Little Miami Scenic Trail is Trail of the Month for December

Trail of the Month: December 2009
Ohio's Little Miami Scenic Trail

Before the railroads reached Xenia, Ohio, locals had to depend on turnpikes and other back roads for travel between nearby communities. Those often unreliable routes made commerce a real slog in wet weather and icy winters. But after the Little Miami Railroad arrived in 1845, Xenia suddenly found itself fluidly connected to markets in Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton and beyond. Trains through town shuttled everything from Civil War recruits and ammunition to farm goods and faraway passengers. On a map, Xenia looked like the hub of a great bicycle wheel, with rail spokes shooting out in from almost every direction.

By 1984, the last of those tracks had fallen out of service and into silence. Yet that spider web of unused corridors left the perfect blueprint for a rail-trail revival. Over the next 25 years, with the cooperative effort of towns and counties along the route, as well as the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (DNR), rail-trail supporters built the region into a recreational powerhouse.

The north-south spoke through Xenia gradually grew into the backbone of this trail network. Opened in 1997 and now running 78 miles from Springfield southwest to the outskirts of Cincinnati, the paved Little Miami Scenic Trail is now one of the most recognizable and well-integrated rail-trails in the country. It incorporates more than a dozen communities, and like a mature vine the pathway has planted deep roots. Each stop and station along the route sprouted bicycle shops and ice cream parlors, bed-and-breakfasts and local festivals. Trail users feel cared for and catered to, treated to Midwest charm with big city ease—and the result is one highly popular pathway.

"Whether you're a novice rider or a road warrior, it's perfect," says Chrisbell Bednar, director of Greene County Parks, which manages about 14 miles of the trail surrounding Xenia. "People build vacations around this trail."

Mile 0 fittingly begins in Xenia, and you'll quickly understand the town's billing as the "Bicycle Capital of the Midwest." From the parking lot of Xenia Station, you can veer northeast to London on the Prairie Grass Trail, west to Dayton on the Creekside Trail, or directly east on the Jamestown Connector Trail. "We're real proud of the trails we have in Greene County," says Bednar. "It's kind of like our interstate recreational trails system."

Bednar says the trail has been incredibly fortunate to have sturdy political and public backing. Indeed the Little Miami Scenic Trail has thrived in no small part because of an exceptionally active coalition of supporters—folks who've been as willing to chip in financially as roll up their sleeves for maintenance.

In 2008, when Hurricane Ike pressed into Ohio, the storm snarled trees up and down the pathway. The Ohio DNR manages more than 50 miles of the trail as the Little Miami State Park, and that stretch included some of the hardest-hit areas. But the state didn't have the budget or resources to clear the pathway right away, says Alan Ferguson, assistant park manager for Ohio State Parks. Local businesses didn't want to wait and lose important customers, so they quickly organized the Friends of the Little Miami State Park and rallied volunteers almost overnight. Within a matter of days, says Ferguson, they managed to re-open the trail. "They've been just wonderful in garnering support and goodwill."

That level of volunteer dedication is hardly unusual on the Little Miami Scenic Trail. Perhaps the most vigorous contribution has come from Tom Recktenwalt, who has spent the last 12 years cataloguing Ohio's rail-trail progress from the seat of his bicycle.

Recktenwalt remembers searching in vain for some online information about the Creekside Trail in the 1990s. Not finding any, he decided to produce his own. Recktenwalt bought two bikes, a pair of helmets and a bike rack and started touring local pathways with his wife. He has since volunteered countless hours exploring trails in southwest Ohio, taking meticulous notes and more than 6,000 photos along the way. You can find all of Recktenwalt's play-by-play trail accounts on his website, Miami Valley RailTrails, which he has maintained since 1997.

What attracts such committed supporters, of course, is precisely what draws visitors from all over the state and country. In the course of 78 miles, trail users get to cruise a continuous, well-maintained, largely shaded and cool route—including a gradual downhill grade heading south from Springfield. They get to enjoy the Little Miami National Scenic River, as well. as protected wildlife areas and an Ohio countryside of grassy pastures, wildflowers, farmsteads, soybean and corn fields. They get to explore quaint downtowns, sample trailside ice cream parlors or stock up within feet of the pathway.

There's a little of everything, really, and what you get from the trail could change with every visit. So whether you're into birding or biking, ambling or antiquing, the Little Miami Scenic Trail has a way of feeling tailor-made just for you.

For more information, photos and user reviews of the trail, or to post your own comments, please visit TrailLink.com.

