McDONALD, Pa. -- This western Pennsylvania borough of 2,300 people is a trendy trail town.

Not a one-trail town like many places. It's a two-trail town located 21 miles west of Pittsburgh where Allegheny and Washington counties meet.

But sleepy McDonald, the one-time home of composer Jay Livingston and football coaches Marty Schottenheimer and Marvin Lewis, doesn't seem to get too excited over its status.

McDonald, you see, is where the Panhandle Trail and the Montour Trail -- both rail trails -- intersect. Well, they sort of meet. More on that later.

The Panhandle Trail stretches 29 miles from Walkers Mill in Collier Township, Pa. (west of Pittsburgh), to Weirton, W.Va.

The trail, completed in August 2008, is named after the Panhandle Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the abandoned rail line upon which it was built.

It is one of two multistate trails in western Pennsylvania. The other is the Stavich Bicycle Trail that runs 11 miles from Struthers, Ohio, to New Castle, Pa.

The Montour Trail will, in time, stretch 46.5 miles in both Allegheny and Washington counties, from Moon Township near Coraopolis to the southwest and then back east to Clairton.

It will connect the Ohio and Monongahela rivers. Eight miles of additional spurs off the Montour Trail are planned. The main trail should be completed in 2010 or early 2011, officials said.

At present, nearly 44 miles of the C-shaped trail are complete between Moon Township, on the south bank of the Ohio River near Pittsburgh International Airport, and Clairton, where bicyclists can pedal on roads for a few miles before hopping onto the Great Allegheny Passage.

That's the name given to the 134-mile nearly complete bike-and-hike trail that runs from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Md. It connects to the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Towpath Trail that runs 1841/2 miles between Washington, D.C., and Cumberland.

The Montour Trail -- it was named a National Recreational Trail in 2004 by the U.S. Department of the Interior -- is also home to the McDonald Trestle, one of the biggest and most distinctive trail features in western Pennsylvania.

The 967-foot-long trestle carries the Montour Trail over the Panhandle Trail, a stream and local roads. It's an impressive structure offering long-range views, the centerpiece of the entire trail. It opened in 2003.

The Montour Trail itself crosses creeks and roads, going past old coal mining towns, but largely it's a rural setting that becomes suburban in some areas.

The trail is built on two old rail lines: the Montour Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad Peters Creek Branch.

The Montour Railroad was built between 1877 and 1914 to connect the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad with more than 30 coal mines and other railroads.

Tunnels along the Montour Trail include the 623-foot-long National Tunnel near Hendersonville in Cecil Township. Locals call the structure National Cave because of the stalactites of ice that form every winter.

Trail volunteer John Hooton highly recommends the Cecil Township section of the Montour Trail with the 235-foot-long Greer Tunnel and three bridges, including the newly decked bridge over Chartiers Creek. That section, costing $1.6 million, opened in late 2008.

In all, eight short sections of the Montour Trail must still be completed. Detours via local roads are listed on the trail's Web site.

At its southeast terminus at Clairton, it is a 4 1/2-mile share-the-road route to connect to the Steel Valley Trail that will take you north to Pittsburgh or south to Cumberland and Washington, D.C.

The Montour Trail is largely crushed limestone.

It has been built and is managed by the all-volunteer Montour Trail Council, a grass-roots group with 1,040 members.

It was formed in 1989 to save the abandoned rail right of way and the first trail section opened in 1992.

It will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a big dinner on Nov. 1.

Rules of the trail are simple: Pets must be leashed. No fires or camping. Open daily from dawn to dusk. No hunting or motorized vehicles. Horses are allowed in some sections.

A list of trailheads along the Montour Trail and directions to get to them are provided on the group's Web site.

For information, contact the council at Suite 3, 304 Hickman St., Bridgeville, PA 15017, 412-257-3011, or http://www.montourtrail.org. You would think that hopping from the Montour Trail to the Panhandle Trail outside McDonald would be easy: Just step from one trail onto the intersecting trail. Not so.

When the trails meet outside McDonald, the Montour Trail on the trestle is about 40 feet above the Panhandle Trail.

That means bicyclists and walkers must follow an access trail to get from the Montour Trail to the Panhandle.

It's a half-mile trek down a hill, through a parking lot, across a road, through another trailhead and parking lot, past a slag pile and a stately white house, and across a bridge. That brings you to the Panhandle Trail, about one mile from where you stepped off the Montour Trail. To get to McDonald from the Akron area, take Interstate 76 to the Ohio Turnpike and head east. That turns into the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Exit at Cranberry and head south on Interstate 79. Exit at U.S. 22 and go west to state Route 980 (McDonald) exit. Head south for six miles on state Route 980 (Robinson Highway). When the road dead-ends, turn right for 100 yards on Noblestown Road.

The Panhandle line was a main rail link between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.

Up to four tracks once carried rail traffic along the route, so it has a wider valley with more sweeping vistas of the rural countryside.

The Panhandle Trail seems to have more benches, shelters, picnic tables and bulletin boards than the Montour Trail.

The Panhandle Trail of crushed limestone covers 6.8 miles in Allegheny County, 17.3 miles in Washington County and five miles in West Virginia.

The high points on the west-east Panhandle Trail are at Midway at an elevation of 1,104 feet, Bulger at 1,158 feet, and Dinsmore at 1,092 feet. The grade along most of the Panhandle Trail is 1 percent or less.

Trail amenities are limited in some areas.

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