Bicyclists are celebrating today's official opening of a 10.6-mile rail-to-trail that links Sarasota and Venice.

The Legacy Trail takes the place of an abandoned CSX Transportation railway line that was purchased for $14.5 million in 2004. It's one of more than 1,460 rail-trails in the US that stretch across nearly 14,000 miles of landscape.

The paved path is 12 feet wide and is already popular with walkers and rollerbladers as well as cyclists. It has six trailheads ...   more »

There's a more than 100-mile-long abandoned railway corridor on Washington's Olympic Peninsula that is being transformed into a first-rate bicycling trail named the Olympic Discovery Trail.

When completed it will stretch all the way from La Push on the Pacific Ocean, across the base of  the northern slope of the Olympic Mountains, to bustling Port Townsend on Puget Sound.

More than a third of the trail is routed and paved (primarily the central portion connecting Port Angeles and Sequim on the Strait of Juan del Fuca), and volunteers are beginning work on another section east of Sequim that brings the trail closer to Port Townsend ......   more »

One day as a newspaper reporter in an earlier life, I was stuck on a small boat in the Chesapeake Bay with a US Fish & Wildlife Service biologist. To avoid justifying the environmental policies of the current adminstration (Reagan), he swung the conversation around to books.

His favorite was "A Sand County Almanac" by Aldo Leopold. I had never heard of this conservationist (he died in 1948), so I bought that book a few days later. It later found a place on the bookshelf with John Muir, Edward Abbey, Colin Fletcher and John McPhee.

Leopold's home state of Wisconsin has honored his memory by naming the state's 42 trails as the Aldo Leopold Legacy Trail System....   more »

Many of the long bicycle trails in the Eastern US don't fade away at the state line, they just change names and keep on truckin'.

I'd been digging into some cool, long-distance suggestions for bicycle tours on "non-motorized trails" when I discovered that many well-known bike trails meet at the state borders.

Such is the case on the Georgia-Alabama border where Silver Comet joins the Chief Ladiga. It happens twice between Maryland and Pennsylvania, where the C&O Canal and Northern Central meet the Great Allegheny Passage and York County Heritage Trail...   more »

By MikeBitton at flickr

Many of the rails-to-trails routes in Washington state are suitable for skinny-tired road bikes. In fact, more than half of the 63 rails-to-trails in the state have surfaces that road bikes can handle.

Not the Klickitat Trail in southern Washington. One of the most remote rails-to-trails in the US, it is recommended that visitors use mountain bikes, preferably with front suspension.

The 31-mile trail is the trail-of-the-month for the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. The trail starts in Swale Canyon then hooks up with the meandering Klickitat River, nationally designated as a Wild and Scenic River. It ends at the confluence of the Klickitat and Columbia rivers (above). ...   more »

There's a bicycle path in northern Pennsylvania called the Pine Creek Rail Trail that meanders 62 miles along a river that passes through a valley aptly called the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania.

The Rails to Trails Conservancy conducted a survey there last year that proves the adage heard in the movie Field of Dreams: "Build it and they will come."

The survey found that not only do they come, but they contribute to the local economies. While the trail has cost about $12.6 million to build since 1995, the Pine Creek survey determined that visitors spend from $5 million to $7 million a year, most of which is spent in the local communities along the trail.

Leaving aside the aesthetic or fitness benefits of a trail, that economic impact should encourage all communities to take those old bike trail plans off the shelf, dust them off, and start spreading the crushed limestone or asphalt...   more »

Instead of complaining about all the trash along a section of a bike path, members of the Mid-Valley Bicycle Club in Corvallis, Oregon, are taking matters into their own hands.

Ten cyclists met at the bike path along 99W, and in little more than an hour had picked up 20 large garbage bags of crap from along the one-mile stretch. Among the items they found was a stripped down bicycle frame, which they're considering upgrading into a new bike.

Good deeds like these aren't isolated to Corvallis. Bicycling groups all over are joining "Adopt-a-trail" campaigns in communities to keep their trails clean ......   more »

A bike ride among some friends along the 57-mile New River State Park trail in Virginia ended in tragedy recently when a rock slab broke loose from an overhang and killed a cyclist.

Park officials say the rock fall "appears to have been an isolated natural act." It's the second time since the abandoned railroad bed was converted to a trail that someone has been killed by a falling rock.

According to reports, Sudie Jenkins Hatcher, 48, from High Point, N.C., was riding with friends in the Austinville area of the trail on Oct. 20. A slab from a rock overhang broke loose, rolled down a hill before it tumbled through the air and struck Hatcher ...   more »

Piece by piece, the proposed 3,000-mile East Coast Greenway bike trail is coming together.

The latest section to be designated for the Maine to Florida bicycle route is about 11 miles of the Bronx River Trail (about half is complete) between White Plains and the Bronx. The unfinished portions are in the planning stages.

When complete, the East Coast Greenway will stretch from Calais, Maine, to Key West, Florida, with the ultimate goal of being off-road and traffic-free. About 21 percent of the trail is open to public use...   more »

The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy continues adding bicycle trails to its Hall of Fame. The latest is the Pinellas Trail, which runs 34 miles from Tarpon Springs to South St. Petersburg in Florida.

A bike path in sunny Florida is certainly something to dream about for someone who lives in the Pacific Northwest. But according to the conservancy, this trail has more going for it than the weather.

