RCST Trails Galleries

Stone Cabin Trail : 0.4 mile - Flowing singletrack. Slight climb going out. Leads to the far end of Rugged Trail. It is not a bike trail after the left turn onto Rugged Trail. After that it turns into hiking trail that crosses the State Game Land boundary and leads down to Stone Cabin Run and on to Greenland Road eventually.

Stone Cabin Trail

0.4 mile - Flowing singletrack. Slight climb going out. Leads to the f ...

Updated: Jan 16, 2006 7:37pm PST

Doc Smith Trail : 2.2 miles - Flowing singletrack with some challenging rock sections, incuding some rock armored water crossings. A major whoop-d-doo along the way. Relatively short climbs in either direction.

Doc Smith Trail

2.2 miles - Flowing singletrack with some challenging rock sections, i ...

Updated: May 26, 2005 8:02pm PST

Rattling Creek Trail : 4.0 miles - Flowing singletrack with fast sections in the down direction with 2 large rock gardens near the top, other short gardens along the way. Realtively easy climb In the up direction. 6 bridges, the 2 largest (22' & 33') spanning the West Branch of Rattling Creek near the east end.

Rattling Creek Trail

4.0 miles - Flowing singletrack with fast sections in the down directi ...

Updated: May 27, 2005 6:26pm PST

Rocks Ridge Trail East : 1.1 miles - Rocky technical sigletrack with 5 or 6 LARGE rock sections along the way. This trail is approx. 75% rock. All ridable but an effort in endurance and balance in either direction.

Rocks Ridge Trail East

1.1 miles - Rocky technical sigletrack with 5 or 6 LARGE rock sections ...

Updated: Jan 22, 2006 1:39pm PST

Dry Run Trail

Updated: Aug 06, 2005 5:00am PST

Preserve Line Trail : 1.0 mile - Starting from the Shale Run end this trail runs a fairly straight course through a few short rock gardens and mostly flat or downgrade to the Fawn Kill intersection. There it continues downgrade through some technical near the bottom at the creek and a steep climb up to Lykens Road and continues accross the road and on and turns into snowmobile trail.

Preserve Line Trail

1.0 mile - Starting from the Shale Run end this trail runs a fairly st ...

Updated: Mar 19, 2006 9:00am PST

Matter Trail

Updated: Aug 06, 2005 4:58am PST

Wolf Pond Trail

Updated: Aug 06, 2005 4:58am PST

Shale Run Trail

Updated: Aug 06, 2005 4:57am PST

HopBack Trail

Updated: Aug 06, 2005 4:56am PST

Rugged Trail : 2.4 mile - This really ends up a 2.8 mile loop as you have to do Stone Cabin Trail in or out depending on the direction you start off in. Relatively smooth trail over most of the length. What really makes this trail 'rugged' is the fact that it loses elevation in either directions to a low point about midway on the trail and then is either a slow steady climb out in the counter-clockwise direction or a series of steeper shorter climbs out in the clockwise direction. Either way it usually leaves you a bit spent by the end.

Rugged Trail

2.4 mile - This really ends up a 2.8 mile loop as you have to do Stone ...

Updated: Jan 16, 2006 3:30pm PST

Fawn Kill Trail : 2.7 mile - This trail starts out from the Preserve Line end as flowing singletrack then quickly turns to many short sections, with one of two long sections, of technical rock gardens through the middle mile or so, then back to mostly flowing singletrack for the last mile ending on Lykens Road near Rattling Creek Trail.

Fawn Kill Trail

2.7 mile - This trail starts out from the Preserve Line end as flowing ...

Updated: Mar 19, 2006 11:12am PST

Rock's Ridge Trail West :

Rock's Ridge Trail West

Updated: Jan 22, 2006 6:26pm PST

Horse Damage on RCST Trails : Pictures showing trail damage on RCST Trails from horses during a competition riding event held July 25-26. These pictures do not depict accurately the extent of the damage, DCNR is to be sending out someone Monday July 27th to inspect the trails after this event. I'm hoping they will see this damage and the fact that it severly degrades the experience of both hikers and bikers. We pride ourselved on having mud free, pristine singletrack. These trails that were used are now broken down to muddy tracks, dug up by horse hooves. The major damage in most of these photos was done on July 26 by just 20 horses on Shale Run, Preserve Line and Matter singletrack trails. Preserve Line trail crosses the West Branch of the Rattling Creek, a feeder to the Lykens Borough Watershed. The first 7 pictures show some pristine singletrack trail and the creek crossing prior to any horses passing. The rest of the pictures show horses crossing the creek, breaking down the banks, pictures of the creek crossing and singletrack trail after the 20 horses have passed through. 90% or more of Shale Run Trail shows significant damage due to the fact that the trails were soft from rain the day before this seciton of trail was used. I talked to the organizer the night before and voiced my concern about trail conditions due to the rain. The only response was that DCNR told them they could use the singletrack and they couldn't control the weather. Last year we worked with these people with the understanding that no singltrack would be used, only snowmobile trail. This year we had no idea that the event was being held and that they intended to use singletrack in the course until my wife, Jill, ran into horses heading onto singletrack on Saturday. After I voiced my concerns for trail conditions Saturday late in the day, then getting hard rain overnight they could have decided to run an alternate course, not using singletrack. That would have been the sensible and responsible thing to do, but they did not. The results are shown in these pictures.

Horse Damage on RCST Trails

Pictures showing trail damage on RCST Trails from horses during a comp ...

Updated: Jul 26, 2009 11:36am PST