Three Counties Trail

Three Counties Trail
(Nominal Name until trail is named formally)
Trail is In Planning Stage

Three Counties Trail - This trail has been in planning for some years to connect Montgomery County's trail to Greene and Clark County. From Eastwood MetroPark a trail will be constructed along the Norfolk Southern right of way Northeast to Huffman MetroPark. At that point the long planned T- Connector will take the trail either under State Route 444 to the Wright Brothers Memorial to join the terminus of the Wright Brothers Bikeway that runs along Kaufmann Avenue into Fairborn. The trail will continue East on the Wright Brothers Bikeway almost to its current end at the YMCA in downtown Fairborn.

Here is an Google Earth image of the Huffman Dam area. As you can see State Route 444 runs East to West just South of the Huffman Dam. The tunnel runs on a diagonal from just East of the dam under SR-444 and come out just West of the existing Kaufman Avenue bridge over the Norfolk-Southern RR which ends at SR-444. I have colored the image to help you. The blue segment is the tunnel under SR-444. The red section is the bridge over the NS tracks to connect with the existing Wright Brothers Bikeway at the Wright Brothers Memorial. The yellow segment is the planned trail to East to enter Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and lead to the Wright Brothers Flying Field of the National Park Service. To the West the yellow marks show the trail going under the SR-444 bridges over the Mad River and connecting Eastwood MetroPark about 3 miles to the West.	Click on photo for larger image Blue is the tunnel Red is the new trail to Wright Brothers Bikeway Yellow East is new trail to Wright Brothers Flying Field Yellow West is new Three Counties Trail to Eastwood MetroPark

Click on photo for larger image	Here you can see a photo of SR-444 as it crosses over the Mad River. The black line you see just below the roadway is where the trail to Eastwood MetroPark will go under the Mad River bridges. We are looking West towards Area B of Wright Patterson Air Force Base and Eastwood MetroPark. This is the Yellow marks on the photo above to West.

This photo show a close up of the "black line" mentioned above. This is where the trail will be built up from the Mad River and alongside the Norfolk Southern RR right of way to Huffman Dam and the new tunnel under State Route 444.	Click on photo for larger image

Click on photo for larger image	At left you can see the maintenance road going down and East from the top of the Huffman Dam (see the sign above) to the gate to the base. This road, when improved will take the trail into Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to the National Park Service's Wright Brothers Flying Field. The trail goes by the maintenance building next to the new tunnel. Please see my webpage on the T-Connector ,the bridge and tunnel combination under SR-444, that connects the Wright Brothers Bikeway to Huffman MetroPark for pictures and description of the Wright Brothers Flying Field on Wright Patterson Air Force Base that you can visit on your bicycle.

This photo shows the interior of one half of the tunnel taken looking South from the North side of SR-444. It is about 100' long and lighted within.	Click on photo for larger image

Click on photo for larger image	Here is a longer view of the new tunnel. If you could look to the left of this picture you'd see the maintenance building at Huffman Dam in front of you. SR-444 is above at the fence

After we pass through the tunnel from Huffman MetroPark we come out on the South side of SR-444 which you can see above. We are almost below the signs that direct you left to Springfield Street which takes you to Area B of the base and the Air Force Museum or right to SR-444 "Dayton" which connects to SR-4 and then becomes Valley Street.	Click on photo for larger image

Click on photo for larger image	Looking up the trail from the last photo we see the bridge over the Norfolk Southern tracks with Kaufmann Avenue to left of the photo.

In this picture you are looking West on SR-444. These are the West-bound lanes of the four lane highway. The tunnel is completed under the road. You can see in this photo the new dark black pavement. The tunnel is under this new pavement. The picture was taken just North of SR-444.	Click on photo for larger image

Click on photo for larger image	Here is another view of the North side of the tunnel area taken from the Wright Brothers Memorial on the hill above. In this photo you can see the maintenance building across Sr-444. At the left of the building the trail goes under the road but cannot be seen in this photo.

Beyond the tunnel under SR-444 the new trail is carried on a new bridge over the Norfolk-Southern RR tracks next to the Kaufmann Road bridge over the tracks. Here you can see the almost finished bridge over the tracks. We are looking North and Kaufmann Avenue is on our right.	Click on photo for larger image

Click on photo for larger image	In this photo we show the bridge from the curve where it connects to the existing Wright Brothers Trail alongside Kaufmann Road.

Here is another Google Earth image. It shows almost all of the planned route of the new trail from the T-Connector at Huffman MetroPark West alongside the North side of the Norfolk-Southern RR almost of Eastwood MetroPark. I have colored the route with blue dots. As you can see from the image the trail is North of the railroad right-of-way and then goes just North of the railroad bridge across Springfield Street close to Wright-Patterson's Area "B" main gate. The trail then follows the South side of the river up to Huffman Dam where it will go under SR-444 via a tunnel and over the tracks next to the existing Kaufman Avenue bridge.	Click on photo for larger image

Finally I thought I would give you a link to Yahoo Maps. You can go to the website and see an image of Huffman MetroPark and manipulate the map yourself to see where the tunnel and bridge will go and then look West to Eastwood MetroPark for the trail link to the Mad River Recreation Trail and the Creekside Recreation Trail that meet there.

Just before the trail ends at the "YMCA" in Fairborn, the trail crosses the railroad tracks at South Central Avenue. At that point the trail will cross the tracks and continue on the North side of the Norfolk Southern right of way. The trail will continue until it gets to where the tracks cross Black Lane in the Northeast portion of Fairborn near North Broad Street. At the point the trail will cross the tracks again back to the South side of the railbed and continue to Enon. The trail will be 15.1 miles long when completed.

National Trail Parks and Recreation district in Clark County is planning to carry this new trail North and East to the City of Springfield via the Buck Creek Trail that will be extended South and West to reach Enon.

The City of Riverside is planning for a bicycle trail spur from the Three Counties Trail to their new development called the Center of Flight across the street from the National Museum of the United States Air Force (formerly the Air Force Museum)