New Kansas Trails Website. A new Kansas Trails website has been launched featuring some recreational trails in the great Sunflower State, a Kansas trails newsletter and an e-bookstore. Click here to check it out.
Prairie Spirit Trail Set to Open June 7. Trent McCown, trail manager, reports that the final segment of the 52-mile trail is expected to open on National Trails Day, which is June 7 this year. This will be an exciting milestone in the history of rail-trails in Kansas. Soon trail users will be able to bike or hike all the way from Ottawa through the city of Iola. This completes the Prairie Spirit Trail and now it is hoped that KDWP will now initiate development of another long-distance rail-trail.
Thursday Taco Rides. Over 600 bicyclists participate in a bike ride on the 63-mile Wabash Trace Trail Thursday nights when they bike 10 miles from Council Bluffs, Iowa to the Mineola Steakhouse where they eat tacos. This is quite the social event for bicyclists in the Omaha area. The owner of the steakhouse appreciates the trail so much he has donated a new van to the nonprofit organization which developed and maintains the rail-trail.
2008 Trail Summit. The following excerpt is taken from the Kansas Trails Council newsletter (March 2008): With generous support of the Kansas Health Foundation, the Kansas Health Summit: Built Environment and the Outdoors is being planned for October 6 & 7, 2008. The conference will be held at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Wichita and will focus on trail issues and the health benefits of outdoor activity. A free presentation by Richard Louv, author of The Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, will be held at Century II on the evening of October 6.