National Road Heritage trail provides numerous definitions of outdoor enjoyment
By Peter Ciancone
It's a plump yellow-and-black bumblebee lazily gathering pollen from a patch of Queen Anne's lace.
It's flickers of sunlight through the leaves of the hundreds of shade trees along its sides.
It's fresh air and exercise.
It's the newest addition to the Terre Haute Park and Recreation Department's inventory of properties: the National Road Heritage Trail.
"I walk about three miles a day," said Becky Frederick on a cool, sunny August morning. She moved about a year ago to a new apartment next to the trail east of Fruitridge Avenue, and uses the smooth 10-foot-wide strip as a means to stay fit and enjoy the outdoors.
That same day, just a few yards from the Twigg Rest Area, Ruth Pugh from Cory and Kim O'Connell from Seelyville stop pedaling their bikes to chat a little about their regimen.
"We've been coming about four times a week," Pugh said. The two hang their rides on Pugh's bike carrier, drive to Twigg, then take the trail to the stadium, which has a one-mile circuit opened earlier this year that is shaped like the state of Indiana. They do a couple of laps on that before returning to Twigg.
"It gets us off the roads," Pugh said.
The trail starts at what was built in 1935 as a highway rest area along U.S. 40 - the old National Road. The Twigg Rest Area closed in 1976, and was revived in 2001 as a terminus for the trail, providing parking and a message board.
From there, heading west, the trail passes under U.S. 40 next to 84 Lumber, and wends its way between Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and Hawthorn Park, passing north of the Robinwood subdivision. It makes a 90-degree turn southwest of Butternut hill before turning back to the west to follow Locust Street to 25th Street. From there, it stays on the old railroad bed to 13th, where it travels through the Indiana State University campus to its western end at Fourth and Cherry streets.
Andy Theisz, assistant city engineer for Terre Haute, said plans to extend the trail system will press on to Fairbanks Park from Fourth and Cherry streets, extending straight down Fourth Street to Hulman while Fourth's sewerage system gets a much-needed improvement, and placing trail path along Hulman Street from Fourth Street to Thompson Ditch.
When the city begins work on the extension of Brown Avenue, Theisz said, it also will place trail alongside that new road between Locust Street and Maple Avenue, with a link planned to Terre Haute North Vigo High School. The city also is looking at trail along the side of Thompson Ditch, from Hulman Street north to Deming Park, and south to the vicinity of Terre Haute South Vigo High School.
A new eastern trail head is planned off Chamberlain Road.
"I think the trail is the greatest thing that has happened in Terre Haute in years," said Erna Bird, pausing her ride with friends Mona Drake and Heidi Dunbar. The Terre Haute trio sang the trail's praises - doing good for the community and for the people who use it.
"If more people used this trail, you'd see a lot fewer people in doctors' offices," Drake said. "We love it. We just think it needs to be extended."
It seems everyone you encounter on the trail passes with a smile and a greeting.
"You meet a lot of nice people out here," Pugh said.
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Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis |
| Walkers: Melinda Wall and "Mattie" start their walk along the national Road Heritage Trail from the Twigg Rest Area trailhead. |
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NATIONAL ROAD HERITAGE TRAIL FAST FACTS
- Plans were in the works for about seven years before ground was broken on the first stretch in March 2002.
- First stretch - between the Twigg Rest Area east of Terre Haute and 13th Street - officially opened Sept. 3, 2002.
- With the second stretch through Indiana State University campus to the corner of Fourth and Cherry streets, the trail measures 7 miles one way.
- The trail property in the Terre Haute Park Department accounts for 68 acres.
- Officials plan 12 additional miles of trail by 2007.
- The trail has so far used 9,000 tons of asphalt.
- The trail weighs 489 pounds per foot of length.