Trail of the Month Page 9

Photo © Forest Preserve District of Will County

Illinois' Old Plank Road Trail

Posted 10/01/13 by Laura Stark in America's Trails | Tagged with Illinois, Local Organizing, Overcoming Opposition, RTC in Action, Trail Destinations, Trail of the Month

Traveling along the tranquil Old Plank Road Trail today, you would never know the site was once the cause of heated debate and a contentious struggle lasting 20 years. The paved 22-mile rail-trail now offers a canopy of oak trees and sugar maples rustling overhead, delicate prairie grasses that stir with the passage of bicyclists, and soft purple wildflowers that peek up through the green underbrush.

Image © SMART District

California's SMART Pathway

Posted 09/01/13 by Laura Stark in America's Trails | Tagged with California, Rail-with-Trail, Trail Destinations, Trail of the Month, Urban Pathways

When the sunset-hued Golden Gate Bridge first opened more than 75 years ago, it was the engineering marvel of its time. Just north of San Francisco's famed bridge lies an equally impressive transportation corridor for a new era. When complete, the aptly named SMART Pathway will include the most miles of bike and pedestrian trail alongside active railroad, 52, in the country.

Image © Chuck Sutherland

Tennessee Central Heritage Rail Trail

Posted 08/01/13 by Laura Stark in America's Trails | Tagged with Heritage and Restoration, Rail-with-Trail, Tennessee, Tourism and Economic Stimulus, Trail Destinations, Trail of the Month

It's hard to imagine a prettier place for a rail-trail. The emerging 19-mile Tennessee Central Heritage Rail Trail winds across the high plains of central Tennessee between Cookeville and Monterey, a town "Where the Hilltops Kiss the Sky." Excitement is building for the new recreational amenity, which will be unique to these communities in a region that already counts itself lucky with gorges, waterfalls, caves, rocky bluffs and the Cumberland Mountains above it all.

Photo © Gary Wilhelm

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

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.

Trestle on Virginia Creeper Trail | Photo by Anthony Le, courtesy RTC

Virginia Creeper National Recreation Trail

Posted 05/01/13 by Laura Stark in America's Trails | Tagged with Best Of, Hall of Fame, 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 in New Hampshire | Photo by Suzanne Matyas

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.