French Creek is located along the Southeast edge of Berks County. The park encompasses just under 7,500 acres of beautiful woodlands. FC surrounds the Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site. The park is home to many forms of outdoor recreation. Besides trail cycling and hiking there are two lakes for boating and fishing, a public swimming pool, playgrounds, 2 disc golf courses, orienteering courses, and tent and cabin camping.
French Creek is a very popular destination for regional mountain bikers. the park has over 20 miles of sweet technical singletrack open to cyclists. A few sections of the trail network are closed to mountain bikes. These are designated with sign posts at trail intersections. Please respect the closed designations to preserve future access in the park. Check the mountain bike information boards at the Mill Creek trailhead or the parking lot at Hopewell Lake for updated info.
The park is split by PA route 345 and has two distinct feels on the east and west sides of the park. The western half contains all of the developed amenities and camp-sites. The trails on the west see the most use from casual day users so use caution, especially on the weekends in the warmer months. The eastern half of the park is undeveloped except for the occasional power line. All of the trails are blazed by painted markers on the trees. The trails are quite technical in composition. The land is littered with loose and embedded rocks. There are many log crossings with some log pyramids several feet in height. The trail maintainers at FC have built many heavy duty water bars using buried stones. Just about all of the trails are on forested land. There are a few unmarked trails that lead off property but they are easily identified by the lack of blazes.
History- The land that now comprises French Creek was once the worksite of woodcutters and colliers who created the charcoal to fuel the Hopewell Furnace. The furnace operated from 1771-1883 and produced iron during the United State's first hundred years. Charcoal was made within the forests themselves. After the trees were felled they were slow-burned in "hearths" to make charcoal. These hearths are still visible in the park today. Keep an eye out for circular patches of land which are leveled off and have black soil underneath the ground cover. The Mill Creek trail passes directly over one hearth site and there are other hearths visible throughout the park. Another connection to the history of the land is the trail network itself. All of the trails lead to the Furnace and once served as charcoal trails.
The land did not become a park until it was claimed by the Federal Government during the Depression and revitalized by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Two CCC camps operated here until the 1940's. The land was deemed a park by the Commonwealth in 1946. The Federal Government retained the furnace lands and created a National Historic Site.
Activism - Trail work occurs on a drop in basis on Tuesday evenings and Sundays during the warmer months. Contact the park office to confirm times and meeting places.
There are also other ways to help out: Pack out more than you pack in, it takes but a few seconds to stop and pick up a piece of litter. Ride it or walk it, if you can't ride over an obstacle then get off and walk, riding around obstacles widens the trail unnecessarily. Learn to yield on-trail, don't ride off trail just because someone is coming the other way.
Directions and Trailheads- To get to French Creek from Reading take Highway 422 east to Rt. 82 south. Follow 82 into the little town of Birdsboro and take a left at the light onto Rt. 724. Follow 724 for about 1 mile and turn right onto Rt. 345, you'll pass a supermarket on your right. 345 takes you into the heart of the park.
There is a popular trailhead at the intersection of 345 and Shed Rd. This is where the Lenape trail connects with the Mill Creek trail and is the only spot where the east and west trail networks meet for mountain bikes. (Other trails connect on the furnace lands but bikes are prohibited from these trails.)
There are also parking lots by Hopewell Lake, Scott's Run Lake, and the gate at Fire Tower Rd.