Susquehanna River Valley
The sublime beauty of the rolling landscape surrounding the Susquehanna River Valley invites gravel cyclists of all skill levels to test their capacity for wonder. Launching during unPAved of the Susquehanna River Valley. Distribution from October 9th to 18th in and around Pennsylvania.
Introduction
The sublime beauty of the rolling landscape surrounding the Susquehanna River Valley invites gravel cyclists of all skill levels to test their capacity for wonder. Spread across five unique regions, the gravel routes included in this Gravel Adventure Field Guide provide a personal escape from the hustle and bustle of daily life. Cycling in and through the small, charming communities of the Susquehanna River Valley will both delight and inspire you as you explore this singular region of Central Pennsylvania.
The Susquehanna River Valley has, over the years, earned a well-deserved reputation in cycling tourism for its stunning countryside. The physical features of rises and falls, along with the curves of the land, all connect to the flow of the Susquehanna River. The gravel routes included in this guide also reflect the region’s diverse heritage.
For those who embrace year-round cycling, the Susquehanna River Valley offers an ideal four-season gravel-riding destination. Each season provides a unique and intimate view of the scenery in Central Pennsylvania. When forest roads in the west are less accessible, the open Southern Fields offer inviting alternatives. No two weekends of riding in the Susquehanna River Valley are ever the same.
Welcome
This Gravel Adventure Field Guide introduces cyclists to the superb riding of the Susquehanna River Valley, taking place on the unpaved roads and paved connections of five regions; the Northern River Valley, Heart of the River, Coal Heritage, Western Forest Lands, and Southern Fields. These ten excursions will leave any cyclist appreciating the communities and scenery of Central Pennsylvania.
Making the Susquehanna River Valley gravel experience truly special is a combination of wide-open spaces, beautiful natural landscapes, and hometown hospitality. Traveling cyclists will find these routes both appealing and memorable, and a perfect antidote to urban life. Add off-bike amenities and attractions, and you’ll be inspired to make return trips to ride and explore more of the Susquehanna River Valley.
Come ride gravel through state parks, on scenic country roads, and past streams that feed into one of the world’s oldest rivers. Gravel cyclists will find exceptional routes to explore throughout the Susquehanna River Valley.
Road Origins
Cycling the Susquehanna River Valley is a fascinating trip back through centuries of movement, connection, and community. Long before roads were built, animals carved the first paths, which wound around natural barriers and traced ancient waterways. Native Americans followed these pathways across the ridges and through the valleys, linking powerful Indigenous nations—Susquehannock, Lenape, and Iroquois—whose cultural heritage and deep knowledge of the land still echo through the valley.
When European settlers arrived, they relied on these well-worn trails, widening them into wagon roads that opened the valley to trade and drew new communities deeper into its fertile heart. By the 1790s, ambitious road-building projects were begun, connecting farms, mills, and frontier towns. Stone pavers topped with gravel gave wagons and freight a smoother ride, while covered bridges spanned the Susquehanna’s many tributaries. Local builder Theodore Burr patented his famous Burr Arch truss in 1804, and the abundant white pine and oak of the valley supplied the timber.
Riding through the countryside, you can still see it: Amish and Mennonite families traveling by horse-drawn buggy across historic covered bridges, echoing the journeys that began on animal trails centuries ago.
Communities
Gravel Bikes
Northern River Valley
Northern River Valley
The Susquehanna River Valley region is composed of three counties: Northumberland, Snyder, and Union. These counties are home to five regions to explore both on and off the bicycle, all while you experience the hometown hospitality of the Susquehanna River Valley.
The Great Shamokin Path, one of the most important Native American trails in Pennsylvania, connected key settlements for trade, war parties, and migration, and linked the Susquehanna and Allegheny river systems. The path ran north from the village of Shamokin (modern-day Sunbury) past modern-day Northumberland, Lewisburg and Watsontown along the West branch of the Susquehanna River, and then turned west toward modern-day Lock Haven.
Northern River Valley
Northern River Valley
Northern River Valley
In the 1760s, the German immigrant Ludwig Derr purchased the land where the borough of Lewisburg sits from the William Penn Family and other neighboring landowners. The community’s design best represents the traditional “Pennsylvania Town,” with a central square, courthouse, and numbered and tree-named streets.
By 1846, the University at Lewisburg had arrived. After financial challenges in 1882, the school trustee William Bucknell made a significant donation of $50,000. In 1886,
the school changed its name to Bucknell University.
Downtown Lewisburg and the Bucknell campus became a historic district in 1985, housing a collection of 871 buildings built between 1780 and 1960. The architectural styles here represent a cross-section of Federal, Italianate, Gothic Revival, Art Deco, and Mid-Century Modern. Rich in culture, arts, and history, Lewisburg welcomes cyclists to visit its tree-lined, lamplit streets, browse its distinctive shops, and dine in one of the many friendly restaurants after a day of gravel riding.
