Banks-Vernonia nominated for Rail-Trail Hall of Fame

Family trip to Stub Stewart State Park-5-55

The Banks-Vernonia has been a runaway success.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

We all know it’s an amazing place to ride, now let’s make it official: The Banks-Vernonia Trail has been nominated for the 2016 Rail-Trail Hall of Fame.

The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy is hosting the competition. The polls opened earlier this week and you have until the end of June 15th to place your vote.

Advertisement

The B-V (as we call it around here) is up against the GHS Swap Rabbit Trail in South Carolina, the Hudson Valley Trail Network in New York, the Rio Grade Trail in Colorado and the Shelby Farms Greenline in Tennessee.

There are currently 29 trails in the Hall of Fame. The Springwater Corridor, which was inducted in 2011, is currently the only Oregon trail among them.

Apparently you can vote as often as you’d like, so here’s that link one more time. Let’s do this.

— Jonathan Maus, (503) 706-8804 – jonathan@bikeportland.org

Our work is supported by subscribers. Please become one today.

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Founder of BikePortland (in 2005). Father of three. North Portlander. Basketball lover. Car owner and driver. If you have questions or feedback about this site or my work, feel free to contact me at @jonathan_maus on Twitter, via email at maus.jonathan@gmail.com, or phone/text at 503-706-8804. Also, if you read and appreciate this site, please become a supporter.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

15 Comments
oldest
newest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
kittens
kittens
7 years ago

Voted. If the Springwater can make it on the list, surely this trail can. This is a beautiful trail, too bad it is for recreation only.

Pete R
7 years ago
Reply to  kittens

If you live in PDX proper maybe, but you do know that people live outside of Portland right? Like in Banks and Vernonia and places in between and it does get commuter use.

Stephen Keller
Stephen Keller
7 years ago

I know of one fellow who uses part BV for his commute.

Mike Sanders
Mike Sanders
7 years ago

Just voted myself. The Rails to Trails Conservacy website does encourage you to vote as often as possible. Voting closes at 11:59pm ET / 8:59pm PT on Wed. 15 June. The Hudson Valley (NY) entry includes the Walkway over the Hudson (River) bridge at Poughkeepsie, NY.

B. Carfree
B. Carfree
7 years ago

Wow, a bike path that has as many obvious flaws as the Springwater is in their hall of fame? Their standards may be lower than the League of American Bicyclists. To LAB’s credit, they have openly acknowledged that their awards are of an aspirational nature, so they get a partial pass on their version of grade inflation.

Mike Quigley
Mike Quigley
7 years ago

Banks-Vernonia is nothing compared to Salmonberry if it were restored. If Idaho can restore Coeur d’Alene Trail and Route of the Hiawatha, Oregon can restore Salmonberry.

Dan A
Dan A
7 years ago
Reply to  Mike Quigley

Riding through nature is okay as long as there is a blacktop path instead of dirt? Do you work for the asphalt industry?

Noisette
Noisette
7 years ago
Reply to  Mike Quigley

As I recall from my travels there, the Coeur D’Alene trail is also capping a heavy metals contamination zone caused by a century or so of mining and using the tailings for rail ballast. Beautiful area, but pay attention to all the “don’t drink the water from these lovely streams” warnings.

GlowBoy
GlowBoy
7 years ago

Voted for the B-V. It’s a great trail, and Oregon can use more encouragement in rail-trail development. Oregon lags far behind its neighbors Idaho and Washington have in trail mileage (not to mention MN and WI, which each have hundreds of miles of rail trails). There’s a lot of potential in Oregon, including Salmonberry and the proposed Portland-Astoria route, and I’d like to see a lot more happen.

Mike Sanders
Mike Sanders
7 years ago

Reminder: the deadline to vote is this Wed. the 15th!

Mike Sanders
Mike Sanders
7 years ago

By the way. Kudos to Willamette Week for last week’s article and photos of the Salmonberry Trail corridor. Great read. And I’m saving their map of the corridor.

Dan A
Dan A
7 years ago
Reply to  Mike Sanders

Story says the estimates are between $18 & $54 million. Totally worth it. But does Oregon have the will to do it?

soren
soren
7 years ago
Reply to  Dan A

$54 million builds an awful lot of pedestrian signals and bike lanes.

Dan A
Dan A
7 years ago
Reply to  soren

Less than one interchange in Woodburn.

Mike Sanders
Mike Sanders
7 years ago

It’s official: the Hudson Valley trail network in NY State, has won induction into the Rail-Trail National Hall of Fame. The network includes the Walkway Over the Hudson Bridge. Details at the Rails to Trails Conservancy website: http://www.railstotrails.org