A Route With a View:
Building the Milwaukee Road

Visitors to Avery, Idaho, don't often comment on the community's beachfront access to the Pacific Ocean. But this northern Idaho town now has front-row seats to what could be a continuous 1,000-mile rail-trail from eastern Montana all the way to the west coast—and all part of the Milwaukee Road, an inactive rail line that has captured the imaginations of trail advocates across the country.
 
For more than three years, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) has been working hands-on with communities along the Milwaukee Road's path—communities in Idaho, Montana and Washington that were grappling with similar challenges, including property acquisition, soil contamination and how to create a connected network of trails. Until recently, though, many of these advocates were operating in relative isolation. So RTC saw an opportunity, by convening the inaugural Milwaukee Road and Connecting Trails Symposium on June 16, to bring cross-state representatives together in one place to share their successes and develop solutions collaboratively.
 
The day-and-a-half symposium, held in Wallace, Idaho, included presentations by trail developers along the route, training sessions for participants, and a bike ride on the 15-mile Route of the Hiawatha , a popular, already completed section of the Milwaukee Road corridor. RTC hopes to capitalize on these new relationships and further trail-building momentum, as new miles of rail-trail open each year.

The Northwest trail system is one of the best in the country and would likely be the best in the world if key connections can be made," says Leo Hennessy, non-motorized trails program manager for the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation. "This symposium identified those connections and motivated those in attendance to pursue the ultimate [goal] - a fully connected rail-trail network from the Pacific Ocean to Montana."