Obsessed with trails
(Or paths, or whatever you want to call them.)
If you’ve been reading my blog for any amount of time you may notice I talk a lot about the trails in the county I live in. Particularly the trail closest to my home – the Millennium Trail. I did not realize how much I talked about the 2.5 mile portion of this trail near my home until I decided to do a bit of research on my blog and found a ton of posts mentioning it –
6/27/10 – When I found out they were building the trail
9/14/10 – Still waiting for construction to start
10/21/10 – Construction has started and I declare any new home for us must be near a trail
11/3/10 – I get anxious and say the trail looks ready to run on to me
1/9/11 – Oh wait, that bridge is not finished
1/23/11 – I decide the bridge is ready enough for me to use
8/3/11 – There is signage on the trail
8/5/11 – I use the trail to commute to the train
10/16/11 – Rainbow on the trail
10/30/11 – Vandalism on the trail
Those were the ones I found before I got tired of looking! Yikes. Excited, much?
Part of the the portion of the trail near our home was never finished (a 600′ section in the middle and the 1300′ start of it) because of easement debates. I read in the local paper* in the beginning of April that they finally came to an agreement on this and were going to finish the trail! EXCITING! I cut out the article and put it on our kitchen door so I could see it every day. <– dorky
Eventually, this trail so close to my home will connect to 20 miles of completed trail. And eventually it will be a 35 mile trail! All the need to do is build a few tunnels and get some more parts of the trail going…
Anyway. This post is starting to not have a point. Oops. Back on track…
Whenever we would ride on trails that went near people’s homes in the past , I would always say “It would be SO COOL to have a trail in your backyard! You could jump right on the trail to run/walk/bike or you could people watch from your home!”
Would you want a trail that close to your home?
And now we will have that. I can see the extension to the trail from my office and bedroom windows! Since Steven works from home every day, and I work from home quite a bit, we have been able to see some of the construction. Steven said he felt the house shaking yesterday – it’s that close!**
They had to redo the sidewalk to make room for the trail. And they had to kill some trees. <– sad
The trail wraps around the “marsh” (we call it the swamp, or if you say marsh, you have to say it with a Boston accent) in our backyard.
View of our home.
She had dumps like a truck truck truck…
Would you want to watch the construction of a trail being built or do you think that is boring?
*Why did I have to read this in the paper? Why was it not on the forest preserve website? What if we did not get the paper?
**Should I be worried our house was shaking?
Themocracy
LOL! I love this post for some reason 🙂 I would love a trail/path/whatever closer to my house. I actually read in our paper that there are plans (probably very far off) to do so and I got unnaturally excited.
Random: I think I would like to do a trail half marathon. I’m sure it would kick my a$$ but in a good way!
Ha ha ha. I get excited when I read about plans that are way off in the future too.
Are there trail halfs where you live?! You should totally do one! I am thinking about a trail 50K 🙂
Yes, there are a few trail races (halfs, fulls, ultras) around here. Very technical and steep and they scare the crap out of me! I went to a trail running festival a few weeks ago and nearly died on just the 5K (I finished in 42+ minutes and was not even close to being last!! 1000ft of elevation gain in the last mile…and this is part of the course on the half I am eyeing! Serious work to be done on this end for sure.)
That would be so awesome for you to do a 50K…I really admire that!
My first ever 5K (which I don’t even count) was a trail 5K and it was so freaking hard. I was in WAY over my head!!!
I would love something like this close to my house and have thought the exact same thing on some of the pathways I’ve been on in the past…well, I guess I’d like it as long as my backyard was big enough and we still had some sort of privacy/barrier from it in some way!
I love that you put “dumps like a truck truck truck.” Made me laugh!
Same here! Now that song is going to be in my head all day!
Was this the trail your 5k in January was on?
No, that trail is a little bit further away. But I have figured out a way to run there! 🙂
I loved having a trail across the street a few years ago. Looking back, I wish I had taken more advantage of it!
I would LOVE a trail that close. Without a car right now the little one only hit the streets in our hood and well it’s not exciting and our town is hit or miss if people have side walks so it’s not really safe either. I used to work construction so I would watch. Are the guys hot or old? LOL.
Ha ha ha! I haven’t even noticed the guys! They are in their Catepillars!
We only have one car so I am trying to get more creative on where I can run from my house without driving somewhere. So far I have found a lot of trails to access (if I want to run far, anyway).
I would love to have a trail closer to my place! But I would never watch the construction of it, and I think that I would be really pissed if for one reason or another I would have to pass through the construction site and get my shoes all muddy and stuff. But if you lack company, my family already includes 3 members of the type of engineers that would be happy to watch the construction with you and discuss different types of cement and design the alternatives in autocad 🙂
Ooo! I actually do like to discuss cement. LOL (architecture background). Ha ha ha.
Last night Rich and I went on a bike ride and found a cute little house right next to a trail, that was it’s selling point for us! 🙂
We actually have a trial in our backyard that connects a bunch of the suburbs! I love it! I do sometimes get jealous though when I see people out there running and I’m stuck inside studying and now that I won’t be studying I’ll be moving. Guess I’ll just have to find a new trail 🙂
I feel jealous when I see people running in my hood, even if I have already run that day or plan to that afternoon! It’s so funny!
We were running near Old School last weekend, by some of those amazing houses, and we were talking about how cool it’d be to have the trail right in your backyard – and I LOVE watching stuff get built!
You crack me up!
We do have a trail pretty close to our house, but I am glad it’s not in my backyard. I don’t mind the five minutes it takes to get to the trail.
I remember your excitement over the trail in your backyard!! I didn’t realize it was partially finished. Glad they are able to fill in the gaps!
I have a trail behind my house and it is currently under construction. In fact, they are making the portion directly behind my house a raised boardwalk because the entrance from the road was too steep for ADA regulations (They redid the entire path to adhere to ADA regs). My trail isn’t 20+ miles long but it winds around the lakes and leads over to the regional park!
That is so nice they are making it accessible!
It makes me smile that the trail makes you so happy! I always remember the trails as the the time I ran on them and didn’t die! Ahhh, memories. 20 miles long would be convenient for those long runs!
I love when we ran on the trail together! When you come in 2 weeks you will get to see the construction! 🙂
Right now I can access another 15ish miles of trail from my home but it’s not so safe to run there. I am going to be happy when it’s all connected.
I love your obsession, I mean enthusiasm, with the trail. I think you should find the person who designed the trail and interview them for your blog. They would probably be really excited that you were so in the trail!
That’s a great idea! I called the forest preserve when I first saw the signs a few years ago and they were very forthcoming with info 🙂
We have a large park 1 block north of our house that has a trail. It’s pretty long and connects to a trail at another park to the south. We love having trails so close to our house. Not sure I’d like hearing construction all day. I have an infant who needs to nap, though.
I’m so excited that they’re finally making progress on the rest of the trail! I agree that it’s totally awesome to be able to go out of your door and get on a trail instead of just having to run on the sidewalks all the time.