If you've told yourself you'll get out to the rail trail one of these weekends, this is the summer to actually do it. Not because the trail is new. It turned 30 this year. But because two different things are happening on opposite ends of it at the same time, and if you wait until next spring, one of them will look completely different.
Up north, a brand new stretch just opened. Down south, near Cornwall, the oldest section of the whole system is about to shut down for construction. Same trail, same summer, two clocks running in opposite directions.
The New Stretch Nobody's Ridden Yet
Phase 10A opened to the public in June, running along Swatara Creek in northern Lebanon County from just north of U.S. Route 22 to south of I-78. It's a short piece of the larger system, two to three miles, but LVRT president John Wengert has called it one of the most scenic sections of the entire trail. He toured it himself before the opening and told LebTown he wanted to bring state funding representatives out to see it in person, so they'd understand what their money actually built.
That opening landed in the same month as the trail's 30th anniversary. The organization marked both with a single event on June 6: Taste of the Trail, a fundraiser held at the trail entrance outside the Lebanon Valley Expo Center & Fairgrounds off Rocherty Road. Ancestor Coffeehouse & Crêperie, Mead Hall-Drunken Smithy, Revive Café & Craft, Ridgewood Winery, Rotunda Restaurant & Brewery, and Tröegs Independent Brewing all poured and served that day, with proceeds going straight back into trail maintenance.
Thirty years in, and the organization is still building new mileage. That's the part worth sitting with.
Thirty Years Old, Still Under Construction
A trail that's been around for three decades can start to feel like a permanent fixture, something that's just always been there and always will be. The Lebanon Valley Rail Trail isn't finished. It's currently sitting around 20 miles, working toward a projected 25.7 by 2028, and the money keeps arriving in pieces:
- In June 2026, county commissioners accepted nearly $5.5 million in federal and state funds for Phase 6C, which will rebuild the bridge and partially realign South 22nd Street in Lebanon city.
- In February 2026, commissioners approved a letter of support for $90,000 in ARPA funds toward Phase 6D, the segment that will route the trail around the Lebanon Valley Mall property and connect it to Phase 7 out through the Lebanon Rails Business Park.
None of this is finished construction. It's active, funded, in-progress work happening right now, in the same summer you might be riding it.
The Window Closing Down South
Here's the part that actually changes your plans this fall. A 5.5-mile stretch of the trail from Butler Road in West Cornwall Township to the Lancaster County line, one of the very first sections ever converted back in 1998, is going in for a $1.6 million rehab funded by a PennDOT Transportation Alternatives Set Aside grant. Work starts this fall and runs through winter 2027.
The reason is straightforward. Storm runoff has worn washouts and ruts into that older surface, and there have been reported accidents tied to the rough riding conditions. It needs the work. The grant application itself makes the stakes plain, describing the trail as often called "the #1 quality of life initiative" in the county, backed by commissioners, county planning, and the municipalities it runs through. But the fix also means the classic Cornwall-to-Lancaster leg, the one that passes near the historic Cornwall iron furnace and threads through some of the county's prettiest farmland, won't ride the same way again until sometime in 2027.
If that section has been on your list, this is the last stretch of open-air riding before the equipment shows up.
More Than A Bike Path
Wengert has talked about the trail's reach in terms that go beyond recreation. He's pointed to its connections with the Horseshoe Trail and the Appalachian Trail, its ties to Cornwall's iron furnace history, and its links to newer developments like North Cornwall Commons, plus Cedar Crest and Lebanon high schools. It also runs through South Hills Park, downtown Lebanon itself, the newly dedicated Wengert Memorial Park, Lonergan Woods Park, and Union Canal Tunnel Park.
That's not a trail. That's a spine connecting most of the places people in this county already go. A kid's route from a North Cornwall neighborhood to Cedar Crest could run partly on rail trail. A commute-adjacent errand downtown could too. When one piece closes for construction and another opens two townships away, it shifts more daily movement than a typical park closure would.
The Rest Of Your Weekend, Sorted
The trail isn't the only thing changing shape around here this year. Coleman Memorial Park, the 100-acre site along Route 72, has a dog park dedication in the works, park board vice president Joe Morales told commissioners back in February. The pickleball courts built there in 2025 are hosting two new tournaments in 2026, on top of one returning from last year. Friends of Coleman Memorial Park secretary Lydya Renninger confirmed a new reggae festival is coming to the park this year, alongside the summer concert series and Movies in the Park that continue as usual.
Some of that funding traces back to the same source as the trail's Phase 6D money: the county's Hotel Tax Grant program, dollars collected from lodging taxes and split between Visit Lebanon Valley, the Lebanon Valley Expo Center & Fairgrounds, and county government, specifically meant to fund the kind of programming that keeps visitors overnight. The trail and the park aren't separate line items. They're funded by the same civic logic, and they're both mid-upgrade at once.
Downtown keeps its own rhythm through all of this. The Lebanon Farmers Market, running since 1892 out of its building on South 8th Street, is still where you go for Lebanon bologna alongside vendors selling everything from hand-rolled sushi to fresh-baked pastries. Downtown's First Friday Art Walk continues its monthly run of art and music.
And the calendar this exact week has plenty going on. The Sixth Annual James Biever Memorial Run brought a 10K, 5K, and 1-mile fun run to the rail trail at the Lebanon Expo Center on August 8. The city's Summer Concert Series played the same night, with Music in the Park following on August 9. A Movie in the Park is set for August 15, and the CLA Car and Motorcycle Show rolls into town August 16. The Lebanon Area Fair, which drew over 50,000 visitors to the fairgrounds from July 25 through August 1 this year, just wrapped. And if you were counting on the city's Independence Day fireworks, they've been rescheduled to September 5 at the Expo and Fairgrounds.
Ride It Before It Changes
None of this is a reason to move here or think about moving here. It's just what's true right now, in a county where a 30-year-old trail is still being built, a Cornwall stretch you've probably ridden a dozen times is about to disappear for a season, and a new run of scenic miles up near Swatara Creek is sitting there mostly unridden. Get out this fall while both ends of the trail still tell you something different about where this county is headed.
If watching Lebanon change like this, one grant and one groundbreaking at a time, ever makes you curious about what it means for your own address here, Denise Bollard has spent her career tracking exactly this kind of local movement. Schedule a consultation whenever the timing is right for you.
