycle frames of today. We both rode steel frames strapped with saddlebags, a tent and sleeping bags. That translates to lots of weight, which was particularly heavy on the many hills of northern Pennsylvania and western New York state.
Of course, that means I complained. I wasn’t prepared for this kind of riding. Scott suggested that I draft him much of the time to make it a bit easier. This meant that I rode closely behind him, taking advantage of him breaking the wind. At one point, I drafted a bit too closely, my front tire grazing his back tire, and next thing I knew, I was on the road with a bleeding elbow.
I still have the scar, but despite my complaints and injuries, we’ve ridden on into a long marriage with many more bike trips. In September, we will take our second trip with Trek Travel – the first was around the Ring of Kerry in Ireland – through the hill towns of Tuscany in Italy. This involves many more hills, but this time not to worry. A colleague of Scott’s already did this trip and advised getting the e-assist bikes to help with the hills. Thank you, technology – and Scott’s colleague!
Even with electric assist, I’ve been spending the spring and summer riding the South Central Pennsylvania roads and trails to prepare for my trip. I will preface that to say that I am a hesitant road biker. Fourteen years ago, I occasionally took my bike on the CAT bus to Market Square in Harrisburg, where I would ride north on 6th Street to Maclay, then through the Farm Show area and on to my job at Harrisburg Area Community College.
One beautiful Friday afternoon in early September, I decided that rather than throw my bike back on the bus, I would take the Greenbelt and then Derry Street to make the 17-mile trip home. Somewhere along Derry Street near the S. 63rd St. bridge over the railroad tracks to Walmart, I crashed. I remember nothing about it because I woke up in the ER. I can’t imagine that I just crashed unless maybe I hit a curb, so I’ve always wondered if a car hit me or maybe the side mirror of a car brushed me. My helmet was cracked down the middle and probably saved my life.
My husband was covering a high school football game at the time, and the hospital priest called to tell him that his wife was in the hospital and wanted him to know. I have no recollection of talking with a priest. Worse, I was going to meet my teen-aged daughter at Taco Bell (guilty pleasure) and never showed up. She called my phone over and over before a police officer finally picked it up and told her what had happened.
Fortunately, despite a concussion, injuries to my neck muscles, and road burn from Derry Street embedded in my neck and lower face, I was OK. Plastic surgery and laser surgery removed most of Derry Street from my face. I continued to ride bike, although not as frequently or with as much confidence on the roads.
I tried riding with a local bicycling group, but the number of riders on the road together – meaning that passing traffic often had to take risks to get by the chain of riders – made me too nervous. Now, I ride with either my husband or one or two friends, rarely with a group.
Stick to the rails
That means, I prefer trails, which means I am in luck as South Central Pennsylvania has a lot of great rail trails. I live in Hershey where we have the Jonathan Eshenour Memorial Trail, which extends 13.5 miles around the town. I frequent that for shopping, trips to other places, and circling onto other routes.
If I want to extend my range, I can put my bike on the car and head to Stony Valley Rail Trail, which I can hop on in several locations including at the west end just east of the town of Dauphin. The trail extends 19.5 miles through three counties – Dauphin, Lebanon, and Schuylkill – and is part of the second largest roadless wilderness tract of land in Pennsylvania.
I can also start in Hershey, ride through downtown Hummelstown and onto Derry Street before connecting with the 10.9-mile Greenbelt at the parking area by the City Line Diner at the gate at the Paxtang Parkway. From there, I can follow the trail all around Harrisburg on a scenic parkway designed by a disciple of the famous landscape architect Frederick Olmsted, who also designed Central Park in New York as well as parks in Chicago.
The Greenbelt takes riders through Reservoir Park in Harrisburg – home to the Civil War Museum – past the grounds of the former Harrisburg State Mental Hospital and around the Farm Show Complex, through Wildwood Park, along the riverfront in Harrisburg to PennDOT, and then through woodlands across Cameron Street, Paxton Street and back to Derry Street.
