Sometimes all that's needed to make us go for a weekend bike ride, hike or raft trip is a little incentive. It's even easier when that incentive is for a good cause.

That's exactly what the Great Pennsylvania Outdoor Challenge (GPOC) is. Created by the Pennsylvania Parks and Forests Foundation, the GPOC gives people the perfect excuse the blow off yard work and house chores and spend the day, weekend or last gasp of summer vacation time enjoying one of Pennsylvania's 117 parks.

It works like this: Say you love canoeing. You've been meaning to paddle the Clarion River in Cook Forest. You think, "Oh! I can make this part of the GPOC and raise money for the parks while doing something I love." Register your event at www.firstgiving.com/ppff and donate $20. Or get a whole team and try to raise as much cold hard cash as possible by participating in an outdoors event. Or, if you need something to assuage any lingering guilt about going canoeing instead of cleaning out your gutters or going to your niece's piano recital, tell yourself it's all for a good cause.

So it's a win-win situation. You do something you love to do and the Pennsylvania Parks and Forests Foundation benefits from your generous donation and is able to continue to service and maintain the parks you enjoy.

The fundraising activities include hiking the Tuscarora State Forest Trail, biking from Confluence to Connellsville and back, and hiking the West Rim Trail of the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon. Teams' fundraising goals vary from $100 to $5,000.

The challenge runs from Sept. 12 to Sept. 30 and is held in honor of Maurice K. Goddard, who helped create 45 Pennsylvania state parks while serving 24 years as Cabinet officer under six Pennsylvania governors.

For more information about the Great Pennsylvania Outdoor Challenge, visit www.paparksandforests.org.