Rails to Trails junky
 

I'm wondering if there is anyone else like me out there.

I'm lucky to live where I do. Western, PA near Pittsburgh. There are so many rails to trails within 45 minutes of my house. I work 5 minutes from one too. Miles and miles of bike trails, one I can get 60 miles on without touching a road, another I can do 60 miles on with a few miles of country roads. Many other places were I can do 20-40 miles without touching a road.

These trails have all matured in the past two years and they will only get longer in the years to come. I estimate by 2010 I'll be able to ride from my house (Beaver Falls, PA) to Cleveland, OH all on trails.

I can already ride from Pittsburgh to Washington dc almost completely on trails. I did get to ride form Cumberland, MD to Washington DC this summer...what a great ride.

I'm spoiled now, I used to ride exclusively on country roads. Now I don't want to ride anything unless it's a rail trail. Anyone else out there like me?

I have been wanting to do the DC to Pittsburgh ride since I heard about it. Where can I find info on it, and do you mind sharing details on your experience?

I think that is unique to the states. We have no rails to trails. But I have endless trails anyways, those would just get in the way :) Sounds like a great idea though

Man, and for a while I actually started to forget about the sad state of our rails to trails. Now that you bring it up, it sucks. They started digging up the rails like 5 years ago, and have since run out of time or interest or something. I have to ride about a half hour to get to the closest paved trails and they only go for a mile of pavement at a time. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

They are a great idea that has not really gotten going in my city. Houston was once the "hub" of a system of train tracks heading in every direction. Most of them are now abandoned. Unfortunately, the owners keep claiming to have other ideas for the land. Potential tollways, commuter trains. Of course, if more people were riding bikes, there might not be as much need for more tollways.

I've been fortunate enough to have lived in areas with pretty good rail-to-trails. I grew up in the Chicagoland area and even during the 80s we were blessed with some good trails. I hear they've now expanded and interconnected the trail system into one huge network. It's pretty impressive. I now live in the Seattle area and we have some good trails too although we have wonderful roads as well. When I do get an itching to ride the rail-to-trails, I've found some very pleasant ones.

Many people criticise the rail-to-trails for not going exactly where they want them to go. Many of these people are commuters and ride for more practical purposes. However, if you're out there just to take in the scenery and enjoy riding your bike then I find no problems with rail-to-trails save one... congestion. Sometimes during the summer months especially, the trails become so clogged with slow-moving and erratic traffic (cycling and non-cycling) that they become an annoyance. This usually occurs more on the paved urban trails. Some of the more remote trails on the other hand aren't ever nearly as crowded.

I live 2 miles from Missouri's KATY trail. It's over 200 miles long so I can basically ride until I think that I'm half tired and then turn around to find out how well I gauged it. I've made some bad calls!

Honestly, other than being convenient, the KATY trail isn't my favorite ride. It's table top flat so the terrain never changes. In the section near where I live in St. Peters, other than a nine mile wooded section, the scenery doesn't change very much either.

DC to Pittsburgh has two sectons. Currently, there is a ~20 mile missing link between Frostburg MD and Meyersdale Pa. The whole trail distance when complete in 2006 will be ~400 miles.

Here is the DC (Georgetown) to Cumberland link... (185 miles)
http://bikewashington.org/canal/

Here is the Allegheny passage Meyersdale Pa to Pittsburgh...
http://www.atatrail.org/ata-home.htm


I really enjoy rail trails, but I find the crushed limestone makes me tired more quickly than if I were riding on asphalt.

The nice thing about long rail trails is that they get pretty remote-- minimizing random child on tricycle hazard.

So I guess I am pretty lucky to live where I do. Thanks for posting those links H23.

here are a few more great rails to trails links for ohio, WV and PA

http://www.dot.state.oh.us/bike/MAPList.htm

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/railtrails/alltrails.asp

http://www.wvrtc.org/links/otherstates.html

As far as congestion goes, I'd have to agree. I do hate that park the most, however that's rarely a problem for me. Its mainly only a problem on the weekends at certain times of the day. So if you're like me, and you ride these trails a lot, you learn when NOT to ride the trails.

If not for the Rails to Trails, we would have few trails in Minnesota.

My favorite Rail to Trail is the Elroy Sparta trail in Eastern Wisconsin. It goes through a few tunnels one of which is 1 km long. It feels refreshing to ride through that cool tunnel on a hot day. My first ride on it was was about 30 years ago. I believe it is the first rail to trail in the country.

