Bike Trails PA. Pike 2 Bike Trail

 
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Last updated 02/10/2014

Raw file: Pike 2 Bike Trail.gpx (42.74 KB)

My wife, brother and I are bicycle enthusiasts who enjoy riding the ever increasing number of rail / canal trails mostly in the Northeastern US. We also do volunteer work for NOAA by recovering US Coast & Geodetic Survey Benchmarks. We often combine these hobbies while trail riding.

Unlike geocaching, benchmark hunting serves a valuable purpose by providing NOAA with updates on the condition of their 700,000+ benchmarks across the Unites States. Information on Benchmarks is available here: http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/.

We have been riding these trails for over 10 years now and I decided to share some of the .GPX files I’ve created. The files were compiled using a variety of resources including:

www.traillink.com/

NOAA - http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/

Garmin’s Mapsource & Basecamp software

USCGS Topographic GPS Map Files. Available free and legal for many States here: http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/

Google Earth & Google Maps

Garmin’s Birds Eye Imagery

Personal Knowledge

Various Internet & Print resources including:

Abandoned PA Turnpike website: http://www.abandonedturnpike.com/

Third Wave Pike 2 Bike website: http://www.thirdwave-websites.com/bike/PA-turnpike-bike-trai...

Wikipedia website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abandoned_Pennsylvania_Turnpike

Trail Link’s website: http://www.traillink.com/project/pike-2-bike-trail.aspx

This file contains information for Pennsylvania’s Pike 2 Bike Trail. Although short at just 9 miles, this trail offers a unique look into the past at a piece of America’s first interstate highway. This trail is a section of the Pennsylvania Turnpike built during the 1930’s and abandoned between 1964 and 1968. The “trail” is the original concrete highway which passes through the 6782’ Sideling Hill Tunnel and the 3532’ Ray’s Hill Tunnel. The tunnels are not lighted and flashlights are a must. Even the remains of an old Howard Johnson’s rest area can be seen.

Although not “officially” open, bikers and hikers are allowed to use the trail at their own risk. The easiest way to access the trail is from the Oregon Road parking area midway between the two tunnels. There are no facilities along this trail and visitors are advised to read the information provided on the above websites.

These .GPX files include tracks for trails, waypoints for significant features along trails, parking areas, bicycle shops along or adjacent to trails, campgrounds and USCGS Benchmarks along or near trails. All waypoints include elevation data for use in plotting trail slope and planning outings.

Anyone interested in Benchmark hunting can obtain detailed data sheets for each mark by going here: http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/ds_pid.prl The PID is the waypoint name symbolized by the color coded cube icons. Green= Recovered within the last 10 years. Blue= No recent recovery but set in a massive structure which still exists. Red= Likely missing or reported destroyed.

Free, legal, 24K and 100K topo map downloads for the states with these trails are available here: http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/ Segments of these maps covering the above trails can be loaded into many older handheld GPS receivers with limited memory by using Garmin’s Mapinstall program available here: http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=3291

I’ll post more trail files as I update and clean them up.

I always enjoy conversing with fellow bike trail enthusiasts so please feel free to contact me with comments, questions, inclusions or revisions. – Enjoy!

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