Finished trail has plentiful prospects

WEST BOUNTIFUL — Lauren Garlick had a bad dream.

The West Bountiful third-grader dreamed that she would mount her bike, pedal down the trail and crash, with her whole school watching.

This was the trail she named, after all. The Prospector Rail Trail, a paved, nearly 3-mile path that runs along the old Denver and Rio Grande line through West Bountiful.

Eventually, the Prospector trail will be part of a backbone trail that runs the length of the old rail corridor from Roy to West Bountiful. At various points, the trail meets up with the Legacy Parkway Trail, which runs from Farmington to North Salt Lake, and which will connect with the Jordan River Parkway trail in late 2010.

It was Lauren's submission that beat out 60 other names submitted by students at West Bountiful Elementary, including a name submitted by her older brother.

While researching with her mother on Wikipedia, Lauren discovered the Prospector passenger train, which ran on the Denver and Rio Grande line from 1941 to 1942 and later in another incarnation from 1945 to 1967.

And to crash as the ceremonial first cyclist on the trail she named was the stuff of nightmares.

So Lauren was understandably nervous Thursday morning as she mounted her bike and pedaled toward the black ribbon.

Photographers from newspapers and television stations were there to capture the moment.

And she coasted through. The crash was only a dream, after all, but the trail's opening is part of a dream come true for West Bountiful residents, the Utah Transit Authority and Davis County.

It means a safer ride for the Garlicks, who ride bikes to school every day, said their mother, Alison Garlick.

"It takes kids off of the main streets," she said.

And it means more connectivity for bicycle commuters and recreation cyclists who want to get out and see Davis County from another angle.

West Bountiful Mayor James Behunin said he was out walking his dog, Lucky, Friday morning and saw quail, horses, a llama, dogs, trees and golfers.

"This is a great trail," he told the West Bountiful Elementary students who gathered for the trail's opening.

And it will mean that more trails can be built.

The funding is now in place to complete the yet-unfinished segments of the Denver and Rio Grande trail. So far, a short segment is complete in Clinton, and so is the Centerville-to-Farmington portion, which is part of the Legacy Parkway trail, said Joe Olsen, a UTA strategic planner.

Five other segments — in Roy, Clearfield, Layton, Kaysville and Farmington — will be done by 2011, said Gerry Carpenter, a spokesman for UTA.

And a long-awaited connection between Davis County and Salt Lake County will also be complete by the end of 2010, said Scott Hess, a Davis County planner.

Hess reported Tuesday that his office received a trails grant to build a one-mile extension of the Legacy Parkway Trail from North Salt Lake to the Salt Lake County border.

Salt Lake City has received similar funding to extend the Jordan River Parkway trail one mile northward to meet the Legacy trail extension.

Once the north-south trails are complete, cities can begin building east-west connector trails.

And you can count on people like Lauren Garlick to be there.

e-mail: jdougherty@desnews.com

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