Grundy Reporter

The I & M Canal and the Hennepin Canal may get a biking trail connecting the two canals.

“Our goal is to create a 16-mile trail that connects the I & M Canal and the Hennepin Canal Parkway,” Sen. Sue Rezin wrote on Facebook. “This project will allow everyone to bike thru Illinois on a connected, safe trail. Indiana is working on a similar project.”

Thrillist noted there’s a nationwide effort to be connecting trails called The Great American Rail-Trail, where a biker ride through 12 states and Washington D.C.

The Great American Rail-Trail is a project of the Rails to Trails Conservancy (RTC), a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit. in 2019, REI wrote about the Great American Rail-Trail, noting that the new multiuse trail was more than halfway complete at that time. The trail converts old railway corridors o pathways for pedestrians, cyclists and equestrians.

“The Great American Rail-Trail is a bold vision… The investment of time and resources necessary to complete this trail will be returned many times over as it takes its place among the country’s national treasures,” RTC President Keith Laughlin said, Thrillist reported. “As we embark on the journey to complete the Great American Rail-Trail, we embark on the single greatest trail project in the history of the U.S.”

The Great American Rail-Trail goes from Washington State to Washington-D.C. An interactive map is available here: https://www.railstotrails.org/greatamericanrailtrail/route/

To learn more about The Great American Rail-Trail, visit its website.

According to Grist, the idea for a rail-to-trail project in Illinois goes back to a 1963 letter in the Chicago Tribune, by May Theilgaard Watts, which described a vision for Chicago’s rail lines based not on construction and industry, but nature. The publication notes she was inspired by the Long and Appalachian Trail.