Rails-to-Trails Across the Country

(based on an article published by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy in the Winter 2021 Edition of their magazine for members, Rails to Trails.)

         In 2020, the United States had over 40,000 miles of multi-user trails open for biking, hiking, horseback riding, cross country skiing, etc., and over 24,000 of these miles were on 2200 former railroad right-of-ways.                                   

         It all began in Chicago in 1963 when the Chicago Tribune published a reader's letter entitled "Future Footpath" written by May Theilgaard Watts, a naturalist who proposed converting the neglected and unused railroad corridor of the former Chicago, Aurora, and Elgin Railway into a trail. It ran from Chicago to several western suburbs and she proposed that it "preserve the region's tall grass prairie, connect critical garden and ecology centers, and provide a footpath with a separated bikeway for the community."  Today it is the 62 mile Illinois Prairie Path, comprised of a stem and four radiating spokes, all of which I have biked numerous times.

The next year, 1964, Wisconsin agreed with the suggestion of local communities that the recently abandoned 34 mile section of the Chicago and North Western Railway track running from Elroy to Sparta should be re-purposed as a "linear recreation way." 

Both projects "served as the earliest major blueprints of the rail-trail movement" which then spread to the rest of the country over the next thirty years. In 1986, the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy was founded, and in 1992, I joined.

But such railroad route conversions weren't actually new, because over 30 such rail-trail conversions had previously been effected across the country, mainly in "remote backcountry locations" where railroad tracks had been replaced by hiking trails in state and national forests. The oldest such conversion was in Danville, Pennsylvania in the 1890s!

In 2007, the Conservancy began recognizing exemplary rail-trails around the country through its Rail-Trail Hall of Fame and now, each year, they select another based on scenic value, high usage, trail and trailside amenities, historical significance, excellence in management and maintenance of facility, community connections, and geographic distribution.  Here are the 36 current honorees (gray ones are live links to my photos and comments):

RTC Hall of Fame Trails

• Great Allegheny Passage (Maryland/Pennsylvania)
• Katy Trail State Park (Missouri)
• Fred Marquis Pinellas Trail (Florida)
• Burke-Gilman Trail (Washington)
• Minuteman Commuter Bikeway (Massachusetts)
• Illinois Prairie Path (Illinois)
• Elroy-Sparta State Trail (Wisconsin)
• Bizz Johnson Trail (California)
• W&OD Trail (Virginia)
• Monon Trail (Indiana)
• Silver Comet Trail (Georgia)
• Chief Ladiga Trail (Alabama)
• East Bay Bicycle Path (Rhode Island)
• Pere Marquette Rail-Trail of Michigan
• Little Miami Scenic Trail (Ohio)
• Paul Bunyan State Trail (Minnesota)
• Wabash Trace Nature Trail (Iowa)
• Prairie Spirit Rail Trail State Park (Kansas)
• Springwater Corridor (Oregon)
• High Line (New York)
• George S. Mickelson Trail (South Dakota)
• Prescott Peavine National Recreation Trail and Iron King Trail (Arizona)
• Longleaf Trace (Mississippi)
• Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes and Route of the Hiawatha (Idaho)
• Historic Union Pacific Rail Trail State Park (Utah)
• Island Line Rail Trail (Vermont)
• Greenbrier River Trail (West Virginia)
• Virginia Creeper National Recreation Trail (Virginia)
• Heritage Rail Trail County Park (Pennsylvania) and Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail (Maryland)
• Midtown Greenway (Minnesota)
• Hudson Valley Trail Network (New York)
• Tammany Trace (Louisiana)
• Cardinal Greenway (Indiana)
• Tanglefoot Trail (Mississippi)
• Mon River Rail-Trail System (West Virginia)

Over the years, I've biked 256 trails across the country, many of which which were rail-trail conversions. Twelve of the trails were Hall of Fame Trails (links to the 12 with my comments and photos are above.)

Spirits of Canyon de Chelly

 

Ancient Ones,

Anasazi and Hopi and Navajo,

beckon us --

come visit our once-stately homes

and view our fading rock art --

envision our way of life

and respect our life ways.

Many come, look, and leave,

but the spirits urge lingering,

whispering to all --

remain a while.

Hear the echoes of our voices,

feel our canyon winds,

smell our sweet desert fragrances,

taste our falling raindrops

and watch our arid sand 

briefly harden, then billow green again.

Feel the shade of our cottonwood

and marvel at our sudden waterfalls,

discern the wild presence

of our unseen mountain lions and coyotes,

then rest beneath our shade houses

and find respite from heat and troubles.

Camp within the embrace of our spirits --

so long departed,

yet ever-present.

copyright 2021 by Chuck Morlock

Atop Uncompahgre Peak, Colorado (14,309 feet above sea level)

Not the top of the entire world

but certainly tops in mine.

