Lower Trail

The Lower Trail, whose name rhymes with flower, follows the Frankstown Branch of the Juniata River for about 16.3 miles between Alfarata, near Alexandria in Huntingdon County, and Flowing Spring in Blair County, with a connection to Canoe Creek State Park. The corridor stacks two transportation eras, the towpath of the Pennsylvania Main Line Canal and the Petersburg Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad laid over it. Riding is rail-grade flat on rolled crushed limestone, paved through Williamsburg, and deeply wooded, crossing the river on former railroad bridges past canal locks, quarry ruins, and the Mount Etna iron furnace. Station-style trailheads with restrooms anchor the route.

• The trail is named for the family of Hollidaysburg attorney T. Dean Lower (rhymes with flower), whose 1990 gift in memory of his wife Jane and son Roger bought the corridor.
• The Juniata Division of the Pennsylvania Canal, whose towpath the trail follows, packed 86 locks, 25 aqueducts, and 19 dams into its run.
• Canal operation began on November 27, 1832, with the packet boat John Blair.
• Building the 127-mile Juniata Division cost 3.5 million dollars, and an 1827 contract paid 200 dollars to clear and grub a 19-acre section.
• More than 200 bird species make the Alfarata end of the valley their home for at least part of the year.
• About 130,000 people use the trail each year.
• Seventy percent of the corridor runs beneath valley walls that pitch up to 51 degrees.
• The trail keeps a NNE to SSW heading for nearly half its length as it tracks the bends of the Frankstown Branch of the Juniata.
• Charles Dickens came up this canal line by packet boat in March 1842 on his way over the Allegheny Portage Railroad and grumbled his way through the trip in American Notes.

Canal boats came through this valley before trains did. Ground was broken for the Pennsylvania Canal System on July 4, 1826, and on November 27, 1832 the packet boat John Blair opened service on the Juniata Division, which followed the Frankstown Branch of the Juniata River for 127 miles from Duncan's Island to Hollidaysburg. From 1834, westbound boats were hauled out of the water there and carried over the mountains on the Allegheny Portage Railroad. Charles Dickens rode this canal west in March 1842 and set the journey down in American Notes. The canal's days were numbered once the Pennsylvania Railroad finished its main line across the state in 1854. The PRR bought the whole Main Line in 1857 and let it fade, though stretches of the Juniata Division stayed in service until 1888. On the old towpath alignment, the railroad laid its Petersburg Branch to haul limestone from quarries in the valley, and trains ran here until the corridor was abandoned in 1979. Ten years later, Rails to Trails of Central Pennsylvania bought the first eleven miles between Williamsburg and Alfarata from the Penn Central Corp., funded by Hollidaysburg attorney T. Dean Lower in memory of his wife Jane and son Roger. The trail that opened in 1992 carries the family name. An extension of five and a half miles reached Flowing Spring in 2004, a later link ties in Canoe Creek State Park, and the route now forms part of the September 11th National Memorial Trail.

• Alfarata StationMILE 0Directions
• Mount Etna StationMILE 5.1Directions
• Cove Dale StationMILE 7.8Directions
• Williamsburg StationMILE 11.1Directions
• Grannas StationMILE 13.1Directions
• Flowing Spring StationMILE 16.1Directions

• Rails to Trails of Central Pennsylvania · Rails to Trails of Central Pennsylvania - Featuring the Lower Trail
• Pittsburgh-to-Harrisburg Main Line Canal Greenway · The Lower Trail
• Rails-to-Trails Conservancy · Trail of Tributes: September 11 National Memorial Trail
• Wikipedia · Mid State Trail (Pennsylvania)
• Wikipedia · Lower Trail
• Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (TrailLink) · Lower Trail