Making a nature lover’s dream, a reality. A volunteer task force in Dryden is working to turn miles of old railroad bed into a trail. There’s challenges with making more than 10 miles of new trail in the town.
Since 1982, a majority of the railroad bed that ran through Dryden stayed untouched. Now, a volunteer group has been working to make miles of trail open to the public.
“Our current project is 10.4 miles running from the village of Dryden, through Freeville, through Etna, Varna, to Ithaca,” said Bob Beck, chair of the Dryden Rail Trail Task Force.
The town declined buying up the rail property back in the early eighties. So now, volunteers are seeking easements from thirty eight people, for 48 segments of trail.
“We’re still working to get a few more easement from private land owners, and we’ll be completing that stretch over the next few years,” said Beck. “I recruited volunteers to work with us, so we’re all volunteers, nine of us, and been working since spring of 2016.”
Bob grew up in Dryden, and now retired, has been wanting to see a trail created in his town since 1986.
“There had been a few aborted attempts over the last couple decades, but we said, we’re going to try again,” said Beck.
The aborted attempts were likely because what Bob and his team are doing, isn’t simple. Making the eventual 14 and a half mile trail also includes clearing and cleaning up the overgrown pathway.
There are man made challenges, in addition to the natural ones. Like crossing a busy Route 13, via the trail. After studying the options, the cheapest way to go, is building a bridge over the road. An option that isn’t popular with some Dryden residents, and with some necessary property owners, that don’t want to give the needed easement.
“So taking a little bit, a very small piece of the corner of the property, we don’t want to do it, against the will of the owner, but it will happen if they don’t agree. I hope they’ll come around and say yeah, it’s a good thing,” said Beck.
But since the trail is seen as a potential alternative to walkers, or bikers utilizing roads to commute, the Department of Transportation is on board, kicking in more than one point five million dollars to make the bridge happen.
“It’s a challenge, but its worthwhile because we know that this trail will be used for generations to come,” said Beck.
The Dryden Rail Trail Task Force expects the design for the Route 13 bridge will be finished by this winter. They expect the construction could be complete within the next year.
