Steve Stuebner, chairman of VC Pathways, maps out his aggressive trails plan. VC Pathways' latest success is a four-mile segment of rail-trail south of the McCall Airport.
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	For more information about Idaho rail-trails, please contact RTC's Western Regional Office at (415) 397-2220.

Valley County, Where the Pines and Trails Grow:

The national forest lands of Valley County, Idaho, with their extensive menu of single-track trails and dirt logging roads, have long been a haven for mountain bicyclists. What the region has lacked, though, is a more pedestrian-friendly trail—one that services local restaurants and hotels and could attract a greater variety of users.

So to promote this pedestrian trails project, local advocates came together in 2004 and formed Valley County (VC) Pathways . VC Pathways used resources from Rails-to-Trails Conservancy to create a county-approved master plan to develop more than 100 miles of pedestrian pathways, including the prospect of revitalizing an old railroad right-of-way that runs from McCall to Cascade.

Union Pacific shut down the rail line in 1979, four years before the national railbanking legislation went into effect. VC Pathways has made conversion of this 25-mile right-of-way its highest priority. Contacting private landowners one-by-one to obtain access agreements or property donations for the project, the group's diligence has so far paid off.

"We know this is a slow-moving process, but so far we are batting 100 percent in our landowner relations program," says Steve Stuebner, chairman of VC Pathways. "We have been very successful in obtaining easements for new trails from every owner we've dealt with. We feel very fortunate that this is an area with a lot of very fit runners, hikers, mountain bikers and horseback riders. They want more trails."

VC Pathways' most recent success was the opening of a four-mile segment of rail-trail south of the McCall Airport in late June of this year. Already quite popular with locals, the trail has heightened awareness of VC Pathways and their vision of a trail system that will offer new, healthy opportunities to commute, exercise, view wildlife or simply hike.