The longest tunnel has a slight bend in it so you cannot see the other end and it gets very dark. People are supposed to bring a light but some do not. In the very early days of the trail there was a deer that liked salt and was not afraid of people. More than a few bikers got a freight when this deer sneaked up behind them in the blackness of the tunnel and licked their sweaty necks.
http://www.elroy-sparta-trail.com/

My second favorite is the Root River Trail in southern Minnesota.
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_tra...oot_river.html

Oops. The trail is in western Wisconsin

There has arisen a glitch in the acquisition of rail to trail properties. When the railroads acquired the properties orginally in many places, the deal was that when the lines were abandoned the property would go back to the owners of the adjacent properties. I believe many are waiting to see the outcome of this lawsuit brought by property owners who live along the KATY trail in Missouri. Basically, it means that trail builders would have to compensate the adjacent property owners in some way, probably in $$$$. This ruins the whole idea of free abandoned railroad land to build recreational trails.

Rambo,

Thanks for letting others know how good western PA is for riding. I use the Panhandle Trail as my "gateway" to the west. Though only seven miles completed right now, it does get me past busy roads and onto country riding.

Also, I have to tip my hat to the W&OD trail. Rode it last week from Arlington to Herndon (30 miles each way).

I wouldn't call it a glitch. It's the way it is. However, if rail trail proponents can strike a deal to railbank the rail corridor before the abandonment is complete adjacent property owners have no recourse.

Once a rail line is officially abandoned, adjacent property owners can legally reclaim decades old easements that the RR obtained when building the line. I'm not familiar with the KATY case. Please tell me more. It sounds like a portion of the line is officially abandoned and property owners are claiming back their easements and government is stepping in to prevent their claims. If this is correct, I disagree with this kind of government interference. As much as I am in favor of rail trails and railbanking, once the rail line is abandoned it's game over if the property owners reclaim it.

I am interested in the DC to Pittsburgh trail too! One question, I have never ridden on a rail trail apparently, because I don't know what crushed limestone is :) Is it like riding on gravel or is it more of a hard surface? (Could I do it with 700x35 tires on a hybrid?)

God that brings back memories. I remember living in Chicago and dad taking me and my brother up to Elroy-Sparta for camping and riding. Me and my brother pumping along on our Typhoon and Sting-Ray, Dad on his Purple-Mistake.

I've always wanted to go back and ride it again.

I like the rails to trails. I did an over nite tour in the New River Trail state park in Virginia. I really like the long train tressels. The scenery was beautiful and it was'nt crowded.

My wife and I were in your neck of the woods recently. We were driving down Highway 94 (paralleling the KATY trail) and we noticed that the towns along the KATY in St Charles and Warren County have a bike rental place and (usually next door) a beer joint. Since this happened to be opening day of deer season, the beer joints had large signs out front that said, "Welcome Hunters!" My wife and I decided that it wouldn't be too smart to be on the KATY during deer season, especially in the wooded areas.

I have to agree with you, that except for a couple of stretches of wooded areas and river bluffs, you're mostly looking at bean and corn fields. Our favorite stretch is the one from Rocheport heading east. You are literally within spitting distance of the river. In southern Callaway County (my neck of the woods) there are lots of gravel roads crossing the trail that make for some interesting side trips.

I'd like to do the KATY from end to end some day when I have the time and enogh callouses on my a$$.

Paper Boy

Hey, GeezerGeek, I rode the Elroy-Sparta trail last summer. We started in Sparta rode to Elroy and then back to Sparta - a full day of riding and what a beautiful trail. And I loved those tunnels, especially the longest one. My riding partner wasn't too thrilled - a bit claustrophobic I believe. My family and I are planning a trip to the Root River Trail in the summer. We are looking at possibly staying in Lanesboro so we have two directions to ride. We like to get 50-75 miles in a day. Does that sound like a good plan or shoud we stay somewhere else? By the way, some are campers, I only "camp" in motels so we need an area with both options. Anything you can tell me would be appreciated.

Are the tunnels still unlit? That's my most vivid memory, walking thru those long unlit tunnels.

Walking? Yes, they are unlit and the longest one is very dark in the middle. When I rode it this summer I rode all three tunnels both ways. You only need a few watt light to pick out the crest in the trail, even a AA Maglite works.

All towns along the trail are small. Lanesboro is the largest of the small towns and has the most places to stay because it is a tourist magnet. Many of its buildings are on the national historical registry. Spend some time walking through the shops.

