This audacious idea to connect our nation is needed now more than ever

Map from the Rails to Trails Conservancy.

I'm gonna tell you about an audacious idea that sounds almost impossible, one that is rooted in dreams about symbolic and literal unity of our nation. It is both a distraction from and answer to our country's problems in 2025, and it relies on an unshakeable faith in humanity and community. It reaches into the future while looking into the past, and stepping foot on it can change a person's life.

But first, a quick detour back to my high school days in St. Louis, Missouri. For most of my politically-aware life, the United States has been a nation that used to dream big but no longer attempts such big public works. I was in high school in Missouri in the early 2000s when I first learned about high speed rail because there was this vision for a train that could connect my city of St. Louis with Chicago in something like an hour and a half. It would be so fast, people could almost commute between the cities. Cubs/Cardinals games would be wild. It was an unimaginably cool idea that inspired me to think bigger about what is possible.

While I was imagining all the trips to Chicago I would take and how great such a connection would be for bolstering local efforts to reform my city's struggling economy after the departure of several major employers, there were always naysayers who scoffed and said it would never happen. How could they be so down on such a cool idea before it had even gotten started? Now more than two decades later there is still no high speed rail between St. Louis and Chicago. The STL Amtrak station is no longer the Amshack" in the middle of a desolate lot and there are some sections of the existing route that got a little faster, but the service still takes five hours. There is a renewed vision to build a truly high speed train that is in the very early stages and being led by the State of Illinois, but high school me thought for sure our nation would have constructed and opened this route by now. The current train ride is lovely, don't get me wrong, but the naysayers were right. Our country wasn't up to the task of building such a big public dream.

Thankfully, not everyone has given up on dreaming big for our nation, and I had the pleasure of biking with some of them recently. Folks from the Rails to Trails Conservancy were in town to showcase our local portion of what they believe will some day be the Great American Rail-Trail spanning from coast to coast. People of all ages and abilities could safely and comfortably ride on the trail, which would start on Washington State's Olympic Peninsula and end in Washington DC. 50 million people live within 50 miles of the trail route, and the 3,759-mile route is already 55% complete thanks mostly to the work of local and state efforts to build out their trail networks. Washington State's segments are listed at 75% complete with a lot of work left to connect to and complete the Olympic Discovery Trail.

Map from a 2023 Puget Sound to Pacific Trail federal grant application to develop and design many of Washington State's final Great American Rail-Trail connections.

When complete, the vast majority of the route would be separated from car traffic on gradually-graded trails built on the beds of abandoned rail lines. There would be enough people riding along them that inns and restaurants would pop up or find additional support in towns all across the nation, forming new cross-community relationships that can break down the artificial barriers between us and celebrate our shared national heritage. It would bring new attention and care to places left behind when the railroads shut down while also creating an entirely new and healthy way for folks to explore our country.

If that all sounds too idealistic, well, you're reading the wrong website. Because I not only love the vision, I still believe our country can do it even with the Trump administration deciding to imperil rail trail funding across the nation by claiming they are somehow hostile to motor vehicles" (???). Rail-trails defy partisan politics back in Washington DC because they are real on-the-ground assets in people's communities that travel through places regardless of who locals voted for in the 2024 election. The vast majority of the route travels through counties and states that voted for Trump. On the timeline of geology railroads are mere blip, and on the timeline of railroads a presidential election is a blip. These routes are about something bigger than modern day politics. Folks alive today are stewards of a gift from past generations and are entrusted with preserving and improving these routes for future generations. When you bike across the line between a blue county and a red county, the dirt you kick up is still brown.

Folks in the Seattle area don't even need to travel to get a glimpse of the Great American Rail-Trail because it goes right through our city along the Burke-Gilman Trail, Ship Canal Trail, Terminal 91 Trail and now along the waterfront trail to the ferry terminal downtown where it crosses to Bainbridge Island.

A new PBS documentary called From Rails to Trails is also scheduled for release October 15, and Seattle is featured. The documentary is based heavily on Peter Harnik's book of the same name and is narrated by Edward Norton. It is not currently on the KCTS schedule, but hopefully they add it so more folks can see it (I have asked Cascade PBS to show the film since it has local ties and will update if I hear back). It should also be available online and is scheduled at 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. October 16 in standard definition on the PBS World station.

I was invited to join what I suppose would be called a press junket in September (though there were also folks who were just along for fun). Folks from the Rails to Trails Conservancy were in town and offered to shuttle me and my bike up to Cle Elum along with several other journalists. Our group then biked all the way back to Seattle over three days following the Great American Rail-Trail route along the Palouse to Cascades Trail, the Snoqualmie Valley Trail, the Preston-Snoqualmie Trail, the East Lake Sammamish Trail, the Redmond Central Connector Trail (a recent route adjustment), the Eastrail, the Sammamish River Trail and the Burke-Gilman Trail. Due to child care responsibilities I was only able to join for the first day from Cle Elum to Rattlesnake Lake.