On the ground yet scraping the clouds,

exaltation and vistas immeasurable,

feeling simultaneously 

pebble-small and redwood-tall.

Where does one go from the pinnacle?

Other than root and stagnate,

there is nowhere but down.

The peak, as all of life's highs,

ever ephemeral, fleeting, impermanent,

only to be relished, remembered, revered,

as life inevitably fast-forwards.

For descend we must to the valleys

to explore, experience, survive,

ever yearning for new endorphin highs

and praying life conspires us 

to soon rescale the heights.

copyright 2021 by Chuck Morlock

Into the Beyond

 

Wilderness invades your bloodstream,

roiling through your vessels

and rampantly invading all body parts 

with sensuous primordial urges.

Osmose its grandeur

into every fiber of your being.

Fabricate kaleidoscopes of mental confection

whose endless iterations renew and revitalize

every civilization-weary cell,

patching holes in your soul and psyche.

Hearken to Nature’s susurrus sounds

with all your senses,

feel its stirring vibrations 

within and without,

observe the birth of sounds,

taste and smell the crisp, unsullied air,

hear the deafening silence.

Bite off multi-acre portions,

swallow its miles voraciously,

digest its beauty

and garner strength

from its rejuvenating nutrients.

Obey 

as wilderness impels you

into the beyond 

to enter its escape.

Surrender your soul to 

redevelopment,

renewal, 

rebirth.

And finally, fully,

become alive.

copyright 2021 by Chuck Morlock

Chuck's Adventures Onstage

Not all of my adventures have been outdoors on land and water. Over the years, I've organized, directed, and performed in skits and musical acts at several churches where I've been in the choir, and also at schools I've attended and the school where I taught for 29 years.  

For over 60 consecutive years, I've sung in church choirs.  Most were  small neighborhood churches and the choirs usually had to fund the purchase of robes and often music, and we did so by hosting "Coffee Houses" -- gatherings where coffee and cake and cookies were served as we entertained with solos, ensembles, and various skits.  

It all began while I was in college at Wright Junior College in Chicago where for one concert we sang tunes from "Oklahoma" seen below (I'm in the gold shirt.)

Later at Northern Illinois University, my dorm, Douglas Hall, entered a skit in the 1966 university-wide "Showtime" competition and we won first place. One episode of our act was when Poseidon, Zeus, and Apollo sang and danced as seen here (I'm Posiedon in the green seaweed.)

Below is the whole cast and our trophy. Decades later I visited the old dorm before it was razed and the trophy and photo were still on display!

Several of us also began a dorm choir, the Douglas Hall Madrigals, and we had Christmas and Spring concerts...

...which included some "specialty numbers" like "Draft Dodger Rag" by Phil Ochs, performed with Randy who co-founded the group with me and our RA, Rich, who is accompanying on the piano.

Over the years at various churches, I began putting together shows for fund-raising. We had a lot of fun and the audiences (our friends and families) enjoyed our madcap antics, and we managed to raise cash to purchase music and even choir robes. Kent and I sing the Kingston Trio song, "To Morrow" about a train trip to a strangely named town.

During the heyday of Tiny Tim I did this homage...

Bruce (washtub bass) and I accompany a singer...

I'm lamenting a death in this takeoff from "Oklahoma" which we called "Poor Bruce is Dead" (but he isn't and halfway through he joins me in singing)

"Ah Woe, Ah Me," a Kingston Trio calypso comedy song, sung by my co-producer, Kent, and Pastor, Don, in the center.

A bit of barbershop for the audience...

I don't recall this song, but obviously county and western because that's what Buck always played...

For 29 years, I taught at Fremd High School. My first 4 years I organized faculty skits for the annual Variety Show which had 3 sell-out performances each year. My last 25 years I was one of the V-Show directors, so Faculty skits became rare then. The students loved seeing the faculty make fools of themselves on stage! As we guys danced,  the ladies of the faculty sang "There is Nothin' Like A Dame." (This skit was a hit everywhere I staged it, so I recycled it at 3 churches and the high school.)

A popular TV show was "Laugh-In" so in one skit I portrayed the "Dirty Old Man."

This skit was called Dr. Frankenbeans and Bill was Igor. (It's alive!!!)

I don't recall what this skit was! 

The group sings "Good Old Mt. Dew" while Cathy holds a can to demonstrate we aren't talking about an alcoholic beverage...

Lots of fun, and I miss those good old days!  Years later, I sang with a community chorus for 20 years...

...which provided me with my only opportunity to play banjo in a tux on  "Thank God I'm A Country Boy!"

For the last 25 years, I've been in my church's annual "Christmas in the Village"concert which includes a 30 piece orchestra and always plays to two full-house performances (except in the COVD-19 year!)

Always fun on stage, though I still prefer my adventures in Nature that include mountains or rivers or bike trails!