I clicked on the blurb about Narragansett Bay, RI, and was pleasantly surprised to read that there’s a Rhode Island water trail organization.
I don’t think I’ve seen an up-to-date, comprehensive list of such organizations OR the trails they create/maintain/promote. So I’d like to start a thread like that here. Please add URLs if you know them.
The ones that come to my mind immediately are below. Please correct any mistakes I made, and add to the list! For ease of reading and consistency, the org’s name and URL go first, with their trails in parentheses underneath:
Lake Michigan Water Trail, a new trail system. I believe some of the sections have been dedicated. I do know the trail association will be at canoecopia!
What I like is that these trails are popping up in more developed areas.
It’s about time Since part of establishing these trails involves the sometimes-nasty work of politicking and writing letters etc., I’m glad to see that the number of such groups is growing. Something has to happen to resist the increasing number of access problems for low-impact travelers.
I hope they will provide more access to both wilderness and developed areas. People are losing touch with places where there is true silence (other than natural sounds) and NO motorized devices. And in developed areas, anything that allows greater use of self-propelled modes vs. always driving to recreation areas means more flexibility and less pollution. Wouldn’t it be terrific if more people could actually paddle to the general store, for example? Or at least to services while on a paddle-camping trip in such developed areas. Variety is good.
We are in the process of developing our paddle trail program in South Carolina & you can check our progress on our facebook site http://www.facebook.com/paddlesc