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by BILL PAIGE
Times Correspondent | Thursday, March 02, 2006 | (No comments posted.)
Chances are that you are close to one of the many area bike trails, but do you realize the span of their network?
There are over 150 miles of paths, stretching across more than 50 different routes in Lake and Porter counties alone. Many of the local cities and towns have dedicated trails and paths, along with the numerous county parks and the Dunes National Lakeshore. All provide a variety of routes and landscapes.
"These paths provide exercise and they all have a tremendous view as you are traveling along," said Leonard Bezat, superintendent of Griffith Park and Recreation. "I am not sure of the annual figures, but there are certainly a lot of people out there on the trails."
Over the past 15 years, there has been a national effort to utilize old railroad easements to encourage alternate means of transportation. One of the best examples of this in the area is The Erie Lackawanna Bike Trail. It runs 11.25 miles from its southern most point in Crown Point and travels north to Highland. It then picks up once again in Hammond for another 4.7 miles. Eventually, this path will be connected.
Other area trails include The Oak Savannah, which runs from Griffith to Hobart; The Prairie Duneland trail, spanning from Hobart to Chesterton; and the Calumet Trail that extends from Chesterton to Michigan City. There are plans to connect many of these trails to form a network of interwoven paths reaching across the area, making it easier and safer to travel.
In addition, there are designs to develop new trails, such as the Pennsy Greenway that will run from Crown Point to the Illinois state line and connect to the 450-mile Burnham Greenway/Grand Illinois system. Another proposed system is the Veterans Memorial Bike trail, running from Crown Point to Hebron.
One organization that is doing its part to see that these paths continue to grow in our area is the Calumet Citizens for Connecting Communities (C4).
"We are a group of bike riders that are connecting paths through community involvement," said Rodney Graves, a bike enthusiast and C4 member. "We work with local governments to see where they are going and how these bike paths fit into their plans. We are trying to link communities. We want to make commuting much more fun."
But these trails are more than just bike trails.
"We don't just call them 'bike paths,' " Graves said. "These are alternate transportation routes. Walking, jogging, skating and wheelchairs are some of the other modes of transportation that take advantage of these trails."
For more information on area trails
LakeNet: www.lakenetnwi.org/member/trails/
Indiana Department of Natural Resources-Indiana Trails: www.ai.org/dnr/outdoor/trails/inventory.htm
Hoosier Rails-to-Trails Council: www.indianatrails.org
Calumet Citizens for Connecting Communities: www.cc4cc.org
Grand Illinois Trail: www.openlands.org/git/index.asp.
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