Heart of the River
Northern River Valley
Heart of the River
The confluence of the North and West branches of the Susquehanna River made this region an important inland-waterway hub for early agriculture, timber, and coal dredged from the river.
Sunbury was founded after the establishment of Fort Augusta in 1756. Formally laid out in 1772, it was the last proprietary town plotted by the Penn Family. The Sunbury Historic District has 238 buildings, including the former Edison Hotel, where, in 1883, Thomas Edison demonstrated the first commercial installation of his three-wire electric-lighting system.
Northumberland was founded in 1772, its location at the confluence of the Susquehanna River influencing its development into a transportation and industrial center, and later, a hub of the Pennsylvania Canal and Railroad. Today, Northumberland remains a quaint and peaceful place to visit, whether for the appealing architecture of its historic homes and buildings or its traditional English layout enhanced by attractive green spaces and parks.
Coal Heritage
Western Forest Lands
Heart of the River
As the name suggests, this region’s history is influenced by the anthracite coal discovered at Shamokin Creek. This high-grade coal supported U.S. industrial and economic growth. The anthracite mine of Cameron Colliery (later Glen Burn), active from 1857 to 1970, produced over 33 million tons of coal.
Today, outside Shamokin, the Anthracite Outdoor Adventure Area (AOAA) holds 200-plus miles of motorized off-road trails. It’s often cited as a top-ten off-road-vehicle destination in the United States.
Elysburg was originally a farming community that supported miners and their families. Henry Knoebel purchased “Peggy’s Farm” in 1828 for $931 and evolved the property into a regional attraction. As leisure travel increased in the early twentieth century, the Knoebel Family started leasing summer cottages and catering to weekend visitors. The Knoebels Grove/Farm became the Knoebels Amusement Resort in 1926.
Western Forest Lands
Western Forest Lands
Western Forest Lands
Arriving in 1792, the German immigrant Elias Youngman laid out a settlement named Youngmanstown. By 1797, neighboring Rotestown sprang up and eventually led to both communities being called Mifflinburg (merged in 1827), after Governor Thomas Mifflin. The bend between 3rd and 4th streets reflects the two town’s original street grids.
The Lewisburg and Tyrone Railroad reached Mifflinburg in 1871, allowing freight links for local industry to thrive. Eventually abandoned, the rail line was converted into the Buffalo Valley Rail Trail in 2008.
In 1845, George Swentzel opened Mifflinburg’s first buggy and carriage shop. By 1855, there were 13 coachmakers, and by the 1880s, 50-plus buggy, sleigh, and carriage makers. In 1899, these factories produced and shipped more than 2,000 vehicles in a year. Its production of more horse-drawn vehicles per capita than anywhere else domestically earned Mifflinburg the nickname “Buggy Town USA.”
Southern Fields
Western Forest Lands
Western Forest Lands
Located primarily in Snyder County, the wide valleys of the Southern Fields region contribute to the area’s pastoral way of life. Here, you can find small family farms, produce stands, wineries, u-pick orchards, seasonal farmers’ markets, and farm-to-table dining opportunities.
Selinsgrove became important after a trading post was established in 1754. Later, John Snyder laid out the town; after Snyder died, in 1850, Anthony Selin, a Revolutionary War soldier, furthered Snyder’s plan. Trade conducted along the riverbanks attracted the Pennsylvania Canal in the 1820s, and the Sunbury and Lewistown Railroad in 1871. Susquehanna University was founded in 1858 as a missionary institute, and became a four-year liberal-arts college in 1895.
Middleburg boomed with the arrival of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), connecting the region with the wider national rail network. Agriculture, lumber, tanning, leathercraft, and furniture-making formed the economy.
The Susquehanna
An Ancient River Ecosystem
The Susquehanna River is 444 miles in length and the sixteenth-largest river by watershed area in the United States. It flows from Otsego Lake outside Cooperstown, New York, through Pennsylvania and Maryland, and empties into the Chesapeake Bay. The river has always been a natural and cultural lifeline—home to Indigenous peoples, a route for trade and diplomacy, a driver of industry, a witness to disaster, and a source of life.
Susquehanna has several meanings, including “muddy current,” and “oyster river” from the Lenape language, and “the long-reach river,” and “long, crooked river” from the Susquehannock. The Susquehannock people, Iroquoian speakers, arrived in the valley around 1550 AD, establishing palisaded, semi-permanent villages along terraces here. Later, they became brokers amongst Native groups and controlled the fur trade as it developed after the arrival of Captain John Smith’s expedition in 1608. By the mid‑1700s, Shamokin (modern-day Sunbury) became the hub of the Susquehanna River Valley, where Susquehannock, Lenape, Shawnee, Iroquois, and European missionaries all interacted.