You can find info on places to stay by doing a search. I stayed in a B&B there once. The rooms were all 19th century. For camping they let you stay in the city park. That's were I always stay.

The trail is paved. From Lanesboro if you go west to Fountain you will be going up hill. The last part of that section is the steepest rail trail I have ever been on and always run out of gears on the way back down. You can fly. That end of the trail just ends. If you want to go to fountain you have to turn left on the county road and go about a half mile. There was a store there that served hard ice cream.

From lanesboro you will be going down hill if you go east. It is gradual but will leave you with an uphill climb home. If you time your trip right you can take the family during one of the festivals that go on. Once we saw a women riding a buffalo in a parade during Buffalo Bill Days. The last time we rode the trail new businesses were starting up in several of the small towns. For example a person was selling massages to bikers in the town of Whalan. This entire area always surprises me. Here is a map of the trail with a mileage chart: http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/maps/st...s/tra00730.pdf Have fun.

Here is an excerpt from this webpage about rail banking legal issues
http://commdocs.house.gov/committees...u80320_0.htm#2

Litigation over these rail corridors generally takes one of three forms. A number of plaintiff's attorneys have filed class-action suits in many states arguing that under that state's law, for a particular rail corridor, all the land acquired by the railroad was an easement, that the railroad has abandoned those easements, and that the land should ''revert'' back to the adjacent landowners. These cases are primarily litigated in state courts and depend on a close reading of the 19th-century deeds in light of railroad statutes of the time, and current cases on whether it is permissible, under that state's laws, to shift the use of a railroad easement from rails to highways, canals, trails, or other public uses. They also analyze the state's rules on abandonment to determine if a shift from a railroad use to a trail use itself works an abandonment of the railroad's property rights. And the states are split in the way they have resolved these cases, some stating that the shift in use from railroad to trails is not an abandonment of the railroad easement, while others have held that the shift is an abandonment. The outcome of these cases is important to the outcome of the federal litigation, because whether or not a taking is found to have occurred depends on whether there are recognizable state property rights in these abandoned rail corridors.

The second set of class-action cases are against the telecom and cable companies alleging that the railroads did not have the legal authority to allow utility access on functioning and abandoned railroad corridors. These cases are essentially about how each state defines a railroad easement, and whether that definition permits the apportionment of the easement for non-railroad public uses. Again, however, the first question is necessarily determining what parcels of corridor land the railroad owns in fee, and therefore may apportion, and those which it owns only in easement, and may not be able to apportion to other users. These cases are also relevant to the federal cases because some of the railbanked corridors may have utility easements running along the trail.

The third set of cases focus exclusively on the railbanking statute and allege that the statute is an unconstitutional exercise of Congressional power and that its effects work a taking of the fee owner's property interests. The Supreme Court answered the first question in Preseault v. U.S., 494 U.S. 1 (1990), holding that the statute was a legitimate exercise of federal authority under the Commerce Clause. But the Court remanded the question of whether the statute worked a taking in that particular instance to the Court of Claims for review under the Tucker Act. After lengthy litigation and appeals, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that the U.S. had ''taken'' the Preseault's land for a trail when it railbanked the old corridor. Preseault v. U.S., 100 F.3d 1525 (Fed. Cir. 1996). Judge Plager's ill-reasoned decision, however, held that the railroad easement had been abandoned under state law BEFORE ICC abandonment was sought, federal jurisdiction was lifted, and the corridor was railbanked. Thus, he held that a new property right was taken, a recreational trail easement, which required compensation.

The NCR Rail Trail in Timmonium MD is a "fine" packed limestone surface. I have ridden on it with a road bicycle and tubular tires there is some vibration but tolerable. It's better on a MTB Bicycle or Hybrid such as your's

I ride every morning at 7:30am on the Schuykill River Trail and it's very scenic and pleasant. We had a bit of rain over the weekend and the last two days I have seen a crew (Are two guys a crew?) at different points of the trail cleaning up debris that has washed onto the trail each day. I make it a point to slow down to a crawl and say "Thank You" every morning. They probably think I'm a whacko, all dressed up in tights, booties, balaclava and MX Zero cycling mittens...but I am really grateful that someone is keeping the 10 foot wide smooth asphalt trail so clean! :) Not to mention that I live two blocks from the trail and only half a block from the one of the best Mountain Biking trails around, The Wissahickon Trails ... Now all I have to do is take up Mountain biking! :)