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Equestrians are welcome to ride in the grassy shoulder alongside the Cumberland Valley Rail Trail.

The route roughly follows travel corridors first used by American Indians and then Scotch-Irish settlers in the mid-1700s. The trail traces the former Cumberland Valley Railroad, which launched service between Harrisburg and Chambersburg in 1837 and grew south all the way to Winchester, Virginia. The railroad became contentious during the Civil War as it delivered Union troops and supplies into Southern territory; Confederates destroyed a section of tracks in Chambersburg, but the Union had the train running again in a week.

The last operator, Conrail, donated the railroad right-of-way to the Cumberland Valley Rails to Trails Council in 1995. The nonprofit finished nearly 10 miles of trail by 2006 and then set about acquiring the segment that extends to Carlisle in 2011. A 1-mile section in Carlisle, beginning at Allen Road, was completed in 2017, and 2018 saw an additional 2 miles open in Newville, with a goal of eventually connecting to Carlisle.