![]() “Trail segments are being added almost every year.” ![]() ![]() Washington state’s longest segments of the Great American include the 289-mile Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail, which travels from the Idaho border to the Puget Sound region, as well as the Olympic Discovery Trail.Ībout 92 miles of the Olympic Discovery Trail are completed along a route that will eventually be 135 miles long, Bohman says. It is more than halfway completed, with about 88 gaps to be filled, including some in Washington state. The Great American crosses 12 states and will be the nation’s first cross-country biking and walking trail when completed. People from around the world, as well as the 50 million Americans who live within 50 miles of the Great American, will come to bike, walk, ride horses, and explore America’s diverse landscapes when the trail is completed, Belanger says. “People on bikes buy food and water and supplies and lodgings, and there are many towns that need economic development that would benefit.” “The return on investment is huge,” says Kevin Belanger of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, a nonprofit that is leading the effort to create the Great American Rail-Trail. They are a major economic engine.Ī recent study says the 3,700-mile Great American Rail-Trail, which is more than halfway built, will generate about $25 million in spending and 1.6 million trips within Washington state when completed. Long-distance bike trails not only provide healthy recreational opportunities and adventure. That’s good news for the state’s economy. “Completing the Western Gateway will be a huge milestone that connects the Great American Rail-Trail to the Pacific Ocean,” Bohman says. Building this westernmost segment of the Great American and Olympic Discovery trails will offer people on bikes a car-free, epic start or finish to a bike ride across the Olympic Peninsula–or across the nation. The trail connection will provide an economic boost to the region and state by connecting the Olympic Discovery and Great American trails to the Pacific via a new “Western Gateway.”Ĭonstruction on the 11-mile segment of paved, multi-use trail from Forks to La Push should be completed within the next three years, says Jeff Bohman, president of the Peninsula Trails Coalition. In just a few years, people will be able to bike on a new trail from the timber town of Forks, Wash., to the oceanfront tribal community of La Push. A new study shows the economic benefits of completing these long-distance bike trails.Ī “huge milestone” is coming for Washington state’s Olympic Discovery Trail and the 3,700-mile Great American Rail-Trail that spans the nation.Plans are underway to complete the “Western Gateway” to the Great American, and fill gaps on the Olympic Peninsula.Washington’s Olympic Discovery Trail is a key segment in the 3,700-mile Great American Rail-Trail. ![]()
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