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The Lycoming Creek Bikeway is a paved rail trail of about five miles between Hepburnville and Memorial Park in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It follows Lycoming Creek down the old Penn Central corridor through Old Lycoming and Loyalsock townships, crossing the creek several times on former railroad bridges, including a steel span from 1901. The northern end starts in trees at a community park in Hepburnville and quickly opens onto farm fields with the valley walls in view. Closer to Williamsport the route passes Heshbon Park, Old Lycoming Park, and residential streets before ending near Memorial Park, where it meets the city's bikeway network. The grade is rail-flat, and the ride is easy in either direction.
Lycoming Creek Bikeway
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Lycoming Creek Bikeway has about 118 to 157 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, e-biking, birding, running, biking, 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 Lycoming Creek Bikeway!
In half of past years, color along the Lycoming Creek Bikeway peaks October 18 to 30, typically around October 24. The trail has 36% deciduous coverage, with the majority being chestnut oak, red maple, northern red oak, and sweet birch.
The Williamsport and Elmira Railroad laid track up Lycoming Creek in 1839, the first rails in a valley that had carried travelers for generations. The Lenape called the creek Legani-hanne, sandy stream, and the path beside it, the Lagahani Trail, was the original route between central Pennsylvania and southern New York. During the Revolution, Colonel Thomas Hartley's troops widened the trail as they marched north. The railroad followed the same line. Its first track ran from Williamsport to Ralston. By 1854 it reached the head of the creek and continued to Elmira. The company was reorganized in 1860 as the Elmira and Williamsport Railroad. From 1863 the Northern Central Railway controlled it, and later the Pennsylvania Railroad, then the Penn Central. In June 1972 Hurricane Agnes sent Lycoming Creek over its banks and washed out several rail bridges. The railroad north of Hepburnville was abandoned that year. The stretch nearest Williamsport, the section the trail now uses, lasted until 1986. In 1991 five area municipalities came together to develop the corridor as a rail trail. The bikeway they built follows the straight railroad course across the winding creek, reusing the old bridges, including the 1901 steel span at mile 1.7. Today it ties Hepburnville, Heshbon Park, and Old Lycoming Park to the bikeway network of Williamsport.