This historic photo is not actually from the same vantage point, but it accidentally matches with the background really well.

The day before the ride we were shuttled out to see the phenomenal Beverly Bridge across the Columbia River. The trail bridge opened in 2022 after a long advocacy effort to restore the old rail trestle that faced a major setback when the old rail trestle was damaged in a 2014 wildfire. But advocates persisted and were able to convince the state legislature to fund a major restoration in the 2019-2021 capital budget. The result may be one of the state's great wonders. Standing in the middle of the Columbia River between the Wanapum and Priest Rapids Dams with the walls of the gorge rising high on all sides and a steady wind nearly always blowing through is a powerful experience. Lorena Medina Dirksen from Washington State Parks encouraged us to consider both the natural and unnatural forces that shaped and continue to shape the area. We imagined being in that spot at the end of the last ice age 13,000-15,000 years ago when a massive glacial lake broke through an ice dam and sent a flood of water hundreds of feet tall moving at freeway speeds down the Columbia River basin, washing over the place where we stood and shaping the area with unimaginable power. We thought about the human-made dams that change the river flow to generate energy, the fertile ground people have modified to grow food. If you ever have a chance to visit, it's very worth it.

The biking adventure began in Cle Elum (or actually South Cle Elum, a separate city created back when the Milwaukee Road competed with the Northern Pacific line in Cle Elum on the other side of the Yakima River). We had a lovely dinner at the Iron Horse Inn Bed & Breakfast, where you can stay either in a room or in a Milwaukee Road caboose. Built on the site of the bunkhouse for railroad workers, the place is filled with memorabilia and other bits and pieces of railroad history. Owners Matt and Leanne Martinson love the railroad history and are big supporters of the trail as a way to bring folks through and experience it.

Instead of staying there, though, I went to stay at a friend's place eight miles away. Now, biking eight miles at night in Seattle is no big deal. But biking alone somewhere unfamiliar with no signs of any other people is an entirely different experience, I learned.

I did something tonight that wasn't a very good idea. I biked 8+ miles from Cle Elum to near Roslyn at night by myself. It was terrifying. I thought, it's only 8 miles, no big deal. It wasn't until I was on the trail that I realized, holy crap this is scary. But it turned out fine.

- Seattle Bike Blog (@seattlebikeblog.com) 2025-09-23T04:51:25.123Z

I was definitely hearing things. My adrenaline was going, so my hearing was super sensitive. Every little twig snap or stick falling sounded so loud and close. I'd see outlines of bears or cougars that turned out to just be logs or rocks.

- Seattle Bike Blog (@seattlebikeblog.com) 2025-09-23T04:57:09.590Z

Luckily, no monsters of the night gobbled me up and I was able to rejoin the group in the morning.

Jacque Lavelle, Western Project Manager for the Rails to Trails Conservancy, stands on the old Cle Elum railroad depot and speaks to folks gathered before the ride.

Local elected officials, local business leaders and parks staff in charge of the trail spoke along with folks from the Rails to Trails Conservancy, painting the trail as an economic driver as well as a way to preserve and celebrate the history of the railroad and how it shaped and continues to shape Cle Elum and neighboring areas. In the summer, people walk, bike and ride horses along the trail. In the winter, it becomes a long and flat route for cross country skiing and snow shoeing.

The ride from Cle Elum to Rattlesnake Lake is the stuff of dreams. I have done it previously while loaded down with camping gear, but this was the first time riding it with just a few layers and some snacks in my front bag. The Rails to Trails folks provided food stops along the way making it an even more pleasant ride. Miles on gravel add up faster than riding on smooth pavement, especially when the first 30 miles are slightly uphill, but it is all made easier by how beautiful it is the entire way. In all, it takes about 800 feet of gradual climbing to get to Snoqualmie Tunnel, then you descend about 2,000 feet over 20 miles from the pass to Rattlesnake Lake. It is some of the most breathtaking bike riding anywhere in the world with a 2.3-mile tunnel and several tall rail trestles with incredible views. This ride never gets old, and it was a lot of fun to watch a group of people experience it all for the first time.

Thanks to folks who have worked for decades to preserve these Washington State rail corridors and secure state investment to maintain and rehabilitate them, we are home to a section of trail that folks come from all over to experience. Our section of this nationwide vision is seen as an example of what can happen in other places. It really is an amazing thing we have here, and Americans across the political spectrum can see the value it brings to every community it reaches. Maybe working together to build a biking and hiking trail across our nation isn't the most important thing to be doing right now. Or maybe we need it now more than ever.