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The Conewago Recreation Trail offers a delightful mix of lush foliage and open pastures.

As it turns out, there was enough business for everyone. Coleman, however, made bad investments elsewhere and eventually lost his railroad; the Pennsylvania Railroad ended up with it in 1918. After Hurricane Agnes washed out portions of the line in 1972, the route fell into disuse, and Lancaster County bought it in 1979 and soon thereafter turned it into a rail-trail.

The Conewago Recreation Trail follows a creek of the same name for its entire length. Its crushed-limestone surface (renovated in 2007) is hard packed and flat enough to make it wheelchair accessible, except for the Mill Road crossing about 1.4 miles from the Elizabethtown trailhead. Open dawn–dusk, the trail is shaded in the summer, although the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has been removing trees infested with emerald ash borer beetle.

You can pick up supplies for your trip in Elizabethtown, called E-town by the locals and located about 2 miles southeast of the trailhead. The town’s population has ballooned since the early days of the 20th century, when it was home to a shoe factory and Klein Chocolate (now owned by Mars and making Dove brand chocolate).