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.

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.