What's New in Miami Valley Rail Trails?
There are over 308.8 miles of paved trail
(See Trail List for all Trails and mileage)
 in the Miami Valley (2008) 

The following is a list of the major changes to the Miami Valley RailTrails Web Site, or trail news with the most recent changes shown first.

13 April 2008

• Who Do You Call For Help While On A Trail? - I have added a page to my website with the information you need to have in Greene, Montgomery, Clark, Champaign and Warren Counties, while you are on a trail. You can print it and carry it with you on your bike when you are riding our wonderful trails system. 

03 April 2008 

• Updated Events Page -  I've updated the Bicycling Events page for you with more events including bicycle rides in Yellow Springs ; the Young's Ice Cream Charity Bike Tour and the Greene County Cycling Classic as well as the Troy Classic Bicycle Races and the Calvin's Challenge. Check Them Out!

25 March 2008

• Approved Multi-Use Trail Projects -  I updated the page with the latest round of trail funds from the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission. This means that several more trail projects more closer to be accomplished. 
• Construction on Great Miami River Recreation Trail (Downtown Dayton) - There is more bridge construction on the trail in downtown Dayton. The Monument Avenue Bridge is being replaced starting March 2008. There will be posted detours. There is also construction where I-75 crosses the Great Miami River in downtown Dayton. Both construction projects affect the trail on both sides of the river. 

15 March 2008

• March 2008 Newsletter Now Available -  Monument Street Bridge and Stewart Street Bridge (Dayton) to be replaced, more on Austin Pike relocation project (and trail), Centerville-Washington Parks District gets additional funding for Iron Horse Trail (to be built in 2008), Telephone numbers you can call for emergencies, Upcoming cycling events and this month's featured webpages are the over 20 pages dedicated to the Great Miami River Recreation Trail. 

15 February 2008 

• February 2008 Newsletter Now Available - New signs to be placed on local trails, Austin Pike Meeting 8 March 2008, I-675 Bridge Closer to Funding, Trail Usage Statistics page updated, More on Trail Etiquette, Navigation Menus at bottom of every page for your use, This month's featured webpage is the free Miami Valley RailTrails Screen-Saver which you can download. 

15 January 2008 

• January 2008 Newsletter Now Available -  Information on trail detours caused by road construction; The Tipp City trail is now on contract;  you can visit my Trail  History webpage and new data on the Statistics Page. I see that other communities have trouble building trails and I provide information on Five Rivers MetroParks "Adventure Summit to be held in February at Wright State University. Finally, this month's featured webpage is the Little Miami Scenic Trail webpages. 

13 December 2007

• December 2007 Newsletter Now Available -   Prairie Grass Trail East of London was Dedicated, Washington Street Bridge (Dayton) now open, and the Xenia-Jamestown Connector construction has been slowed. News from Miami County Trail Construction. I have added a new History Page [Unfinished] to the website. The new bicycle trail map will be printed in about three weeks. I appeal to my readers for help keeping the website current and the Rails To Trails Consortium is collecting GPS data for the trails. The webpage of the month is my Navigate By Menu or Navigate By Maps webpages. 

06 December 2007 

• Washington Street Bridge Opens -  The new bridge in downtown Dayton opened with a dedication. This new three lane bridge with sidewalks on each side had been closed for over a year for replacement. For 2008, it will serve as part of the detour when the Stewart Street Bridge (downstream) closes for replacement in June 2008. 

01 December 2007 

• Prairie Grass Trail Paved to Wilson Road -  The Prairie Grass Trail was extended by 6.5 miles of paved trail, from Maple Road in downtown London East to Wilson Road, which is only 2 miles from Franklin County. 

12 November 2007 

• November 2007 Newsletter Now Available -  Construction on the Prairie Grass Trail East of London, Stewart Street Bridge to be replaced in 2008, Huber Heights plans trail through new Carriage Trails Development, Preble County Starts Trail Planning, Union City Gateway Continues Development, New Trail Open In Lawrenceburg, Indiana, Corwin Peddler Has Re-Opened, New Pictures of Xenia-Jamestown Connector, This website is 10 Years Old!, See My What's New Page? 

23 October 2007

• Construction Accelerates on Xenia-Jamestown Connector -  I am informed that the paving of the Xenia-Jamestown Connector has accelerated and that it should be finished before the end of the 2007 construction season. This effort will add 4.3 miles to the trail taking it from it's current Eastern end of Jamestown to the Fayette County line. Since the trail does not terminate at Jamestown the name;  The Xenia-Jamestown Connector, may have to be changed and is presently being considered by Greene County Parks. It is hoped that the Fayette County trail developers especially the Tri-County Trail folks work towards connecting this trail to its county seat; Washington Court House in the near future. 

11 October 2007

• October 2007 Newsletter Now Available  -  Miami Conservancy District is working on the Stillwater River Recreation Trail. There is also a new trail being built from Triangle MetroPark to Taylorsville MetroPark. Downtown Cincinnati may be getting a trail to the Purple People Bridge sooner than expected. Two construction projects in Clark County on the Buck Creek Trail and Prairie Grass Trail. Greene County Parks is seal-coating the Creekside Trail in the county. I've added a lot of new pictures to the new trail connecting Triangle MetroPark in downtown Dayton to Taylorsville MetroPark in Huber Heights. Information about the Miami Valley Trails Page as well as Page of the Month about my list of every trail in Ohio. 

06 October 2007

• New construction on Great Miami River Recreation Trail (Northern Segment) -  Five Rivers MetroParks began construction of the trail to connect Triangle MetroPark, in downtown Dayton, to the existing trail that starts South of Taylorsville MetroPark and runs North to the end of the park on Old Springfield Street. I took 96 pictures on 29 September 2007 that you can see on the page for the trail. The trail is planned to be finished in early 2008, when I will replace these construction pictures with those of a finished trail. 

17 September 2007 

• September 2007 Newsletter Now Available -  Mountain Biking comes to Dayton, Trail Construction has started in Dayton, London, Jamestown, Union City and Troy and will start Spring 2008 in Brookville. I have added a new Union City Gateway page to the website, and soon (2008) you'll be able to get a brand new map of the trails in the Miami Valley. Read all about my Table of Contents Page in my Webpage Of The Month. 

17 August 2007

• New Union City Gateway Page - I have added a new page for the planned "Union City Gateway Trail" that is to be built between Union City, Ohio and Union City, Indiana. This may be the beginning of what I am calling "The Ohio Indiana Trail."

14 August 2007

• August 2007 Newsletter Now Available - I have added the newsletter to the website. It contains information about: The new "T-Connector now brings cyclists to the Wright Brothers Flying Field on WPAFB, the City of Huber Heights and Bethel Township team up to plan new trail, New trail development in Western Ohio. The New Carlisle city fathers finally name their trail, Approved Projects Page Update, Page Updated for trail in Hamilton, Ohio, and the Website breaks one million hits a month (again), 

12 August 2007

• Wright Brothers Flying Field Open To Cyclists - In June 2007 the T-Connector opened, allowing cyclists to cross State Route 444 from the Wright Brothers Bikeway  to Huffman MetroPark. The National Park Service that manages the Wright Brothers Interpretative Center at the Wright Brothers Memorial, was able to get Gate 18C from Huffman MetroPark to the Wright Brothers Flying Field opened so you can ride onto the base. 

02 August 2007 

• Funded Project Page Revised -  I revised this page after reading the 185 page document from MVRPC called the Transportation Improvement Project (TIP). I have tried to give you information on all of our trail projects including the status, the estimated date of completion, the current funding, a description of what work is to be done and finally who is going to do it. I provide links to the trail pages for your continued reading pleasure. I have also added date from the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Council of Governments (OKI) who fund projects in Warren, Hamilton & Clermont counties. 

22 July 2007

• New Page - Great Miami River Recreation Trail (Hamilton) - I have added a new page for the Great Miami River Recreation Trail. As many of you know, it is being extended in stages for 28 miles from Crains Run Nature Park (Dayton), South through Franklin, Middletown to end at Fairfield. This trail is being built by the he cities in the area and with the management of the Miami Conservancy District. 
  
• Wolf Creek Recreation Trail page Updated - I spent some time taking out old pictures and putting on the page new pictures for your viewing pleasure. 

17 July 2007

• July 2007 Newsletter Now Available -  More information on the Xenia - Jamestown connector construction and the Great Miami River Recreation Trail (Northern Segment) construction. Trail plans for the Bellbrook to Spring Valley spur that used to be an "Interurban Railroad: in 1900. The I-675 Crossing page has been improved with new photos and I have added a BikeRadar.com map to my Little Miami Scenic Trail home page. I ask my readers again to read my "Three Counties Trail Must Be Completed" page and to write their representatives. And finally I am asking for someone to photograph the trail in downtown Hamilton, Ohio. 

