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E-bikingBikingWalkingRunningHikingBirdingHorseback ridingCross-country skiingSnowmobilingand more
The Endless Mountains Trail follows the old Lackawanna and Montrose branch for about nine miles from Locust Street in Montrose to the active railroad at Alford in Susquehanna County. The upper half runs east beside PA 706 through Bridgewater Township, passing behind the golf course to Tiffany Corners and on to Heart Lake. There the corridor turns south and drops along the creek and Route 11 into Alford. The grade is rail-grade gentle, but the surface is rough for long stretches and the managing council recommends a mountain bike. Horses have used this corridor since 1944, and riders should expect to share it with them.
Endless Mountains Trail
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Endless Mountains Trail has about 113 to 156 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, e-biking, biking, running, birding, and walking, with May, September, and October the best months.
Hourly comfort scores for the next 15 days of weather, tuned to your activity and your own thresholds.
Plan your visit to this trail. Get the best windows for a comfortable outing.
Enjoy the Endless Mountains Trail!
In half of past years, color along the Endless Mountains Trail peaks October 14 to 25, typically around October 19. The trail has 39% deciduous coverage, with the majority being red maple, sugar maple, and white ash.
The Lackawanna and Montrose Railroad opened on August 24, 1891 nearly ten miles of single track from the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western main line at Alford west to the county seat at Montrose. The Milford and Owego Turnpike was laid out diagonally across Bridgewater Township in 1809, and the Bridgewater and Wilkes-Barre Turnpike followed over the high hills to the south a few years later. Montrose stayed off the rail map until the 1880s, when the DL&W backed a branch to reach the county's farms and woodlots. The road was incorporated in 1889 and built by contractors under DL&W direction. Milk, farm goods, and timber went out to the main line, which could ship south to Scranton or north to Binghamton. Passengers rode too. The branch operated on its own until the end of 1917, then under federal control for the rest of the First World War. By most accounts it never paid. In 1944 the DL&W decommissioned the line and conveyed it by quit claim deed to the Bridgewater Riding Club, a local equestrian club. The club kept it as a bridle trail for more than sixty years, which is why the Rail-Trail Council counts it among the first rail-trails in the nation. In 2008 the club deeded the corridor to the Rail-Trail Council of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The council completed a feasibility study and has been surveying the corridor and securing easements since, while the Susquehanna County Snowmobilers Association grooms the trail in winter.
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