NONFICTION Guide book offers cyclists an overview of rail trails

It covers an expanding range of trail networks throughout the country.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
"Biking USA's Rail Trails" by Shawn E. Richardson (Adventure Publications, $15)
"Biking USA's Rail Trails" is a comprehensive directory of bicycle trails in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, but, for more in-depth information, the tourist will have to refer to state or regional bike trail guidebooks.
In a state-by-state listing, the 394-page paperback book, written by Shawn E. Richardson, catalogs more than 930 trails nationwide, which total almost 10,000 miles.
An avid cyclist, Richardson, an Ohio Department of Transportation mapmaker since 1988, brings an impressive background to his book, having previously written guidebooks to rail trails in Ohio, Wisconsin and Missouri.
Because bike trails are constantly being built, paved and lengthened each year, Richardson will need to revise his books every few years to keep them reasonably current.
What's included
At the beginning of each state's listing is a map showing that state's trail locations. In most cases, one paragraph descriptions of some of the most notable trails are provided at the beginning of each state's section.
Following is a listing of each trail, where it begins and ends, its length, the type of surface it has, and activities that are permissible on it, and whether trail users must pay a fee. Fees are charged on many major Wisconsin trails.
Besides cycling, available uses can include hiking, wheelchair use, in-line skating, cross-country-skiing, horseback riding, snowmobiling, and all terrain vehicle use.
The appeal of the trails is the relative safety users can generally enjoy in the absence of motor vehicles.
The book covers trails that follow abandoned railroad beds, such as the 11-mile Mahoning Bikeway from Mineral Ridge to Canfield and 8.5-mile Little Beaver Creek Greenway Trail from Leetonia to Lisbon, and the 11-mile Stavich Bicycle Trail from Struthers to New Castle, which follows a former street car line. All three are asphalt-paved.
It also includes canal towpaths, such as the crushed limestone surfaced Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath running from Akron to Cleveland, and park bike path networks, such as the asphalt-paved Emerald Necklace trail network that follows Cleveland MetroParks parkways.
Rail and canal towpath trails are generally quite level. Some rail trails, such as the Montour Trail near Pittsburgh, go through former rail tunnels.
Bikeways can also be on abandoned highways no longer used by motor vehicles, such as the former U.S. Route 66 bridge over the Mississippi River between Missouri and Illinois.
Exhaustive
The book, which can be viewed as a one-volume encyclopedia of American cycling routes, also features major cross-country and north-south bicycle routes and provides an exhaustive listing of bicycling information contacts in each state.
All 50 states have bicycle paths listed in the book, and some states, such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, New York, Florida, Colorado, Washington and California have several dozen listings each. North Dakota has the least to offer, with only one trail covering 2.5 miles in the Grand Forks area.
The longest bicycle trail in the country is the 235-mile Katy Trail State Park in Missouri, which follows the Missouri River, traveled by the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1804, for 164 miles and has a smooth crushed gravel surface.
The second longest is the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historic Park Trail, which runs 184.5 miles from Washington, D.C., to Cumberland, Md., and has a coarse crushed gravel and dirt surface and uses the former canal towpath on the Maryland side of the Potomac River. Many sections are very rough, the book notes. The C & amp;O trail becomes very muddy after a heavy rain.