I just picked up cycling again and got wind of this - incredibly exciting! I live down in the SMART train area, Cloverdale to Golden Gate North which is the bottom end of the GRT. Good news is this is already funded, and much of it is done, and this is maybe the hardest part since it goes through the population centers? Above Cloverdale its mostly open country I think, anyhow should be a simpler problem once the red tape is cleared through.

Anyhow SMART is funded by our taxes, originally it was to have a dedicated bike lane the whole way, but they had a second funding vote which lost, so they decided to do a combination of dedicated trail which hooks into existing trail and street bike lanes. Long story short, by next year more sections will be done and others going north will be in the design phase, I believe it’s all funded. So, if you want to ride a decent portion of the trail you can do so within the next two years. Cloverdale to SF Bay is what, a good 90-120 miles or something.

Gravel is just fine with me. Asphalt is a huge cost and logistical issue, and it needs a gravel base anyhow unless you want it to fall apart in a few years. The smart move is to put gravel in, and let communities asphalt local sections of the money and interest is there.