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Sunday, June 03, 2001

By Lawrence Walsh, Post-Gazette staff writer

The section of the Great Allegheny Passage between Ohiopyle and Confluence along the scenic Youghiogheny River is one of the most popular rails-to-trails conversions anywhere.

On any given day, but especially on weekends, the 8- to 12-foot wide crushed limestone trail is used by bicyclists, some pulling child carriers; runners, some going faster than others; and walkers, some pushing baby strollers or carrying fishing gear.

It's hard to believe there wasn't much support for it when Larry Adams began working on it soon after he arrived in January 1977 as the new superintendent of Ohiopyle State Park in Fayette County.

Then as now, Ohiopyle was synonymous with whitewater rafting. The four state-certified commercial rafting companies, each of which now rents bikes for the trail, were concerned a bike trail would adversely affect their business. Among other things, they didn't want bicyclists to fill up the town's limited parking spaces.

Adams persisted.

So did his critics.

"It took a lot of talking and convincing," Adams said.

It also took a lot of planning, stockpiling and swapping. And, in a page that could have been taken from a military textbook, it also took the courage to start the trail on the Confluence end instead of in Ohiopyle.

Yes, the opposition to the bike trail in was that strong in Ohiopyle.

The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, which acquired and conveyed the land that is now Ohiopyle State Park, obtained the 26-mile right-of-way in the mid-1970s from the Chessie System for a bike trail from Confluence to Connellsville.

The Chessie System was composed of the Western Maryland Railway Company, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. The conservancy worked with the state Department of Environmental resources, as it was then known, to acquire the right of way for less than fair market value.

But, once the land was acquired, it was up to the state to transform it into a bike trail. And Larry Adams was the right person in the right place at the right time to make it happen.

Although he credits the efforts of others, especially the Ohiopyle State Park staff, who worked long hours, sometimes in miserable weather conditions, to complete the trail, it was Adams who took the heat and persevered.

He first teamed up with Jerry Yocum, a state park landscape architect who "specialized in trails, all kinds of trails." Yocum managed to find some extra money for the proposed bike trail in the budget at the end of every fiscal year and Adams spent it on crushed limestone.

As the stockpile grew -- it would eventually total 10,000 tons -- Adams worked out a swap with the Stewart supervisors.

He said he would give them the palm-sized rocks that once stabilized the railroad ties and tracks if they used them to improve the township's dirt roads within the park and if they would do the rough grading for the trail. The supervisors agreed.

Adams then worked with the state Department of Labor and Industry to line up the labor for the trail. He said the Young Adult Conservation Corps, a now-defunct agency designed to help young people learn job skills, did the bulk of the brush-cutting and tree-trimming. The Pennsylvania Conservation Corps also helped.

Adams said the first three miles of the trail were completed about 1980. It ran from the put-in for the Middle Yough to the islands just below Drake Rapid.

"It was an instant hit with everyone, including some of those who opposed it," he said. "It really got the ball rolling. I put a slide show together and made a lot of presentations. It didn't take long for it to catch on."

When Adams announced the park would start renting bikes at the old Ohiopyle railroad station, the rafting companies said they wanted to do that. That was fine with Adams. It was one less equipment and labor expense to deal with.

A 10-mile section of the Confluence to Ohiopyle trail was finished in 1985. Adams and his staff then started on the 71/2-mile section from Ohiopyle to Bruner Run. It parallels what is known as the Lower Yough, a popular stretch of white water that attracts about 100,000 rafters, kayakers and canoeists a year.

The Confluence to Bruner Run section of the trail within Ohiopyle State Park now annually attracts about 250,000 bikers, joggers, walkers and cross-country skiers.

The Ohiopyle/Bruner Run section of the trail, including the conversion of the Western Maryland Railway bridge over the Yough below Railroad Rapid, was well underway when Adams left for a new position at Moraine State Park in 1989. That 71/2-mile section of the trail opened in 1990.

Adams retired in April 1999 as the operations manager of the Moraine-McConnell's Mills park complex. He and his wife, Nancy, live outside Meyersdale in Somerset County, about two miles from a yet-to-be-completed section of the bike trail. Their daughter, Brenda, son-in-law, Rick Mowrey, and grandsons, Chris, 12, and Matt, 10, live near Denver, Colo.

When the Colorado crew returns for a visit, Adams sometimes accompanies his grandsons on a bike ride along the Confluence/Ohiopyle section of the trail.

"It is one of the best trail experiences anywhere in the country," said Adams, 59, now a free-lance writer photographer, consultant, volunteer and teacher of safe hunting and boating courses.

"Other trails just don't have as much variety, history and scenery as this one does," he said, referring to the Great Allegheny Passage. "It's magnificent."

For more information on Ohiopyle State Park, call 724-329-8591 or log on to www.dcnr.state.pa.us.

For more information on the Great Allegheny Passage, including Bill Metzger's outstanding and all-inclusive map of the trail, call (888) ATA-BIKE (282-2453) or 724-853-2453 or click on www.atatrail.org.

And for more information on biking in this part of the state, look for Roy Weil and Mary Shaw's "Freewheeling Easy in Western Pennsylvania." If your local bike store doesn't have it, call 724-832-8500.

Ride with a champion

Tinker Juarez, 40, of Downey, Calif., three-time U.S. National Mountain Bike Racing Champion, two-time Olympian, Pan Am Games gold medalist and World Championships silver medalist, will be at Seven Springs Mountain resort today to help Cannondale celebrate its 30th year in the bicycle business.

Tomorrow, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., he'll be at Gatto Cycle Shops Pittsburgh store at 7501 Penn Ave. (near Braddock ) in Point Breeze. Afterwards, and depending on the number of riders, he'll lead a ride through Boyce Park or Frick Park.

For more information, call 412-731-9200.

Riding in Rockwood

The Fourth Annual Rockwood River and Rails Festival will be held Friday through Sunday in Rockwood, Somerset County. Rockwood is about 11 miles from Somerset via Route 281 to the flashing yellow light in New Centerville and then left on Route 653.

Please park in the designated areas and use the shuttle service provided by Seven Springs. If you arrive via the bike trail, you may walk your bike through town. There will be a variety of food and craft vendors. There will be a model railroad display and children's riding train at the Rockwood Mill Shoppes & Opera House.

For more information, call 814-926-2873.

Escape to the lake

The Allegheny District Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society will hold its 16th annual Escape to the Lake (Erie) next weekend. The two-day, one-way, 150-mile trip begins in Cranberry and ends on the shores of Lake Erie in Conneaut, Ohio.

A minimum of $150 in pledges is required to participate in the fund-raising event. For more information, call 412-261-6347.

Bike, skate, scoot

A safety program for children 12 and younger who like to bike, in-line skate and ride scooters will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, June 29 at the home of the organization's president, Sheila Titus, 188 39th St.

Titus said a UPMC physician and nurse will be on hand to emphasize to parents and children the need to wear safety equipment, especially helmets. City Councilman Jim Ferlo will provide a bicycle that will be raffled off. For more information, call 412-682-6606.

Shuttle Services

For those who prefer to ride one way instead of round trip on all or part of the Great Allegheny Passage from McKeesport to Meyersdale, here are some shuttle services:

Bill Lenhart of Pittsburgh -- 412-885-4484; Mountain Streams in Ohiopyle -- (800) 723-8669 or www.mtstreams.com and Wilderness Voyageurs in Ohiopyle -- (800) 272-4141 or www.wilderness-voyageurs.com.

Lawrence Walsh can be reached at 412-263-1488. His e-mail address is lwalsh@post-gazette.com