Paved Walking Trails

PA has a ton of rails to trails paths with most along scenic rivers. The Great Allegheny Passage is a planned connector between DC and Pittsburgh. The paths make a very positive contribution to the quality of life in this state.

We have one very nice paved trail at a nearby tourist attraction in the National Forest. Lots of people use it, and I'm sure it is a boost for the economy of our little village. But most of the trails here are just rough dirt trails made (and occasionally, maybe, fixed up) by the forest service, or are just old cowboy trails or elk and cattle trails. Other than that we are lucky just to have a few paved roads.

A lot of local people here are hunters and hikers, and the lack of paved trails is no deterrent to us at all. And we get a lot of serious hikers as visitors from other states and around the world. They come for the spectacular scenery, the vastness, and the wilderness and expect to find primitive conditions. Only flabby tourists need paved trails.

My wife is seriously disabled from a stroke like brain injury. She is a big fan of our time spent on rail trails as it provides a safe, relatively flat, well maintained surface that she can walk on. Having seen everybody from other disabled folks, to herds of little Mennonite children on their bicycles, throughly enjoying the trials, I can't share your limited opinion of thier value.

-Right by me we have a trail, Zoar Valley Trail, that runs along part of the old canal towpath of the Ohio-Eerie Canal. Right now it's about 20 miles long and I "think" they are still adding on to it. But I believe only part of it is paved or graveled. It runs from Shoenbrunn/New Phila to just on the other side of Bolivar.

L8R,
Matt

I have a problem with the theft that was involved in getting some of the railroad lands to make the trails. In our state when the railroad section is abandoned the land is supposed to go back to the parcels it was taken from. They even issued permits for these owners to build and then came back and told them it wasn't their land and it would be for a walking trail.

So the result was they had buildings torn down for the trail and they now have a bunch of strangers walking through their backyard.

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Give Blood it saves lives.

one of the reasons I maintain my trails is so disabled people can use them..although they are mown, they are still wheelchair accessible most of the year..last year I had two trees come down on my trails though blocking wheelchairs..I'll have to try to get them cut up this year...as I have several wheelchair bound friends.

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Brenda Groth
http://restfultrailsfoodforestgarden.blogspot.com/

When first getting back into walking I found it much easier to work my way up when walking the relatively smooth, level, paved trail.

The center of our country roads are hilled so much that it messes with your ankles until used to walking long distances again. You don't notice it so much when driving, but it becomes glaringly obvious when walking.

Now instead of driving to the trail, to then take a walk, we usually just take a walk around the "block." It isn't as smooth and has several steep hills, but it comes out to a nice 3 1/2 mile walk and the scenery is lovely. The other perk is after a while folks start greeting you and you get a chance to meet some interesting neighbors.
The only draw back of this has been our narrow, curving roads, we have to be extra cautious of vehicles. Most in this area are used to our walking and drive accordingly on our regular route, but we do have to deal with the occasional speed demon or worse yet cell phone/texting while driving driver.

Don't see the reason for most trails to be paved. Gravel works just fine most of the time. Gravel drains better, is easier on the knees, and costs a lot less.

As much as I think trails are nice, lots of them are a waste because they are unused. Trails need to be placed in locations where people will use them. Just stringing a "trail" does not make it pretty or safe or accessable or desireable.

I've seen a lot of paved trails in Oregon in places with heavy rain and a lot of human traffic. The pavement is to control erosion.

It has the additional benefit of giving access to some of our beautiful natural features to the handicapped.

While I wouldn't approve of provided paved wheelchair access to the entire Pacific Crest Trail, I do think it is nice for people with wheelchairs and people with children in strollers to be able to enjoy some of the spectacular waterfalls and to enjoy a nice outing in the forests.

The more people who get to enjoy Nature at her finest, the more people there are who can understand the need for some reasonable conservation measures. I would like for the rivers and forests to be there for my great grandchildren in some form other than old photos in books.