12 July 2007

• I-675 Crossing Page Improved - I recently took pictures of the vicinity of the planned bridge over I-675 in the vicinity of the Fairfield Commons Mall to be able to explain the planned construction to you. 

23 June 2007

• Revised Iron Horse Trail 1 Page -  I took new pictures of the planned trail in Kettering and Centerville. I have updated the page to show where the trail will connect to the existing trail in Kettering at State Farm Park. There is another possible trail Northeast from Kettering into Oakwood and ending near the University of Dayton campus. 

21 June 2007

• I-675 Crossing - I have added a new page to my website for the "I-675 Crossing." This is the proposed bridge over I-675 in Beavercreek to connect the City of Beavercreek to Wright State University. Please see the webpage for complete details on this great idea!

16 June 2007

• T-Connector Page Updated - I recently took new pictures of the almost finished "T-Connector" (see above for more). I replaced the old construction pictures I had on the page with a finished tunnel under SR-444 and tunnel over the NS tracks to connect to the Wright Brothers Bikeway . I also added the new photos to the Three Counties Trail (Nominal Name) page since the tunnel and bridge are an integral part of the Three Counties Trail. 

15 June 2007

• June 2007 Newsletter Now Available -  "T-Connector" dedication 25 June,  New trail construction in Troy and Tipp City, Xenia-James Connector to grow this Summer, new spurs to connect to the Creekside Trail in Beavercreek, Trail Names change in Piqua, I ask for help to get the Three Counties Trail built,  Changes (soon) to Iron Horse Trail pages, Bike With A Ranger, My article on "T-Connector" is in Fairborn Schools paper. 

19 May 2007

• Xenia-Jamestown Connector Grows – Greene County Recreation & Parks has announced that the 4.3 miles of trail East from Limestone Street (US-72) in Jamestown, the current trail's end, to the Fayette County Line will be completed this Summer (2007). The $536K construction is being funded by grants. When complete the trail will be 12 miles long from Jasper Road to the Fayette County Line. It is hoped that the City of Washington Courthouse can pave the railbed from the county line to the City of Washington Courthouse to join the  Tri-County Triangle Trail that is planned in Fayette, Ross and Highland counties.

16 May 2007

• May 2007 Newsletter Now Available -  Regional/Local Bikeway Plan started in Miami Valley, Data Collection activity for Bikeway Plan starts in Miami Valley, New Iron Horse Trail Page on website and Miami Conservancy Districts new map on the Drive Less Live More website is a Winner! Also new bicycling events in Miami Valley and elsewhere. 

09 May 2007

• New Iron Horse Trail Page -  With the help of Ms. Carol Kennard, Director of the Centerville - Washington Twp. Park District, I have added a new webpage to show where the Iron Horse Trail extension will appear in the City of Centerville. Plans call for engineering in 2007 and construction in 2008. 

15 April 2007

• April 2007 Newsletter Now Available - When you read it you'll find out about: Dayton One Way to Two Way Study continues in Dayton, Mountain Biking Trail in Huffman MetroPark still under construction. The comprehensive bikeways plan being performed by Alta Planning is underway. News of the "T-Connector" bridge and tunnel at Huffman MetroPark and SR-444. I've updated my Trail Usage Statistics page and Website Statistics page. Miami County Parks District is looking for trail volunteers and a restaurant in London changes ownership

10 April 2007

• Web Statistics Page Updated - Every month I update this page which tells me (and you) how many people are looking at this website. I take a great deal of pride in showing that in 2006, for example, this website exceeded 1 million hits a month in July 2006. This data is one indication of usage that the public is making of my website. Any if I didn't have anyone reading this website I would not be keeping it up to date, to say nothing of expanding. it. 

24 March 2007

• Trail Usage Statistics Page Updated -  On this page I provide statistics provided to me by the local Parks Departments. The data shows the number of users on each trail. I am also attempting to collect the economic impact of the trails on our communities. 

16 March 2006

• March Newsletter Now Available -  As many of you know I write a newsletter every month and post it on this website. In it I try to provide information about what new plans for trails or construction is going on in the Miami Valley. I also relate any changes to the website and provide information about cycling events going on soon in the area. If you are not a subscriber just send me an email to tom_ mvrt [at] yahoo [dot] com  If you read my January 2007 newsletter you'd find about:  A new bikeway bridge is in planning to connect Wright State University to the Mall at Fairfield Commons in Greene County. There is planned bike trail construction in Miami County and new planned spurs in Clark County. MVRPC have signed a contract for a trail inventory. Plans have been made to replace two bridges over the trail in downtown Dayton. Also parts of the Little Miami Scenic Trail and Prairie Grass Trails have been designated as a part of the Underground Railway Bicycle Route. Finally the Corwin Peddler in Corwin is re-opening. And there are new cycling events for your reading pleasure. 

14 February 2007

• February Newsletter Now Available -  Trail development in Eastern Indiana may connect with Darke and Preble Counties in Ohio. The Friends of Madison County's Parks and Trail receive additional funding to pave the trail East of town. Cincinnati is working on plans for the Ohio River Trail from Lunken Airport to downtown Cincinnati. I have updated my maps in the list of all trails in Ohio and their is a walk to raise funds for our children's hospital coming up soon. 

06 February 2007

• Trails in Ohio List Updated -  As many of you know I keep an alphabetical list of every trail (that I know of) in Ohio on one webpage. For ease in finding these trails I also have the same list broken down by region of Ohio and County. Please See Counties and Regions in Ohio  to see the map of Ohio. From there you'll choose a region of Ohio and from that page a county that you are interested in. Recently I updated the maps that I use. The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) was kind enough to provide me with new pictures of the various parts of Ohio. 

19 January 2007

• City of Cincinnati Plans Meeting to Discuss Ohio River Trail:  On 25 January 2007 a meeting was held with the Director of Transportation and Engineering and other interested parties to discuss the potential routes for the Ohio River Trail.  This is the planned trail to start at the Village of New Richmond 16 miles East of Cincinnati and run past Lunken Airport to connect with the terminus of the Little Miami Scenic Trail  and will end in downtown Cincinnati to connect with the Purple People Bridge to Newport Kentucky. The City of Cincinnati is working only on the Lunken Airport to downtown portion of this trail. OKI is working to get the rest of the trail built. You might also want to look at the email I posted on my other website inviting all my readers to attend this important meeting. It's titled Invitation to Discuss Planned Ohio River Trail in Cincinnati 25 January 2007

11 January 2007

• January Newsletter Now Available -  New photos of the construction of the T-Connector on that page and the Three Counties Trail page. I've added new pictures and a map provided by Mr. Chad Schroeder,  of the Miami Conservancy District, to my Crains Run to Franklin page and ground was first broken for the new Section 5 of the Great Miami River Recreation Trail in Miami County. I've even included some information about the new trails being planned for your use in the area.  

09 January 2007

• Great Miami River Recreation Trail Section 5 (Miami County) Construction Started  - Construction started on Section 5 of the trail in Miami County, that when completed in 2009, will run from Duke Park in Troy North, past Twin Arches Reserve on County Road at Eldean Road and end at West Peterson Road. There the trail will connect with Section 6 of the trail coming South from Piqua. See the groundbreaking photos as well as photos of the area of Twin Arches. 
  
• T-Connector Page and Three Counties Trail Pages Updated:  I took new photos of the construction going on at the "T-Connector" 24 December, 2006 and added them and new links to Yahoo Maps to both pages. 

02 January 2007

• New Pictures Added to Crain's Run Nature Park to Franklin page   -  In January I added some pictures that I received from Mr. Chad Schroeder a Miami Conservancy District engineer who managed the development of this new 3.7 mile trail. I'll be getting a good topographic map from him soon and  will add it to the page as well. 

12 December 2006

• Three Counties Trail Update
• T-Connector Update - I have updated both pages with the new construction of the T-Connector at Huffman MetroPark. Construction started October 2006 with a planned completion of July 2007. 

10 November 2006

• Ohio Mountain Biking Association - I found about this link recently from a neighbor. If you are interested in mountain biking this is a website you should see. I have also placed a link on my Links Page.  They also have a local club; the Miami Valley Mountain Bike Association. 

03 November 2006

• Iron Horse Trail Extended - This Summer the City of Kettering extended this trail by 1.7 miles to make the trail 5.4 miles long. They added a sidewalk alongside Research Blvd. in Beavercreek and connected it to an existing sidewalk alongside Countyline Road. It connects to a new trail section within State Farm Park in Kettering. 

26 October 2006

• Great Miami River Recreation Trail Reaches Franklin -  The trail was extended another 3.7 miles from Crains Run Nature Park to the City of Franklin. The dedication will be on Saturday 28 October at the Old Post Office in Franklin. 