Check out Cincinnati's Bicycling Report Card

http://www.soapboxmedia.com/devnews/1201bicyclingreportcard.aspx?utm_campaign=Cityview&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=VerticalResponse&utm_term=City%20gets%20a%20%22C%22%20on%20first-ever%20Bicycling%20Report%20Card%20but%20real%20opportunity%20exists%20for%20improvement

Miami Valley Trails November Newsletter

http://www.miamivalleytrails.org/MVRT%20-November%202009.htm

Ohio River Trail Update – Fall 2009

The goal of connecting the Ohio River with the Great lakes with a 453-mile bike/hike trail in the next decade is making steady progress in communities throughout Ohio. To date 262 miles are completed and 54 under construction. The most difficult section to complete of course is in Cincinnati, from Lunken to downtown.

Taking the leadership on the Little Miami Trail, Jack Sutton, Director of the Hamilton County Park District is in the planning/engineering phase on the extension of the Little Miami Trail from Newtown to Beechmont and will start construction within the year. Jack is currently working on securing the balance of the funds for the Beechmont to Salem section and a State Capital Grant of $1 million has jumped started the effort.

Wym and Jan Portman are leading Ohio River Trail private sector campaign to raise $3 million for downtown to Lunken. To date $1.1 million has been pledged. And, at this time there are three sections of the Ohio River Trail being managed by the City of Cincinnati that are moving forward. They include the following. The Elm Street to Main section is currently being built as part of the relocation of Mehring Way. The second section from Wilmer to Carrel Street is scheduled to be constructed next year. Finally, the Lunken/Wilmer to Salem section will take about 2 years for the environmental phase and an additional two years for the design and construction phase to be completed in 2013.

Assisting with all the legal and political challenges of the trail are Jeff Schloemer, Bruce Petrie and Rick Greiwe. The downtown to Carrel Street section will be built on an abandoned line in the Oasis Rail Corridor. SORTA has worked out a lease agreement with the Hamilton County Park District to manage the construction and to operate and maintain the trail. This agreement will be renewable on an annual basis. State and Federal transit authorities want to keep all the options open for future passenger rail therefore the trail is considered “temporary.”

The Oasis Corridor is approximately 50FT wide, which is generally enough real estate to accommodate both rail and trail in the future. The lease for the temporary trail still has to be approved by the Federal authorities.

Fortunately there are many examples of transit corridors that accommodate Rails with Trails and the Ohio River Way team will continue to push forward with their mission to leverage the recreational qualities of the Ohio River which is our region’s most valuable natural resource.

Rails to Trails Newsletter

Please check out the latest newsletter from Rails to Trails. Lots of great information and updates about what's happening in the trail world.

http://www.miamivalleytrails.org/MVRT%20-September%202009.htm

TRANSPORTATION IN CINCINNATI, OHIO PROVIDED BY CINCINNATI BIKE/PAC

Did you know...

• According to the Bureau of Labor & Statistics in 2006, 23.8% of residents of Cincinnati did not have access to a private automobile.

• According to the same source, average cost of private car ownership per household in the United States including parking, gas, finance costs, insurance and maintenance was $8,608.

• Over the past three decades, adult obesity has doubled and childhood obesity has tripled.

• 26.6% of greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation in Cincinnati. According to the Climate Protection Plan adopted in 2008, the city’s goal is to reduce those emissions by 40% by 2028.

• We also understand that average folks will not start to use their bikes as a form of transportation until they feel safe - which means segregated paths like they have in Xenia and Marietta and Dayton and Yellow Springs and Athens and all the other cities and towns in our state that have made significant progress in encouraging alternative transportation choices.

• Cincinnati Bike/PAC supports the Ohio River Trail as a healthy, affordable and essential transportation choice for the citizens of our city.

LETTERS OF SUPPORT FOR THE OHIO RIVER TRAIL

OHIO RIVER TRAIL NEEDS LETTERS OF SUPPORT!


The Ohio River Trail could use your help with Letters of Support for the trail. Many of you are already aware of our fundraising campaign and that $12 million dollars has already been identified to build the trail. To complete the fundraising campaign we must raise $4 million in addition to the $12 million from private donations.


To help raise these final dollars we are applying for grants that specifically target hike & bike trails. Some of these grants would like to see letters of support from local businesses and residents to show how the trail will help their businesses and impact the region.

Our goal is to collect as many trail support letters to show how the trail will impact the community, the region and local businesses and tell the story regarding why it is important to get it done now.


Please help us get the trail built! If you decide to write a letter of support, please address your letter to The Ohio River Trail Project and answer one or all of the following questions:




1. How the trail will increase/impact bicycle ridership in the area and the region.


2. How the trail will impact small businesses. If you own a business, describe how it will affect your business.


3. Why you think it is important to build the trail now and how it will improve the quality of life for local residents.



Send your letters on letterhead, stationary or just on regular paper. You can email them to me at tlubic@gmail.com or you can mail them to: The Ohio River Way, PO Box 43261, Cincinnati, OH 45243. Thanks so much for your support.