All photos courtesy of Rails to TRail Conservacy
This spring, challenge yourself to seeing the great outdoors on two-wheels while riding on the Rails to Trails Sojourn, June 18-23 with host, Wilderness Voyageurs. This six-day bike tour takes riders along the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) and the Montour Trail in Pennsylvania. The GAP, which stretches 150 miles from Pittsburgh, PA to Cumberland, MD, is made up of two former railroad corridors, hence, it is called a rail-trail. The GAP has a long history of being utilized as a railroad that brought supplies from Pennsylvania, through Maryland, and to Washington D.C. Today, the Great Allegheny Passage is one of the premier destinations for bicyclists. The Montour Trail is a popular, multi-use recreational trail near Pittsburgh. Adventurers from all over come to ride on trail’s crushed limestone surface, which is the most comfortable surface for bikers and tree canopies shade riders on the hottest of summer days.
The Rails-to-Trails Sojourn starts with all riders gathering in Pittsburgh and then hopping on a motorcoach to the Deal Trailhead, the beginning of the sojourn! In the first two days of the sojourn, riders are given two choices to experience the GAP and the Montour Trail and encouraged to take a couple of different adventure on the first two days and more activities as a group on the following leg of the trip. Also on this journey, see incredibly designed buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright, take a side-trip to whitewater raft on the Youghiogheny River, and rack up those miles on two of the country’s finest bike trails.
Can’t make it on the sojourn in June? Ohiopyle State Park is popular in the summer months for fishing and hiking and the Youghiogheny River Lake is a popular location for whitewater rafting and power boating in the summertime. Ohiopyle State Park is about 170 miles from Gettysburg RV campground in Dover, PA.