The Rachel Carson Trails Conservancy plans to spend $100,000 to make a stretch of the trail in the Alle-Kiski Valley safer.
The conservancy is closing on an 18-acre wooded parcel so it can move a section of the existing trail along Murray Hill Road near the border of Frazer and East Deer off the road and into the woods.
“That section of the route is among the most dangerous,” conservancy President Bob Reiland said, noting the section’s narrow shoulder, blind curves and speeding cars make it unsafe.
Despite those potential dangers, Reiland said no hikers have been struck by cars in the area to date.
Notorious for its steep hills in some sections, the Rachel Carson Trail stretches 35 miles from Harrison Hills Park in Harrison to North Park in Allegheny County’s North Hills. Less than a fourth of the trail is along roads.
The $100,000 project will cover land acquisition, trail development and other costs.
The conservancy landed a $15,000 grant from the Allegheny County Regional Asset District to put toward the project, and it plans to apply for a state grant for additional funding. It also will use proceeds from the annual Rachel Carson Challenge.
The challenge is held around the longest day of the year in June to provide the most daylight for participants to traverse the trail. The event, which will be in its 24th year in 2020, is so popular that a lottery is held to pick about 600 participants out of about 900 applicants.
The conservancy also hopes to bring the trail off Riddle Run Road, which connects to Murray Hill Road, in the future because of similar concerns about safety. John Stephen, the conservancy’s trail program network manager, said the group also is looking to move other sections of the larger trail off the road.
Jeanne Prior of Estero, Fla., one of the owners of the property the conservancy is looking to buy, said the land had been used as a farm and an informal family baseball field replete with a diamond after her grandfather, John Pugh, and his brother, Paul, bought it in 1937.
“When the conservancy approached us about the land, we were very excited,” Prior said. “My grandparents would be very pleased that it’s being used for trails and keeping the land the way it was.”
Reiland and Stephen said the conservancy hopes to have the new trail section installed by the 2020 Challenge in June.