05 October 2006

• Clean Ohio Trail Grants Are Announced  - I have had for some time a webpage titled: "Approved Multi-Use Trail Projects" on the website. I had only federal funding that MVRPC provided to Montgomery, Greene and Miami counties. I have added the State of Ohio Grants to every county in the area and the details of each grant for your use. 

20 September 2006

• 204 Miles of Connected Trail in the Miami Valley - In my September 2006 newsletter I revealed that of the 266 some miles of multi-use trail in the Miami Valley 204 miles are connected. I added a table to my list of all of the 266 miles of trail showing the connected trails and their mileage starting in Urbana in the Northernmost part of the Miami Valley. I'll be updating it as necessary to have another good statistic on trail development in the area.

06 September 2006

• Links Page Updated - I've completely updated the Link Page on the website. There you can find links to railtrail organizations in other states as well as find local bicycling clubs. I also have links there to things of interest in the Dayton and Xenia area as well as near the Little Miami Scenic Trail. 

28 August 2006

• Little Miami Scenic Trail in Terrace Park Now Open - ODNR finished construction one month ahead of time and the trail through Terrace Park that was closed during the week was opened as of 25 August 2006.
   
  
• Washington Street Bridge Closed for Demolition -  The Washington Street Bridge in downtown Dayton that passes over the Great Miami River Recreation Trail closed 28 August for demolition and replacement. The work is expected to be complete by December 2007. There is a planned detour for cyclists. See the link above for instructions. 

22 August 2006

• Wright Brothers Bikeway webpage updated -  I rode the Wright Brothers Bikeway from the Wright Brothers Memorial on Kauffman Avenue to downtown Fairborn recently in order to photograph it and update the page. This trail currently is a 4.6 mile stub and so goes nowhere. However Five Rivers MetroParks is purchasing a right of way from Norfolk Southern Railroad. The route will be from Eastwood MetroPark to Huffman MetroPark and from the end of the current trail alongside the railway in Fairborn to the Black Lane area of Fairborn and then on to Enon Park. At that point Fairborn becomes connected to the Miami Valley Trails System. 

11 August 2006 

• Updated Navigation List (At Bottom of Every Page) -  I updated what is known as a "Footer Page" which is a navigational aid that appears at the bottom of every page of this website. I added all of the "Resources" links that appear in the drop down menu on the Home Page. They join the "Other Links" material that was previously on the "footer." I hope that this will help you get around the website. I will add information about "The Footer Page" to the "How To Navigate this Website" page for your use. 

07 August 2006

• Site Map Page (Table of Contents) Updated - On occasion I find it necessary to update the Table of Contents page also known as the Site Map. For example I put the information about the new Trail Usage Statistics page on it when I released the new page. This time I added links to all of the sections of the Simon Kenton Trail.   By looking at it you can easily see that there are 10 webpages devoted to the Little Miami Scenic Trail. And when finished the Great Miami River Recreation Trail (GMRRT)  in Miami County will have the same. In another box just below the GMRRT in Miami County, is the explanation of the trail sections in Montgomery County. This trail is being extended, in sections through Butler and Warren Counties to Hamilton, Ohio 28 miles South of Crains Run Nature Park, the most Southern part of Montgomery County and "Trail's End" until recently. 

26 July 2006

• New Trail Usage Statistics Page -  For some time I have been gathering trail use statistics in order to add a page to the website. I mentioned it in my July 2006 Newsletter; Trail Use Statistics Webpage In Work . This new webpage will capture the actual use of our trails in the Miami Valley and the economic impact of those trails on our communities. 

25 July 2006

• Xenia Station Webpage Updated  - Recently I took new pictures of the Xenia Station and updated the page. I even added a link to the new Yahoo Maps so that you can see (and manipulate) a satellite photo of the Station. 

08 July 2006

• Morrow to Loveland Page On Little Miami Scenic Trail  (Updated) -  I've updated both these pages with some new pictures of the bridge between the Little Miami Scenic Trail and the Lebanon Countryside Trail. 
• Lebanon Countryside Trail Page Updated  
  
  
• Xenia to Yellow Springs (LMST)  Page Updated -  I photographed parts of this trail again. I wanted to show you the alternate route from James Ranch (access via the Creekside Trail )  to Yellow Springs. This way you avoid riding on sidewalks in downtown Xenia from the Station North to Shawnee Park where the multi-use trail actually begins. I also photographed again the Ellis Park Spur North of Yellow Springs. This .4 mile spur takes you North from the trail to a portable restroom, water and parking. 

03 July 2006

• Miami Valley RailTrails Website Exceeds 1 Million Hits  - For the first time in June 2006, this website exceeded one million hits a month!  I want to thank my loyal readers for making this website so popular. Click on the link to be taken to my Statistics Page  where you can see the growth in popularity of the website over time. 

01 July 2006

• Great Miami River Recreation Trail Construction Completed -  The Miami Conservancy District reported in the Dayton Daily News that the construction on the trail at Marina Drive in West Carrollton can be completed two weeks ahead of schedule. I reported the detour in my June 2006 Newsletter.  I had also added a "Construction Delay" on the webpage but have removed it today. 

30 June 2006

• Little Miami Scenic Trail (Milford to Little Miami Golf Center) Revised - Due to the help of Mr. Mike Mueller and Mr. Dave Dumbacher I have new pictures of this 4.4 mile extension South of the Little Miami Scenic Trail. I have updated the webpage and replaced all the pictures with new ones of the trail . 

26 June 2006

• Trail Etiquette and Safety Page Updated -  Governor Taft signed HB389 recently which revised the Ohio Code with respect to bicycles. It made all of Ohio's laws more uniform. See the page for the new rules. 

20 June 2006

• Creekside Trail Webpage Updated -  I recently revised this webpage by adding new photos, new links to local restaurants and new text to keep the content current and up to date. I think you'll like the new material. I decided to make the Creekside Recreation Trail (Montgomery County) and the Creekside Trail (Greene County) work better together by revising the order that the trails are reviewed. Now the trail review starts at the beginning of the Creekside Recreation Trail in Eastwood MetroPark and continues East to the Creekside Trail at the 5th/3rd Park and Ride. From there the Creekside Trail is reviewed running East to the terminus; Xenia Station. I think it makes the copy easier to read and understand. 
  

16 June 2006

• Creekside Recreation Trail Webpage Updated -  I recently revised this webpage by adding new photos, new links to local restaurants and new text to keep the content current and up to date. I think you'll like the new material.
  
  
• Iron Horse Trail Webpage Updated  -  I also updated the Iron Horse Trail webpage at the same time. I rode from Eastwood MetroPark and continued South to the Iron Horse Trail. So I added new pictures and copy to the Iron Horse as well. 

6 June 2006

• Washington Street Bridge Replacement -  The Great Miami River Recreation Trail runs through downtown Dayton. From June 2006 and running to December 2007 construction will take place to remove and replace the Washington Street Bridge that crosses the trail. Click on the link above to be taken to that page for information about detours. 

4 June 2006

• Milford to Avoca Trail segment to be Dedicated -  On 10 June at the Little Miami Golf Center the newest section of the Little Miami Scenic Trail  will be dedicated. That will make this most beautiful trail in Southwest Ohio almost 79 miles from Springfield in Clark County almost all of the way South to Cincinnati! Plans are to continue to build South to the Lunken Airport East of Cincinnati. Then the Ohio River Trail (in planning) will take riders to the Ohio River and then to downtown Cincinnati to cross into Newport Kentucky via the Purple People Bridge (the old L&N railroad bridge across the Ohio River). 
  
  
• 265.5 miles of trail in the Southwest Region of Ohio - I updated my RailTrails page on the website again today. I added the new 3.8 miles for the trail South of Middletown on the Great Miami River Recreation Trail ; then I added .25 miles for the Ellis Park Spur near Yellow Springs off of the Little Miami Scenic Trail and finally I added the additional 3.9 miles of trail from Milford South to the Little Miami Golf Center on the Little Miami Scenic Trail (see above for dedication information).  At the top of this page you can see the link to Trail List  which is my list of trails by County and the mileage for each. On that page I also keep the total of miles for trails in this area. Isn't it wonderful - more new trails to ride!

25 May 2006

• Middletown Trail Webpage finished  - I rode the new section of the trail recently. The Great Miami River Recreation Trail in Middletown is now 6.06 miles long. I put up a modified page with a lot of new photos. This trail is a part of the trail that will connect Dayton, Franklin, Middletown and Hamilton in what is called the Great Miami River Recreation Trail 

22 May 2006

• May 2006 Newsletter Published -  The May newsletter is in on the website with the following stories: Paul Lawrence Dunbar Connector being repaired, Findlay Street Bridge opens, Middletown Section of GMRRT opens, Ohio River Trail page updated,  Little Miami Scenic Trail pages rebuilt,  Trail Use Statistics page in planning, TABOR/TEL and you and Greene County Trails Classic (20 23 July 2006). 

