On Tuesday, May 17, we drove an hour east from our campground In Gettysburg to this day’s bicycle ride, near York, Pennsylvania. The Heritage Rail Trail County Park is the fifth Rails-to-Trails Conservancy’s Hall of Fame trail that we have had the good fortune to bike.
This is really a “rail trail next to a rail”, and we usually prefer paved trails, but our bikes handled this crushed stone pathway just fine. Excursion trains still occasionally use the track but we didn’t see any during our weekday ride. We found some art work, larger than life.
We cycled through the 370-foot-long Howard Tunnel, a stone-arch beauty, which was built in 1838, and the tunnel is one of the oldest in the country. A few drops of seeping water dripped on Ted as he rode through the tunnel, but still he exuberantly did it again on the way back.
Most of our 28 mile ride followed the pretty Codorus Creek, and in addition to farm land we saw several small and quaint towns. We obviously enjoyed our ride.
At Glen Rock we decided to eat lunch at the Glen Rock Pizzeria. We found that the owner, Joe Messina, tosses his pizza dough by hand. We enjoyed eating the best pizza we have had in a long time and it was a treat to meet Joe. He was engaging, personable, interested in us and our travels, and not shy about sharing his story. What a wonderful stop!
This rail trail follows the former Northern Central Railway corridor which was built in the 1800s. It was the railway used during the Civil War to provide supplies to Northern troops heading south, and it carried President Abraham Lincoln on his way to deliver the Gettysburg Address. Here’s a pic of Sue at the original Hanover Junction railroad station where Lincoln changed trains in 1863 on his way to Gettysburg.
All in all, it was a great day and this was a delightful Hall of Fame ride.