Trails are as old as life and a living being’s ability to move. Ants make trails from their hills to food and back. Things that eat ants make trails to find them. Things that eat things that eat ants make trails to find their food, and so the cycle goes on to apex predators - humans. Humans still make trails to food, although these trails are now often reinforced with concrete or macadam to markets where the prey is packaged and waiting for purchase.

Trails for Every Taste

Today’s trails are about experiences. There are driving trails that connect themed experiences like the new Alleghenies Tasting Trail or the group experiences on Raystown.org like Coffee, Caves and Cupcakes or Time Travel Transportation. 

 

There are extensive and challenging footpaths, like the Standing Stone Trail or Mid-State Trail, that take users to mountaintop vistas.View of trail up to Hawk Watch along the Standing Stone Trail 

 

There are rails-to-trails routes that showcase history and unique scenery while providing gentle gradients easy enough for users of any ability like the Huntingdon and Broad Top Rail Trail and the Lower Trail. 

 

There are single-track trails built for mountain biking to challenge riders physically while rewarding them with spectacular views on the Allegrippis Trails at Raystown Lake or an extensive network of trails in Rothrock State Forest. 

 

There are urban trails that encourage users to experience communities like Walk Huntingdon or the Bricktown Unity Trail. 

 

There are interpretive trails that educate while the user recreates like those at Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center, Riverside Nature Trail and Greenwood Furnace State Park. 

 

There are launch areas for paddlers to access the Upper Juniata River National Recreation Water Trail or the Raystown Branch Juniata River Water Trail. 

 

There are even trails to climbing areas like Donation Rocks and Hunters Rocks, where users are challenged to find vertical routes to the top or to solve bouldering problems close to the ground.

Dedicated Volunteers

One thing all of these various trails - and hundreds of others like them - have in common is that they all have been created and/or maintained and promoted by dedicated corps of volunteers. These too-often unsung heroes put in countless hours moving stone, painting blazes, trimming briar patches and fallen timber to keep our Raystown Lake Region trails in world-class condition for users to enjoy. The remainder of this article is dedicated to introducing several volunteers who have taken on leadership roles in trail maintenance that you might meet as you amble along. And who knows? Maybe they’ll inspire you to lend a hand to our local trails, too.

 

Pam Grugan is a community champion for Huntingdon and other small towns. Grugan led the creation of the Walk Huntingdon pedestrian-oriented signage project that helps direct people to Juniata College, uptown and downtown businesses, parks, healthcare facilities and more. In addition to the signage, Grugan leads the Bloomtown initiative keeping downtown planters in Huntingdon filled with fresh flowers in season. 

 

Emil Eklund is a native of Finland, Juniata College graduate and part-ownerVolunteer Emil Eklund heading to do trail maintenance, carrying a chainsaw of Rothrock Outfitters in downtown Huntingdon. Eklund serves as the trails coordinator for the Friends of Raystown Lake on the Allegrippis Trail System. Maintaining 36 miles of purpose-built mountain bike trails is not a one-man job, so in addition to his own maintenance activities, Eklund coordinates volunteers and groups for trail work days.

 

Cheryl Mohney Marino is a community champion for Mount Union. Marino was instrumental in the creation of the urban Bricktown Unity Trail that connects downtown Mount Union with recreational sites, residential areas and schools in town. The Bricktown Unity trail was originally developed as a public health initiative funded by the PA Department of Health through the PA WalkWorks program. 

 

Ken Hull literally wrote the book for central PA’s food experience trails, but his passion is rock climbing. Hull is the Ambassador of Donation Rocks for South Central PA Climbers, and a member of Access Fund, whose mission is to conserve and protect access to public and private climbing areas in the United States. Hull can usually be seen on his motorcycle, or caught in a local coffee shop when he isn’t attached to the end of a climbing rope with a carabiner on a harness.

 

Burgess Smith serves as membership chair and trail master for the northern section of Standing Stone Trail - an 83-mile footpath connecting Cowan’s Gap State Park in the south to Greenwood Furnace State Park and the Mid-State Trail in the north. An avid hiker, Smith is a real estate broker by day and has hiked all over the United States. His love of local trails has led him to be the lead maintainer of the SST, but it’s pretty common to catch him hiking while fixing up other trails in the area as well.

 

George Conrad is the president of the StandingVolunteers Burgess Smith and George Conrad pose in front of the sign for Sausser's Stone Pile along the Standing Stone Trail Stone Trail Club and Vice Chairman of the Huntingdon County Active Transportation Committee. Conrad does hike, but his passion is running long distances on trails. He has competed all over the country in ultra-marathon races, including several trail runs of 100 miles or more. Conrad is the lead maintainer for the Thousand Steps portion of the SST, which begins at the busiest trailhead in the Southern Alleghenies. The Thousand Steps is not an easy trail to maintain, primarily because of its namesake stone steps laid without mortar up the side of Jack’s Mountain that need nearly constant adjustment and cribbing to keep them steady and safe for the volumes of hikers using the trail each day.