Miami Valley RailTrails Newsletter March 2005

Miami Valley RailTrails Newsletter
March 2005

It’s March 25 and it's SPRING! And I have news for you about Southwest Ohio's trails.

Beavercreek Trail Connector Construction - This spur North from the Creekside Trail is 9,000 feet long and its terminus is Community Park (Angels Pass). It is managed by Beavercreek Township Park District. This trail spur will be complete to Rotary Park by early Summer 2005. I understand that the signal where the trail crosses Dayton-Xenia Drive is complete. It tells cyclists how many seconds they have to cross the road. Once your cross Dayton-Xenia Drive your turn right on the existing bike path which has been updated and continue on to Rotary Park . Plans are to extend this trail into the Hunter's Ridge Common Area sometime in the future.
Pedalopolis I added a link to this site on my Hot List of Links page. . Pedalopolis is a free, member-driven online community for those who enjoy cycling in Southwest Ohio. This site features Trail Watch, a way to track condition of the cycling trails and report this to other readers.
Mad River Recreation Trail - I've added a map that shows the North Findlay Street bridge crossing the trail and the Mad River. I added the detour information that the bridge will be out from January 2005 to June 2006 but that there is a detour. I was there recently, mid March and saw no detour signs. If you are traveling West from Eastwood MetroPark to downtown Dayton the trail is at the same grade as East Monument Ave. so you can get off the trail and ride down East Monument Ave. until you get to the construction. Once you cross North Findlay St. watch for a ramp back to the trail. I presume that this will be the planned detour.
How This Website Gets Updated? - Recently a reader asked me why I didn’t have a date on each page of the website in order to tell my readers when each page was updated? I wrote him several emails in reply and after I had answered his questions and I thought that my readers might like to know something of the process.

I make changes all the time. Many are small cosmetic changes such as word or punctuation changes .Some involve new copy or new pictures. Sometimes I write a new page in order to explain a new trail. I have a “revised date” at the bottom of the Home Page. Anytime I make a change to my website I update the “revised date”. That tells me and my readers that the site was updated as of this date. If the revision is moderate to major I add a change to the “What’s New” page and I may include the information in my Monthly Newsletter which you are reading now. See the next article below for current changes to the website.

I don’t put dates on the pages of the website because if I were to put a date on a page and that page was not updated for two years people would look at the two year old date at the bottom of the page and think:

“Well, this page must be completely out of date. Look at the ‘revised date’ at the bottom of the page.”

When in fact nothing has happened to that trail in the last few years and the data is completely up to date. In order to keep this website updated I write emails to those who have information about trail developments. This includes park district personnel as well as county officials. I attend meetings of county trail developers. I call people. I read the Dayton Daily News carefully to see it there is any trail update information that I can report on. I do all of this to make my website the best and most up to date site on multi-use trails in the area.

Website Updates - Updates to Master List of Ohio Trails I have started updating the master list of trails that can be found by clicking on “Resources” on the Home Page and then by clicking on “ Complete Ohio Trails List (Alphabetical)”. The list is also broken out by sections within Ohio and then by County. That is the next pick down on the same drop down menu. It’s called “Ohio Trails List (By County with Maps).” The list attempts to provide information on every trail in Ohio with links to the supporting organization or to the trail website itself if available. You can go directly to:
- Complete Ohio Trails List (Alphabetical) or
- Ohio Trails List (By County with Maps)
Regional Trails and Greenways Symposium - This important meeting will be held in Cincinnati Friday 22 April 2005 from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM at the Montgomery Inn Banquet Center , 601 Pete Rose Way in Cincinnati . Those who should attend include trail users and their proponents, elected officials, business and civic leaders, planners and engineers. For more information:
see: www.ohioriverway.org For questions about this meeting please contact : Wes Gimbert
Cincinnati Bike/PAC Trail Coordinator at 'ngimbert@cinci.rr.com'

Regards to all,

Thomas J. Recktenwalt
Webmaster
Miami Valley RailTrails
http://www.miamivalleytrails.org

If you find these newsletters and my Miami Valley RailTrails website of use to you, please pass the information on to your friends and neighbors who might enjoy our wonderful system of multi-use trails in Southwest Ohio. They are wonderful for walking, running, roller-bladeing, birding and cycling and in some cases horseback riding. You see more wildlife from one of our trails than most anyplace else. All of my newsletters are posted to my website at the same time I send you this text version. The URL for your use is: http://www.miamivalleytrails.org/join_our_mailing_list.htm

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