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Bikes
Bring Big Bucks
Six years ago,
Barb and Ralph Stahley decided to start
renting bikes and selling cold drinks from
a house at the entrance to the trailhead
in Boston, a popular spot for starting
bike trips.
Mrs. Stahley,
who is retired from Westinghouse Electric
Corp., said business was so good that they
bought the building. They now live
upstairs from their business, Trailside
Treasures.
They also
bought a 108-year-old Victorian house
across the street where they operate a
12-room gift shop called The Boston
Shoppes.
The gift store
has three stories of themed gift rooms,
subleased by artisans who sell such things
as art, gift books, quilts, handmade
purses, bears, lace, gourmet food and
ceramics.
The gift shop
doesn't depend on the bike trail for its
customers, but Mrs. Stahley said the trail
did bring new business.
"A husband and
wife come out biking and the wife comes
back with her girlfriends to shop on
another day," she said.
Four years
ago, the Allegheny Trail Alliance, working
with the University of Pittsburgh, did a
study, which found that the average person
spent $8.84 per trip between Garrett,
Somerset County, and Greenock, Elizabeth
Township, for a total of $7.2 million.
The study
calculated that about $491,628 of that
money was spent in the Elizabeth Township
section in 2002.
Ms. Cegelski
is amused by economic studies, which, she
said, sometimes lead prospective business
owners to think the trail is paved with
gold. But, she said, it's hard to depend
on a bicycle trail for a steady stream of
income.
"There are
rainy days, hot days, days when the
weatherman says there will be a
thunderstorm," said Ms. Cegelski, who is
used to providing all types of inexpensive
services, such as filling a water bottle
for 25 cents.
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Part Of
The Great Allegheny
Passage
The Elizabeth Township section of
the trail, from Boston to Blythedale, is
part of the 43-mile north section of the
Youghiogheny Trail, which is owned and
operated by Regional Trail Corp., a
nonprofit organization. It is part of the
Great Allegheny Passage network of bike
trails being built to connect Pittsburgh
with Washington, D.C. on a motorless route
encompassing some 150 miles.
Judy Marshall, of Buena Vista, is
president of Regional Trail Corp., which
owns the real estate on the Youghiogheny
River North trail as well as seven other
trails.
She's a former Elizabeth Township
councilwoman who ran for public office so
she could help shepherd the development of
the trail, which, she said, has improved
the quality of life and ushered in new
businesses.
Ms. Marshall remembers the days when
the trail was an abandoned rail line where
refrigerators and junk would be dumped.
"Initially, 90 percent of the people
were against having the bike trail," said
Ms. Marshall, who owns a business in Buena
Vista.
"Rumors were going crazy," she
said.
Then, she said, people changed their
minds when they saw what a quality hiking
and biking trail was being put through
their communities. There are fewer "no
trespassing" signs than when the trail
opened more than 12 years ago, but still a
few beverage machines on back porches, put
there by people who decided to try to make
some money from thirsty strangers who ride
behind their houses.
Some of Ms. Marshall's employees
even bike to work.
Recently, she said, the Elizabeth
police department bought a quad to monitor
the trail. She said some people had been
bringing all-terrain vehicles onto the
trail in violation of local ordinances.
"We have the whole trail posted.
Nothing that is motorized, other than
batter- operated wheelchairs, is allowed,"
she said.
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"Yawk"
River Trail Draws Those Seeking Peace And
Paying For It
Marlene
Cegelski loves her life, running a rest
stop for bicyclists, a sort of "Mayberry
place" on the northern portion of the
Youghiogheny River Trail in Greenock,
Elizabeth Township.
"It's
comfortable here. It's fun. It's a way of
life, lots of friends, lots of company,"
said Ms. Cegelski, sitting at a kitchen
table inside River City Junction, an old
house with a big front porch where her
many cats roam and cyclists can rest and
eat.