17 May 2006

• Update to Ohio River Trail Page - I have updated this page with new information and new pictures of the Purple People Bridge. I found an good article on the Purple People Bridge in Wikipedia which is the on line encyclopedia of everything! That led me to a webpage of photos of the bridge taken by Mr. Jake Mecklenborg, on a webpage titled Louisville and Nashville Railroad Bridge. I have reproduced a picture by Jake on the page for the planned Ohio River Trail and have added links. Jake's website is Cincinnati Transit. He has photos on it or every transportation bridge in Cincinnati and it's well worth seeing. 

05 May 2006

• Mad River Recreation Trail Open - In Jan 2005 the Findlay Street bridge over the Mad River was closed for demolition and re-construction. On May 6 2006 the new $4.8 million dollar bridge that replaced the 1926 vintage one opened. Of interest to trail users, the trail below the bridge reopened. I have replaced the construction pictures I had on the webpage with pictures of the new bridge and the views from it. 

30 April 2006

• Little Miami Scenic Trail (Updates to Pages) In order to make the Little Miami Scenic Trail pages a bit easier to navigate I put a new navigation system on each page. All of them have the same header information and have links to every trail section. I hope that this helps. 

22 April 2006

• April Newsletter on Website - I finished my newsletter and posted it to the website on 22 April. In it I have information about Trail construction South of Crains Run Park to Franklin,  Construction in downtown Dayton on the Great Miami River Recreation Trail, Clinton County Trails, Trail Opening in Aurora Indiana, New Navigation Webpage, Website wins American Trails Award for "Best Virtual Tour". 

03 April 2006 

• Website Wins Award - The Miami Valley RailTrails website was awarded an Honorable Mention Award in the category of "Trail Tour or Virtual Visit by the American Trails organization. I'll explain further in my April newsletter. 
  
  
• How To Navigate This Website or Help Getting Around -  I’ve added a new page to the website that explains in detail with pictures how to use the drop down menus available from the Home Page of the website.
  
  

30 March 2006

• Dearborn Trail Open-  The new 2 mile trail from Aurora Indiana East to Lawrenceburg Indiana along the Ohio River has opened. Dedication will be 5 May. The developers are planning on extending the trail East to Greendale Indiana. I have added a link to the City of Aurora, Indiana's website since this trail is just West of downtown Cincinnati. Previously, I have only reported trails in Ohio. But since this trail is very close to Cincinnati, I decided to add it here and to my alphabetical list of all trails; RailTrails, Towpaths and Other Trails in Ohio

20 March 2006

• Newsletter March 2006 -   (Is Mailed to Mailing List Members)  Construction starts on the Little Miami Scenic Trail South of Milford. New webpage for Approved Bicycle Projects, New webpage for Ohio River Trail, Milford to Lunken Airport page updated. Multi-Use trail statistics; New land purchases by Five Rivers MetroParks lead to more trails. Traffic flow study in downtown Dayton may lead to lanes being converted to bicycle use (Repeat from Feb 2006. 
  (If you'd like to be added to this mailing list email me at tom_mvrt [at] yahoo [dot] com  

11 March 2006

• Milford to Lunken Airport  (Page Updated) -  I received new pictures to update this page and I have reworked it. Construction started 1 March 2006 to build the 2.5 miles trail from Milford through Terrace Park to Avoca. Trail North and South of the completed Avoca Trail Head will total .75 miles will also be built in 2006. 

06 March 2006

• Ohio River Trail  - Plans are being made to built a 16 mile trail West along the Ohio River from the Village of New Richmond to Lunken Airport in  Cincinnati. Along the way a Northern spur from this new trail will connect to the Little Miami Scenic Trail which is being built South from  Milford to Lunken Airport. Eventually the trail will be extended to downtown Cincinnati and cross the Ohio River to Newport Kentucky via the Purple People Bridge (the old L&N railroad bridge that has been converted to pedestrian and cycling use). 
  

1 March 2006

• New Approved Projects Webpage -    I have added a new webpage to the site that gives the status of all approved trail building projects in the Miami Valley. I am trying to find out all of the sources of funding and their status so that I can keep track of all of them for you. I now have CY 2005 funding for projects in Montgomery, Greene and Miami counties on the page. 

18 February 2006

• Newsletter February 2006  (Is Mailed to Mailing List Members) -  New construction planned on the Iron Horse Trail. Washington Street Bridge replacement. Findlay Street Bridge nears completion. New grant request in Miami County for trail construction. New Ellis Park Spur under construction. New Plan to change traffic patterns on the streets of downtown Dayton. 

10 February 2006

• New Iron Horse Trail Construction Plans -  The cities of Kettering and Centerville are planning new construction of the existing Iron Horse Trail that currently runs from the Creekside Recreation Trail South 3.7 miles. Kettering will continue from the current trail South to its' border with Centerville. The City of Centerville with the cooperation of Washington Township will build the trail North from Iron Horse Park to the City of Kettering. If a grant is approved this year, construction of the Centerville section could take place in 2007. 

04 February 2006

• Events Page Updated-    As I receive information from those who wish to publicize a cycling event I update the "Cycling Events" page. Recently I put information on the page about "Moonlight Rides" being sponsored by the National Trail Parks and Recreation (Clark County)  and Young's 2006 Ice Cream Charity Bike Tour. When your on this site you might want to check the events page. 

18 January 2006

• Ellis Park Spur - Greene County Parks and Recreation started building this .25 mile spur from the Little Miami Scenic Trail just North of Yellow Springs West to Ellis Park on Polecat Road. When it is finished in the Spring of 2006, it will provide another location for trail users to park.   

16 January 2006

• Newsletter Pages Revised - I have decided to change the Miami Valley RailTrails Newsletters page from a single page to one for each year of newsletters. So now you can find a 2001 & 2002 Newsletters page, a 2003 Newsletters page, a 2004 Newsletters page, a 2005 Newsletters page and the original page where you may find the 2006 Newsletters.  This makes the page faster to load and you can find the newsletters categorized by year. The pages may not be of great use to the majority of my readers but those interested in how far we have come in the last few years will not the progress interesting. If anyone would like to read the older newsletters from before 2001 and back to 1998, please contact me. 
• The Tecumseh Trail to Park Layne Manor - In a recent meeting a map of the proposed 3.7 mile trail from the planned The Tecumseh Trail to Park Layne Manor was provided. I have added a description of the planned trail to the The Tecumseh Trail  as well as the map for your reading pleasure. 

15 January 2006

•   Newsletter January 2006 -    (Is Mailed to Mailing List Members)  New information on New Carlisle to Park Layne trail. Funding requests for Xenia-Jamestown Connector. New Three Counties Trail Page. New Sitemap page on website. Parking overnight at certain trail staging areas. Is the Little Miami Scenic Trail the longest paved trail in the US?

14 January 2006

• New Site Map Page for Website - I have completely revised the Table of Contents of the website. Hopefully I have made it easier for you to find pages on the site. 

06 January 2006

• Overnight Parking at Staging Areas on Trails - Recently I received information on which staging areas you can park your car overnight in Clark County. I have made changes to the Simon Kenton Trail staging areas at Villa Road and at the Eagle City Soccer Complex staging area to show that you can leave your car overnight with permission. I have also made a change to the Little Miami Scenic Trail from Yellow Springs to Springfield page for the Beatty Station Staging Area for your use. I will check with the other counties in the Miami Valley for their policy of overnight parking and amend the specific pages with the information I find. 

29 December 2005 

• Three Counties Trail  Plans Advance (Nominal Name) - This trail is being developed by Five Rivers MetroParks with the help of Greene County Recreation and Parks and National Trails Parks and Recreation District (Clark County). When finished it will run some 15.1 miles from Eastwood MetroPark Northeast to Huffman MetroPark and then into Greene County and Clark County. At Huffman MetroPark the trail will be connected to the existing Wright Brothers Bikeway which runs along Kaufmann Avenue to Fairborn via the T-Connector a bridge or tunnel to take the trail from Huffman MetroPark across State Route 444 to the Wright Brothers Memorial which is the terminus of the Wright Brothers Bikeway. Five Rivers MetroParks is currently in negotiation with Norfolk Southern railway to buy the right of way from Eastwood MetroPark to Enon. After the right of way is purchased each of the partners will have to secure funding to build this trail that will connect all three counties trails. 

