Miami Valley RailTrails Newsletter September 2007

Miami Valley RailTrails Newsletter
September 2007

It’s Monday 17 September 2007. Here is the news about trails in the Miami Valley. Please read on.

Trail Construction and Improvements.	Website Changes and Improvements
Photos & Information Wanted Section	Did You Know Department
Announcements of Upcoming Cycling Events	Webpage of the Month

Trail Construction and Improvements

Mountain Biking Comes to Dayton- Five Rivers MetroParks has built a mountain biking track at Huffman MetroPark in Riverside. See Ken McCall's article titled: Mountain biking arrives in Dayton. Also see the link above or here to MoMBA (MetroParks Mountain Biking Area). The facility opened Saturday 15 September 2007.
Xenia - Jamestown Connector to start Construction - I was told recently that that the bridges from Jamestown East to the Fayette County line, on the new section of the trail are completed. Construction will start soon and is planned to be completed before the end of 2007. This 4.3 mile addition to the trail will make it 12 miles long when finished this Fall 2007.
Trail Construction in Troy Started - I am told that the "stakes are in" for the trail in the flood plain from Market Street in downtown Troy to Riverside Drive. The new one mile trail will augment the existing trail on the levee next to where the Troy Strawberry Festival is held. This construction will be completed this year; 2007.
New Trail Construction in Dayton - For some time, Five Rivers MetroParks has planned to close the gap between the Great Miami River Recreation Trail (GMRRT) in downtown to the trail at Taylorsville MetroPark. The trail currently ends at Triangle Park in downtown Dayton. Construction has started on this 7.5 mile link between downtown and the existing trail, presently called the Great Miami River Recreation Trail (Northern Segment ) in Huber Heights. This work will be completed in 2008.
Construction Begins on the Prairie Grass Trail - Construction will start in October on the 6.5 miles of trail from downtown London at Maple Street East to Wilson Road. This trail had previously been paved in gravel but now Madison County has funds to pave the trail in asphalt. When completed this trail will end 2 miles from the Franklin County (Columbus) border. Then it will be up to the Columbus and Franklin County MetroParks organization to continue to Ohio To Erie Trail through Franklin County.
Union City Gateway Construction Starts - I was told that construction will begin soon on the trail that starts in Union City, Ohio (Darke County) and runs across the state line to Union City, Indiana (Randolph County). The plan is to complete this one mile segment of trail in 2007. While this trail is not long, it marks the start of what I am starting to call the "Ohio - Indiana Trail."
Construction on the Wolf Creek Recreation Trail - In Spring 2008 the City of Brookville will build a 3,000 foot spur from the trail into Golden Gate Park in the city. This construction which will cost $156K will provide better connectivity to the parking, water and restrooms in the park for trail users from the city of Brookville and through users.

Website Changes and Improvements

Union City Gateway Page - I attended a meeting in Union City, Indiana 15 August chaired by the Rails To Trails Conservancy (Midwest Office). This one mile trail is to be built in 2007. As I said above, the trail is important to mark the beginning of trails that cross the Ohio and Indiana border. I added a webpage to this website to mark the event and will update it as necessary.
What's New Page - I know I should have this under "Webpage Of The Month" below, but I wanted to put it here. Every time I make a substantial change to a webpage, I put it on my What's New? page. If you want to know what has been changed or improved on this website, that's where you should go first.

Photos & Information Wanted Department

None this month.

Did you Know Department?

New Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission (MVRPC) Bike Map Available in 2008 - For some time I have been working with MVRPC as well as representatives from Montgomery, Greene, Miami and Clark counties to develop a successor to the very popular Miami Valley Recreational Trails Map that was released in 2005. Since many trails have been built since that date and many more are in advanced planning, it was decided to release the map again in early 2008. On it you'll see all of the built trails and all those planned to be built by 2011. You can still download the old map or portions of it from the MVRPC webpage link above.

Announcements of Upcoming Events

See Upcoming Events Area

Webpage of the Month

This is a new area of the month events page. Here each month I'll tell you about a page on this website that you may have never seen.
- This Month's Page is the Table of Contents Page - How many of you look at the Table of Contents page of a book before you read it? I do it sometimes, to get an idea of what the author is going to tell me. As the old preacher once said when asked about how he constructed his sermons, "First I tell them what I'm going to tell them, Them I tell them the lesson, and then I tell them what I just told them." In the same way, if you are told something three times, perhaps you'll remember it. So a review of my Table of Contents is instructive. On the left side of the page are all the trails that I report on in alphabetic order. You'll notice that some of them are not built, but are only in some stage of planning. You will not find those trails on my Home Page since they are only planned. Next to the alphabetical list, is the trail that this one connects to or a list of the trail segments. Take a look at the Little Miami Scenic Trail in the list. You will note that I have 10 webpages for this trail. To the right are other pages on the website that are important to you. So. Take a look at my Site Map , which is a Internet term for a Table of Contents. You may learn something!

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 Miami Valley Trails System, the wonderful system of multi-use trails in Southwest Ohio. Then they can write me and get on the mailing list to get their own copy of this newsletter. Our trail system is wonderful for walking, running, in-line skating, birding, fishing and cycling and on some trails 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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