Staff writer

bmiller@observer-reporter.com

During a short autumn trek over hill and down dale, leaves fall into a red, orange, yellow and brown patchwork along the wet ground.

Maybe seldom-seen vista isn't quite the right word for the Chartiers creekside view, but it's definitely off the beaten path.

Thanks to an earmarking of $1.1 million in federal taxpayers' dollars, bridges along the Peters-Cecil Township boundary might soon lend themselves to more frequent and safe access to the casual walker or bike rider.

From this No Man's Land, the trail extends 30 miles to the east and 10 miles to the west. It's the two miles in between the completed segments that have proved to be a knotty problem, due to the huge cost of rehabilitating bridges and tunnels.

Frank Ludwin of Cecil Township, a Montour Trail volunteer, called the area "one of the most beautiful, scenic areas on the whole trail. The new section that will be opening up in Peters Township, it's going to be a beautiful place with all the bridges, tunnels and trees."

While volunteers converting a railroad bed to a trail for hikers and bikers isn't considered an easy task, rebuilding long-gone railroad bridges for use as trails might almost be in the category of pie-in-the-sky hopes.

When the Montour Railroad line stopped running its short line by 1984, the first rails-to-trails conversion took place in Peters Township, where the trail was named Arrowhead.

Incorporating the number of bridges where trains once chugged along Brush Run, Valley Brook Road and Chartiers Creek was a daunting challenge to the trail planners because of the way they zigged and zagged across the road, waterways and plateaus.

A drive along Valley Brook Road reveals many missing links along the old Montour Railroad.

What Ned Williams, president of construction for the Montour Trail Council, calls "a stub of a bridge" stands on the north side just east of the Lavender Link at the foot of Miner's Hill in Lawrence.

Williams said the low bridge posed a problem for tall trucks, so the portion atop Valley Brook Road was removed when the state Department of Transportation realigned the road. Crane the neck and one can see where the stub once connected to the railbed on the opposite cliff.

We drive as far as vehicles can safely go along Buckeye Drive, then disembark for a hike along skeletons of bridges.

Mark Imgrund, president of the Montour Trail Council, points to thin tire tread marks in the mud: "You can see some bicyclists have already used this trail."

A question about the height of the bridge was met with the answer, "Tall enough to clear the smoke stack of a steam locomotive."

Mountain bikers have forged ahead over plywood sheets that cover one side of a bridge deck made of deteriorating oak or walnut timbers. It crosses train tracks and, just to the east, a concrete railroad tunnel of the still-working Pittsburgh Industrial Railroad first claimed as a right-of-way by the Pennsylvania Railroad (or "Pennsy").

Plans call for adding steel handrails and removing all wooden ties from the bridge, replacing them with a concrete "so we can get vehicles over it if we need to," Williams said. Unlike work on the terrestrial trail, rehabilitating the missing links will be done by professionals.

The next stop is a tunnel that will be used as part of the trail. After a long dry spell, its dark, tracked base is covered by puddles with mud.

Williams has forded through inches of the slimy stuff covering the rusting rails when in the spring, rain and snow melt combine to raise the tunnel's water level.

The graffiti sprayers have been there for some time, targeting concrete walls.

The tunnel, made of poured concrete, is believed to have been constructed 93 years ago and rebuilt in 1922, the date on its keystone. There are no roads adjacent, so Williams believes the railroad brought in heavy equipment and materials on a train.

On the other side of the tunnel is a bridge, 270 feet in length, crossing 51 feet above Chartiers Creek and overlooking the links of Hidden Valley Country Club at the western edge of Peters Township.

Rickety looking, it's not the type of place you'd choose to spend a lot of time, especially on a wind-blown day. And watching one's footing is a must. A slip could lead to a fall to one's death.

Someone has scrawled on the only side with a railing, "Jump Here (You know you wanna)."

Graffiti aside, "It's such a beautiful spot," said Williams beneath the canopy of a nearly bare sycamore tree with its distinctive peeling gray and beige bark. "This has been sitting like this for 30 years since it was abandoned."

Plans call for a scenic overlook constructed in the diamond shape of the Montour Trail logo. "You'll just feel as secure as you could want out here," Williams said.

Williams credits U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, and former Sen. Rick Santorum with shepherding the money for the Montour Trail through the House of Representatives and the Senate, where it was approved as part of a transportation bill.

"We think the funding we have now is going to do three bridges," Williams said while retracing his path, standing near the purple bridge made impassable in 2004 by the remnants of Hurricane Ivan. "If we have enough to indeed do two more bridges, that will get us from Coraopolis to within spitting distance of Route 19. There are a million bridges on this thing, but only one Montour Railroad bridge over this creek. When you think of the whole Chartiers bowl, this is sort of the spiritual center of it.

"You've just got to hang in there, because it is so worth it when you see people out there with their kids."

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