Welcome Everybody, Said Laurie Lafontaine, Then Screamed a Drawn-Out Yay!

Slight of build with short-styled hair, the demure-looking older woman stepped to the podium and looked out at a crowd of more than 50 people, which included state officials and all three Cambria County commissioners.

“Welcome everybody,” said Laurie Lafontaine, then screamed a drawn-out “Yay!”

There weren’t many people in that crowd who thoroughly understood the years of pent-up devotion, consternation, exasperation and frustration that were released in that shout of joy.The reason why is that most of those who could’ve understood have either retired or died.

Yet the presence of this many trail enthusiasts, politicians, PennDOT and county officialsto formally break ground for an eight-mile extension of the Ghost Town Trail near Nanty Glo does demonstrate their understanding that these trails are important. Perhaps that also fed Laurie’s joyful cry.

After all, not many people knew what Laurie Lafontaine was talking about back in 1990, when she appeared before the Transportation Committee of America’s Industrial Heritage Project and talked about “rail-banking” and turning abandoned railroad lines into trails for walkers, runners, equestrians and bicyclists.

One of the Transportation Committee members who quickly grasped the potential wasa man named Tom Strittmatter, who worked with Laurie and other members of a fledgling group, called the Cambria and Indiana Trail Council, to get abandoned railroad rights-of-way transferred to entities willing to take ownership.

In 1995, when the right-of-way of the Cambria and Indiana Railroad became available, Cambria County didn’t have a trail-development entity. So the Northern Cambria Community Development Corporation – better known as Norcam – took possession of the corridor for three years, eventually transferring it in 1998 to a newly formed Cambria County Conservation and Recreation Authority (CCCRA), which counted Strittmatter among its members.

Over the next decade, other parts of the Ghost Town Trail were developed successfully, creating a continuous rail-trail for 32 miles from John P. Saylor Park near Blairsville to Ebensburg. One four-mile section of the old Cambria and Indiana Railroad ROW also was developed from Vintondale to U.S. 422 and named the “Rexis Branch.”

But thenext eight-mile section from U.S. 422 to Cardiff languished, unfinished.

That started to change a couple of years ago, when new leadership began to power the CCCRA – and tragedy struck. Long-time trail advocate and CCCRA member Tom Strittmatter died unexpectedly at age 69. And so did Carson Kitner, the two-month-old son of CCCRA Executive Director, Cliff Kitner, about eight months later.

“That was a huge motivating factor for me,” Cliff told those assembled for the ground-breaking, explaining why he worked so hard to pull together the funding and jump through the regulatory hoops necessary to get the new eight-mile section developed.

The new trail section will be named “Stritt’s Way” in honor of Tom Strittmatter. And the section’s two new bridges will be named “Carson’s Crossing.”

By this fall, trail users in Vintondale will be able to take the long-established Rexis Branch and ride it as they’ve always done; but then they’ll be able to continue from U.S. 422 another eight miles to Cardiff. For now, the new section will require either a shuttle or an out-and-back ride.

There’s a final step in planning stages, however: to complete a 7.5-mile section that will take the trail from Cardiff back to the Ghost Town’s main trail near its underpass of U.S. Route 219. When that section is complete, the Ghost Town Trail will feature a 30-mile loop.

“According to Tom Sexton of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy,” said Leanna Bird, Program Coordinator for the CCCRA, “this will be the first continuous-looprail-trail in the United States.”

Considering all of this, it’s totally understandable why Laurie Lafontaine would let out a loud “yay” on this very special day. Just imagine how she’ll shout when the final section is complete – and the rail-trail she helped to develop is unique among more than 2,000 rail-trails nationwide.