Get back on that horse and join Friends of the Calumet-Sag Trail for the second annual Happy Trails Jamboree, October 1 at Lake Katherine, Palos Heights, Ill.

http://calsagtrail.org/jamboree

The 2009 event helped the Friends match $150,000 in federal trail planning dollars, helping communities from Lemont to Burnham receive their fair share of trail goodness.

Last year’s Jamboree set a tone of boot stompin’, skirt twirlin’ orneriness we hope to extend through this FUNdraising evening. It’s a $20 million trail we aim to build, so giddy up and get your tickets—only 250 of these li’l critters are loose in the wild, and they’ll disappear quicker than a belly itch on a snake.

http://calsagtrail.org/jamboree/tickets

Durbin: $1.12 million for Southland trails

 U.S. Senator Dick Durbin secured $1.12 million for completing Chicago Southland trails today, including:

Calumet-Sag Trail on Gapers Block

Writer Sheila Burt just hit it out the park on Gapers Block today - including the challen

Proposed bike path would link Oak Lawn to Cal-Sag

The Reporter reports on the draft Oak Lawn Bicycle Plan, prepared & presented by your friend

Image Gallery: 

 Oak Lawn will vote to adopt or reject the Oak Lawn Bicycle Plan on January 26.

From that day on, Oak Lawn streets will either begin to make its streets safer and more fun to ride on and across...or it won’t.

The recommendations in the Oak Lawn Bicycle Plan will guide the village toward bicycle friendly improvements the village can do quickly, like adding parking racks; within a few years such as creating a link to the Calumet-Sag Trail; and over the long-term, like taking on dangerous roads such as 95th St. and Southwest Hwy. The plan will help the village win the grant funding that will pay up to 80% or more of the cost of those improvements.

Adopting the plan sets Oak Lawn’s course toward sustainability and a higher quality of life. Rejecting the plan...doesn’t.

Filling the room with residents and cyclists who dream of and need a bicycle friendly community will tell the board to take leadership on making this plan a reality.

We need you in that room. Please attend the January 26 Village Board Meeting, 7:30 PM at the municipal center, Raymond and 95th St., just west of the library. Please consider riding to the meeting. Steve Buchtel, the consultant who worked with the village and residents to develop the plan, welcomes any of your questions beforehand. Reach him here: steve@activetrans.org, or 708/365-9365.

Redrawing the American (suburban) city

Five or six of the region's top city planners now work for towns in the Chicago Southland; traditionally, the Southland has been like the La Brea Tar Pits for municipal planners (who, admittedly, a

When: December 15, 2009; 7 PM - 9 PM

Where: Lake Katherine Nature Center Club House, about 1 mile west of Harlem on Rte. 83 (get map)

'Twas a year worth celebrating: the Friends raised $30,000 for the Calumet-Sag Trail in 2009, which will be matched by federal grants 5-1 — meaning $150,000 for planning and designing the Calumet-Sag Trail.

At the holiday social, the Calumet-Sag Trail's planners and engineers, from Town Builders Studios, Terry Guen & Associates, and URS, will take us on a tour of trail status, where the trail is going, visions for the trail, and the current timeline to ribbon cutting. We'll drink, and eat, and celebrate a long year past that was full of good work, and look forward to opportunities for the Friends in 2010.

Write to friends@calsagtrail.org for more information, or go to our website: http://calsagtrail.org.

Move to a town with trails

 As a bicycle advocate in the Chicago Southland (my livelihood), my phone rings lots of times to introduce me to someone who moved into a community for very good reasons (usually), but now som

Resolution at the side of the road with the hood up

Got this message from friend 

Calumet-Sag Trail: If dancin' and drinkin' will get it built, we'll do what we have to do

Pilgrim, mosey on over to this link here and belly up to the biggest hoedown since Roy & Dale’s reception - the Happy Trails Jamboree on