28 December 2005

• Lebanon Countryside Trail Is Complete - Below I told you that the trail was finally finished. The bicycle bridge over Tuttle Creek alongside Kingsview Drive and the final 1/3 mile South of there is now complete. Why am I telling you this. Because Mr. Frank Allen of Lebanon was kind enough to take new pictures on 26 December 2005 for me of the finished area. I replaced the old pictures of an unfinished trail with Frank's new ones. 

05 December 2005

• Lebanon Countryside Trail Completed -  Yes. I know. This trail was dedicated on 1 October 2005. So what's the big deal? Answer. When the trail was dedicated it was not yet complete. There was a bridge over Tuttle Creek South of the YMCA and about one mile of trail South of the unfinished bridge that was just a dirt track. I was informed recently that the bridge and trail is now completely complete and now you can ride from South Street in downtown Lebanon South 8.2 miles to connect to the Little Miami Scenic Trail North of Loveland. 
  
  
• Great Miami River Recreation Trail (Northern Segment) Closed  -  The Ohio Department of Transportation closed the trail where it goes under Interstate 70 in Huber Heights at Taylorsville MetroPark on 28 November 2005. It will be closed 540 days until the I-70 bridges are widened to three lanes in both direction. 

26 November 2005

• Trail South of Middletown Completed: That's right. The four mile segment of trail South of Middletown from State Route 122 to Old State Route 73 was completed Fall 2005. Dedication is planned for Spring 2006. I have added a new page for this trail segment and will have new pictures of it up on the website as soon as we have a good day. 

29 October 2005

• Beavercreek Trail Connector Dedicated  Today another milestone in the Miami Valley. The Beavercreek Trail Connector, Trail 2A was dedicated at Community Park in Beavercreek.  This .75 mile bicycle spur connects the Creekside Trail  North from the park to Dayton-Xenia Road. After crossing the road at a new signal light installed especially for trail users, the trail continues East to Rotary Park. Phase II of the construction will add trail from Rotary Park North to the Hunter's Ridge development in Beavercreek. This trail spur connects the City of Beavercreek and the Township to the Miami Valley Trails System. 

Dedication of Beavercreek Trail Connector Phase 1 29 October 2005

21 October 2005

• Digest of Ohio Motor Vehicle Laws - I have added a webpage that quotes the motor vehicle law for Ohio with regard to cyclists. It is also connected to the newly revised Trail Etiquette & Safety page. I am trying to help educate cyclists on their rights and responsibilities as safe and courteous users of trails and shared roads. 

18 October 2005

• Middletown Trail Nears Completion -  The 4 mile trail section from Middletown South from State Route 123 along the Great Miami River to Old State Route 73 is close to completion. It can be ridden now and all that needs to be accomplished is the addition of some fence. I do not have a dedication date nor do I have pictures of this new trail section. This is a part of the Great Miami River Recreation Tail in Warren and Butler Counties.
  
  
• New Miami To Miami Trail Page  – I have added a new page to the website accessible from the leftmost drop down menu. It’s under “Trails in Warren County ” in the drop down menu. The new 84 mile trail, when completed, will run East and West from the Little Miami Scenic Trail North of Loveland to Hamilton on the Great Miami River Recreation Trail currently being built in sections. I have been attempted to contact the organizations that are building this trail but have not been able to find the primary group to get updates for you.  From this page you can get copies of the 2002 study from the City of Fairfield homepage. The basic study is 88 pages (8Mb) and you can get the maps (128Mb) as well as the other appendixes. I will be putting a smaller version of the maps on this webpage.
  
  
• Trail Etiquette and Safety Page - I have added more safety information to my Trail Etiquette and Safety Page. As you may know we’ve had several cyclist fatalities in the Miami Valley this cycling season. I’m adding tips for cyclists and I plan to add the section on Bicycles from the “Digest of Ohio Motor Vehicle Laws” to the page.
  
  
• Milford to Lunken Airport Page – I have added material to this page which is the most Southern Section of the Little Miami Scenic Trail. I have new pictures to show construction work and have a new map from the Hamilton County Parks District. It shows all of the sections of the 8.8 miles of trail that will be built from Milford which is the current end of trail South to the existing trail around Lunken Airport .

02 October 2005

• Milford to Lunken Airport Page  Updates- I have added new pictures and new descriptions to the 8.8 miles extension of the Little Miami Scenic Trail that will extend the trail from Milford to the Lunken Airport. Included in the update is a new map from the Hamilton County Park District that shows the status of every section of the trail that will be built. I have added descriptions of all construction from the map on the page. 
  
  
• Lebanon Countryside Trail Nears Completion – This trail is almost finished and was dedicated 1 October, 2005. We rode the trail on 9/28/05 and took lots of new pictures. The webpage has been revised with the new pictures and descriptions of the trail. Unfortunately a one mile section of the trail South of Tuttle Road and the bridge over Tuttle Creek is not finished as of this writing. I'll let you know when the trail can be ridden.
  

15 September 2005

• The Great Connection changes name. I was informed recently by the Miami Conservancy District that “The Great Connection” as a title for the 28 miles of trail being developed South of Crains Run MetroPark (since renamed to Crains Run Nature Park - Miami Township Parks) has been changed to “The Great Miami River Trail in Warren and Butler Counties”. I have changed the title on all of the most important places on the website. However, you may see the old term in old newsletters, etc.
  
  

• Lebanon Countryside Trail Nears Completion – We rode this new trail on 28 September 2005, hoping that we could get pictures of an almost finished and usable trail. We found after riding a short distance that they were still paving West of the Government Center near Harmon Park. I updated the web page with some new pictures and will ride this trail again for your benefit. What remains to be done for the trail completion include fencing, signage, and seeding. I am informed that the ribbon cutting/grand opening ceremony is scheduled for Saturday, October 1st from 3:00-6:00 p.m. at the Countryside YMCA (north parking lot). 

14 August 2005

• Tipp City Trail Construction - Tipp City has completed a one mile trail extension from Canal Lock Park North to City Park on North 3rd Street. The trail joins the approximately 1 mile of trail that goes through City Park past the new Aquatic Center, past the baseball diamonds to the Tipp City Parks Nature Center. 
  
  
• Trail Construction in Taylorsville MetroPark – Five Rivers MetroParks has finished paving the 1.4 mile extension from the town of Tadmor in the Park North to Old Springfield Street. The trail now is 7.0 miles long from Old Springfield Street on the North boundary of the Park to Wagner Ford Road in Huber Heights.
  

12 August 2005

• Trail Etiquette -  Or The "Rules Of The Trail"  - I have added a page that explains how to behave while on the trail. What you should do and expect of the other trail users. 

   

17 July 2005

• Great Miami River Recreation Trail  Section 2 (Miami County) is finished. The trail is complete and was dedicated 21 July 2005. I have replaced all construction pictures with a completed trail. 

05 July 2005

• Great Miami River Recreation Trail [Dayton] (Update) I have finished re-photographing and re-writing these pages. The pages that describe the Great Miami River Recreation Trail in downtown Dayton consist of four web pages as follows:
  
  • Great Miami River Recreation Trail  (GMRRT) page - This is the "home page" for the trail. There are links to the other sections. 
  • GMRRT  Sinclair Park to Island MetroPark 3.8 Miles - This section is only on the East side of the river. 
  • GMRRT  Island MetroPark to Stewart Street Bridge 3.9 miles -   This trail is on both sides of the river
  • GMRRT Stewart Street Bridge South To Crains Run Nature Park 11.0 miles - This section is on the East bank only.  
    
    
• Website Statistics - I have decided to provide for my users the numbers of hits and calls for web pages by month that this site is experiencing. I must be doing something right because the hits and page counts continue to climb. As of June 2005 this website exceeded 750,000 hits for the month. 

   

29 June 2005

• Accommodations, Hotels, Motels, B&Bs & Campgrounds  in the Miami Valley RailTrails Area (Revised) - I have started a major renovation of this page. I am doing a lot of research to find the accommodations near our trails for your use. The accommodations I recommend will be close to the trails 

27 June 2005

• Simon Kenton Trail Phase IV - Recently I put up a new webpage with photos of the new trail that extends about 2 miles from the Buck Creek Trail South to downtown Springfield. Unfortunately when I put up the new page I missed about 100 yards of the trail. So I re-photographed it this last weekend, added six new photos and a new map. It seems that the new trail connects with an existing stub that will be improved so that there is a dedicated trail all the way South from Springfield to the current end of the Little Miami Scenic Trail at I-70 South of Springfield. 

