The Oil Heritage Region consists of the Franklin, Tionesta, and Oil City area located just east of I-79 and just north of 1-80. Oil reserves were discovered in this area about 150 years ago spawning a massive infrastructure buildup--most notably rails and their bridges--to get the oil out of the woods. When the oil dried up after after a few decades or so, the railroads became superfluous.
Some insightful people then converted the rails into trails, creating a jeweled array of biking, blading, and walking trails, certainly among the finest in not only the east coast, but the entire country.
These trails are notable because they are pristine, running along rivers and untouched forest and creeks in most cases. They are well made because the oil money created the finest beds, the best bridges, and the grandest tunnels.
They are unique because nowhere else can I think of was there such a massive infrastructure investment, which, after only a few short decades, had lost all utility when the oil reserves dried up. This loss of need for the means to haul out the oil left open vast rail corridors--often only a few valleys apart from one another--with entirely unimproved accompanied land and waterway: in other words, they don't run contiguous with an operating railroad, or an operating factory, for example.
This all results in bike trails providing spectacular vistas, the purest sounds of nature, and a feeling of remote serenity.
The main trails are the Allegheny River Trail -- Samual Justus Trail, the Sandy Creek Trail, the Oil Creek State Park Trail, and Goddard State Park Trail (which is not part of the Oil Heritage network, but is of the same quality yet only a dozen or so miles away, and for this reason I've included it).
These are all four star trails, and for anyone who loves the idyllic rail-trail experience with level riding on perfect pave, over bridges, through forests punctuated by the occasional tunnel, these are for you. They are all located within the same geographic district but offering different riding experiences, one woodsy, another sunny along the river, one with bridges and tunnels along a creekbed, and another that's hilly and circumnavigates a 1,900 acre lake.
This weekend we rode the Allegheny River Trail out of the charming Victorian town of Franklin. Here are a few postcard snapshots.
 |
| The trail is sunny, open, and mostly level |
 |
| This is the spectacular Belmar Bridge, erected in1907, which is part of the Sandy Creek Rail-Trail. The Allegheny River Trail and the Sandy Creek Trail intersect under this bridge. I made this picture from the Allegheny River Trail about a mile before reaching the bridge, and passing under the Sandy Creek Trail |
 |
| It runs along the tranquil Allegheny River |
No comments:
Post a Comment