There is no better place to forget about everything for a while than laying underneath the canopy of a tree. I am not picky, about any tree big enough to eclipse most of the sky will do just fine. At times my thoughts conjure places where there is no visible litter or even the odd can or bottle to recycle. Hikers, and those looking to just experience nature for a few hours, find just that daydream – often before summer starts on the first Saturday of June – National Trails Day.
With the proper advice and minimal research this holiday may be spent alone finding the scenic hours and miles pass by. As a bachelor, solo hiking brought peace and a closeness to God that is unlike anything else. However, on several National Trails Day you could find me among the hundreds experiencing Crazy Horse up close on that weekend’s volksmarch.
An average visitor, unlike the rest of the year, is allowed to walk below the sculpture’s stone face and look out on the Black Hills from the likeness of the Lakota chief’s arm. The last time out I met a pair of gentlemen and our conversation continued all the way to the top. Volksmarches, German for “people’s march”, range from 5 to 10 kilometers and can be found in the Panhandle too.
Hiking is a great way to stay fit and a fun vacation activity. Alliance and Hemingford lend themselves to this pastime with our proximity to the Pine Ridge and Wildcat Hills areas. Dayhikes are still possible within a three-hour’s drive counting many options in the Black Hills and Cheyenne/Laramie area.
A favorite approach of mine is to discover trails best described as “right under my nose” that I have not hiked/walked/biked before.
Settling in the Bean Broker at least two years ago with a London fog and a good book, the long awaited “To Kill A Mockingbird” sequel I think, I could not help but overhear a meeting in the same room. Members of the group discussed right of way and what people would see when they entered Chadron. Talk turned to donors then adjacent landowners. By the time the group broke up I was sure I had heard an update on the western terminus of The Cowboy Trail – one of the longest rail-to-trails projects in the United States that will eventually stretch 321 miles from Chadron to Norfolk. That week I dug around local media sources and the Internet to no avail. There was no chatter on that part of the trail opening soon. I did not pursue my eavesdropping mystery until recently.
Early in the spring I heard about a group meeting in or near Chadron that departed at 6 a.m. on Saturdays to cycle that very trail. I hoped to drag my son up there at the crack of dawn. Did not work. In town for my daughter’s gymnastics a month of two later I had some time and looked for the trail along Highway 20 east of Chadron. I found what could have been the start of the trail where the tracks ended though no signage supported my assumption. I left a message on the board of an association formed in support of the Cowboy Trail. Their response a couple weeks later and a news article cleared things up.
The Northwest Nebraska Trails Association, formed in 2017, with a stated objective of “completing the section of the Cowboy Recreation and Nature Trail from Chadron to Hay Springs, allowing for an uninterrupted route to Gordon on the smooth grade since abandoned by an historic railroad. Members also envision a trail suitable for all users linking the Heritage Trail at Chadron State College to Chadron State Park . . .” according to their website. A trailhead near First and Spruce is the beginning of a trail that opened in early May of this year that runs parallel to the south of Nebraska Northwestern RR’s existing and operational yards as it heads out of town. It is a “Great American Rail-Trail”, well marked and virtually without litter on the occasions I traveled it. What a great, easy walk and especially scenic for railroad buffs.
The Cowboy Trail itself does start a few miles farther east along the former Chicago & North Western mainline. A few clicks and interested hikers and cyclists can discover exactly where. With Chadron’s Fur Trade Days this month perhaps a visit to the Rendezvous Camp south of town will be enough to whet your outdoor appetite.
“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike.” – John Muir, “The Yosemite”