Biking Guide: Ghost Town Trail
Special Trail Notes

Location
Along Blacklick Creek from Dilltown to Nanty Glo, with spur from Rexis to White Mill Station in Indiana and Cambria Counties.

Trailheads
Dilltown, Wehrum, Vintondale, Twin Rocks, Nanty Glo

Length/Surface
19.5 planned, 15.5 miles finished, crushed limestone

Description
Uncrowded, wooded, shady, flat (2-3% grade on eastern leg)

Driving time from Pittsburgh: 1 hour 20 minutes East

Trail organization: C&I Trail Council, PO Box 11, Dilltown PA 15929. Memberships: $10/year individual; $12/year family.

Restrictions:
Horses by permit only; no motorized vehicles; no snowmobiles

A 10-foot wide crushed limestone trail runs through woods, former mining towns, and the remnants of coal mines. Trail landscaping is still in progress, but 10 benches already provide resting places.

The trail is named for five ghost towns, once-thriving mining towns along the railroad that were all abandoned by the 1930s. The Eliza Furnace in Vintondale still remains, as do a few original houses and foundations of mine buildings. The area shows the heritage of the Blacklick Creek valley, which includes railroads, mining, iron making, and lumbering. Much of the trail is in State Game Lands, so wildlife and wildflowers are abundant. Several original railroad mileposts remain. They’re about a tenth of a mile east of the trail mileposts.

This information provided from and with the permission of Mary Shaw and Roy Weil. For more information on bike trails in Western Pennsylvania, order their book, "FreeWheeling Easy in Western Pennsylvania," the definative guide to local biking.