26 June 2005

• Navigate Miami Valley RailTrail website via maps  - I have added five new maps to the website with hotspots so that you can navigate around the trails in the Miami Valley using either maps or you can use the Trails in Miami Valley  page with counties and trails within them. 
  • The primary map is the South West Ohio Trails Map  Then by click on a quadrant of the map you are taken to a quarter of it
  • North West Trails is the quadrant with the most trails on it. Then there are:
  • North East Trails Trails in the North Eastern part of the Miami Valley
  • South East Trails - Trail is the South Eastern portion of the Valley
  • South West Trails - Trails in the South Western part of the Miami Valley

22 June 2005

• Great Miami River Recreation Trail [Dayton] (Update) I am in the process of re-photographing and re-writing these pages. I have updated on this date the Crains Run Nature Park to Miamisburg section of the trail. 

13 June 2005

• Buck Creek Trail (revised) I have removed all of the construction pictures from 2004 and replaced them with the finished 5.76 mile trail from the Springfield Museum of Art in downtown Springfield East to Buck Creek State Park. 

11 June 2005

• Beavercreek Trail Connector - I've ridden and taken the pictures of the new spur from the Creekside Trail in Beavercreek North about 3/4 mile to Rotary Park. This spur connects much of the City of Beavercreek to the entire trail system by making it unnecessary to ride down Factory Road to get to the trail at Beavercreek Community Park. The trail will be extended another 3/4 miles this Summer (2005) in order to connect the Hunter's Ridge neighborhood of Beavercreek to the trail. 

09 June 2005

• Simon Kenton Trail Phase IV - I've taken pictures of the newly constructed trail from Buck Creek Trail to downtown Springfield, Ohio. This 2 mile trail section will allow the Simon Kenton Trail to connect to the Little Miami Scenic Trail where it currently ends at I-70. 

05 June 2005

• Great Miami River Recreation Trail webpage (updated) I've updated this page by adding newer photos and descriptions to the page. See 5 April below. I took the basic page for the trail in downtown Dayton and broke it into three. Now I have updated two completely with new pictures and descriptions and have started updating Stewart Street to Crains Run Nature Park. 

30 May 2005

• Xenia - Jamestown Connector Completed - The 7.7 miles of Phase I construction from Jamestown (US-72) to Jasper Road near US-35 is completed. The webpage has been completely revised with new pictures. 

29 May 2005

• Mad River Recreation Trail North Bank -   I have revised the Mad River Recreation Trail page to include information about the new .5 mile trail spur on the North bank of the river that starts from Dayton's Point Park at Valley and Keowee Streets. It follows the river and levee to cross Webster Street at the bridge and enter Deed's Park at Deed's Park Drive. This trail spur connects North Dayton to RiverScape MetroPark and the trail system. 

27 May 2005

• Island MetroPark to Stewart Street Bridge on the Great Miami River Recreation Trail Updated - I've completely updated the page with about 35 new pictures, new descriptions and a map. I am re-doing all of the pages of the Great Miami River Recreation Trail in downtown Dayton, Ohio 

29 April 2005

• Updated Milford to Lunken Airport Page  - The Hamilton County Park District has updated their status of the completion of this trail segment that is under construction. So I updated the page with new links.  

20 April 2005

• Iron Horse Trail revised  - I have taken new photographs of the Iron Horse Trail and rewritten the descriptions of the trail. 

13 April 2005

• New Carlisle Trail Funded - The trail planned for downtown New Carlisle has been funded. I have added a new webpage that shows the route of this new two mile trail. Construction of this trail will start in July 2006. 

10 April 2005

• Great Miami River Recreation Trail (Miami County)  Revision -  I have been revising my pages for the trails in Miami County. 
  • Section 2  -  Recently I took pictures of Section 2  of the trail which is being built and will be open 1 July 2005. It connects at its South end to Section 1 which was opened in 2003.  
    See the Miami County Trail Map to understand all the trail construction in Miami County
    
  • Troy Trails Revised - I also took new pictures of the trails in Troy on the same trip. I've updated the page with new photos and new descriptions of the trails completed in the City of Troy and a description of the new work to be accomplished. 

05 April 2005

• Mad River Recreation Trail Construction. Today I added photos to this page to show you the construction at where the Findlay Street Bridge used to be. There are supposed to be detour signs but I didn't see any. The photos will show you how to get around the construction . 
  
  
• Great Miami River Recreation Trail - This trail is in downtown Dayton on the Stillwater and Great Miami Rivers. I've started to revise the original one page into several. There are new pages for:
  • Sinclair Park South to Island Nature Park  (new pictures and descriptions)
  • Island MetroPark South to Stewart Street Bridge (nothing new yet)
  • Stewart Street Bridge South to Crains Run Nature Park (Not written yet) See Gmiami3.htm
    I'm working on this and it will take a while to get new descriptions and pictures to update the page. Please bear with me. 

I'm revising the links so that it is more clear that the Great Miami River Recreation Trail will extend into Miami County to the North and Warren and Butler Counties to the South.
To the North the trail is now called Great Miami River Recreation Trail (Northern Segment) in Montgomery County and Great Miami River Recreation Trail  (Miami County) 
To the South the trail is now called The Great Miami River Recreation Trail [GMRRT] in Warren & Butler Counties  to Hamilton, Ohio about 27 miles. 

22 March 2005 

• Alphabetical List of Trails in Ohio - This webpage is the alphabetical list of every  rail-trail, towpath trail and levee trail in Ohio. I try to have the name of every trail listed and a little bit of information. Most importantly, I try to have a link to the trail webpage itself or to the park district that manages it. I have been updating it to give you more up to date information on all of the trails in Ohio.
• RailTrails, Towpaths and other Trails in Ohio (Indexed by County) with maps. This is the same information as in the list above but its provided in a different format to make it easier to find a trail. There is a map of Ohio. You click on the region of Ohio that you are interested in such as Northeast, Central, Northwest, Southwest and Southeast. That takes you to a map of the region. You then click on the County you're interested in and you'll be taken to a list of trails in that County. I have been updating these as well as the master alphabetical list. 

06 March 2005

• 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 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. 

15 February 2005

• New Sponsors Page -  I used to have the sponsors of my website mentioned at the bottom of the Home Page. But lately I've been adding to them so now they have their own page. 

09 February 2005

• Iron Horse Trail  (New Page) The 3.7 mile trail from the Creekside Recreation Trail (west end) to Kettering was completed late 2004. I have build a new page with photos. 
• Prairie Grass Trail pages Update - I've completely revised this area of the website. I have separated the pages so that each section of the trail has its' own page with new photos and descriptions as follows:
  • Xenia to Cedarville Section  This page is the basic page for the entire trail so there is additional information at the top of this page about the entire trail which is now open from Xenia Station to London, Ohio.
  • Cedarville to South Charleston Section - Revised with new pictures and descriptions. 
  • South Charleston to London Section - Revised with some new pictures.
  • Central State Connector - I've removed this section from the first page and given it its' own page with new pictures and descriptions. 

  I have also added a table at the top of each of the four pages that tells you what page you are on and how to get to the other pages. 

04 February 2005 

• Yellow Springs to Springfield Section of Little Miami Scenic Trail (Updated) I added new text descriptions and a lot of new pictures to this trail segment. I hope you enjoy them!

03 February 2005

• Updated Tables on certain pages.  For some time when I have updated a page, I have put all the information about the location of parking, water and restrooms available on that trail was all in one convenient table. Where possible have added links to any restaurant or bicycle shop that had facilities you could use. I updated the:
• Creekside Trail
• Creekside Recreation Trail
• Ohio to Erie Trail in London 
• Loveland to Milford Section of the Little Miami Scenic Trail
• Morrow to Loveland Section of the Little Miami Scenic Trail 
• Ohio To Erie Trail (Prairie Grass Trail) 
• Spring Valley to Corwin Section of the Little Miami Scenic Trail 
• Xenia to Spring Valley on the Little Miami Scenic Trail
• Xenia to Yellow Springs on the Little Miami Scenic Trail 

28 January 2005

• January 2005 Newsletter is posted to website.  
  • New Ohio License Plates for your car that aid cycling.
  • New construction on the Great Miami River Recreation Trail (Northern Segment) 1.4 miles
  • Construction of a new bridge at Findlay Street will cause a detour on the 
    Mad River Recreation Trail
  • Simon Kenton Trail Phase IV Construction Starts  
  • Iron Horse Trail - 2 mile extension. Now 3.7 miles long
  • Miami Valley RailTrails ScreenSaver (Free) - Free for you 

  These are the highlights of the January 2005 Newsletter. Read all of it to learn what is happening in our Great (and growing) trail system. 

09 December 2004

• Loveland to Milford Section - I've updated this page with new pictures and descriptions. 

22 November 2004 

•  New look to Home Page. I've revised the navigation on the website's Home Page with drop down menus. There is also a link to the old Home Page for those who wish to use it for site navigation.

