Ribbons ready for trail ceremony

Chicago Tribune, June 1999

By Dave Barnes
Special to the Tribune

It will be a unique reversal of a traditional ribbon-cutting Sunday when McHenry County Conservation District Officials tie two pieces of ribbon together, marking the official opening of the last segment of the district's Prairie Trail.

With completion of the 9.3-mile link between Crystal Lake and Ringwood, cyclists and joggers can now follow trail from the Kane County line to the Wisconsin border.

"We decided on a ribbon-tying as symbolic of the way this link connects the two ends of the trail together," said Kate Halma, the district's communications director.

Five years in the planning and construction, the completed 25.9-mile Prairie Trail wends its way from Algonquin through Crystal Lake, McHenry, Ringwood and Richmond, crossing over seven bridges in the process.

More than simply tying together the north and south ends of McHenry County, Prairie Trail now provides an uninterrupted bike path from Genoa City, Wis., to River Forest or to Aurora via the Fox River Trail, which it meets in Algonquin.

And there are plans to improve an abandoned railroad right of way between Genoa City and Hebron with a new trail that will eventually push west to the Boone County line.

Sunday's 1 p.m. ribbon-tying in McHenry's Whispering Oaks Park, near Ft. McHenry, will be strictly ceremonial. Portions of the link have been open unofficially for months.

The bike path has been a boon for the Crystal Lake Ski & Bike Shop and the Prairie Trail Bike Shop in Algonquin, both of which enjoy strategic trailside locations.

"We do a lot of trailside repairs -- mostly flats. We get a lot of flat tires," said Ken Atkins, a mechanic at the Algonquin bike shop. He added that most of his customers are in their mid-30s. "But. really, there are people of all ages on the path. Little kids, older folks, all kinds of people."