During the Victorian era, a
railroad operated between downtown Saratoga Springs, Saratoga
Lake, and beyond. Passengers experienced a wilderness adventure
through the wetlands of Spring Run and Bog Meadow Brook.
Today, much of the bed of this old railroad is still intact
through the area south of Excelsior Avenue from East Avenue
to the Adirondack Northway I-87 and beyond to the Route
29 entrance of the Bog Meadow Brook Nature Trail.
In 1996, with funding from the New York State Council
on the Arts, Saratoga P.L.A.N. developed a conceptual
plan for the Spring Run Trail, an off-road two-mile pedestrian
and bicycle path situated on an old railroad bed along
the fault line of the historic natural springs.
The Spring Run Trail will be paved and provide safe
off-road pedestrian, bicycle and handicapped accessible
access to city recreational amenities and natural areas,
in a sense recreating the historic "woodland path" that
had existed in this area for much of the 1800's. The
Trail will link downtown, High Rock Park, the City's
indoor recreational facilities, the new commercial impact
areas proposed for the northern end of Weibel, and the
Bog Meadow Brook Nature Trail. The trail will be owned
and maintained by the City of Saratoga Springs.
The Spring Run Trail Plan was rolled out to city officials
and the community through two public planning meetings
in 1998, attended by hundreds of people. The plan has
met with widespread community support, and Mayor O'Connell
listed the development of this trail as one of the top
ten priorities for the city in his January 1999 State
of the City address.
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DIRECTIONS
This new trail will start downtown at Congress Park and run east along
city streets through High Rock Park (the site of the new Community Pavilions),
past the Old Red Spring and Van Raalte Mill to Warren Street.
At this point the trail will go off-road to link up with the old railroad
bed that follows Spring Run. The Trail traverses the wetlands at the
end of Excelsior Avenue, crosses beneath the Northway, proceeds to the
ice rinks and soccer fields on Weibel Avenue and ultimately connects
to the existing Bog Meadow Brook Nature Trail.
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