We will reconnect our communities in a way that has been missing for far too long,” Eric Oberg, the Midwest director of trail development for the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy told the crowd at the event.Īnd he is right, these are reconnections. “We will connect Washington to Washington.
Sections that are not completed or yet planned, with the largest portions being in Wyoming and Montana, require road-based connections to the next trailhead. In other words, large sections of the trail from the East Coast and into the Midwest (like Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska) are complete, while some trails are still being planned or in progress. From here, cyclists can pick up the 150 miles of the Great Allegheny Passage trail, taking travelers all the way to Pittsburgh. (a clear symbolic starting point) is the obvious example of this, other trail sections, like Headwaters Trail System in Montana, for example, offer a place to camp where Lewis and Clark stayed during their expedition.īut for those who love challenging, long-distance bike rides over a variety of surfaces (paved, crushed stone, and dirt), through scenic routes that include not only cities, but also small towns, as well as fields, mountains, waterways, and opportunities to nature-watch, the route of The Great American Rail-Trail will have an immediate appeal.Ĭompleted sections of the trail include a contiguous, mostly level trail from Washington, D.C. They take you into the towns missed by highways, where one can find shops, restaurants, museums and historic sites. When the trails that make up The Great American Rail Trail are seen as sections, they become opportunities to see a state from a new perspective. The casual cyclist may want to approach The Great American Rail Trail in sections, beginning with those portions closest to home or nearby while on vacation. In turn, that contiguous network, and those like it already in place elsewhere, make up crucial lines of the Great American Rail Trail, serving as catalysts for the larger goal of this coast-to-coast trail. That trail connects to others that make up the larger Ohio to Erie Trail network, totaling 326 miles. The route unveiling event, for example, was held on the Camp Chase Trail, which is just west of Columbus.
A bit like Russian nesting dolls, this new Great American Rail Trail is comprised of strategic local trails in the Rails-to-Trails network ( map).
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