One
of our outdoorsy patrons had heard that there were some good trails in the
mountainous area of southwestern Pennsylvania, but they couldn’t remember
exactly where. We checked The Firefly Atlas of North America, The Rough Guide to the USA, and the internet to find the answer.
The
Alleghenies and the Appalachians are the two main mountain ranges running
through southern Pennsylvania. Our patron may have been thinking of the Laurel
Highlands a scenic portion of the Alleghenies known for its whitewater rafting,
biking and hiking trails, and fishing. It encompasses several state parks,
including Laurel Ridge, Laurel Hill, Laurel Summit, Laurel Mountains, and
Ohiopyle. The Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail, a 70-mile-long segment of the
Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail, is popular. It’s marked with yellow
blazes every hundred feet and has shelter areas every six to twelve miles.
If
our patron is looking for something else, Robert Isenberg put together a list of twenty nearby biking and hiking trails for Pittsburgh Magazine. The
relatively quiet Panhandle Trail is twenty-nine miles long, stretching from Carnegie,
Pennsylvania, to the West Virginia border. The Great Allegheny Passage runs 150
miles from Pittsburgh to Maryland. It’s covered with asphalt and crushed
limestone and built mainly on old rail beds, making it a good level trail for
bicycling.
For
more information, John Young’s book Hiking Pennsylvania is available through
CLEVNET. If our patron would like to look at trails closer to home, we have a
book here on the Midwest Rail-Trails, which covers Ohio, Illinois, Indiana,
Michigan, and Wisconsin. We also have Diane Stresing’s Cleveland edition of 60 Hikes within 60 Miles.
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