The Redbank Valley Trail Offers an Easy Bike Ride in Nature

What You Can See on the Redbank Valley Trail

For those who are riding the 20-mile stretch of the Redbank Valley Trail between East Brady and New Bethlehem, you have a number of interesting things to see along the way.

Perhaps the largest and most prominent view of the ride is Redbank Creek, the namesake for the rail trail. Throughout the entire ride, you'll be treated to many stunning views of the creek, both in between the trees and in select areas where the trees thin out and have more sweeping, picturesque views of the water.

Along the way, you'll pass through many small towns and see ruins of old industries that used to be found along the trail, like old coke furnaces, the remains of a ceramic tile factory, and more. If you're interested in local history like this, there are a number of great signs worth stopping at to learn more. A lot of these are closer to New Bethlehem, so they can be seen when hitting this one on a shorter ride, too.

For us, one of the biggest highlights, or perhaps two of the biggest highlights, is the dual tunnels that you get to ride through, with the closest to the New Bethlehem trailhead being the Climax Tunnel at Climax, PA- just a few miles from the start of the trail. These tunnels are quite fun because they are quite cool (you can feel the temperature dropping even before entering) and, for these two in particular, they get almost pitch black at the center!

It's only a little bit creepy, but it is still a ton of fun either way.

Likewise, closer to New Bethlehem, you may spot a number of large animal statues that are quite endearing as well and were a good sign that we were approaching the finish on our return trip, too!

Finally, if you're into foraging, the Redbank Valley Trail was also home to many native species that we were thrilled to see while riding. I could've spent all day on the trail collecting spruce tips and other edible plants during our late May visit, but, alas, my bike only had so much room.

While we haven't biked the other half of the trail further away from New Bethlehem, we are told that the scenery is quite similar with regard to creek views, but you may perhaps pass more through smaller towns and have fewer highlights than you do heading west. We will update this article with more information on that end when we ride the trail east in the future!

Tips and Advice for Biking the Redbank Valley Trail

If you are biking between the Armstrong Trail and New Bethlehem, we have great news- the Redbank Valley Trail is a rather easy ride in almost every respect (in similar fashion to the Armstrong Trail). This rail trail is fairly wide, has mostly uniform crushed gravel paths the entire ride, and only has a very nominal grade to speak of as well.

Apart from fully paved trails, which admittedly few rail trails in the region have, we really couldn't have asked for anything better for this ride. That said, there are a few things worth keeping in mind all the same.

First, while the trail is made up of fairly uniform crushed gravel, perfect for hybrid bikes with slightly thicker tires, we did notice that the gravel was a bit looser along the edges at times. When you hit these spots, there is a slight change in friction, and if you overcorrect, you could wobble or fall (as I learned firsthand). As such, stay closer to the center of the trail and be mindful of the sides.

Second, while we'd argue this trail is effectively flat, we'd be remiss if we didn't point out that there is an ever-so-slight upward slope from the Armstrong Trail connector heading towards New Bethlehem towards the east. So if you start in New Bethlehem and do a 40-mile round-trip as we did, you will likely notice it is slightly harder on the return trip. But as far as most trails go, this is about as nominal as it can be, but you will still feel it as you hit 30+ miles.

Finally, the two tunnels you go through along the trail have a slight bend in them, such that you cannot see the other end when entering. What this means is that the tunnels get very, very dark at the center to the point that we'd almost describe it as being pitch black. Be sure to have a light of some form here. We used our phones, which were okay enough, but a headtorch would have been better. Thankfully, the trail conditions inside the tunnels are quite good such that we had little risk despite low lighting.

Overall, we really enjoyed our 40-mile round trip on the western half of the Redbank Valley Trail and thought it made for a peaceful ride about 75 minutes outside of Pittsburgh. We are looking forward to returning in the future to try the other half of the trail heading further east!

The Redbank Valley Trail runs approximately 42 miles from East Brady to Brookville, PA. We have biked the western half of the trail for this article from East Brady to New Bethlehem.