Trail of the Month Page 5

Rock Island Trail, Illinois

Posted 07/01/13 by Laura Stark in America's Trails | Tagged with Illinois, Tourism and Economic Stimulus, Trail Destinations, Trail of the Month

Photo © Gary Wilhelm

Midway between Chicago and St. Louis, lies a rail-trail of such character and beauty that it inspired a lifetime of trail advocacy in not just one, but two recipients of our highest honor, the Doppelt Family Rail-Trail Champion Award. One of these champions, former U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood grew up in Peoria, which anchors the southern end of the Rock Island Trail that winds through central Illinois.

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Photo by Jason Barnette - Southeastern Traveler/Photo courtesy Abingdon Convention and Visitors Bureau

Virginia Creeper National Recreation Trail

Posted 05/01/13 by Laura Stark in America's Trails | Tagged with Overcoming Opposition, Tourism and Economic Stimulus, Trail Destinations, Trail of the Month, Virginia

Bicycling 68 miles in a day would be an accomplishment for most people. But doing it nearly every day is a testament to endurance and willpower. At 81 years of age, it seems an impossibility. Meet Lawrence the Legend. On any day of the week, you're likely to see Lawrence Dye, a slender man with big glasses, pedaling along the Virginia Creeper National Recreation Trail on a bike that he says has been "a great friend."

Hart-Montague Trail State Park, Michigan

Posted 04/01/13 by Laura Stark in America's Trails | Tagged with Champions, Michigan, Tourism and Economic Stimulus, Trail Destinations, Trail of the Month

The rural flavor of western Michigan's Hart-Montague Trail State Park is palpable. Cherries, peaches and apples hang heavy from the trees. The lacy green leaves of the Asparagus Capital of the World's prized vegetable flutter in messy rows along the trail. Dairy cows placidly watch bicycles whir by and, in the summertime, the small town farmers markets offer a friendly bustle of activity.

Northern Rail Trail, New Hampshire

Posted 03/01/13 by Laura Stark in America's Trails | Tagged with Local Organizing, New Hampshire, Trail Destinations, Trail of the Month, Wild and Wonderful

Daniel Webster, the famed orator and New Hampshire native, was a featured speaker at the 1847 ribbon cutting for Boston and Maine Railroad's Northern Line. At the ceremony in Lebanon, before a crowd of more than a thousand, he said of the railroad, "It is the spirit and influence of free labor, it is the indomitable industry of a free people, that has done all this."

Truckee River Bike Trail, California

Posted 02/01/13 by Laura Stark in America's Trails | Tagged with California, Heritage and Restoration, Trail Destinations, Trail of the Month, Wild and Wonderful

Surrounded by the majestic, snowcapped mountains of the Sierra Nevada and renowned for its clear blue water, the country's second deepest lake is surely as stunning today as when Mark Twain saw it more than a century ago. In fact, Lake Tahoe was recently deemed America's best lake by popular vote in a USA Today survey. Although dozens of tributaries flow into the lake, only one flows out, and it is along this waterway that the Truckee River Bike Trail is aligned.

Otago Central Rail Trail, New Zealand

Posted 12/01/12 by Laura Stark in America's Trails | Tagged with Overcoming Opposition, Tourism and Economic Stimulus, Trail Destinations, Trail of the Month, Trails of the World

This month, fans of the popular Lord of the Rings movies are eagerly anticipating the latest installment of the acclaimed series, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. For an experience in Middle Earth, adventurers both tall and small can take their own journey along the Otago Central Rail Trail, a well-kept gravel pathway running 150 kilometers (more than 90 miles) through the region where many of the film's sequences were shot.

Grant's Trail, Missouri

Posted 11/01/12 by Laura Stark in America's Trails | Tagged with Connected Systems, Heritage and Restoration, Missouri, Trail Destinations, Trail of the Month

Only 10 miles from the famed Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Mo., fittingly lies Grant's Trail. Like the arch, which was built as a monument to westward expansion, the trail follows a former rail line that set out with an ambitious goal to reach all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Even though the tracks never made it that far, the trail has preserved much of the corridor's pioneering history and spirit.

Glacial Drumlin State Trail, Wisconsin

Posted 09/01/12 by Laura Stark in America's Trails | Tagged with Trail Destinations, Trail of the Month, Wisconsin

Wisconsin's 52-mile Glacial Drumlin State Trail follows the corridor of a former passenger railroad that some speculate was built by the Chicago and Northwestern Railway purely for political convenience. Completed in 1882, the Milwaukee and Madison Air Line provided a straight shot through rural countryside and several small communities to connect two of the state's most important cities—but very little in-between.

Mammoth Cave Railroad Bike and Hike Trail, Kentucky

Posted 08/01/12 by Laura Stark in America's Trails | Tagged with Kentucky, Trail Destinations, Trail of the Month, Wild and Wonderful

Kentucky is perhaps best known for its horses, bluegrass and bourbon, but beneath the rolling hills of the state's Green River valley lies a natural treasure unmatched in the world: Mammoth Cave. With 390 miles of passages, it's the world's longest cave, more than double the length of its closest competitor. And now, thanks to the nine-mile Mammoth Cave Railroad Bike & Hike Trail, this geologic wonder is accessible by rail-trail.