Missoula is such an awesome place, where the benefits of parks & trails on our lives are both realized and appreciated. There is more and more evidence that walking 30 minutes a day has a huge impact on your health and quality of life. Our providers all encourage patients to lead a healthy lifestyle and recognize the value of parks & trails. Here is a great opinion-piece that came out today in the Missoulian. We encourage you to read and share. Celebrate Missoula-area trails this spring Guest column by EVA DUNN-FROEBIG, JOSH SLOTNICK and SAM SCHULTZ Missoula’s city, county and U.S. Forest Service trail systems do all of these things and more: Think Riverfront Trail – a safe place for a mother to run with an 8-year-old son in tow. He can ride his bike, safe from traffic, even if he gets a little out front of her. Think Mount Sentinel, Mount Jumbo or the North Hills – runners mingling with walkers and dogs, nature’s bounty of deer, wildflowers, stunning sunrises and color-laden sunsets. Think the Rattlesnake Trailhead – mountain bikers, arriving from down valley, now starting their day of cruising trail loops. Think kids with their parents, and spry seniors, too, people united by the shared passion of exploring our backyard on foot or atop two wheels. You might not recall life without trails. But we do. Before the Milwaukee Trail was completed, a commute into town from west of Reserve Street found a bicycle commuter ever watchful for turning cars, concurrently dodging rim-bending potholes and screaming traffic. After the construction of the trail and tunnels, everything changed. Calm replaced vigilance. Back then, there wasn’t much in the way of community-to-community trails, trails connecting urbanites to adjacent public lands, or trails simply for getting around town. These days, just within our 26-square-mile city, 22 miles of trails traverse town: The Kim Williams Trail, the South Shore Trail, the Ron McDonald Riverfront Trail, the Milwaukee Trail, and the Bitterroot Branch Trail. Zoom your mind’s eye outward, and you’ll see more than 100 miles of trails all told, managed by the city of Missoula and Missoula County, many leading into federal public lands. Thanks to a recent $4.58 million federal TIGER grant, a 10-foot-wide bicycle, walking and running trail will span the path from downtown Missoula to downtown Hamilton. The grant funds a project known as the M2L (Missoula to Lolo) Trail, which when completed will connect the city of Missoula’s Bitterroot Branch Trail to Lolo, where it will pick up the existing trail that parallels U.S. Highway 93. Who needs all these trails? We do. You do. Everyone does. A recent survey found that 80 percent of Missoula County residents support even more trails of all kinds, and it’s no wonder. Biking, hiking and cross country skiing are pastimes of the residents of nearly 75 percent of Missoula households. Most Misssoulians share local trails like New Yorkers share Central Park. We take our guests for strolls down the river, morning jogs, bicycle-powered trips to local microbreweries or the mall, or teeth-rattling rides that drop out of the surrounding hills. It’s no secret that trails bring tourists to our communities – tourists who spend money and fuel our local economy. If you’re a local trail user, get ready to celebrate trails. For example, in Frenchtown, a kid-friendly, county-managed, non-motorized path along Mullan Road is under construction now. Watch for the upcoming ribbon cutting for this trail that will provide a safe, off-street travel between the Frenchtown Elementary School and neighborhoods west of the school. We envision kids wearing their brightest colors riding flag-festooned bikes or carrying balloons as they walk wearing day-glow tennies. Somebody ought to bring some cupcakes. Need something a little more sophisticated? Turn out for Missoula County’s M2L public informational meeting on Tuesday at the Guesthouse Inn, Suites & Conference Center, 3803 Brooks Street in Missoula. You can drop by the conference center anytime between 5 and 7 p.m. The county and its partners will have information about the M2L trail, including the proposed route and project timeline. No matter what, find a way to celebrate National Trails Day, coming up on Saturday, June 7. We’ll see you out there. Eva Dunn-Froebig is a mother, avid runner and the executive director of Run Wild Missoula. Josh Slotnick is a father, farmer and urban commuter who manages the PEAS farm. Sam Schultz grew up riding trails around Missoula. He’s now a U.S. Olympic mountain biker. All three enjoy Missoula’s vast trail systems. missoulian/news/opinion/columnists/celebrate-missoula-area-trails-this-spring/article_0af841f0-d466-11e3-a37c-001a4bcf887a.html
Posted on: Mon, 05 May 2014 17:07:24 +0000
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