The little town of Sheffield, Alabama is building a 3 mile bike trail to attract tourism to it's historic district and to provide a new recreation space for the community. The paved trail will cost @ $700,000; the town is paying $140k and the balance is coming from a transportation enhancement grant.

The reason I bring up this trail is the novel approach that the people of Sheffield are taking to meld the trail into their mature urban landscape. The trail will be routed over a conglomeration of renewed sidewalks and fresh trail but it will also carve 8' at times from existing streets. Though the town recognizes that it will loose some downtown parking spaces in the process, folks there are confident that the benefits will outweigh any negatives.

Read the complete news story about this bike trail project:
http://www.timesdaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070225/NEWS/702250350/1011

Respectfully,
Larry Lagarde
RideTHISbike.com
Urging bicycling for recreation, commuting, health and a better future.

Labels: Alabama, bike trail, Sheffield, urban planning

Last year, a RideTHISbike.com reader and folding bike owner (Jim Lukens) wrote that he was planning to go bicycling on the Virginia Creeper Trail. I caught up with Jim over the weekend. He did get to ride the trail in September on his folding bike and here are his comments about the ride.

"I went up in September and stayed in one of the B&Bs in Damascus (Virginia) to scout out the area. I took a shuttle to the top, then rode back to Damascus, then traded in my rental bike and rode another 16 miles (8 down, 8 back) on my Downtube folding bike. I got so enamored with the place that I made my family go back a couple weeks later (they have a great playground for the kids in Damascus) and I'm trying to schedule some spring weekends to get back up there with some of my buddies and maybe do an Out and Back from Abingdon with some camping up in the state forest. I think I found my little corner of heaven. I'm not sure how I'd write a review of the trail or the place other than to just rant over and over 'this place is great'."

Jim also mentioned that some of the local creeks near the Creeper appear to offer good potential for whitewater kayaking.

Thanks Jim, for the info. I'll definitely keep the Virginia Creeper Trail in my upcoming rides to do list.

By the way, another site that focuses on the Virginia Creeper is VaCreeperTrail.com. Although it's not the "official" site for the trail, it does offer useful lodging and travel planning info.

I'm always looking for first hand reports about bicycling on long distance bike trails. If you rode a trail recently, write me about the experience using my email link at the bottom of this page. If I publish your info, I'll be glad to give you the credit.

Happy trails. L

Labels: bike trail, places to go bicycling, rail trail, Virginia Creeper Trail

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to hike the Grand Canyon? How about hiking the Canyon rim to rim in a day; better yet, with bikes strapped to your backs, in sub freezing temperatures and (of course) in the snow? Well, that's what the three guys of Riding The Spine just did.

I have been following the exploits of Jacob, Goat and Sean (a.k.a. RidingTheSpine.com) for several months now. The challenges that they've faced (and overcome) on their unsupported tour bicycling from Alaska to the tip of South America are beyond comprehension. Yet, the Riding The Spine tour has thousands of miles to ride and many more challenges ahead.

For me though, the most humbling and fascinating aspect of their tour is the cause they have chosen to support with their inspirational ride: The Friends of the Lafitte Corridor (FOLC).

As I wrote about in December when I was elected to FOLC's board of directors, this non profit organization that's spear heading a grass roots effort to connect, inspire and revitalize core New Orleans' neighborhoods that marinated for weeks in the putrid floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina. To accomplish this goal, FOLC is weaving together local residents and community leaders with national health, walking and bicycling groups so that a planned bike trail from the French Quarter can finally become reality.

Although most New Orleanians want to return home, factors like sickeningly low insurance settlements, inconsistent & slow governmental rebuilding efforts, an explosively violent crime wave, insufficient public education, rapidly escalating costs of living/rebuilding and unreliable public utilities have kept many residents away and on the verge of despair. Under such dire circumstances, the Lafitte Corridor becomes more than just a simple bike trail. Completing the project would spur the hopes and spirits of the entire region.

Without a doubt, the guys of Riding The Spine and the people of New Orleans are facing seemingly insurmountable odds. Nevertheless, as these 3 bicyclists have rode from Alaska to the Grand Canyon in the dead of winter, so has New Orleans risen from muck and mold (even the Saints made the NFL playoffs this year). Long shots though they are, I'm rooting for Riding The Spine. Ride on, guys.

Labels: bike trail, FOLC, greenway, New Orleans, RidingTheSpine

Here's a trail suggestion that I received today from fellow cycling advocate Phillip Barron:

The American Tobacco Trail -- 22+ miles of paved (the approx 7 miles that run through the center of Durham, NC) and semi-paved (the southern portions, crushed rock) converted rail trail in Durham, NC. Southern portions of the trail extend into Wake and Chatham counties, but the bulk of the trail is in Durham County. A National Recreation Trail, it is a non-motorized, multi-use path, free and open to the public (hours from 5am to 10pm). It's one of the more heavily traveled bike paths in the area, a truly commuter avenue connecting Durham with Research Triangle Park (a regional center of employment). It is also part of the work-in-progress East Coast Greenway.

