Trail news from Kansas and mid-America:
- Phase 3 of the Prairie Spirit Trail is scheduled to open June 7th, in conjunction with National Trails Day. With the completion of the final section, Kansas’s longest rail-trail is now 51 miles in length, extending from Ottawa in the north to Iola in the South.
- Volunteers Develop Recreational Area: “Without proposing a tax increase or increasing the mill levy, residents of many communities might dismiss the idea of developing a new recreational area. But not in Melvern, Kansas, pop. 435, where volunteers working on behalf of the community have planted 65 trees, built a 20-foot-long walking bridge across a ravine, cleaned up 40 acres of abandoned land, and developed seven miles of hiking, biking and walking trails.”
- At Devil’s Den State Park in Arkansas, erosion from heavy spring rains have destroyed parts of the Fossil Flats trail. The goal is to have the trail fixed by Sept. 13, when the Northwest Arkansas Mountain Bike Championships are sceduled to take place at the park (more).
- Over at Two Wheel Blogs, g-wiz has a ride report from the 2008 Syllamo’s Revenge Mountain Bike Challenge at Mountain Home, Arkansas: “this was the hardest race, hardest ride, hardest effort I’ve ever put out in my entire life.”
- In Colorado, Pitkin County and the town of Carbondale expect the Colorado Department of Transportation to approve plans for a 5.3-mile segment of the Crystal Valley Trail, a proposed bike path along the Crystal River and Highway 133, which is ultimately hoped to extend for 74 miles, connecting Carbondale to Crested Butte.
- Also in Colorado, the Rio Grande Trail is nearly finished, and a grand opening for the trail is planned on July 19th.
- In Colorado Springs, Colorado: New trail gives biking enthusiasts a place to play with a recently-finished mountain bike trail in Bear Creek Park. (more).
- The Tri-State Trails Tour takes place May 17th on the extensive network of trails in the Sioux City, Iowa area, venturing into Nebraska and South Dakota as well.
- In St. Joseph, Missouri, their mountain bike trails grow miles longer every year, due to volunteers with a passion for pedaling: St. Joseph cyclists making off-road progress. The St. Joseph trails have received some good reviews, and play host to the Robidoux Roundup mountain bike race this weekend.
- A trail system is in the works in Hannibal, Missouri, the hometown of Mark Twain.
- Bridge for sale? discusses proposed plans to dismantle the historic Booneville railroad bridge on Missouri’s Katy Trail, and efforts to save it.
- In Central City, Nebraska, trail planners seek another route after the Central Platte Natural Resources District’s rejection of an agreement to develop an eight-mile trail south of Central City. The Nebraska Trails Foundation currently owns the trail, but it must be owned by a government entity in order to qualify for a grant that would help pay for its development costs. So the project’s planners are now looking for another public body to take control of it and make the trail a reality.