If I cross the Susquehanna, I can hop on the Cumberland Valley Rail Trail, which extends from Greenhill Road near Newville for almost 13 miles to Shippensburg. Parking is available at trailheads at Shippensburg Station, Shippensburg Township Park, Newville, Springview Road, and Allen Road in Carlisle. This western trailhead ends at Plainfield where parts of the proposed trail are not yet available.
A friend and I enjoyed our recent ride on the Warwick to Ephrata Rail Trail, which clocks in at 7.5 miles – but 15 miles roundtrip. We were pleasantly surprised to discover lots of shaded sections amidst the beautiful farm fields. We started at Lititz Springs Park and rode through the streets of town before connecting to the trailhead at Oak Street. Once we hit the end of the trail at 322 in downtown Ephrata, we off-trailed on streets of the town to explore a bit before riding back to Lititz for a much-needed lunch at Tomato Pie Café.
Our next rail trail adventure will be to the Heritage Rail Trail County Park in York County, which extends more than 21 miles through southern York County from York to Shrewsbury.
I also love the Susquehanna River Trail that starts in Falmouth (below Middletown and Royalton on the Susquehanna River) and goes to Columbia, in Lancaster County. This 14.2 mile-trail along the river is gorgeous for its views and passages through towns including Marietta, where we like to stop off at McCleary’s Pub for a food and drink break.
Tried and true
I’ve been running on and riding on (both bikes and horses) the Conewago Recreation Trail that starts west of Elizabethtown and goes east to merge with the Lebanon Valley Rails-to-Trails for many years. This trail is often busy with runners, walkers, bikers, and horseback riders, but it’s beautiful as it weaves through fields and forests. Many parking areas now exist along the trails.
The Conewago Trail, which is five miles long, starts at Route 230 parking area and continues through farmland until it connects with the Lebanon Valley Rail Trail. The Old Trolley Line Park on Beverly Road just off Route 743 opened in 2021 to offer safe parking and restroom facilities for those using the trail.
The Lebanon Valley Rail Trail starts between Old Trolley Line Park and Colebrook, which has a parking area at the Mt. Gretna Trailhead for those that would like to start closer to Mt. Gretna, Cornwall, and Lebanon. It also has newly renovated businesses for energy breaks – Colebrook Crossing ice cream shop and the Colebrook Tavern.
Of course, Mt. Gretna is always a great jumping off spot, whether to cool off in the lake, get ice cream at the Jigger Shop, or enjoy a meal at Porch & Pantry or The Hideaway. My friend and I parked at Old Trolley Line Park, then biked to Mt. Gretna for last year’s Mt. Gretna Outdoor Art Show (this year’s is coming up on Aug. 17-18), expertly avoiding the traffic or need to shuttle in by bus.
Continuing past Mt. Gretna, riders get views of Cornwall -- and can jump off to see this unique little town filled with limestone homes along Stone Row built to house iron workers. The Blue Bird Inn in North Cornwall, another historical site, is also well worth a visit. Another historic restaurant in East Cornwall, Tony’s Mining Company, might require a separate trip out of biking clothes.
Another trail highlight is the Root Beer Barrel, a nostalgic barrel-shaped trailside stand at the Cornwall trailhead at the intersection of Route 419 and Boyd Street. The stand, staffed by volunteers and operated on weekend afternoons, is a relic from the 1960s that had sat on Route 72 near the entrance to the PA Turnpike selling hotdogs to travelers. It had been abandoned for years before it was given to the Lebanon Valley Rails-To-Trails organization who moved it to its location along the trail near Cornwall. One of the board members, who had built the original barrel in the 1960s, worked together with a Boy Scout on his Eagle Scout project to restore the barrel. It’s been open to trail users for more than 15 years now.
After Cornwall, bikers can breeze on a gradual downhill for a while as they enter the outskirts of Lebanon. Here, the trail winds across some city streets before ending abruptly at Chestnut and 22nd streets. The trail picks up again, north of Route 422, at N. 25th Street and Hanford Drive. This section of the trail (behind the Lebanon Valley Mall) passes through Union Canal Park to the Long Lane trailhead, where the trail ends again before picking back up on Thompson Avenue at Old Jonestown Road and continuing north to Route 22. The goal, according to Lebanon Valley Rails-To-Trails founder and president John Wengert is to extend the trail through Lebanon and all the way to Lickdale Road in northern Lebanon County, where it will connect riders to a trail in Swatara State Park that continues on to Pine Grove in Schuylkill County.
