A mountain biker in mid-air jumps over a rocky obstacle on a forest trail, surrounded by lush green trees and sunlight filtering through the leaves. Rattling Creek mountain bike trail.
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Tags:
Level: Advanced
Length: 20 mi (32.2 km)
Surface: Singletrack
Configuration: Network
Elevation: +606/ -566 ft
Total: 64 riders
 

Mountain Biking Rattling Creek

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#6 of 293 mountain bike trails in Pennsylvania
#434 in the world

Please help us fill in this trail description - email [email protected].

First added by Jeff Barber on Nov 7, 2011. Last updated May 3, 2020. → add an update
Before you go
  • Drinking water: unknown
  • Lift service: unknown
  • Night riding: unknown
  • Pump track: unknown
  • Restrooms: unknown
  • Fat bike grooming: unknown
  • E-bikes allowed: unknown
  • Fee required: unknown
This trail information is user-generated. Help improve this information by suggesting a correction.
Getting there
From http://rcst1.blogspot.com/2009/05/directions-to-rattling-creek-trails.html:

The RCST trails are located in PA, approx. 25 miles North of Harrisburg. If using a GPS, plug in the address 2800 White Oak Road, Halifax, Pennsylvania. This will get you to the DCNR Buildings just as you enter the forest from the East end. Camp Muckleratz is about 1/4 west of this address. There's a sign, "Camp Muckleratz."
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Rattling Creek Trail map

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Local Info

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j_launder (Aug 8, 2019)
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(Jun 13, 2019)
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Reviews

  • Mike Kuhn
    *****

    The rocks'll get ya, but Rattling Creek trail by itself is one of the best in PA - a long gradual downhill (west to east) interspersed with a couple challenging rock gardens, but not so much that it takes fun out of it for those with less experience. It makes a great climb too (east to west), as it never gets too steep. Linking up Matter Tr gives a little more descent though with a climb up Preserve line to get to the best of Rattling. Tack on Doc Smith to keep the singletrack smiles rolling. The gravel Lykens Rd can be used as a connector for these trails or catch some of the technical single track options to the south side of Lykens road by looping in Hopback and Fawn Kill trails.

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  • ChipMarr
    *****

    Had a good, fast, rocky, humid ride on Sunday morning on preserve line, dry run & rattlin' creek trail. Careful. Stay on the trail. Caught a few high rocks with the pedals & went over the bars. Bruised but okay

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  • jrfranklake
    *****

    Rugged terrain, felt like 30% to 40% of the ride is rock garden. Fair amount of climbs, totally worth it!!
    Trails are pretty well marked.

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  • sportsfan317
    ****

    Great place to ride only road a few trails but I will defiantly come back for more. Mostly patches for rocks and rock gardens. Differently take the bigger wheeled bike because its rocky. Great trails and fun Downhills.

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  • ChipMarr
    ****

    Rocky ridin today. Had a few tire issues but still a great day. Beautiful view from the hang glider launch.

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  • Jeremy Saltzer
    ****

    Flowy, a term that makes your chamois moist for days, kind of like the term selfie makes the bunny ears on your iPhone case perk up with a rubbery twang, all while you dream of never having to put your feet down and get your bunny slippers, that match your aforementioned phone case dirty, unless you step down to take a macro shot of a dandelion seed pod for all your instagram followers that never seen one before. Run-on sentence? Yeah I'm a mountain biker, not a blogger who drives a VW when my long board won't get me there, so sue me and go back to listing to your Indie rock. This isn't that type of trail. This is a man's trail. Things like Burl, Gnar, and Paul Bunyan riding Babe like a surf board, spitting on Johnny Appleseed come to mind. You pedal up hill, you pedal down hill. There is very little momentum to be carried here. There's rock gardens, roots, overgrowth and rattlesnakes big enough to swallow bunny slippers.

    This is a great trail system and has well over 30 miles of trails. Wildlife is abundant and this mountain combines sandstone mountain and black dirt mountain, and everything in between. I recommend fall or early spring since it does get overgrown in the summer.

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  • djf500
    *****

    Super fun! These are mtb specific trails. Great mix of flow and tech. Lots of rock gardens to try and clear. Some are hard but they're all rideable. Not a ton of elevation but the technical nature of the trails wears you out. Well marked and relatively easy to find your way around with a map. Worth of IMBA Epic. Seems to drain really well too. Only negative... wish there were more even more trails!

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  • Camkass97
    ****

    We did not do the entire 23 mile "Epic" loop, so we decided to take the road to dry run trail and then from dry run to rattling creek to doc smith and end at the parking lot. however, when looking for the dry run trail we got lost and ended up taking a overgrown white blazed trail thinking it was dry run. We ended up having to bush-wack our way thru the overgrown path which then seemingly left us out in the middle of the forest. Luckily we had a paper map and compass as this helped us reach the upper portion of dry run trail and we were eventually able to do the route as planned. The trail system itself is well marked however, the dry run trail entrance must be overgrown or not marked as we could not find it. Overall though, this trail was amazing and the many fun and interesting obstacles (streams, bridges, rocks and logs) made it technical without being tiresome. The beautiful rattling creek was incredible and the water looked almost crystal clear. would certainly ride this trail again. however, make sure you know you way our before dark as this park has no lights on any roads or entrances.

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  • Helena Kotala
    *****

    Awesome trails! Pretty technical in some areas but there's plenty of flowy stuff mixed in too. There are a few really cool rock features built in (especially on Rock's Ridge Trail) and fun bridges. Perfect mix of it all!

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  • mrh372
    ****

    Great technical trails. The whole area is huge and I don't think one could ride all of the trails in one day. I have a couple of hours I got to ride here and barely scratched the surface. Good rocky tight singletrack fun. Definitely a more advance place to ride.

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  • Yshf
    *****

    Fantastic trail system! Must rides include Hop Back Trail and the Rattling Creek Trail itself. A bit technical at times, a few bridges here and there. Beautiful area. Highly recommended.

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  • nking100
    *****

    Great trails, most people park at the toilet block on "white oak road" if you come in from the south its about 3 miles in.
    RCST (http://rcst1.blogspot.com/) the local club that does the trail maintenance will give you a map if you join ($10).

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