17 November 2004

• Xenia-Jamestown Connector  I've revised the page and added a lot of new pictures! The trail will be finished from Jamestown to Jasper Road a distance of 6.5 miles before Winter 2004

13 November 2004

• Miami County Trails - Page updated. I was able to travel to Miami County and see the entire trail plan with Mr. Bob Shook the Chairman of the Miami County BikeWay Task Force. I've added a description of all 10 sections of trail to be built in Miami County and will be adding photos soon. I've already added a printable map of the entire trail.
  • Tipp City Trails (part of the Great Miami River Recreation Trail (Miami County). I revised the page.
  • Great Miami River Recreation Trail Section 1 (Miami County) - I revised the page. This trail section is complete.
  • Great Miami River Recreation Trail Section 2 (Miami County) - I've added a new page for this trail section North of Section 1 and connecting to the City of Troy Section. 
    
• Xenia-Jamestown Connector - Page updated. I've started to update this page. I was able to see the entire trail with the assistance of Mr. Jim Schneider of Greene County Recreation, Parks and Cultural Arts Department. I'll be adding new pictures to this trail soon. I've already added a printable map of the entire trail. 

04 November 2004

• Buck Creek Trail  I've updated the webpage for the Buck Creek Trail. I've added new pictures of the additional 2.66 miles that are being added from Old Reid Park where the trail ended to the parking lot for the Beach at the Buck Creek State Park. The trail will be finished before Winter 2004
  
• Lebanon Countryside Trail  I've updated this page as well. I've rewritten the copy and have added some great pictures and maps for you use. This trail is being built by the City of Lebanon and will run from Lebanon 8.2 miles to intersect with the Little Miami Scenic Trail just South of South Lebanon. 
  
• Creekside Trail Update  I've told you before that the Beavercreek Township was building a trail spur North from Beavercreek Community Park in Beavercreek to cross Dayton-Xenia Drive and end in Veteran's Park. I am informed that this trail spur will be complete by Winter 2004. I was also told that a traffic light will be installed where the trail crosses Dayton-Xenia Drive so that trail users can get across the street safely.    

01 November 2004

• New Buck Creek Trail Construction Pictures  Yes. I've been able to start adding pictures to the Buck Creek Trail page that show the construction of the additional 2.66 miles of trail to East that will take the trail into Buck Creek State Park. The trail will be finished before Winter. You might be able to ride it this year!

27 October 2004

• New Miami Valley RailTrails Newsletter - Do you remember back in April 2004 that I told you the trails building plans of all the local counties for this year? Well in this month's newsletter I'll tell you how far they got this year. I've added a FREE Miami Valley RailTrails ScreenSaver to the site for your use. Please download it!

23 October 2004

• New Buck Creek Trail Construction. I was given a guided tour yesterday 22 October 2004 by Mr. Jim Campbell the Open Space Manager of Clark County of the new trail construction being built to the East of the current trail's end in Old Reid Park. I'll be adding new pictures to the Buck Creek Trail webpage. 

13 October 2004

• The Simon Kenton Trail is to be dedicated on Sunday 17 October 2004 at Urbana Station. I have updated the website by adding a Simon Kenton Trail Page 3 that adds photos and descriptions from State Route 55 to the Urbana YMCA the trail's end. 

24 September 2004

• September MVRT Newsletter is out. 
  New information on the "GMRRT", new pictures on the website of the new bridge at Wesleyan MetroPark in Dayton, more updates to the master list of trails in Ohio. I got some nice publicity in Midwest Bike Magazine and  I finally got to meet my friend who writes columns for me; Mr. Glenn Oster. See my September 2004 newsletter about what is happening on the trails in Miami Valley. If you like what you see subscribe to the newsletter and you'll get an email monthly. 

10 September 2004 

• Ohio Trail's List -  (Alphabetical List) I've updated the list again by adding the Phoebe Snow Trail  and the CD&M Trail (Columbus, Delaware and Marion Interurban RR) both in Marion County. I update the master list of trails (alphabetical) as well as Trails List By County with Maps as often as I get new information. The two new trails are in planning by the Marion County Parks District. 

26 August 2004 

• Wesleyan MetroPark Bridge - The new $500,000 bridge and trail that connects the two parts of Wesleyan MetroPark opened in August. The construction is a part of the continued development of the Wolf Creek Recreation Trail that when finished in 2008 will run from downtown Dayton and the Great Miami River Recreation Trail  via the Wolf Creek to Trotwood, Brookville and Verona.

23 August 2004

• Middletown Trail (not official name) I've finally gotten down to Middletown to get pictures of the first section on The Great Connection. Eventually the Great Connection will run 28 miles from Crains Run Nature Park in Montgomery County to Hamilton in Butler County. 

20 August 2004 

• Little Miami Scenic Trail - I have updated the pictures of construction South of Milford thanks to Dave Dumbacher. See his new photos and the new press release from the Hamilton County Parks District. 
  
• New Bridge at Wesleyan MetroPark Five Rivers MetroParks added a $500,000 dollar bridge to connect the two parts of Wesleyan MetroPark together and continue development of the Wolf Creek Recreation Trail. See August 2004 MVRT Newsletter for more information. 
  
• August 2004 MVRT Newsletter is on the website! More information about website updates, new bridge at Wesleyan MetroPark, new Lebanon Countryside Trail being built from the Little Miami Scenic Trail near Loveland to Lebanon and information about a new website that is about the history of the Little Miami Scenic Trail. 

15 August 2004

• Little Miami Scenic Trail   I've been making updates to these web pages. I have completely re-done the trail sections of the following segments of the Little Miami Scenic Trail. Lots of new pictures and descriptions of this oldest and some think prettiest trail in the Miami Valley
  • Xenia to Spring Valley and Corwin
  • Corwin to Morrow
  • Morrow to Oregonia and Loveland
  • Xenia to Yellow Springs 

25 July 2004

• The July 2004 MVRT Newsletter  is on the website. New information about the Simon Kenton Trail in Champaign County. Also the Siebenthaler Bridge in Montgomery County is finally open and I talk about the 2004 Tour de France which Lance Armstrong won for the sixth time! More importantly I tell you about his Lance Armstrong Foundation. 

30 June 2004 

• The June 2004 MVRT Newsletter is on the website. More new information about trails in SouthWest Ohio. 

28 June 2004 

• I am updating the website as follows:
  • More information on parking, restrooms and water. I have been asked to provide more information about this important services on our trails. I am rewriting each trail's description and I am adding a table that shows all of the locations for services on that trail. 
  • Xenia Station to Yellow Springs trail section - I have completely revised this trail's descriptions and added many new pictures. 
  • Creekside Trail - I have added new pictures and restroom information to this trail and to the trail it connects to 
  • Creekside Recreation Trail - New pictures and restroom information as mentioned above. 

30 May 2004

• More news on trail construction 
  • Trail Dedication! Saturday 24 June the Ohio To Erie Trail reaches London!
  • May 2004 Newsletter - Is on the website. More information about trail happenings. 
  • Contract to be let to build trail from Crains Run MetroPark to South of Franklin. 
  • T-Connector News - News about construction of the T-Connector in Greene County.

21 April 2004 The Miami Valley received funding to close gaps in some trails and to extend others as follows:

• Montgomery County - Five Rivers MetroParks received a total of $4.9 million in Congestion Mitigation/Air Quality (CMAQ) funds to accomplish the following:
  • Wolf Creek Recreation Trail  - Fill the 2.5 mile gap between the trail in downtown Dayton where it ends at Wesleyan MetroPark to Trotwood. When completed in 2008 the trail will run from downtown Dayton to Trotwood, Brookville and Verona. 
  • Great Miami River Recreation Trail -  Add 7.5 miles of trail to connect the trail in downtown Dayton at Triangle Park with the Great Miami River Recreation Trail (Northern Segment) which now ends at Rip Rap Road. 
  • Mad River Recreation Trail - Extend the trail 2.5 miles from its current end at Eastwood MetroPark Northeast along a Norfolk Southern right of way to Huffman MetroPark to connect with the T-Connector. The T-Connector will connect the Mad River Recreation Trail to the existing Wright Brothers Bikeway that extends into Fairborn along Kaufmann Avenue. 
• Miami County - The Miami County Bikeway Task Force received  $2,2 million to add to the Great Miami River Recreation Trail (Miami County). The trail will be extended in Monroe Twp. North and South of Tipp City. Tipp City will build a trail segment from Kyle Park to Canal Lock Park. Funds received last year will connect Phase I of the Great Miami River Recreation Trail from it's current end in Concord Twp South to Troy. 
• Clark County - Clark County is planned to extend three trails this year as follows:
  • Buck Creek Scenic Trail - East about 2 miles from Pumphouse Road through Old Reid Park across Croft Road to Robert Eastman Road then it follows the foot of the dam to the Buck Creek State Park beach parking lot.
  • Simon Kenton Trail Phase IV - The trail will be extended South 2 miles from the trail's current end following the old railroad right of way  at the Buck Creek Scenic Trail to connect to the Little Miami Scenic Trail .
  • Prairie Grass Trail (Part of the Ohio To Erie Trail) - The trail will be extended from South Charleston to London . Four miles of the trail extension will be in Clark County and 7 miles in Madison County. This will place the Ohio To Erie Trail almost to the city of Columbus.
• Champaign County 
  • Simon Kenton Trail Phase III - The trail will be extended North 5.2 miles from State Route 55 to end in the city of Urbana. The Simon Kenton Trail will be then be complete. 
• Greene County
  • Ohio To Erie Trail  (my name) The trail from South Charleston to London is being managed by the Greene County Park District. The name of the 7 mile segment in Madison County has not been decided.
  • Xenia-Jamestown Connector - Construction of the bridges is going on now and the trail from Frank Seaman Park in Jamestown to at least Jasper Road will be built this summer. It should be open late autumn.

