Riverton Rail Trail and Casco Bay H.S, PATHS Trails, Portland

The trail system (the PATHS Trail, also part of Forest City Trail) that sprawls over 40 acres behind two high schools—Casco Bay and Portland Arts and Technology—is an excellent spot for getting outside. It includes wheelchair-accessible trails, a meadow with benches and bird boxes, well-maintained trails through woods, and a long, straight path (the ~0.9-mile Riverton Rail Trail) that is popular with dog walkers and is easily accessible from many neighborhoods.

The two trail systems—Riverton Rail Trail and the high school paths—are separated by a train track used by freight trails and the Amtrak passenger train. Portland Trails says the Riverton trail once formed a section of the former Portland-Lewiston Interurban Rail Line.

Directions: The two official parking places are at the large lot shared by the high schools, at 196 Allen Allen Avenue, or the small lot at the end of Skylark Lane. At the school lot, you can park near the trailhead that’s close to verdant green houses! It’s marked with Portland Trails signs. I also saw a couple of people park at the ends of the little perpendicular roads that bump up against the Riverton Rail Trail—Wall, Libby, Harris, and Newton Streets—but no explicit signs for parking or not parking.