Allegheny Trail Alliance Related Web Sites

Other Nearby Trails

The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources maintains comprehensive coverage of rail-trails in the state.

At Cumberland, the Allegheny Trail Alliance system connects with the C&O Canal Towpath. The official web site for the towpath is at the National Park Service. Four good complementary sites are the Potomac Conservancy, the C&O Canal Association, Kathy Bilton's Canal pages, and a biking guide at Urban ATB. The paved Western Maryland Rail-Trail now parallels the towpath for 10 miles from Hancock to Big Pool Maryland.

The Five Star Trail is affiliated with the Regional Trail Council. Currently their trail runs from Youngwood to Greensburg, 15 miles north of Connellsville.

The Allegheny Valley Land Trust is developing the 52-mile Armstrong Trail along the Allegheny River in Armstrong County.

Trails Under Development

The Nine Mile Run project south of Frick park will include a trail.

Local Area Information

On this site, we've tried to include information on amenities and services that are close to the trails -- close enough that people travelling through under their own power will find them useful. If you've driven to a trailhead, though, you'll be interested in attractions, businesses, and services farther from the trail. For information of this kind, we refer you to the visitors bureaus, chambers of commerce, and city guides for the regions. Here are some:

Periodical Publications

Treasures Along the Rail is an advertiser-supported magazine that emphasizes rail-trail development and use. Available free at businesses near the trail.

Pennsylvania Health and Fitness Magazine is an advertiser-supported monthly magazine that is distributed in metropolitan areas. It has good coverage of local recreational events.

Related Regional and National Organizations

The National Rails to Trails Conservancy supports conversion of railroad grades to trails nationwide.

The trail system now emerging in West Virginia will eventually connect with our trail via the Sheepskin Trail. The West Virginia RtC pages give good information on the West Virginia rail-trails and other biking activity in the state.

Using waterfront esplanades, park paths, abandoned railroads, canal towpaths, and parkway corridors, the East Coast Greenway Alliance will form a continuous trail stretching from Maine to Florida.

[Overview Map] [ATA Information]

This page is part of the Allegheny Trail Alliance's site in support of the Pittsburgh to Cumberland Trail, a motor-free recreational trail providing the western 40% of the motor-free connection between Pittsburgh PA with Washington DC, connecting with the C&O Canal Towpath. The ATA is an alliance of seven trail organizations: Montour Trail Council, Friends of the Riverfront, Steel Industry Heritage Corporation, Regional Trail Corporation, Ohiopyle State Park, Somerset County Rails to Trails Association, and Allegheny Highlands in Md. It is brought to you in cooperation with the authors of FreeWheeling Easy in Western Pennsylvania. Smilin' Bill Metzger, Culprit-in-chief. Mary Shaw, Lead accomplice. Roy Weil, Master byte mechanic. Pam Metzger, Co-conspirator. Copyright © 1998, 1999 variously by Allegheny Trail Alliance, Bill Metzger, Mary Shaw, and Roy Weil. All rights reserved. We encourage you to create links to this site and to print copies of the maps for your personal use. We do not grant permission for you to copy parts of this site for any other use. We absolutely prohibit the use of any portion of this site to generate spam or other mass communications. This page was last modified on 11/03/99. Comments to the ATA office.