Behind the newly refurbished Riverview Park visitor center, just a few strides down the shade-darkened Wissahickon Trail, we were almost run over by a big deer.

Curt Chandler, Post-Gazette Walt Elder, of Observatory Hill, walks his dogs, Jake, Ogden and Cooter, down the Overlook Trail in Riverview Park. Click photo for larger image. Hitting the Trails This is part of a weekly series spotlighting hiking and biking trails in the region. Publication of the series coincides with the Hike for Health project promoted by the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, state Department of Health and other agencies to encourage folks to get fit on foot. The DCNR has more information on its Web site on the Riverview Park trails. Related content If you go: Riverview Park Loop Trail More pictures and audio from this week's hike Previous stories Find previous installments of this series at our Hitting the Trails Index More pictures from this project in the Hitting the Trails Photo Journal Next week Two bike trails near Franklin, Venango County

She came charging noisily down the hill and onto the trail, running at us not more than 10 feet away before veering off down slope and disappearing into the shadows. Just up hill, only partially hidden by stout trunks of maple, ash and oak, four more deer peered down at us, no doubt shaken by the near-crash with the interlopers hiking in their woods.

Ten minutes from Downtown Pittsburgh, tucked away between Perrysville and Woods Run avenues on the North Side, the 287-acre park is an oasis of green near the urban core but remains the least known of the city's four great parks.

Frick, Schenley and Highland, all east of Downtown, get the bulk of public attention, but that's unfair, especially when it comes to Riverview's extensive trail system, arrayed like a web spun by a drunken spider around the Allegheny Observatory, the stately domed landmark that houses the University of Pittsburgh's 30-inch Thaw Telescope on Observatory Hill.

Some of those trails winding through its hollows and hillsides date to the establishment of the park in 1894 and even earlier, when a dairy farm, community amphitheater, zoo and elk paddock occupied the land.

One of the most popular routes for walkers, joggers and cyclists is the two-mile Riverview Drive loop, that begins at the park's main entrance and winds through the park on the road's gradual grades, passing benches and picnic tables and providing good views into the verdant woods.

But hikers and mountain bikers looking for something a bit more vigorous will want to head into the woods. Phillip Gruszka, director of park management and maintenance policies for the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, suggested a ragged, four-mile loop that put us on parts of 10 trails, starting on that deer herd freeway known as the Wissahickon Trail.

It sounds more complicated than it is, although new city park trail signs being developed will help any hiker who ventures forth without one of the conservancy's very good maps.

The Wissahickon Trail crosses the intersection of the Archery Trail to Old Wissahickon Road trail under a tall tree canopy in an area where the conservancy has built several deer exclosure pens. The exclosures, bordered with four-foot-tall fencing and of various sizes up to a 10-foot-by-10-foot square, are designed to keep the deer from eating the plants inside. Outside the exclosures, plants on the forest floor are browsed to the nub, preventing forest regeneration and reducing plant diversity.

Curt Chandler, Post-Gazette Many visitors prefer to walk, jog and bike the roads that form the Riverview Loop. But just below the pavement, miles of hiking trails provide a sheltered respite from motorized vehicles. This is the entrance to the Overlook Trail, just south of the main park entrance on Riverview Avenue. Click photo for larger image.

Though in place for only a year, one pen contains a healthy crop of oak and ash sprouts, hophornbean and trillium, which Gruszka said "is like candy to the deer.''

"People have accused us of being anti-deer, but that's not true," Gruszka said. "We realize they are a component of Mother Nature's family here. We just want to be able to manage and account for them as one of the environmental pressures."

Old Wissahickon Road trail ends at a parking area at Mairdale Street. Cross the road angling left uphill, then turn right back into the woods on the Bridle Trail, which gallops through stands of mostly non-native Norway maples that the conservancy is slowly trying to eliminate from the park.

The trail climbs, then tracks along a dark stone wall built by Depression-era workers. It ends at Davis Avenue, where hikers must walk briefly along a roadway closed to vehicles. After passing the Davis Avenue Bridge, also closed, pick up Violet Lane Trail, which runs generally flat along the western park boundary before climbing several switchbacks.

At the intersection with the Snyder's Point Loop Trail, stop to view the wet meadow to the left installed by the Parks Conservancy in a small triangle of land abutting Riverview Drive. Until recently it was covered with Japanese knotweed, an invasive, non-native plant, and discarded auto parts.

Turn right to follow the Pope's View Trail around Snyder's Point in the southwest corner of the park. Follow the trail loop around the Hour Glass Meadow, so named because trees are pinching into the natural grassland at the middle, then turn right onto the Deer Hollow Trail, a nice side hill path through some larger oaks and ash and cherry with a steep drop on the right side.

Where the trail intersects Kilbuck Road, turn left and walk along the road past city public works facilities -- this is the least appealing part of the hike visually -- to the Valley Refuge Shelter. Re-enter the woods on Old Ground Hog Haven Trail, which climbs behind the shelter to a T-intersection with the Kilbuck Trail.

Follow the Kilbuck Trail left to a shale outcrop and a Y intersection with the Old Zoo Trail. Take the left arm to a crossing of Old Kilbuck Road (closed to vehicular traffic) where the pavement ends. The trail there, overgrown with grasses and non-native garlic mustard, passes an old metal bus stop kiosk covered with graffiti and grape vines and then old stone steps, a wall and the brick foundations of several pens from the zoo.

The Old Zoo Trail ends back on Old Kilbuck Road, which passes under a canopy of tall oaks and elms and the occasional tulip poplar behind the houses bordering Riverview Avenue. At the next trail intersection, a yellow arrow painted on a tree trunk directs trail users to turn right and climb up a staircase to Riverview Avenue.

Across the road is the park visitor center and one of those city water fountains that is always running flush with cool water. You may have to share it with the deer.

NEXT WEEK: Two bike trails near Franklin, Venango County.