A year after Rachel Carson died in 1964, her book “Sense of Wonder” was published, encouraging parents and children to discover a reverence for nature. The conservationist and Springdale native’s awe and respect for the outdoors are today’s influence for the Rachel Carson Trails Conservancy’s mission to develop, protect and maintain trails throughout Western Pennsylvania for hiking, biking and walking.

Founded in 1992, the conservancy manages not only the Rachel Carson Trail but also the mile-long Harmony Trail between Route 910 and Richard Road in Wexford and the 133-mile Baker Trail, which crosses six counties between Freeport in Armstrong County and Cook Forest State Park.

Trail users will be pleased to know that there’s more to come. Through the conservancy’s Many Trails, One Community initiative, this network of trails is expanding and becoming better connected. The conservancy’s goal is for the Rachel Carson Trail — a 38.2-mile rugged passage between Harrison Hills County Park in Natrona Heights and North Park — to serve as a backbone that connects short- and long-distance regional trails.

This summer’s major endeavor will be erecting a 40-by-4-foot prefabricated fiberglass bridge over Wexford Run, just west of Route 19 in Wexford, to join the Rachel Carson and Harmony trails. It will be named the Marian Crossman Bridge after a longtime conservancy volunteer.

The conservancy also is working with local fficials to connect the Commodore Perry Regional Trail, which cuts through a number of North Hills municipalities, and the Harmony Trail.

“With our new connection to the Rachel Carson Trail, people could walk from Zelienople on the Commodore Perry Trail to Wexford on the Harmony Trail, on to North Park on the Rachel Carson Trail and then on to Harrison Hills Park, all on marked trails,” Bob Mulshine, conservancy president, said.

Another ambitious venture was creation of a geotrail along the Rachel Carson Trail. Using GPS coordinates, participants can search for 26 of 40 hidden Rachel Carson-themed tokens, or caches, to earn a keepsake geocoin.

With help from a $1,000 Keystone Trail Association grant, one team of volunteers will work from June 27 through July 1 to relocate 2 miles of the Baker Trail near the Mahoning Reservoir in Armstrong County from a dirt road “in the middle of nowhere” onto a more aesthetically pleasing wooded route.

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To fund large improvement and maintenance projects, the nonprofit conservancy seeks grant funding. For the Marian Crossman Bridge, it has received $10,000 grants from outdoor retailer REI and the Allegheny Regional Asset District and another $1,000 from The Pittsburgh Foundation.

“We hope to finish the project with an 85 percent matching grant from the Commonwealth Financing Authority,” Mr. Mulshine said. “That will help with, among other things, the purchase of a $26,650 bridge.”

Another revenue source, participant and sponsor fees from hiking events — such as the Rachel Carson Challenge on Saturday and the four Barb Peterson Memorial Trail Orientation Hikes this month — pay for paint, tools and equipment used year-round by trail stewards to enhance the trails’ beauty and safety.

This year’s 22nd annual Rachel Carson Challenge starts in Harrison Hills Park and spans the 35 miles to North Park. Held on the Saturday nearest the summer solstice, the challenge is a test of endurance more than a race. 

Last year, 453 of the 602 registered participants completed the challenge.

It takes hikers on a primitive trek through county parks, creeks, woods and fields and along the edges of steep bluffs, suburban homes and farms. There is no special grading, and hikers need to be aware of washouts, poison ivy and loose gravel. In Springdale Borough, the trail passes by Rachel Carson’s 1907 birthplace.

Makenzie O’Connor, 24, the first to complete last year’s event, crossed the finish line in six hours and 56 minutes even though she briefly lost her way.

While yellow tree blazes through wooded areas help guide the path, there is a chance of getting lost. “There was a part where we popped out onto the road for a bit, and I think there was construction. I’m pretty sure I followed a marking from the construction area, mistaking it for the course flags,” she said.

Steve Mentzer, vice president of the conservancy, said “the challenge is our primary fundraiser and has raised thousands over the years for our efforts to preserve and promote community trails in Western Pennsylvania.” 

One such effort in recent weeks was replacing the foundation of a 50-year-old covered bridge at Crooked Creek on the Baker Trail near Kittanning. Eight volunteers jacked up the bridge, removed and replaced an old supporting wall, installed fresh supports, lowered the bridge back into place and added an erosion-control structure to the front of the foundation.

“It’s really a beloved part of the trail,” maintenance volunteer Dewaine Beard said. “The guy who originally built it, Walter Tereszkiewicz, died about a year ago, and I have a special fondness for getting the abutment repaired so that it can last another 50 years.”

Perhaps the conservancy’s most valuable contribution, explained Mr. Mulshine, comes from the many landowners who permit hikers on their land.

“Without their generosity, there could not be a trail,” he said, especially in a county as populated and developed as Allegheny County where miles of hiking trails are an exceedingly rare asset.

Maintaining cooperative relationships with landowners and being sensitive to their rights to develop or sell their land is the biggest challenge faced by the conservancy, continued Mr. Beard. Trail maintenance volunteers must also be mindful while working in some difficult-to-maintain areas, such as corners of a farmer’s field.

Respectfully listening to landowner concerns is key. “We have had to move the trail from time to time because a property owner gets uncomfortable with something,” Mr. Beard said.

In one case, a landowner was becoming irritated when fast-moving mountain bicyclists repeatedly veered downhill from the trail into his backyard. But relocating the trail would have placed it closer to another homeowner, who also had concerns.

“So we worked with both property owners to find a middle ground,” Mr. Beard said.

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Maintaining a trail system like this requires the help of many volunteers who plan projects, do the labor and staff special events.

“As an all-volunteer organization, the amount we can get done at any time is dependent on the number of people donating their time,” Mr. Mulshine said.

Next weekend, more than 100 volunteers will manage the Rachel Carson Challenge. But the work begins long before that.

In the weeks leading up to the event, Mr. Beard keeps a commercial-grade brush mower in the back of his pickup truck so that after work he can clear parts of the trail. The task is essential during the rainy growing season.

“The mower will go up hills with its grippy tires, and you can get it most places except for extremely steep hills like Rich Hill and Burtner Hill,” Mr. Beard said. “We use weed wackers to clear those parts.”

He will be hoping to mark this year as his 10th to complete the challenge. But it’s his 11th attempt.

“The first time I did the challenge I just signed up without doing any of the training hikes,” he said. “I was completely unprepared, and it was very painful; with the training hikes, you’ll do pretty well.”

He now directs several of the eight training excursions leading up to the event. They help participants become aware of the equipment, like shoes, hiking poles and backpacks, that works best for them. Increasing in distance from 7 to 21 miles, the training hikes also grow in difficulty of terrain.

“The combination of generous landowners, active volunteers along with grant and sponsor funding has created this unique opportunity for area people to get outside and enjoy nature or to go ahead and push themselves, as people do during the challenge, and to get a glimpse of what they are made of,” Mr. Mulshine said.

Laurie Bailey (lebailey63@gmail.com) is a freelance writer.

First Published: June 17, 2018, 4:00 a.m.