For people who live in northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., the Washington and Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail is a part of everyday life. Later this year, the W&OD will be the guest of honor at the second annual Dominion Trail Mix, a great community party hosted by the good folks at the Greater Washington Sports Alliance.
The report, Transportation and the New Generation: Why Young People are Driving Less and What it Means for Transportation Policy, shows that young people in particular are decreasing the amount they drive and increasing their use of transportation alternatives.
Rails-to-Trails Conservancy's Western Regional Office last month released a terrific report that gathers all these stories--of local groups and volunteers across America using their community strength to create incredible trails. It's called Community Built - Stories of Volunteers Creating and Caring For Their Trails.
On a brilliant Missouri summer afternoon in Kansas City, my husband and I join the 10-mile Riverfront Heritage Trail at Town of Kansas Bridge, a long, weathered wood-and-metal structure that sways slightly with the rhythm of our feet.
The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historic Park, better known as the C&O Canal towpath, is one of the most popular trails in the region, with hikers and riders drawn to its flat gradient, the history of the corridor, and the small, welcoming communities along the trail between D.C. and Cumberland, Md.
When the Lewisburg Area Recreation Authority (LARA) began building the Buffalo Valley Rail Trail back in 2009, some residents described the use of state and federal grants to purchase the corridor and construct the trail as "state-sponsored robbery."
In Marysville, Kan., near the Nebraska border, members of the local high school's Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter are throwing their support behind the Blue River Rail Trail, building benches, installing a new sign and bulletin board kiosk at the trailhead, and doing much-needed bridge repair work.
As bikemates 20 years his junior bowed out with sore legs and stiff muscles, Gus Rivera was proudly the last man standing. A year and a half earlier, and 75 pounds heavier, Rivera, 57, didn't even own a bike.
This month, the Foothills Rails-to-Trails Coalition celebrated the designation of the trail as a National Recreation Trail, recognition of the tremendous strides the group has taken in developing what is now one of the most used rail-trails in the state.
Hancock, MD is a popular destination for outdoor enthusiasts from all over the Mid-Atlantic region and beyond. In particular, visitors come to the small town of 1,800 residents to journey along the 22.5-mile Western Maryland Rail Trail, which retraces a piece of the former Western Maryland Railway.
Perhaps it will come as no surprise that plans are in the works to add an additional 65 miles to the East Coast Greenway just this year alone. The proposed greenway itself is quite ambitious: a trail stretching nearly 3,000 miles from Maine to Florida.
