Posted: Friday, August 13, 2010 12:51 am

The Green Ribbon Trail is beautiful, diverse and for the first time, truly user-friendly! The Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association (WVWA) invites you to join them for the 14th Annual Walk for the Wissahickon & Green Ribbon Trail Run on Sunday, October 3rd. This event is unique to the Wissahickon Watershed and WVWA’s 21-Mile Green Ribbon Trail. Whether you walk, run or hike, you can experience the true beauty of the Wissahickon Watershed firsthand as you follow the Green Ribbon Trail from Upper Gwynedd to the Schuylkill River. Participants can choose the length, style and pace of their experience. All of the events begin at the Upper Gwynedd Township Park in North Wales. Hikers and runners travel downstream, and are bussed back to the starting point when they finish. Each event is fun, well organized and fully supported. Experienced leaders lead each of the hikes.

The 8-Mile Prediction Trail Run takes off at 8:00 am and finishes at WVWA’s headquarters in Ambler with a breakfast and prizes. Runners must predict the time that it will take them to run 8-miles, they remove their timepieces and then run. Prizes are awarded to the runners who come closest to correctly predicting their time.

The Challenge Hike offers a fast-paced 13 or 21-Mile Hike of the entire Green Ribbon Trail. The hike is fully supported and the 21- Mile hikers finish at the Philadelphia Canoe Club for a quick barbeque around 4:00 pm.

The Upper Wissahickon Hike is a moderately paced walk of the Green Ribbon, going 5-miles to Penllyn Park or 8-miles to WVWA’s headquarters. Past hikers have been thrilled with their experience and amazed to discover this diverse trail right in their back yards.Prizes are awarded to the hikers or runners who raise the most money for WVWA by collecting pledges in support of their efforts. Prizes include gift certificates, dinners, and theater tickets. All are encouraged to register early.

When WVWA hosted the first Walkathon in 1997 they knew that they had a terrific event to offer people, but they also faced numerous challenges such as multiple wet creek crossings, missing gaps in the trail and a lack of directional signage.

Today the Green Ribbon Trail is in great shape but they still need your help. You’re encouraged to take the Green Ribbon Challenge and collect pledges to support the installation of the last creek crossing and enhancements to the trail. You will be rewarded with incentives as you collect pledges however the real prize is having a tranquil, wooded trail running through the community for everyone to enjoy.

To register or for more information visit: www.wvwa.org. If you don’t want to hike, volunteers are also needed for short periods of time that Sunday morning.