13 April 2004 

• Horseback riding on trails in the Miami Valley  I was asked recently about using our trails in the Miami Valley for riding. I have added a page to the site and I'll update it with more information as I get it for you. Tell your "horsy" friends about the new web page! 

13 March 2004

• New Newsletter for March - I've added a new newsletter for this month to the website. 
  • Centerville-Washington Park District seeks input from citizens on building trails 
  • South Charleston to London Trail will be constructed this year!
  • Inappropriate Posts on Our Bulletin Board on the MSN website. 

13 February 2004

• Bicycling Events in the Miami Valley - I've added a new page to the site. This page will provide information on upcoming bicycling events in the Miami Valley. 
• This website moved! Yes. I had to move the website from the old server and the old URL which was "http://www.intellweb.com/trails"  to my own domain name and new URL which is:
  http://www.miamivalleytrails.org I hope you find the new URL easy to find. Now I have to inform everyone who has a link to the old address to change the links to the new one. 

10 January 2004

• New newsletter for January 2004. A little of this and that to cheer you up during Winter
• Revised navigation of site. - I revised my "footer" page. That is the page you see at the bottom of all the pages to make it easier to get around the website. 

24 October 2003

• New newsletter for October 2003  -  I've added a newsletter for October 2003 that summarizes the new constructions to our trail system this Fall as well as telling you about all the grants that the local governments and parks organizations received this month that will go into more new trails new year!

18 October 2003 

• New Pictures on Mad River Recreation Trail -  I added some new pictures of downtown Dayton and Riverscape to show how the Mad River and the trail connect to the Great Miami River Recreation Trail in downtown Dayton.
  
• New Pictures on the Great Miami River Recreation Trail  - I have added the same pictures to this web-page to better explain downtown and show the new bridge to Deeds Point from the South side of the trail. 

12 October 2003

• Piqua Closes the Loop! With the dedication of the The River's Edge of the Piqua Linear Park, Piqua has accomplished their long held plan to build a trail around Piqua. "The Loop" as they call it consists of:
  • Piqua Linear Park (5.5 mi) Troy Sydney Road to Spiker Road, East to West.
  • Canal Run (2.2 mi) North from French Park on the Linear Park to Water Plant on Route 66.
  • The River's Edge (3.6 mi) from Lock 9 Park downtown Piqua on the Linear Park to connect with the Canal Run at Roadside Park and the Water Plant. 
• I have put up a web-page for the last section the Canal's Edge Section with pictures and description and have linked the three pages together for your use. Thanks Piqua!
  
• Great Miami River Recreational Trail -The 1.6 mile trail segment was dedicated this Summer. I've just seen this beautiful trail along the Miami & Erie Canal Towpath in Miami County and put pictures and trail description on its' own webpage.  

2 October 2003

• The River's Edge of Piqua Linear Park The new 4.5 mile section of trail from downtown Piqua to connect with the end of the Canal Run was  dedicated Sunday 5 October 2003. See Piqua Linear Park

21 September 2003 

• New Newsletter for Sept. 2003  New trails;  Great Miami River Trail in Miami County, newly finished Simon Kenton Trail in Clark and Champaign County, a new section of the Wolf Creek Recreation Trail  and construction on the Great Connection in Middletown. See the newsletter for details. 

08 September 2003

• Simon Kenton Trail has completed Phase II.  This means the trail starts at Buck Creek Trail in Springfield and runs to State Route 55 in Champaign County near Urbana a total of 9.4 miles! I'm putting lots of new pictures and trail description on my Simon Kenton Trail page. 
  
• Great Connection construction   I'm informed that a 2.3 mile section of this trail planned to be built from Crain's Run Metro Park south to Hamilton, is being finished in Middletown. See the page for more information. 

01 September 2003

• Great Miami River Trail  - I've added a new page to the website for the Great Miami River Trail in Miami County. The page has description and new photos of the Phase I Trail. 
  
• New Construction on the Little Miami Scenic Trail south of Milford  - I've been telling you about the construction that will extend the trail south towards Cincinnati and I wanted to you to read the statement made by the Hamilton County Parks District from their website. 

24 August 2003

• Wolf Creek Recreation Trail  - New trail segment in downtown Dayton. See my new pictures and trail description. 

19 August 2003

• New Newsletter for August 2003.  New trail being constructed between Simon Kenton Trail in Clark County and the Simon Kenton Trail in Champaign County. They will join at the Cedar Bog this Fall!  I've added new pictures to the website and I'm providing information about Ohio Senate Bill 80 that I'd like all trail users support on. 

03 August 2003

• Updates to website.
  • I updated the Great Miami River Recreation Trail with new text and new pictures. 
  • I added new pictures to the Mad River Recreation Trail. 
  • Recently I completely reworked the Little Miami Scenic Trail  changing it from one very large page to a series of trail segment pages. There is a table on the page that links you to all of the other sections of the Little Miami Scenic Trail. This weekend I added more pictures to the pages.
  • I revised the Xenia Station  page adding new pictures. I also added a table to the page that has links and mileage to all of the trails that connect to the Xenia Station.
  • Glenn Oster  a cyclist who rides some of America's most interesting trails has provided to me another one of his excellent trail reviews. This time Glenn rode the "Nifty Natchez Trace" trail in Mississippi. 

27 July 2003

• New Newsletter for July 2003 - Check for information on new trails such as:
  • Piqua is extending the Linear Park north along the Miami River levee and
  • Miami River trail (Miami County) starting to take shape.

29 June 2003 

• New Newsletter for June 2003 - Check the newsletter to see what is happening in the area. I will summarize the news below. 
  • Ohio Department of Natural Resources made a 2003 Nature Works grant to Madison County for the Prairie Path Preserve in London. This trail segment is a part of the Ohio To Erie Trail that, when completed, will run from Cincinnati 325 miles to Cleveland. The money will fund a shelter, a picnic area, water fountain and bike spur and to install utilities. The trail section from Xenia to Cedarville and to South Charleston is finished and the link from South Charleston to London may be complete this year. 
  • Because the trail is growing more businesses are interested in locating on or near the bicycle trails. In South Charleston "Surfn' Cycle" opened at the trail bike staging area in March. In the North of Springfield at Villa Road "Pedal Power" had it's grant opening recently. It is at the end of the Simon Kenton Trail in Clark County. The trail currently ends at Villa Road but plans are in place to extend the trail North to the Greene/Champaign County line to connect with the Simon Kenton Trail in Champaign County.
  • In Montgomery County Five Rivers MetroParks opened in June another segment of the Wolf Creek Recreation Trail. The Wolf Creek Recreation Trail until recently ran from Englewood Northeast through Brookville to its end at Verona. Five Rivers MetroParks has had as a goal the extension of the trail Southeast to downtown Dayton where the Mad River empties into the Great Miami River. MetroParks opened "Sunrise Park" at the junction of the Mad and Great Miami Rivers and a one mile trail that reaches from the River to the Wright-Dunbar neighborhood, just West of downtown, where the Wrights Brothers had their first bicycle shop. Hopefully Five Rivers MetroParks will be able to connect this new trail segment to the trail that now ends in downtown Englewood. 
  • The RiverScape Bridge from the bicycle trail to Deeds Point is open for pedestrians and cyclists. Deeds Point will be the site of much of the festivities celebrating the 100 years anniversary of the Wright Brother's first flight. 
  • In Miami County a dedication was held on the first 1 mile segment of the trail that when completed will run through the entire Miami County North from Taylorsville MetroPark in Montgomery County through Tipp City, Troy, Piqua and Sidney. 

22 April 2003

• New Newsletter for April 2003 - Check my monthly newsletter to find out what's going on in the Miami Valley. Please see my April 2003 Newsletter. If