Since I ran the eastern portion of this trail one day short of one year ago, I began today's adventure westward from the Beavercreek Station, a beautiful new depot facsimile structure that houses restrooms and refreshment machines. Nice! And a BIG parking lot! Beavercreek is located at Trail Milepost 8, coinciding with the railroad timetable mileage that the Pennsylvania Railroad gave to this segment of its Pittsburgh-St. Louis main line between Xenia and Dayton. This is a "railroad steep" grade up from Beavercreek, then it falls off from Milepost 10 for the rest of the way down to the Iron Horse Trail at Milepost 12.2. This railroad fought hard dragging its freights over this hill out of Dayton, and the single track (highly unusual for the mighty PENNSY!) was, fortunately, always just its "passenger main" (See my review of the Hilliard-Plain City "Heritage Trail" for more on this subject). Amtrak's "National Limited" plied this route until late 1979! Scant few railroad artifacts remain... A few telegraph poles survive, insulated by the swamp and private property they sit in. Only TWO unusual cast concrete mileposts remain in place between Xenia and Dayton... Milepost 5 and Milepost 11. I have never seen square-topped PRR mileposts, with the mile numbers simply painted on. MP11 is badly faded, scarcely any black numerals left, or white background paint. The other "unlikely" surprise is located at Mile 11.7. The yellow metal sign with "A L" westbound is the "Approach Block-Limit" sign for "CLEM", at late railroad (Conrail) time the unmanned "station" location on Clement Hill. In PRR days, there was a wayside "approach" signal here which coincided with an electrically interlocked set of crossovers at "CLEM." "CLEM" is where the track that parallels the southbound Iron Horse Trail diverges from the old PRR main line track. That track is the Pennsy's old Cincinnati, Lebanon, & Northern Railroad that once extended down to the Queen City. Unfortunately, someone painted out the "B" in "ABL" on the sign! Sigh! At the trail "T" at MP12.2, you access the old Baltimore & Ohio main line coming from Chillicothe via Xenia into Dayton (and beyond). The B&O track ran UNDER the now-removed PRR span that topped the stone abutments here. I am sure the B&O couldn't get rid of THIS line into Dayton quickly enough either! The 2.8 miles of B&O north from the trail "T" is ALL downhill, and steep! There are a lot of trail relocations where either private property or washouts apparently took their toll before this trail was developed. But you will encounter several main road crossings where you can access all types of fast food to get that energy back to push you back up the hill! The trail ends at Springfield Street in the Riverview suburb of Dayton. There is a direct connection to the Mad River Trail to take you the rest of the way into Dayton. Both the PRR and the B&O segments of the Creekside Trail are smooth and beautiful, and the 2 miles of Iron Horse Trail south from the "T" is likewise a beauty. Much of the Pennsy's portion of the Creekside Trail is arrow-straight (You can see and feel those hills!), and the trail is wide open to the sky, while the B&O's descent into Riverview is curvy and twisting, under tree canopy, and much forested. That was nice on this unusually hot, 80-degree, all blue sky day in mid-October! Top all of this scenery with the flaming fall foliage, and it makes for one awesome ride!

This trail provides woodland scenery most of time and is a great way to bike from Dayton to Xenia.

"We rode from Xenia Station to Eastwood Park. It is a nice trail. We passed Kil-Kare raceway and Nutter Park. We saw the golden arches by the trail in Dayton, and were surprised to see a McDonald's classic. We stopped for a rest and a drink there. Eastwood Park was very nice. On the way back we stopped at Nutter Park and had lunch. A great day ride."