The trail passes through parks populated by waterfowl and trees heavy with Spanish moss. It parallels the Gulf Coast and crosses several tidal waterways...   more »

A newly opened pedestrian bridge in the Salt Lake Valley will enable cyclists to cross between two bike trails that had been separated by a six-lane Interstate 215 in Utah.

The 280-foot steel-truss bike and hike bridge was opened Friday. Costing $3.5 million, it connects the Bonneville Shoreline Trail in the east to the Jordan River Trail to the west over Parley's Trail.

Known as Parley's Crossing, it was originally envisioned as a tunnel under the freeway. ...   more »

Blue Eyed Fawn at flickr.com

It seems fitting that the 225-mile Katy Trail in Missouri should be named to the Rail-Trail Hall of Fame during the same year as the inaugural run of the Tour of Missouri bicycle race.

The crushed limestone bike and hike trail stretches nearly across the state, between St. Charles, on the outskirts of St. Louis, to Clinton in the west. It's used by local recreational cyclists to stretch their legs or touring bicyclists who jump off the trail to taste the local culture along the way.

The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy has begun honoring the best 25 bike and hike trails in the US, a five-year task ...   more »

Bruce Friedland at bpfphotography
Mountain Thunder runs alongside Allegheny Highlands trail

It will be lung power vs. coal power when the Western Maryland Wheelmen challenge the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad's Mountain Thunder on Oct. 13.

The 16-mile race from the Cumberland to Frostburg train stations pits man and machine on the Allegheny Highlands trail and the adjacent tracks of the scenic railroad. Along the way, the route gains 1,300 feet of elevation.

While the bicycle races will be struggling up the grade under their own power, they have an advantage in knowing that the locomotive will pulling 8 or 9 railroad cars filled with passengers and cannnot exceed 20 mph...   more »

I was rewarded with a quite a shock recently when I stumbled across the Preston-Snoqualimie bike trail while bicycling in eastern King County.

On bicycle maps, the trail looks like it doesn't go anywhere, ending at a dead end in the forest. But that dead end affords a spectacular view across the Snoqualmie Valley to Snoqualmie Falls and the Salish Lodge against the backdrop of Mount Si.

The 5-mile rail-to-trail is part of the old Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railroad. It was built in 1890 and abandoned in 1974. I encountered as many day hikers as cyclists on this trail. ...    more »

East Lake Sammamish Trail

Regional bike trails in Seattle's King County won big in measures on Tuesday's ballot.

Two propositions to raise $108.5 million each over six years for maintenance and expansion of parks and regional trails won easily.

The East Lake Sammamish River Trail will be one of the big benefactors of the funding. The 11-mile chipped limestone rail-to-trail project that opened in March 2006 connects Redmond and Issaquah. It will be upgraded and paved ...   more »

The province of Quebec is opening the longest network of bicycle paths in North America with the ribbon-cutting of La Route Verte this month.

Under development since 1995, the Green Route stretches from one end of the French-speaking province to the other. It encompasses 2,695 miles of bike lanes, trails, and abandoned railway right-of-ways that touch 320 towns and cities.

Bicycle tourists can take short tours from base cities, or do the entire route from the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region in the west to the spectacular Gaspe Peninsula in the east. The route brushes the US for access from New York, Vermont and Maine....   more »

Lake Forest Park, a town just north of Seattle, has been informed that it can't block needed improvements to the popular Burke-Gilman bike trail.

The Central Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board, siding with the Cascade Bicycle Club, ruled this week that the bike trail is "an essential regional public facility" and Lake Forest Park can't pass a law that would block improvements on it.

This is great news for the more than 1,000 cyclists who use the trail that runs from the Ballard Locks on Puget Sound to the Sammamish Trail in Redmond, some 27 miles away. The county plans to widen the trail to 18 feet, from its present 10 feet, to make it safer for cyclists and pedestrians ...   more »

Pinch me; I must be dreaming.

The East Coast Greenway Alliance has a job opening for a bicyclist to field-check the 1,250-mile route from Calais, Maine, to Washington DC this summer.

The candidate must have road bicycle experience and be prepared to ride 40 to 50 miles a day while collecting data. The route-checker will spend several days at a time travelling the route and can expect to camp or use hostels to get the most out of the fixed stipend. ...   more »

“I’ve ridden bicycles for years and have been taken off Route 1 once in a helicopter and twice in ambulances as a result of biking accidents with vehicles."

Delaware Environmental Control Secretary John Hughes ...   more »

The federal government is asking states to return a record $3.47 billion in transportation funding, and two groups that advocate for bicycles and trails want to make sure that funding for bike facilities aren't hit the hardest.

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (they've assisted with 13,000 miles of rail-to-trail projects) and Thunderhead Alliance (bicycle and pedestrian advocacy groups) sent out alerts regarding the federal rescission order from the US Department of Transportation.

States can choose what programs they want to cut, the groups warn, and as they often protect their highway programs, they cut from funds that support bicycling and pedestrian projects. ...   more »

Two possible rail-to-trail projects are on the drawing boards in Washington state -- one in scenic northeastern Washington and another in the traffic-choked Seattle suburbs.

One could be a nationwide draw to bicycle tourists who could pick up the trail near Republic and follow the Kettle River 28 miles north to the Canadian border. The other could serve as a north-south bike commuter path from Renton to the Snohomish county line, 33 miles away.

Kettle Falls railroad

The proposed rail-trail in eastern Washington's Ferry County would be the first in the West to connect to Canada's rail-to-trail network ...   more »