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The Casselman segment runs 40 miles of crushed limestone from Meyersdale down the Casselman River valley to Ohiopyle. It leaves Meyersdale across the 1,908-foot Salisbury Viaduct, follows the river through Garrett, Rockwood, and Markleton, threads the Pinkerton Tunnel between its two river bridges, and reaches Confluence, where the Casselman meets the Youghiogheny. The last ten miles trace the Youghiogheny through the eastern end of Ohiopyle State Park to the trail's birthplace at Ohiopyle. Beyond Meyersdale the Big Savage segment climbs to the divide; beyond Ohiopyle the Youghiogheny segment continues down the gorge.
Great Allegheny Passage: Casselman
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Great Allegheny Passage: Casselman has about 98 to 150 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, e-biking, biking, running, walking, and birding, with May, September, and October the best months.
Hourly comfort scores for the next 15 days of weather, tuned to your activity and your own thresholds.
Plan your visit to this trail. Get the best windows for a comfortable outing.
Enjoy the Great Allegheny Passage: Casselman!
In half of past years, color along the Great Allegheny Passage: Casselman peaks October 15 to 23, typically around October 19. The trail has 54% deciduous coverage, with the majority being red maple, black cherry, northern red oak, and sugar maple.
In 1749 and 1750 the Delaware chief Nemacolin and frontiersman Thomas Cresap improved an old trail over the Alleghenies from the Potomac at Cumberland, and in 1755 General Braddock widened its eastern miles into a military road. Between 1910 and 1912 the Western Maryland built its 86-mile Connellsville Extension, meeting the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie at Connellsville in the heart of the coal and coke country. The P&LE line had opened in 1883 as the Pittsburgh, McKeesport and Youghiogheny, built with Vanderbilt money to feed Connellsville coke to the Pittsburgh furnaces. The B&O took control of the Western Maryland in 1973 and gave up the extension in 1975, keeping its own parallel route. The P&LE let its Youghiogheny line go in 1991. On June 9, 1978, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy bought the first stretch of the old Western Maryland grade near Ohiopyle, and the first nine miles opened from Ramcat to Ohiopyle on May 17, 1986. Trail groups along the corridor united in 1995 as the Allegheny Trail Alliance, today the Great Allegheny Passage Conservancy. The last nine miles into Pittsburgh opened in June 2013, completing the 150 miles to Point State Park. This segment holds the Somerset County miles down the Casselman River, where the county's first stretch opened between Rockwood and Markleton in April 1993 and the Pinkerton Tunnel came back into use in 2015.
