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Bikers rejoice: Volusia County completes its portion of Rail Trail, totaling 52 miles Mary Helen Moore, The Daytona Beach News-Journal
Pat Northey said she didn’t know whether it would happen in her lifetime. I started this trails journey in my 40s and I’m now in my early 70s. I often wondered if I would get to cut the ribbon on this wild and rural section of asphalt, Northey said.
But with the latest 3.6 mile segment paved through a heavily forested area south of Osteen Maytown Road, east finally met west, extending the East Central Regional Rail Trail for 52 miles in Volusia County.
Two new segments of Volusia County trails have been completed, and the celebrations for the latest 5.3 miles are set to last through the weekend.
The first, on Thursday, will mark the completion of Volusia County’s portion of the Coast-to-Coast Trail system, a network of paved paths along an abandoned rail bed that will one day extend across Central Florida from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.
The Rail Trail crosses about 50 miles of southern Volusia County from DeBary to Edgewater, and Thursday’s ceremony caps off more than two decades of planning and investments. The state paid $16 million in 2007 for the property through the Florida Forever program.
For all its residential development, there s a good amount of blue because of its several lakes.
While some residents and elected officials worry about the pace of development in the city, some city officials are hoping to get the community excited about a different kind of development. We’ve been developing, as you know, eco-parks for several years now, but we’re now at the point where we have a product that we want to start advertising, Jerry Mayes, manager of economic development and ecological tourism sustainability, told the City Commission during a recent workshop. World-class trails, some of the finest on God’s earth, and they’re right here in our city.
Susi Wilde was born in Hamburg, Germany, but her love of Florida began after moving to West Palm Beach at an early age. She has tried to move away from the state many times, but her passion for Florida State Parks and the desire to share her knowledge of the parks with visitors have always brought her back.
After retiring from teaching English at Daytona State University, volunteering at Florida State Parks was the next logical step for Susi to follow-up a lifetime of conservation, grant writing and trail development. Some of her more noteworthy projects have included working on the Spring to Spring Trail, Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail and the East Central Regional Rail Trail, including writing the entire state management plan - the first with measurable objectives.