Explore the best rated trails in Chester, PA. Whether you're looking for an easy walking trail or a bike trail like the Limerick Community Park Loop and Limerick Trail. With more than 152 trails covering 774 miles you're bound to find a perfect trail for you. Click on any trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
I rode this at the end of 2022. It's maintained for the most part. Few road crossings but nothing I felt was dangerous as long as you stop and look. Spring Mountain climb was a bit challenging but fun on the way back. Would recommend it.
The 3 stars is for the first 6 miles or so out of Turkey Hill. The trail goes along the river and is in good shape and nice views. Once you get off the river the trail gets really boring. Nothing to look at. Even the towns have no connections to the trail. From about miles 20 onward the trail quickly deteriorates to the point where it should not even be listed as a trail. Zero Stars here. It is just at best an unmaintained access road for people working on the power lines. Sometimes it is not even that good. If you are looking for a nice first few miles this is fine.
This crushed gravel trail is excellent for runners. Path is wide and there are not a lot of sharp turns. Asphalt is only for short sections.
This trail is in no way shape or form complete. 40+ miles are marked closed all along the shown "trail". several areas with no way around the closures. Fine for attempting a day trip but if you were going to use the whole "trail" you would be in for real trouble. Not knocking the trail itself but TrailLink, really makes me question its usefulness. Good thing I was in the area and decided to do a day out and back trip on the D&L before attempting to ride the whole thing.
This is a great trail, well maintained, connects to other trails and full of wildlife. I have walked biked and run this trail for over ten years and it's never crowded. There is a small parking area on the southern end at the Rt 10 trail head with direct access to the trail. It's my go to place to walk my dogs or a bike ride without traffic.
The trail was originally a tow path...in its early days mules would walk along it towing barges through the canal, usually carrying coal from Pennsylvania to the New York area. The canal is seventy-five feet wide and eight feet deep. It was dug in the 1830s by hand - mostly by laborers brought in from Ireland. They worked under brutal conditions from sunup til sundown; some of them had stonemason skills and their cobblestone spillways still survive.
So how long did it take 3,000 Irish laborers to dig the canal? Only three freaking years! Next time you ride this trail, mentally drink a toast of fine Irish whiskey to the good folks who labored so we can ride!
I just discovered the trail and rode it for a few miles earlier today, starting in Bristol. I thought the trail would have gone right next to the Delaware River (like the Schuylkill River Trail), but the path is a bit inland from the river. The path is small gravel. It’s not the most scenic path, but it’s in decent shape. I’ll probably only ride it again if I have the time to make it up to. We Hope.
It's nice to be able to ride all the way through again but Too bad they had to build this hideous concrete and steel bridge though, instead of finding the person who burned the old one and hanging them from the trestle as an example.
We rode this trail on a Monday in early December when the temp. was in the low to mid 40s. We rode past the gate at the end of the parking lot and onto a wide path with a fine stone surface. After about a half of a mile the trail surface changed to a more coarse stone surface. The is one short steep section near the end of the trail. The scenery is very nice, even with leaves on the trees.
Its been 5 years since we last did this trail and not much has changed. Starting at the Brentwood parking lot the trail descends on a paved surface that has many stones, up to 2" to 3" in size, from a road running parallel to the trail, making the decent less fun and more stressful. The trail turns right at the bottom of the hill and becomes a wide path covered with fine stone. It doesn't last long and soon the trail surface is a mix of mid size stone and gravel. The trail improves for a short time near the education building but not for long. There are several intersections that are not marked as which way to turn and the trail, while paved, is in need of repair. After crossing a road and climbing a short but quite steep hill the trail resembles more a mountain bike trail, little more than a dirt single track. After a short (a block or 2) on road the trail again is more like a mountain bike trail. Just before it reached the end there was a 12 inch rock in the middle of a narrow section of trail. The only reason for giving the 2 star rating is the pleasant scenery along most of the trail.
I rode this route for the first time today. It’s a very well maintained paved trail. I really enjoyed the ride. The creek is very nice, and you can hardly tell you’re in the city. There are many more hills on this section of trail than the more northerly sections.Looking forward to the next time.
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