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The J. Manley Robbins Trail is a short, flat gravel loop through the Hess Recreation Area on the north edge of Danville, Pennsylvania. The old ore grade runs along a wooded bench above Mahoning Creek, and the return leg follows a former Reading Railroad line on the far bank, crossing the creek on the Lucile Roberts Covered Bridge. The loop is about two and a half miles and rarely leaves the trees. It is the oldest known rail-trail in the United States, used by bicyclists since 1897. Parking, restrooms, and a pavilion sit at Hess Fields, with smaller lots at the Park Entrance and Beaver Place ends near town. Expect walkers, joggers, and leashed dogs at all hours.
J. Manley Robbins Trail
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the J. Manley Robbins Trail has about 120 to 160 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, birding, e-biking, running, biking, and walking, with April, May, 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 J. Manley Robbins Trail!
In half of past years, color along the J. Manley Robbins Trail peaks October 22 to November 2, typically around October 27. The trail has 35% deciduous coverage, with the majority being chestnut oak, red maple, northern red oak, sweet birch, and white ash.
A narrow-gauge locomotive named the Montour once hauled iron ore along this bench above Mahoning Creek. The Muncy-Mahoning Path, a Native American trail into the Danville area, came through this valley, and Phillip Maus later used the grade to cart flour from his mill to town. In the mid 1800s Danville ironmasters improved the corridor to move iron ore from hillside mines and limestone from quarries north of town down to the furnaces on the river. Rails to Trails Conservancy places the first narrow-gauge line under the Montour Iron Works in the 1840s. Local accounts say the grade became a narrow-gauge railroad in the 1860s, when it served as the ore path for the Danville and Mausdale grade. By the early 1890s the ore trains had stopped. In 1897 a group of Danville men formed the Cycle Path Association, bought a piece of the dead line from the railroad, and opened it as a bicycle path, selling memberships to pay for upkeep. Locals called it the Bike Path. It later took the name of J. Manley Robbins, and the Montour Area Recreation Commission now keeps it as part of the Hess Recreation Area. The original path is barely a mile long. Joined to an old Reading Railroad grade across the creek by a covered bridge, it now makes the Hess Loop. In 2021 the Rails to Trails Conservancy confirmed it as the oldest known rail-trail in the country, and new mile markers and interpretive signs followed.
Old Reading Line TrailMahoning Flats Trail
