OHIO RIVER TRAIL COUNCIL

In down times I do things like go for a long bike ride or run. The other thing I'm doing in that quiet time is just observing.

—Robin Williams

Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel...the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood. 

—Susan B. Anthony

Too often, the advocates of trails and linear parks along rights-of-way come up against officials who recognize only one kind of park–the squared-off kind that comes in chunks; and one kind of recreation–the supervised kind known as ‘organized sweating.’ Such officials refuse to acknowledge that there has been a change in US recreation trends, reflected in the phenomenal growth of hiking, biking, and horseback riding… 

—Constance Stallings

If there’s one essential ingredient to creating trails and trail systems, it’s people. All the land and financing in the world won’t blaze a trail if there aren’t people championing the project. 

–Bay Area Ridge Trail Council, In Support of Trails: A Guide to Successful Trail Advocacy, 1993

We can tie this country together with threads of green that everywhere grant us access to the natural world. 

—President Reagan’s Commission on American Outdoors, Americans and the Outdoors, 1987

Rivers, lakes, and other waterways are the lifeblood of our communities, connecting us to our environment, our culture, our economy, and our way of life. The new National Water Trails System will help fulfill President Obama’s vision for healthy and accessible rivers as we work to restore and conserve our nation’s treasured waterways.

—Kenneth Lee Salazar, Secretary of the Interior