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Grand Opening Ride of the Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C., Trail:
2007 Sojourn Summary:
The 6th Annual Greenway Sojourn, June 23–30, 2007, led 500 cyclists on a landmark ride on the longest multi-purpose trail in the country. After 20 years of trail building, the Great Allegheny Passage in southwestern Pennsylvania and western Maryland is now linked to the popular C & O Canal Towpath in the  Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park. Creating 335 miles of continuous trail connecting suburban Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C., together these trails make up the spine of the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail.
Riders trekked from Washington, D.C. to Pittsburgh on the country's most popular canal towpath and the Northeast's premier rail-trail. The 335-mile tour ended in Pittsburgh. The scenic 185-mile C & O Canal Towpath features many surviving locks, lock houses and aqueducts. At its terminus in Cumberland, Md., the ride continued on the 150-mile Great Allegheny Passage, a gently graded, mostly wilderness trail. The ride featured rural towns, spectacular mountain vistas, views of the rushing Youghiogheny River, and the dramatic engineering of bridges, tunnels and viaducts. Sojourners pedaled over the Eastern Continental Divide without doing a killer climb.
Cycling the newly linked route, now 95 percent complete, was a dream for many bicyclists. Organized by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy in tandem with the Allegheny Trail Alliance, the Greenway Sojourn 2007 officially celebrated this huge accomplishment.
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