The Friends of the Cresheim Trail (FOCT) is hosting a festival at the end of the month to celebrate a new trail in the works.

The Cresheim Trail Fall Foliage Festival will take place Oct. 24 from 1-3 p.m. at the 0.62-mile corridor between Germantown and Stenton avenues. The trail, which is currently being designed by FOCT and city officials, will be the first segment of FOCT’s Cresheim Rail Trail corridor project.

“The idea with getting folks out to the Rail Trail corridor is to get them to see the space and kind of consider it a preview of the official Rail Trail that will come,” said Bradley Maule, executive director of FOCT.

To get to the pathway, festival attendees can enter at Germantown Avenue next to the site of the former Trolley Car Diner or through Wissahickon East Park on the corner of Anderson Street and Woodbrook Lane. The grassy path travels under the tunnel of the Reading Railroad bridge, which is now used by the SEPTA Chestnut Hill East Line.

At the festival, three artists will perform 30-minute music sets at different sections of the trail and attendees will have the option to choose among three nature walks: a tree walk at Ed’s Loop (the trail section closest to Stenton) with a Thomas Jefferson University professor at 1:15 p.m., and a bird walk in Wissahickon East with Wissahickon East Park Friends at 2 p.m. Maule will lead an “overtime walk” at 3 p.m.

Wissahickon East Park Friends, Friends of the Wissahickon, the Chestnut Hill Conservancy and the Chestnut Hill Community Association will provide updates about their work.

Maule said the corridor between Germantown and Stenton is currently being designed by FOCT, the City of Philadelphia Streets Department, and engineering consultants at NV5. He expects the design will be completed by the end of the year. Philadelphia Parks & Recreation first helped FOCT create a rough draft of the rail trail in 2024, and has continued to help FOCT mow and trim the pathway between Germantown and Stenton, Maule said.

Along with the rehabilitated section, the corridor will include a new pedestrian and bike crossing to Crescent Valley Drive at Crittenden Street, as well as an extension of the sidewalk up to Stenton Avenue. The trail section, crossing and extended sidewalk is expected to cost an estimated $2 million, Maule said.

The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission and the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources provided $200,000 for the design component, he said, and the organization has also received grants from the William Penn Foundation for operational costs. FOCT is currently exploring different avenues for construction funding, which Maule hopes to secure as early as next year.

“We’ve been lining up our cards and trying to move things forward, inch by inch as best as we can as a very small group,” he said.

For the next phase of the Rail Trail, the organization wants to build a tunnel under an inactive railroad on Stenton Avenue, so the corridor can extend further into Montgomery County. Maule hopes to begin planning and a feasibility study for the tunnel next year. FOCT is also considering drafting a trail between Mermaid Park in Wyndmoor and Stenton Avenue, Maule said.

When completed further down the line, the Cresheim Rail Trail is set to span eight miles and join the Circuit Trails Network, which extends across the greater Philadelphia and southern New Jersey regions. The trail would connect residents in Montgomery and Philadelphia counties to Fairmount Park, Fort Washington State Park and Arcadia University, according to the Circuit Trails website.

Apart from the physical and mental benefits of using outdoor trails, Maule said the goal for the Rail Trail corridor is to enhance Northwest Philadelphia residents’ access to other parts of the region. The Rail Trail segment between Germantown and Stenton, specifically, would provide Cedarbrook residents with a direct pathway to Wissahickon Valley Park.

“There are so many people who live in Northwest Philly who can ride a trail, [such as] Forbidden Drive or the Wissahickon bike trail, down to the Schuylkill River Trail, and then be downtown in 20 minutes,” he said. “There’s a lot of people who already ride their bikes to commute to work. This would just be another option connecting them.”

Besides the Oct. 24 festival, FOCT is leading its annual fall cleanup of Cresheim Valley Drive on Saturday in partnership with the Chestnut Hill Community Association, Chestnut Hill Business District, the Rotary Club and West Mt. Airy Neighbors. Volunteers will meet at the Cresheim Valley pergola at 9 a.m. and clean from Germantown Avenue to Allens Lane.