She rents
bicycles and stores personal bikes and
kayaks for a fee in garages that are
protected by a Guardian security system.
She makes food for trail users, chilli and
homemade soups and orange cookies from
scratch.
But, she says,
it is no way to get rich.
"If I had to
live on [the revenues produced by]
this place, it would be gone," she said.
For 12 years,
the Youghiogheny River Trail, built on an
abandoned rail line, has meandered through
Boston, Greenock, Industry and Blythedale,
riverfront communities in Elizabeth that
seem to grow more charming with the
years.
If some parts
of the 70-mile Youghiogheny River Trail
between McKeesport and Confluence are
barren, this isn't one of
them.
This stretch
of the trail is like a trip back in time,
past communities with neat houses where
life seems slower, yards are rolling and
green and vegetable gardens flourish, even
when shaded by large trees.
The trail has
ample bike rentals, public bathrooms and
picnic shelters. There's a camping site
near the historic Dravo Cemetery, between
Greenock and Buena Vista.
It's a good
place to do a day's biking trip, 20 miles
or so round-trip from Boston to the Yough
Twister in Bythedale, an ice cream stand
that sells everything from frozen yogurt
to roast beef dinners.
"We added
[fat-free] yogurt and health
drinks to our menu because the people on
bikes tend to be more health conscious,"
said Ray Driscoll, whose family has
operated the ice cream stand for 36 years,
long before the trail
existed.
He said the
trail had increased his business by 20
percent since it opened in the
mid-90s.
"It has had a
big impact on us," he said
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Water
Sports Too
In addition to biking, there is
canoeing on the river that runs beside and
near the trail. Ms. Marshall said
Elizabeth Township recently installed a
semipermanent boat launch next to the
trail at Buena Vista, where boats and
canoes can be launched.
Terry L. Burke is renting canoes and
bicycles from the gate of The Boston
Waterfront, a restaurant below the trail
on the Youghiogheny River that is open on
limited hours.
Mrs. Burke and her husband, Paul,
used to run a bicycle rental and bed and
breakfast in Boston, but closed them after
Mrs. Burke's parents died and she had a
baby, a son who now is 4 years old.
Mrs. Burke said the new business,
Burke Lee's Canoe & Bike Rentals,
takes people and canoes up the river to
Buena Vista, West Newton and Sutersville
for trips back to The Boston
Waterfront.
Sandy Peppler, who owns The Boston
Waterfront with her family, has started
holding pig roasts on Sunday afternoons
and is offering horse drawn-carriage rides
on the trail by appointment.
The restaurant, which has live bands
at night, doesn't open before 4 p.m. on
any day except Sunday. But, Ms. Peppler
said, she hopes to expand the business to
start selling lunch food to
bikers.
She and her family have had many
problems since they bought The Boston
Waterfront in 1999.
"We have been flooded 19 times," she
said, adding that she plans to continue
plugging along.
Other businesses are opening along
the trail.
In Buena Vista, a convenience store
on the trail that had been closed for
three years has reopened as Trail View
Neighborhood Convenience with a sign that
welcomes bikers and walkers.
The new proprietor, Pranav Shah, 33,
who moved to Elizabeth when he married a
local woman, is hoping to stock his store
with supplies for bikers, but also meet
the daily needs of the community.
"There's no other convenience store
around here," he said.
Ms. Marshall said Regional Trail
Corp. tried to encourage new businesses
and advertises them on its Web site,
www.youghrivertrail.com. Businesses
and services for bikers who travel through
the Elizabeth stretch of the trail also
are listed on the Allegheny Trail Alliance
Web site, www.atatrail.com.
Story
By Jan Ackerman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
09/2006
For
additional information we recommend
visiting these sites:
Youghiogheny
River Trail Contact
Information:
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Regional
Trail Corporation
P.O.
Box 95
West
Newton, PA 15089
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Friends
of the Riverfront
P.O.
Box 42434
Pittsburgh,
PA 15203
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