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The Jim Mayer Riverswalk is a short urban rail trail in Johnstown. It follows the Stonycreek River for about three and a half miles between the Riverside neighborhood at Michigan Avenue and Hornerstown at Messenger Street, next to Sandyvale Memorial Gardens. The Moxham trailhead on Bridge Street sits near the middle. The grade is rail flat on a groomed crushed stone surface, good for a family loop or a 5k run. Buttermilk Falls drops fifty feet beside the trail less than a mile from the Riverside end. Birdhouses line the route, and the river is in view most of the way. The trail honors James Mayer, a Johnstown lawyer who worked to protect the area's natural resources.
Jim Mayer Riverswalk
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Jim Mayer Riverswalk has about 108 to 150 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, e-biking, biking, running, walking, and birding, 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 Jim Mayer Riverswalk!
In half of past years, color along the Jim Mayer Riverswalk peaks October 14 to 24, typically around October 19. The trail has 41% deciduous coverage, with the majority being red maple, black cherry, northern red oak, and sugar maple.
The Stonycreek River runs north through Johnstown and joins the Little Conemaugh River at the Point downtown to form the Conemaugh River. In the late 1880s, Arthur Moxham's Johnson Company built a mill in the Stonycreek valley that made street railway rails. Moxham also laid out the neighborhood that still carries his name. In 1888 he opened the Johnstown and Stony Creek Railroad, a three-mile line along the river's east bank that carried freight and passengers between the mill and the city. The trail follows an abandoned railroad bed along the same stretch of river. It is named for Jim Mayer (1926 to 1990), a Johnstown attorney, magistrate, veteran, and conservationist. He helped found Stackhouse Park and the Benscreek Canoe Club, and he helped cut the first route of the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail from Johnstown to Ohiopyle. The trail was dedicated in his memory in 1993. In 2016 the Cambria County Conservation and Recreation Authority opened a 1.7-mile extension from Bridge Street to Messenger Street in Hornerstown, with a ribbon cutting on May 14. Two years later, in 2018, the trail was designated a National Recreation Trail. Today it is part of the Trans Allegheny Trails network, and Buttermilk Falls, a 50-foot cascade, is still its best-known landmark near the middle of the route.
Sandyvale TrailPath of the Flood Trail
