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The Stavich Bicycle Trail is a paved path along the Mahoning River between the west edge of New Castle, Pennsylvania and Struthers, Ohio, a Youngstown suburb. It follows the old Penn-Ohio trolley line, not a steam railroad, so it rolls more than a typical rail trail, with short hills and dips through pasture and woodlots beside an active CSX line. Just under ten miles long, it passes North Edinburg, crosses the state line, and runs straight through the village of Lowellville. The blacktop in Pennsylvania is newer and smoother than the older stretch in Ohio, which is being replaced in pieces as funding allows. Parking is at both ends and at the Lowellville athletic fields.
Stavich Bicycle Trail
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Stavich Bicycle Trail has about 113 to 151 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, e-biking, birding, biking, running, 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 Stavich Bicycle Trail!
In half of past years, color along the Stavich Bicycle Trail peaks October 19 to 30, typically around October 24. The trail has 34% deciduous coverage, with the majority being red maple, black cherry, northern red oak, sugar maple, and American beech.
Canal boats moved along this stretch of the Mahoning River before any trolley did. The Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal, called the Cross-Cut Canal, opened on April 3, 1840 and ran from New Castle to Akron along the river. It carried goods and passengers between Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Railroads took its trade, and the canal was abandoned by 1872 and closed for good in 1877. Electric trollies came next. The main line of the New Castle to Youngstown trolley opened in 1902. Its owners merged into the Mahoning and Shenango Railway and Light System in 1905 and took the name Penn-Ohio Electric System in 1920. Automobiles and the Depression emptied the trollies, and the main line was converted to buses between 1931 and 1932. The right of way sat idle for fifty years. A bike path was first proposed in the mid 1970s. John Stavich of Campbell and his brothers Andy and George, whose family ran aluminum mills around Youngstown, donated nearly 200,000 dollars, and construction began in 1983. The trail was dedicated in June 1983. Private gifts and local governments have kept it up since, Lawrence County on the Pennsylvania miles and the village of Lowellville on the Ohio miles. The trail became a National Recreation Trail in 2003. The Pennsylvania section was rebuilt in 2008, and Lowellville began replacing its older blacktop a half mile at a time in 2025.
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