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America’s Trails


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Top 10 Attractions on the Mon River Trails (Sojourner’s Guide)
March 09, 2015
As narrowing down the unique experiences on February’s designee—West Virginia’s Mon River Trails—was especially challenging, we’re presenting you with a bonus top 10 list of great attractions (in no particular order) that you will find along this spectacular trail system spanning nearly 50 miles around Morgantown.
Locks and dams—like this one along the Monongahela River—make for some awesome sightseeing along the Mon River Trails | Photo by Jeff Wimer
Blog
West Virginia’s Mon River Trails
February 11, 2015
Both the Caperton and the pair of Mon River Trails on either side of Morgantown follow a branch of the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad, which primarily carried coal, coke, sand and limestone between the mines of Fairmont and the industrial city of Pittsburgh.
Photo by Steve Shaluta, courtesy Mon River Trails Conservancy
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Wisconsin’s Kinnickinnic River Trail
January 13, 2015
The story of Milwaukee’s Kinnickinnic River Trail is the story of its eponymous river; paralleling each other through the city’s south side, the fate of the two is intimately intertwined.
View of the Kinnickinnic River from the trail | Photo by John December
Blog
West Virginia’s North Bend Rail Trail
January 09, 2015
In anticipation of RTC’s West Virginia Sojourn in June 2016—the “Wild and Wonderful North Bend Trail”—we’re pleased to feature this great pathway as our December Trail of the Month.
The North Bend Rail Trail out of North Bend State Park, near Cairo, West Virginia. | Photo by Jake Lynch
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History Happened Here: How the Switchback Railroad Inspired the Invention of the Roller Coaster
September 12, 2014
The Switchback Gravity Railroad, built in 1827, was only the second railroad built in America. It ran nine miles, hauling coal from Summit Hill down to the town of Mauch Chunk and the Lehigh Canal in east central Pennsylvania.
Image courtesy RTC
Blog
Connecting the Keys: Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Trail
December 01, 2013
The Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Trail (FKOHT) is approximately 76 miles of the in-progress passageway are complete. It will eventually extend 106 miles from Key Largo to Key West.
Photo by Josh Ritchie
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The Road to a Thousand Wonders
September 12, 2013
The railroad used to wind through the canyon as part of the Southern Pacific Railroad's California-Oregon line, which was marketed in the early 1900s as "The Road to a Thousand Wonders."
Sundial Bridge | Photo by Beth Young, CC by 2.0
Blog
Erie Canalway Trail, New York
October 01, 2012
For trail lovers around the country, these two Idaho rail-trails hardly need an introduction: the 73-mile Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes and the 15-mile Route of the Hiawatha.
Erie Canalway Trail | Photo by TrailLink user susanlkarsiotis
Blog
Pennsylvania and Maryland’s Great Allegheny Passage
July 01, 2007
The Great Allegheny Passage, the country's longest multi-purpose trail and the site of the 2007 Greenway Sojourn, and also the first inductee to Rails-to-Trails Conservancy's Rail-Trail Hall of Fame.
Great Allegheny Passage | Photo by Blase Ur