At the moment, there is no bike rental place along the Montour Trail. Sorrry. Other nearby trails have bike rental. You can find out further information about bike rental locations on these trails on the following web site: http://atatrail.org/tmi/maps.cfm Click on the individual maps, and click on the bicycle icons.

Horses are permitted on the shoulders of the trail in Cecil between Morganza Road and the crossing of Route 980 and Route 50. Equestrians are requested to clean up after their horses and walk them through the tunnel.

See our policy on trail events.

There are lots of ways! Start by signing up for our Yahoo! Group to find out what's going on. Join the Montour Trail Association to receive our newsletter and help build the trail. Then find a Friends Group or volunteer.

We are an all-volunteer organization. Those answering the phone or emails generally have full time jobs and do not have back-ups for when they are on vacation, out of town, ill, or just plain swamped with other commitments. We'll do our best to respond as quickly as we can, but ask for your understanding if you catch us at a busy time. Sometimes you can get a faster response to some types of questions from the Yahoo! discussion group.

The Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) rail-trail offers 135 miles of hiking and biking between Cumberland, Maryland, and Pittsburgh. In Cumberland, the GAP joins the C&O Canal Towpath, creating a continuous trail experience, 320 miles long, to Washington, DC.

The GAP website has plenty of information about accommodations and more. For the Montour Trail section of your ride, you can use our campsites. And see our interactive map for more support.

There are no hotels in Clairton, Glassport, or McKeesport. Your other options are a very nice but somewhat pricey Bed and Breakfast in Jefferson Hills Borough, a less expensive motel on Route 51 in Jefferson Hills that involves a two mile ride down fairly busy four lane Route 51 that has no shoulders, or you ride to a bed and breakfast in Boston on the outskirts of McKeesport, which is probably a 30 to 45 minute bike ride partially on roads from milepost 46 at the end of the Montour Trail.

Presently, the airport is only accessible by motor vehicles on limited access highways. The Montour Trail council plans to have a branch trail go right to the airport. We are working on providing bike access, but at the moment it does not yet exist. There are safety and bureaucratic issues involved which makes it difficult to specify a completion date.

In the interim, one way of starting your trip is to drop off your bikes with all but one cyclist at the trailhead, have the remaining cyclist return the rental car to the airport, and that person can get a taxi ride to the trail. The Montour Trail trail-head that is closest to the Airport is along McClaren Road, which is one exit down PA Route 60 away from Greater Pittsburgh Airport. On the trail, it is at about milepost 7.7.

There are two hotels next to the trail at trail milepost 5.3 which have free shuttles from the airport for their guests. Call in advance to inquire as to whether they can transport your bike. You could start out first thing in the morning.

• Comfort Suites
• Marriott

The Montour-Trail email discussion group is a way for people with an interest in the Montour Trail to communicate. The purpose of the group is to allow communication among the Board, the membership, volunteers, and trail users. When significant developments occur, subscribers will be the first to hear about them. In turn, if you have comments or questions, feel free to post them on the group for the Board and other subscribers to see.

We also center much of our volunteer efforts around the email group. When we have a need for clean-up crews, race/event volunteers, or individuals with special skills, such requests will go out over the email group. If you were previously on our volunteer phone list, you should subscribe to the new email group.

To subscribe: You can either go to the group webpage and click on Join this group,or send a blank email to the subscribe email address for the group on the Contact Us page. Yahoo! will email you a request to confirm your subscription. Reply to that message, and you'll receive a "Welcome to Montour-Trail" message that indicates you're subscribed! The process takes less than 5 minutes. Then, from time to time you'll receive email about the trail, and you'll be able to send email to all the other subscribers.

If you don't get the automatic welcome message, email the address from the Contact Us page

You can either: 1) Go the the group website and click on Start topic, or 2) Send an email to the post email address on Contact Us. Your message will be delivered to each of the current subscribers to the group, including yourself.

Keep your messages short and to the point. Do not post jokes or virus warnings. Voicing differences of opinion is encouraged as long as it is done in a civil manner. Personal attacks on other members can be grounds for removal from the group.

To unsubscribe through the group website, click on My Groups > Edit My Groups, and check Leave group. To unsubscribe via email, send a blank message to the unsubscribe address on Contact Us.