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Photo: Bill
Metzger on the
Great Allegheny
Passage
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burgh, the GAP is one of the most
well known rail-trails in the coun-
try and one that Metzger helped
shape. As a member of the GAP’s
first board, he remembers tossing
around ideas for the trail’s name
with a handful of people. More than
100 names were pitched, some silly
and some serious, including the
Spine Line (because it would be the
backbone of the regional trail sys-
tem) and the George Washington
Trail (as the first president fought
two historic battles in the area).
Naturally, we asked him for an
inside scoop on the GAP’s best
sections. Metzger likes the Mey-
ersdale area toward the southern
end of the trail, as that’s where
“most of the goodies are,” including
the Salisbury Viaduct, Meyersdale
visitor station, Keystone Viaduct,
Big Savage Tunnel and Big Savage
Overlook.
Another rail-trail close to his
heart is Pennsylvania’s Montour
Trail, which forms a nearly 50-mile
semicircle outside of western Pitts-
burgh. Metzger, who met his wife,
Pam, at a bicycling and pedestrian
A (Trail) Life Well Lived
BY LAURA STARK
From a window in his home
in Confluence, Pennsylvania,
Bill Metzger sees “a constant
parade” of trail users along the
Great Allegheny Passage (GAP).
He chuckles at the memory
of seeing unicycles and even
a penny-farthing once from
this vantage point. It’s a fitting
setting as Metzger is in the
midst of developing the second
edition of
The Great Allegheny
Passage Companion
, a guide-
book that dives into both the
trail experience and the rich
history along the route.
“It’s a hell of a lot of fun,” says
Metzger of the trail he’s been
riding for more than two de-
cades. “When we go on the trail,
it’s always different: the people
you meet, the wildlife you see,
the change of seasons. That’s
what makes it fun.”
Spanning 150 miles from
Cumberland, Maryland, to Pitts-
advisory meeting, even got hitched
on the trail in 1997.
As one of the trail group’s first
members back in 1989, Metzger
says fondly, “The Montour Trail
Council has some of the best vol-
unteers in the world; if somebody
says they need help with some-
thing, five hands go up.”
In addition to his roles as trail
volunteer, author and photographer,
Metzger is also a skilled cartogra-
pher currently working for Trains
magazine, a publication the rail fan
has been reading since he was a
pre-teen (he’s 70 now).
To stay active, he and Pam
continue to enjoy biking despite
Metzger’s having a neuromuscular
disease that limits the use of his
legs. In 2004, a neighbor and good
friend who was an occupational
therapist had recommended that
he try a handcycle. Metzger re-
members that first outing as “pretty
cool,” and two weeks later he had a
handcycle of his own. Since then,
he’s put more than 24,000 miles on
it and says, “I couldn’t live without
the bike. It saved my life.”
•
“When we go
on the trail,
it’s always
different:
the people
you meet,
the wildlife
you see, the
change of
seasons.
That’s what
makes it fun.”
Bill Metzger
FROM LEFT: THOMAS K. KRAEMER; SAM BODJACK
28
RAILS TO TRAILS WINTER 2017
T R A I L TA L E S