 Greater Hazleton Rails to Trails
SEGMENTS OPEN
Greater Hazleton Civic Partnership
Bob Skulsky
Citiscape
20 West Broad Street
Hazleton, PA 18201
P: (570)455-1509
civic@hazletonchamber.org
WEBSITE
www.civicpartnership.com
TRAIL DESCRIPTION: Trail is open from City of Hazleton to the Ashmore area, length 4 miles, surface #10 packed limestone. Trail provides facilities for bikers, walkers, joggers, and
also includes exercise stations and geocaches. Winter activities include cross-country skiing and
snow-shoeing.
The Greater Hazleton Rails to Trails (GHRT) when complete will be 16.4 miles long. The GHRT will be a spur trail to the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (DL NHC) and will connect the Greater Hazleton Area with Eckley Miner’s Village, Lehigh Gorge State Park, and nearby State Gamelands. When complete the trail will have four parking areas, 10 exercise stations, seven picnic tables, nine benches, eight interpretive signs and an environmental education area. The trail accesses a number of small local communities, such as Hazle Brook, Weatherly and Freeland.
THINGS TO SEE: Drake’s Creek Reservoirs, scenic vistas and wildlife, rare pine barren habitat, environmentally ravaged former minelands, and reclaimed mine lands. Eckley Miner’s Village, a restored patch town with a living history museum will be a stop on the way, at the Phase 2 west end.
TRAILHEADS AND PARKING: Trailhead is located 100 yards from the intersection of State Route 93 and State Route 424. Ample parking is available, and there is a picnic table at trailhead.
FUNDING: Greater Hazleton Rails to Trails has received approximately $550,000 to accomplish all aspects of their project through construction for Phases 1 and 2 as well as to complete a Master Plan through Phase 3, linking to Lehigh Gorge State park.
RECENT/CURRENT ACTIVITIES AND ISSUES:
Acquisition, Planning, Design: Continuing to acquire Right-Of-Way in areas for Phase 2 and Phase 3, Completion of Master Site Plan for Phase 2 and 3 by 2008, plan/design environmental education area, heritage area, Ashmore bridge.
Construction: Ashmore bridge, five exercise stations, environmental education area, interpretive signs, directional signs and finished surface for 2008/2009.
Events: Grand Opening for exercise stations and Environmental Education Area, Annual Hiking & Biking event, monthly walks, health walks, fundraisers, and two 10K runs, and geocaching events.
Management/Maintenance: All maintenance of the first 4 miles of trail are being completed by pro bono services from the GHRT volunteer committee, area businesses, Hazleton Area School District, social clubs, youth services, City of Hazleton, Hazle Township and others. Fund raising events by the volunteer committee and matching grants is raising insurance funds.
Other: GHRT is piloting trail counts on area trails using infrared trail counters.
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