Armstrong, Redbank Ride

A Longer Ride along the Armstrong, Redbank Trails

This route of about 66 miles covers most of the Armstrong and Redbank trails. It runs from Crooked Creek/Roston (5 miles south of Kittanning) to Brookville. The first 12 miles are very populated as it passes through Kittanning and its nearby communities. After leaving Kittanning the trail follows the Allegheny River and Redbank Creek with the river on one side of the trail and typically hillside on the other with occasional small towns and summer home/trailer park communities. To see more detail about these two trails check out the write-up in the book FreeWheeling Easy in Western Pennsylvania, Volume NE. page 90, and page 118.

There are three side trails for a total of 161 if you do it all, out and back. :

  • A 4.5-mile side spur leads to East Brady with its restaurants and coffee shops.
  • A short 1 mile to a small falls on CowanshannockCreek
  • A 9-mile spur almost to Sligo

A sample 4 day itinerary would be to drive to Kittanning the night before. The next day ride north to the Climax Tunnel and stay at Hunters Lodge (40 mile day). The following day continue north to Brookville with a side trip on the Sligo spur (35 mile day). Return the next two days.

For a higher mileage two day trip go Kittanning to Brookville (61 miles) and return the next day. adding the side trips would give you 80 mile days.

The Industrial Heart Lands Coalition (IHTC) has published a one-page sheet write-up on this section of the trail called Trail Tips (PDF 3.4MB)

  Brookville
6   Moore Road
8 2   Summerville
42 36 34   Redbank Parking
46 40 38 4   Rimer
51 45 44 9 5   Templeton
54 48 46 12 8 2   Lock and Dam 8
58 52 50 16 12 6 4   Canfield
61 55 54 19 16 10 8 4   Kittanning
65 59 57 23 19 14 11 7 4   Ford City
66 60 59 24 20 15 13 9 5 1   Crooked Creek


To find the mileage for your trip: Select starting and ending points, read down from the northern end, and left from the southern end. At the intersection read the distance to the nearest mile between those two points.