I guess it varies by state. Here in PA. a few folks ended up doing jail time since they couldn't get past the fact that they thought they "owned" something they had no right to. The RR never gave up the right of way. The state agreed to return it to the RR if requested. But some decided that replacing train traffic with a handful of bicycles and walkers was the end of the world. Now it's a whole other story if you were told that the ROW reverted to you, you built on it, and they took it back.

When I lived in Austin, Texas, in the 1990's...the Town Lake bike and hike trails were 200 miles and some were paved and some weren't. Now over 20 years later, that has expanded to over 500 plus miles. I haven't been back there for over 6 years so no idea how many more miles have been added. They have a huge variety of trails so I loved living there.

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Ted H

You may all go to Hell, and I will go to Texas.
-Davy Crockett

When we honeymooned in Germany a few years back I was quite impressed with the walking/bicycle trails everywhere. I would like to see more of them in our country.... keeps the foot traffic and bikes off of the roads... which is much safer in my opinion.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

Yes, the two biggest attractions down here are the bike trail system and Amish tours. I admit, I haven't used the trail much but I have taken walks out on it occasionally, it's nice. Lots of local people use it and really enjoy it, and when there is enough snow you can go cross country skiing. And while the tourism down here isn't crazy like some places, a lot of local shops really rely on that seasonal trade.

Nice

My children enjoyed the paved trail we had in MA, being able to ride their bike on it without worrying about gravel, etc. And people in wheelchairs probably enjoy them too, but they are probably just flabby.

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They are all the rage in suburban MA, championed by smarmy soccer moms and dweeby guys who claim to admire nature, but who can't figure out how to walk anywhere unless there's pavement. They're the type that move to the country, but don't want livestock next door, and want to bring the convenience of the mall with them. I guess it's not worth walking anywhere unless you've spent millions "improving" the way.

We blocked rails to trails here. It runs right through some people properties and who wants a bunch of hikers walking through their front yards?

We already have the AT trail here and the towpath which is very flat and runs along the Potomac river. We didn't need a trail that ran through private land

For goodness sake!

smarmy soccer moms and dweeby guys?? GAAAAAAAH I can't even say what I am thinking. What is the problem with people that like to walk on paved trails?? Try rolling or pushing a wheelchair over gravel, or pushing a baby stroller , or biking with a little girl with training wheels on gravel or mud puddles, etc.

Why do you feel the need to cut down people because they live in a different place than you do?? Maybe these people that you look down on, have nowhere else that they can go and get out of the house and enjoy nature and fresh air. Maybe they like going on them!

Id rather walk on a paved trail with a "dweeby" guy or a soccer mom, than someone that looks down on them and thinks they are superior.

__________________
Recognize the beauty in things, in creation, even when thats difficult to do.
Be loving, show compassion. Create while we're here.
Enjoy this life, be in this life but not be of it.

We must use different gravels here. Had no real trouble pushing the stroller along the gravel paths when the child was a babe, and never hard trouble riding a bicycle along gravel paths.

Washout hasn't been a problem when things like geotile was used to hold the gravel in place.

Has been unfortunate that a number of unpaved trails have been closed, in the name of fairness. The basis being that if a person in a wheelchair can't easily scurry along a gnarly dirt trail, than a walking capable person shouldn't be given this unfair advantage. Close those trails, and leave only smooth level paved trails, in the name of fairness.

We have lots of them everywhere. At probably the longest and most popular one in Dallas, the Katy Trail (old Katy RR right-of-way), a young woman jogging on it was killed by a bicycle. Mixing the two can be pretty dangerous.

[[[[[.....Only flabby tourists need paved trails.....]]]]]

Yes, and my local economy depends upon those flabby tourists and the multi-millions of dollars they bring into the local economy every year.

If you want to get away from the flabby tourists, all you have to do is walk beyond the end of the paved trail. Although, actually, the tourists aren't that flabby. They come to ski, race bikes, and technical rock climb. Not a lot of pot bellies in that crowd.