“The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) and the Keystone Trails Association (KTA) to offer nearly 100 organized hikes and walks available throughout Pennsylvania during the nine-day event.

“This year’s hiking week will be Saturday, May 28 through Sunday, June 5 .

“All of the scheduled hikes have leaders. Most hikes are on the two weekends of the event, but several weekday and evening hikes also are offered. Special hikes include night hikes; wildflower walks; hikes for people with disabilities; pet walks; geology walks and much more.

“Most hikes will take place in state parks and state forests, with some hikes scheduled on the Appalachian Trail, in Allegheny National Forest, and in city and community parks.”

The DNCR Website shows these trails for the southcentral region which includes Lancaster County and York County.

[EDITOR’s NOTE: This article from an article in the May 24 Lancaster Intelligencer Journal/New Era contains more information about hiking trails: “One-stop shopping for local, state trails.

The phone call or email will go typically like this: “We have relatives coming in for the weekend. Where would be a good place to take them hiking within an hour of Lancaster?”

I often have favorite hikes I pass along, but it’s long been frustrating not being able to refer people to a one-stop source where they can get detailed information on how to get to local trails and what they will see when they begin hiking.

Now, there is such a resource.

I stumbled onto http://explorepatrails.com/ last week while reading a press release about Pennsylvania Hiking Week, which is Saturday through June 5.

Launched about a year ago by the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the website has the ambitious goal of being “Pennsylvania’s community resource for searching, mapping and sharing trails information statewide.”

The hope is every land and water trail owned by the state, local municipalities, groups and individuals will find its way onto the site. You can search for trails for hiking, biking, paddling, horseback, cross-country skiing, snowmobile, wheelchair, all-terrain vehicle and motorcycle.

So far, there are 342 trails covering 7,429 miles listed. Searching Lancaster County, you’ll find 16 trails, two of them water trails.

But that’s hardly all the trails open to the public either in the county or state.

“It’s a work in progress,” freely admits Terry Brady, a DCNR spokesman. “It all hinges on the people using it actually.”

That’s because the website is mostly user-based. DCNR has posted its trails in state parks and state forests. But descriptions of many trails, photographs and trail reviews will have to come from individuals, hiking clubs and local municipalities.

Noticeably missing from the Lancaster County tally, for example, are trails in some county parks, including Central Park, and most trails on the various nature preserves owned by the Lancaster County Conservancy.

Trails you will find range from a couple half-mile paths in Chickies Rock County Park to the 60-mile Conestoga Trail System, Lancaster County’s version of the Appalachian Trail.

Certainly, the website is an impressive start for a sorely needed comprehensive compendium of the state’s rich network of trails, large and small.

And nicely navigable.

You can search for a list of trails by county or by calling up a statewide map and zooming in on trails. You can request trails less than 5 miles from your home, or in increments up to 100 miles away. You can also search by trail name.

With each trail called up, you’ll find a map that shows parking areas for trailheads and such details as campsites, drinking fountains and restrooms.

Click on destinations for detailed driving directions. For GPS lovers, the maps give you longitude and latitude coordinates.

Zoom in or out on the maps. And you can choose from road maps, satellite views, topographic maps to judge the terrain, or hybrids.

Hopefully, awareness of the trails site will increase and input will make it more encompassing.

As mentioned above, Pennsylvania Hiking Week begins Saturday and runs through June 5.

Now in its 10th year, the event especially reaches out to the uninitiated through organized hikes. A schedule of such hikes, including several in Lancaster County, may be found at www.ExplorePAtrails.com/hikingweek.aspx.

“We invite everyone who lacks knowledge of trail locations or fears hiking alone to join us for a hike,” says Curt Ashenfelter, executive director of the Keystone Trails Association, co-sponsor of the event with DCNR.

“All scheduled hikes have leaders and include a variety of lengths and terrain, from easy strolls along greenways to strenuous treks in Pennsylvania’s mountainous areas. Special hikes include night hikes, wildflower walks, hikes for people with disabilities and pet and geology walks.

A 1,130-mile nonmotorized hiking, biking and driving trail to be known as the September 11th National Memorial Trail needs your help in determining the best route.

One of three public planning meetings and open houses will be held from 2-5 p.m. Wednesday in Room 105 of the Rachel Carson State Office Building, 400 Market St., Harrisburg.

The goal is to have a route established linking New York City’s National September 11 Memorial to the Pentagon Memorial in Arlington, Va., the Flight 93 National Memorial in Somerset County in time for the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Two of the three legs of the triangular route are already in place: the Chesapeake & Ohio National Historical Park and the East Coast Greenway. The third leg connecting New York to Somerset County would follow existing or new trails, especially taking advantage of rail-trails.

For more information, http://911memorialtrail.org/.