Allegheny Trail Alliance Road Connection between Ft Hill and Confluence

The Allegheny Highlands Trail between Ft Hill and Confluence will be under construction during the fall and winter of 2000. If you want a long ride connecting the Allegheny Highlands Trail to the Yough River Trail South, you'll have to detour between Ft Hill and Confluence. In addition, you may want to drive between Ft Hill and Confluence on the east side of the Casselman River instead of the usual and obvious route via PA281 on the west side of the river. Here are a map and cue sheets for this route. We road-checked these directions on May 13, 2000.

Warning: The detour has hills. .//BIG\\._.//HILLS\\. Really big hills. Especially headed northeast.

The bad news for cyclists is that we can't find a way to make this detour without hills. The roads identified as more suitable for bicycles have less traffic and gentler gradients than the options identified as more suitable for cars. Even those are steep, as shown by the profile view at the bottom of the page. From Confluence to Ft Hill, there is no way to avoid climbing -- Confluence is at elevation 1320', Harnedsville is at 1400', and you must climb at least once to 2000' (north of the intersection of SR3001 and High Point Rd) before descending to the Ft Hill trailhead at 1540'. Although the route from Ft Hill to Confluence is largely downhill, there's a 220' climb on Sechler Rd, another 220' climb just south of Ft Hill Church, and a couple of smaller hills.

Getting from Ft Hill to Confluence

The short form for cars: Leave the Ft Hill trailhead headed away from the river, turning left on SR3001 where Sechler Rd goes right. Follow SR3001 for 5.6 miles until it ends at PA523. Turn right on PA523 and continue 3.3 miles to Confluence.

Getting from Confluence to Ft Hill

The short form for cars: Leave Confluence headed south toward Harnedsville on PA523. In 3.3 miles, at the sign for Ft Hill, turn left on SR3001. Follow SR3001 for 5.6 miles until it crosses the trail. This is the Ft Hill trailhead.

To be clear about the hills, here's a profile view of the bike option from Confluence to Ft Hill. DeLorme doesn't get these exactly correct, but this conveys the right general idea. The road option is even steeper.

Mapping and cue sheets by Mary Shaw

[Overview Map] [ATA Information]

This page is part of the Allegheny Trail Alliance's site in support of the Pittsburgh to Cumberland Trail, a motor-free recreational rail trail connecting Pittsburgh PA and Cumberland MD. Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000 by Allegheny Trail Alliance, Bill Metzger, Mary Shaw, and Roy Weil. Amenity information courtesy of FreeWheeling Easy. We encourage you to create links to this site and to print copies of the maps for your personal use. We prohibit other uses of this site, especially if they generate spam or other mass communications -- see our Privacy Policy.. This page was last modified on 09/03/00. Send email to ATA or contact the ATA or member trails.