Biking Guide: Oil Creek State Park Bike Trail
Special Trail Notes

Location
South of Titusville, Cornplanter and Cherrytree Townships, Venango County

Trailheads
Petroleum Centre, Drake Well Museum

Length/Surface
9.7 miles; asphalt 8.5 feet wide

Description
Busy, wooded, shady, very gently rolling

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

Driving time from Pittsburgh:2 hours 30 minutes North

Trail organization: Douglas Finger, Park Manager, Oil Creek State Park, RR 1, Box 207, Oil City PA 16301, (814) 676-5915

The birthplace of the oil industry supplies the setting for a ride that combines the natural beauty of Oil Creek Valley's clear trout stream and hemlock-hardwood forest with traces of the oil boom that once dominated the valley.

The trail follows the path of the railroad that once carried oil from wells in this and adjacent valleys. But the intervening century has erased most evidence of the industry, and you now must rely on interpretive signs along the trail and the Drake Well Museum to pick out the remaining traces.

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.