The Europeans’ arrival initiated an agricultural movement, with greater numbers of people now farming the land. Aiding their efforts were the alluvial soils dominating the river’s floodplains, which are deep, nutrient rich, and replenished by frequent floods. The Southern Fields of the Susquehanna River Valley offer some of the most fertile soils in Pennsylvania, evident in the large-scale agriculture operations still found there today.
While the Susquehanna River Valley is fertile, it is also susceptible to periodic destructive flooding. Between 1736 and 1977, Sunbury (Northumberland County) has recorded over 40 major floods, with the most notable occurring in 1786 (“Pumpkin Flood”), 1829, 1846, 1851, 1865, and 1936. During the St. Patrick’s Day Flood of 1936, the river crested in excess of 26.85 feet and inundated streets, causing infrastructure damage severe enough that a flood wall was subsequently constructed.
The wall was tested in June 1972, when Hurricane Agnes deposited rain that raised the river’s crest to 35.8 feet, successfully holding the danger back.
The Susquehanna River Watershed comprises almost half of Pennsylvania’s land area, with the state itself making up three-quarters of the basin’s total area. Furthermore, the river is responsible for providing half the freshwater received by the Chesapeake Bay. Because the Susquehanna provides drinking water and hydroelectric power to millions of people throughout the watershed, it’s considered “Pennsylvania’s River,” and is likewise celebrated for its abundant opportunities for recreation, fishing, and paddling.
Gravel Adventure Field Guide's Cyclist Community Gallery
Sustainable Gravel Culture
A project that’s been years in the making
Building the Susquehanna River Valley region into a gravel-bike destination is a project that’s been years in the making. Today, competitive athletes call the area home because of the quality cycling experience found here, including bike infrastructure, events, and road access.
Since the early 1990s, the success of the Bucknell University cycling team has helped drive awareness for Susquehanna River Valley’s road training and racing potential. That decade saw entire teams of men and women cyclists dominating the Eastern collegiate circuit and making a mark on the national level. Being a member of the Bucknell University team later influenced Mike Kuhn to develop events like the Tran-Sylvania Mountain Bike Epic and unPAved of the Susquehanna River Valley.
A major contributor to the development of cycling culture in Lewisburg has been the work of Samantha Pearson. She served as the Elm Street Manager from 2013 to 2021, and led flood mitigation, conservation, and active transportation efforts in the community. Pearson’s work enhanced infrastructure to make Lewisburg more cycling friendly. Pearson is a lifelong walker and cyclist whose professional background in architecture and urban planning helped foster smart mobility thinking in and around Lewisburg.
The Susquehanna River Valley’s high-quality cycling culture and infrastructure have led to many athletes and industry professionals calling the valley home. Competitive athletes like the unPAved race director and landscape architect, Cimarron Chacon, and the Philly Bike Expo owner and director of operations, Bina Bilenky, chose to live, work, and play in the region for its access to some of the highest-quality gravel riding in the state. Their deep love for the gravel roads of Central Pennsylvania has likewise shaped their appreciation for the cycling culture of the Susquehanna River Valley.
PA State Forest System
History of Bald Eagle & Weiser State Forests
The Pennsylvania state forest system is designed to support a number of resources, uses, and values. These include water and air purification, gravel riding, aesthetic appeal, flora, fauna, and wildlife preservation, wood products, and mineral resources.
Pennsylvania is divided into twenty forest districts. The Susquehanna River Valley is home to two: Bald Eagle and Weiser state forests. Each is responsible for protecting the forest land.
Bald Eagle State Forest
This forest is named for Chief Woapalanne, of the eighteenth-century Lenape people (also known as Delaware Indians) and whose name translates to “Bald Eagle.” Portions are found in Snyder and Union counties. The Pennsylvania General Assembly created the Bald Eagle and other state forests in 1897, when it authorized the purchase of “unseated lands for forest preservation.” What seemed like inexhaustible timber tracts had been deeply depleted by the early settlers’ need for raw materials, and the forests needed protection.
During the 1930s, the Bald Eagle district hosted a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp. Their mission was to address conservation goals. In addition to wildfire-fighting duties, the CCC built Halfway Lake in Union County, improved miles of forest roads, and conducted extensive tree planting. The CCC’s presence essentially instigated forest regeneration and recovery in the area, preserving Bald Eagle State Forest to make it the high-quality gravel-riding experience it is today.
Weiser State Forest
Named after the frontier diplomat and interpreter Conrad Weiser (1696–1760), who forged key alliances between colonial Pennsylvania and Native American groups. With a portion located in Northumberland County, Weiser State Forest is another example of Pennsylvania’s transformation from nineteenth-century exploitative industries (logging, coal mining) to progressive conservation, reforestation, and multipurpose land management.
Susquehanna River Valley Agritourism
Homegrown in the Valley: Farm-Fresh Foods,
Value-Added Products & Agricultural Experiences