Thanks Phillip. I've been looking to ride the American Tobacco Trail and am glad to receive your suggestion.

For more info about the ATT, see the links below. If you know of a great bike trail that should be on my list, please write me by clicking on the "email us" link on the bottom of this page.

ATT Website -- http://www.triangletrails.org/ATT.HTM

Photos of trail building and usage: http://www.triangletrails.org/PHOTOS.HTM
Phillip Barron's photos & stories of the ATT: http://www.nicomachus.net/bikes/att/

Labels: American Tobacco Trail, bicycle trail, bike trail, North Carolina, Phillip Barron, places to ride

Recently, I was selected to serve on the board of directors for the Friends of the Lafitte Corridor (FOLC), an organization dedicated to turning an abandoned rail line running from the New Orleans French Quarter into public recreation space and linear park.

The Lafitte Corridor played a huge role in the development of New Orleans. First a canal dug by the Spanish as a route for commerce, the city enclosed the canal and allowed the Great Southern Railway to use the right of way for their rail line into the city. The railway ran through historic neighborhoods like Storyville (red light district and birthplace of jazz) Treme (home to Creoles, voodoo & red beans) and Mid City (Bayou Saint John, streetcars & above ground cemeteries), terminating at Canal and Basin Streets. With the building of New Orleans' Union Passenger Terminal in the 1940's, the railway slowly fell into disuse; most of the tracks were ripped up about a year ago.

Although the bike trail along the Lafitte Corridor has been in New Orleans' master transportation plan for years, funds for the project just began to emerge before Hurricane Katrina. Unfortunately, the catastrophic flooding New Orleans endured due to poorly designed federal flood protection barriers have forced city government to operate in crisis mode for an extended time.

Recognizing that a sharply reduced City Hall staff placed the bike trail and greenway corridor in peril of being lost to developers, a citizen's coalition of neighbors, former residents and local cyclists came together to form FOLC. Though new, FOLC has already received a variety of grants including one from the Rails To Trails Conservancy; to date, over $400,000 has been raised for the project. Additionally, a new film studio known as LIFT is building an initial phase of the trail along the edge of their property so the linear park is certainly moving forward.

Help FOLC Railbank The Historic Lafitte Corridor
Railbanking this former right of way of the Great Southern Railway into a bike trail does more than generate green space; it preserves a corridor that played a central role in the birth of Jazz and the development of New Orleans. Also, a blighted and overgrown corridor can become an enduring symbol of hope and place of recreation that will spur redevelopment and growth at a vital time. As a board member of FOLC, I humbly ask for your help. Visit our new website (folc-nola.org), tell your friends what we're doing and, if possible, donate some time or money to see this project through.

Respectfully,
Larry Lagarde

Labels: bike trail, bikeway, commuting, rail bank, rail banking, rail trail, recreation, transportation

Today, I had the great pleasure to ride 40 miles through the Western suburbs of New Orleans on the Montague MX suspended, full size, folding mountain bike.

The urge to ride has been building within me since my spill at Spanish Plaza about 2 weeks ago. I had ridden downtown to photograph the QE2 at dock on the Mississippi River. It was night time and the Plaza's polished marble pavement was wet with condensation. I went to make a turn but the bike wanted to go straight... Luckily, the fall resulted only in a nasty oozing knee. I shot some halfway decent night time photos of the QE2 and her guest queueing up for a steamboat jazz cruise on (see the 3 photos in this post), then proceeded to ride the 15 or so miles home.

The scab I earned from the fall kept me off the bike for a few days. Meanwhile, I got busy on a Hurricane Katrina repair project ripping out lots of 2x4's that had to be thrown out a window. Once the job was done, my lower back was sore for almost a week. Fast forward to today.

The weather was gorgeous: brilliant blue skies, temps in the mid 50's and a 5-10 mph breeze from the East. Frankly, I hadn't intended to ride 40 miles; however, once I hit the road, I just didn't want to stop riding.

Along the ride, I encountered a traffic accident scene, cruised past Destrehan Plantation, did some shopping at the new Dollar General in St. Rose (trail mix and sports drink), took a snack break at Rivertown, watched sheriff's deputies in 8 patrol cars meet & prep for a drug raid, watched the oil tanker Ficus sail round a riverbend on it's way to a terminal upriver and passed about 15 or so other cyclists on the Bill Kellor / Mississippi River Levee trail.

If you'd like to see the route of my ride, I charted it on Dave Ploch's 2wheeltech.com bike route mapping website.

Larry

Labels: bike touring, bike trail, cruises, cruising, Cunard, Destrehan Plantation, folding bicycle, folding bike, Louisiana, Mississippi River, New Orleans, plantation, QE2, Queen Elizabeth 2