The gap between Chestnut Street and 25th Street in Lebanon involves two phases, Wengert said, noting that a new bridge at 22nd Street has been funded and is in the PennDOT cycle with hopes of completion in 2025. The second phase is to continue the trail around the Lebanon Valley Mall, for which the mall ownership has granted easem*nt. That will connect the trail all the way to Long Lane, where completion gets trickier as the rail group is seeking easem*nts from a half dozen private property owners. He hopes that will come to fruition by 2027. Further north, a gap between Jonestown and Lickdale has two phases that are fully funded with the first part ready to start. Wengert hopes they will both be complete by 2025.
The Lebanon Valley Rail Trail has been a labor of love for Wengert for the past 25 years. Fresh off three years of working for the National Rails to Trails organization in Washington, D.C., for three years between college and grad school, when Wengert moved back to Lebanon, he started the movement to create this rail trail, which will be 25.7 miles long when completed.
For bikers who stop in downtown Lebanon, the Lebanon Farmers Market offers food and drink. I particularly enjoyed my coffee frappe made by Dro Escobar, the 22-year-old owner of The Grind at the Lebanon Farmers Market. The beer and house smoked brisket at the original Snitz Creek at 7 N. 9th Street in Lebanon were also exactly what I needed. Along with smoked meats, Snitz Creek features something only Lebanon can – The Snitzer, a chargrilled burger with Lebanon sweet bologna, cheddar, lettuce, and mayo on a pretzel roll. It doesn’t get more authentic than that.
Roots and more rail trails
In 2011, well after I left my hometown, the 10.28-mile Buffalo Valley Rail Trail was completed between Mifflinburg and Lewisburg. When I was a kid, when we heard trains approaching on the rails, we used to put pennies and quarters on the track, hoping we would get a flattened souvenir. Now, the train is gone and a well-used rail trail connects Union County’s two biggest towns.
Before the trail existed, we rode from Mifflinburg to Lewisburg on either Furnace Road, south of town, or Buffalo Road, north of town. Now, the pristine rail trail makes the trip easy to do. The trailheads are at Market Street in Lewisburg and N. 10th Street in Mifflinburg. One of Mifflinburg’s more recent crowning jewels, the Rusty Rail Brewing Company, sits near the trailhead. A great halfway stopping point is the Purple Cow, a fun ice cream shop between Vicksburg and Lewisburg with a trail leading to it from the bike trail. It’s also easy to hop off the trail at Jackass Brewing Company, closer to Lewisburg.
Whether you ride your bike to pick up a few grocery items, as I frequently do, or to cycle madly for tens of miles to get in shape, the South Central Pennsylvania area has many safe and scenic trails to choose from.
For more information on Stony Valley Trail go to http://www.stonyvalley.com/rail-trail.html.
To learn more about the Jonathan Eshenour Memorial Trail in Hershey, visit https://www.derrytownship.org/resident-services/jonathan-eshenour-memorial-trail.
Information on the Capital Area Greenbelt is available at https://susquehannagreenway.org/land-trails/capital-area-greenbelt/.
For more on Lebanon Valley Rail-To-Trails, go to https://lebanonrailtrail.com.
Information on the Warwick Ephrata Rail Trail is at https://warwickregionalrec.org/trails/wert/.
Learn about the Northwest Lancaster County River Trail at https://co.lancaster.pa.us/1119/Northwest-Lancaster-County-River-Trail and the Cumberland Valley Rail Trail at https://www.cvrtc.org.
For a map of the Conewago Rail Trail, go to https://www.etownonline.com/sites/g/files/vyhlif3091/f/uploads/conewago_rail_trail_map.pdf.
Learn about the Buffalo Valley Rail Trail at https://www.visitcentralpa.org/things-to-do/parks-trails-nature/trails/buffalo-valley-rail-trail/.
Check out https://mtgretnaarts.com for information on this year’s Mt. Gretna Outdoor Art Show.
To read more of my blogs, please visit my website at https://www.debelynch.com
