East Branch Trail (Pennsylvania) Weather Forecast & Planning Guide

East Branch Trail, Crawford County, PA, 5.22 miles

Trail Facts

Length5.2 mi

Elevation1353 to 1465 ft

Grade0.4% average

Shade cover48%

Primary surfaceAsphalt

Secondary surfaceCrushed gravel, Coarse gravel

Activities

E-bikingBikingWalkingRunningHikingBirdingFishingHorseback ridingCross-country skiingSnowmobilingand more

Connects To

None

Managed By

Clear Lake Authority; DCNR

Trivia

When it opened in 2010 this was the first dual-lane rail trail in Pennsylvania, built so Amish horses and buggies could travel off the highway on their own gravel lane.
The corridor began in the 1860s as the Oil Creek and Allegheny River Railway, built to link Corry and Titusville during the oil boom, and later ran as the Pennsylvania Railroad's Chautauqua Line until 1978.
The Clear Lake Authority, a small Spartansburg municipal authority, bought the defunct corridor in 1988, more than two decades before the trail opened.
East Branch Oil Creek officially begins in Clear Lake at Spartansburg, at the confluence of Stranahan and Patrick runs, and the trail follows it from the very top.
The trail sits on the main spine of the planned Erie to Pittsburgh Trail, a roughly 270-mile corridor between the two cities.

About This Trail

The East Branch Trail runs 5.2 miles through northeastern Crawford County, from PA 89 north of Spartansburg through the borough and south to Glynden Road, tracing the East Branch Oil Creek from its start at Clear Lake. A portion of the trail is a rare dual-lane rail trail: an 8-foot lane for walkers, cyclists, skaters, and wheelchairs beside another 8-foot lane for horses and Amish buggies, the first arrangement of its kind in Pennsylvania. The riding is true rail-grade flat through farms, wetlands, and patchy woods, with the Spartansburg trailhead sitting beside the lake, its dam, and the old mill.

RailTrailWx TIPS

East Branch Trail

Your comfort. Prognosticated.

The trailhead in Spartansburg is very scenic, with a lovely wildflower garden, large park, wooden trestle over Clear Lake, and direct access to shops and restaurants in the town.
This trail is generally sunny and exposed by Pennsylvania standards. Tree canopy averages 48 percent with only 7 percent in deep shade. Ninety percent of the route is flat valley floor with no sheltering bluffs or ridgelines, so sun and wind reach the trail more readily on this trail than others in western PA.
The trail follows East Branch Oil Creek from its source at Clear Lake through wetlands and brushy bottomland.
The trail has sections of very smooth asphalt and smooth crushed gravel with occasional lose ballast that can be navigated around.
In the wide section of the trail, you can see remnants of the old concrete railroad ties poking up through the gravel, which is unusual since most abandoned railroads ended their days with wooden ties.
Glynden Road is currently the southern terminus. The trail appears to continue, but there are private property and no trespassing signs with ample bullet holes in them, so it’s best to turn around.

-Cory

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Enjoy the East Branch Trail!

Climate

Excellent biking days per month, 2011-2025 climatology

History

Spartansburg grew up around East Branch Oil Creek and Clear Lake, and by the twentieth century the surrounding countryside was settled heavily by Amish farm families whose buggies still share the corridor today. The railroad came in the 1860s, when the oil strike outside Titusville created urgent demand for a line linking that boomtown with Corry and its east-west trunk railroads. The corridor was built as the Oil Creek and Allegheny River Railway, following the East Branch of Oil Creek down its valley, and later became the Pennsylvania Railroad's Chautauqua Line, which kept running trains until 1978. The Clear Lake Authority, the small municipal authority in Spartansburg, purchased the defunct corridor in 1988 and spent the following decades shaping it into a multi-use trail. The first section opened in 2010 as the first dual-lane trail in Pennsylvania, pairing a lane for foot and wheel traffic with a parallel gravel lane so Amish horses and buggies could stay off dangerous roads. Development has continued. In late 2021 the authority won a $500,000 DCNR grant to extend the trail and rehabilitate the old railroad bridge at Sportsman Road, matched by $500,000 from the Appalachian Regional Commission, part of the long-term plan to run the trail 17 miles down the valley to Hydetown as a link in the Erie to Pittsburgh Trail.

Trailheads

PA 89 NorthMILE 0Directions
SpartansburgMILE 1.4Directions
PA 89 SouthMILE 3.1Directions

Nearby trails

Corry Junction Greenway Trail

5.8 mi·PA

Explore Forecast

Queen City Trail

1.5 mi·PA

Explore Forecast

Oil Creek State Park Trail

9.5 mi·PA

Explore Forecast

RailTrailWx TIPS

East Branch Trail

Your comfort. Prognosticated.

The trailhead in Spartansburg is very scenic, with a lovely wildflower garden, large park, wooden trestle over Clear Lake, and direct access to shops and restaurants in the town.

This trail is generally sunny and exposed by Pennsylvania standards. Tree canopy averages 48 percent with only 7 percent in deep shade. Ninety percent of the route is flat valley floor with no sheltering bluffs or ridgelines, so sun and wind reach the trail more readily on this trail than others in western PA.

The trail follows East Branch Oil Creek from its source at Clear Lake through wetlands and brushy bottomland.

The trail has sections of very smooth asphalt and smooth crushed gravel with occasional lose ballast that can be navigated around.

In the wide section of the trail, you can see remnants of the old concrete railroad ties poking up through the gravel, which is unusual since most abandoned railroads ended their days with wooden ties.

Glynden Road is currently the southern terminus. The trail appears to continue, but there are private property and no trespassing signs with ample bullet holes in them, so it’s best to turn around.

-Cory