Beech Tree News Network

Last week, Garey and I were in Louisiana visiting our daughter, Nikki, and our son-in-law, Thomas.  While we were there, we walked a nature trail called the Boy Scout Road in nearby Lacombe.  The trail is part of the Big Branch Wildlife Refuge.  It starts out as a wooden boardwalk that stretches out over marshland—yes, we saw an alligator—then turns into a gravel road.  The gravel road is accessible to hikers and mountain bikes.  We walked the boardwalk then the gravel road until we reached the lookout from which you could see acres of marshland and even the faint skyline of New Orleans.

               I downloaded the “Picture This” app on my phone before we made the trip, because I’m always interested in flowers and plants that don’t grow in our area.  There were wild irises growing in every wet ditch, as well as Seaside Goldenrod, Lizard’s Tail and Bull-Tongue Arrowhead. (Don’t you love those names!)

               We always go on some sort of hike with Nikki and Thomas when we visit.  Covington is located in St. Tammany Parish, a place that values wildlife and the great outdoors.  There are some wonderful trails there.  Two years ago, we hiked through Fontainebleau State Park.  While we were there, Nikki pointed out a bike trail that ran through the park.

               On Saturday while we were at a craft fair in downtown Covington, Nikki pointed out a bike trail. 

               “This is the same one that runs through Fontainebleau,” she said.

               “Wait a minute,” I said, “this is the same one.”

               “Covington is the trailhead,” she said.  “The trail runs all the way to Slidell, just north of New Orleans.”

               I was amazed, and you know how I get when I’m amazed—it’s research time.

               The trail is called Tammany Trace, after the parish that helped fund it and still maintains it.  Tammany Trace runs from Covington through Abita Springs into Mandeville on to LaCombe before ending in Slidell, North of New Orleans.  It is a trek of 31.7 miles.  There is even an equestrian path that parallels the trail in several places.

               What is today Tammany Trace was once the corridor for the Illinois Central Railroad.  The parish government bought the abandoned corridor in 1992.  With the aid of grants and federal dollars, the parish government has asphalted the trail, turned railroad trestles into pedestrian bridges, and continues to maintain all 31.7 miles. 

               The federal government’s Railbanking Program supplied 1.4 million dollars to develop the trail, a program that allows abandoned rail corridors to be used as trails.  I found this information on Tammany Trace.org, as well as a chain of etiquette that goes:

                              Rollerbladers yield to cyclists

                              Joggers yield to walkers

                              Walkers yield to horses  (That one had to be put in place by a Kentuckian who moved there.)

               Years ago, I rode a bike trail in the Greenville/Central City area with a friend.  The trail had been an abandoned rail corridor, probably funded by the same federal program.  I wish our county had trails like that.  I know there aren’t any abandoned railway corridors here, and our ground isn’t as flat as that in Louisiana, but I wish we had bike trails.  Maybe, along the river, although it would be hard to maintain due to flooding.  

               It would take someone with more brain cells than I have left to apply for grants from the federal government, as well as someone much younger than I am to get the ball rolling.  Any takers?