Sports

What's on the proposed Ecusta trail?

By Bill Moss, Published: June 26, 2012

What would an Ecusta Trail look like?

I've been wondering that in recent months as I've covered public hearings and heard presentations about the proposed 18½-mile walking and biking trail from Hendersonville to Brevard.
What better way to find out, I thought, than to walk it. Last weekend my friend John Lampley and I walked from Hendersonville to Horse Shoe, an easy six-mile segment. Over the coming weeks, we'll walk the next two segments until we reach Brevard.
I say the walk was easy, and it really was. It's remarkably flat. John's GPS showed an elevation gain of two feet. Train engineers must have been glad to rest the locomotives after the strenuous pull up the mountain from Tryon to Saluda, famously the steepest standard-gauge mainline railroad grade in the country.
John and I left from the middle of South Main Street just after 8:30 on Saturday morning. It didn't take long to meet the first, and as it turned out only, railroad hobos on the trip. One didn't speak and the other one gave a made-up name and said he'd been living along the tracks and behind the Fresh Market for a number of years. He said he's walked the track all the way to somewhere out west, Murphy maybe it was; I stopped taking notes when he said his name was Neego and his friend's name was Con-O, figuring "con" was the only true part.
That does bring up a perception that the Ecusta Trail would harbor the homeless and other threatening elements. I think development would run off people like "Neego" and "Con-O." They're underground folk. They don't want to fraternize with bicyclists in spandex.
In the far western part of the Hendersonville border, John pointed out the old Richardson's Fuel Supply, which he said was the last place in town to sell coal for heating stoves and which also sold ice. It had one of those loud crushers. People used to go by on Saturday mornings and buy a big load of ice to haul down to the lake for a day of boating.
One thing I'll say about the railroad track is that it's not a trail. That's obvious, I know, but we're reminded every step of the way that we have to hike over chunk gravel and railroad ties instead of a smooth surface that I assume would be either paved or graveled over in a smooth riding and walking surface.
The whole time I'm thinking of this as a bike ride, and what fun bicyclists and roller-bladers could have on the Ecusta Trail. Did I mention that it's flat?
The tracks took us through the "urban" part of the railway, through backyards and behind businesses in Hendersonville and then Laurel Park. You see lots of nice backyard gardens when you're walking behind houses. Dogs enthusiastically announce our presence; all the ones we encountered were fenced. I could not help but think that these fellas were going to get awfully hoarse if there ever is a trail.
At Laurel Park, trail walkers could stop at the Exxon station for a Gatorade or enjoy a breakfast at the Dixie Diner or have lunch at Laurel Park Village, which has three restaurants.

Better health?

For what it's worth — and economic impact studies to me seem awfully hard to prove either way — rail-trail construction would produce a "$42 million one-time return" from spending on materials and labor. Annually, the trail, according to a consultant's study published in March, would generate $9.4 million in tax revenue from tourism, property value increases and "health care cost savings," and yes, the report actually says that. How's that?
"Studies consistently demonstrate that daily physical activity improves health outcomes and reduces health care costs, increases worker productivity, and reduces chronic illness and short-term health care needs," the report says. And the rail-trail is relevant to this how exactly? "Making exercising options more accessible to a variety of users on the Ecusta Rail Trail will encourage physical activity among some 1,600 users per year and yield an estimated health care cost reduction impact of about $5 million per year."
Hmm. Just having the trail, the forecasters seem to be telling us, will encourage people to exercise who otherwise would not.
As for overall visitation, "conservative estimates" suggest the trail would draw 20,000 visitors annually with a $2 million increase in visitor spending and the creation of 27 jobs.
I should point out that the Ecusta Trail proposal is only that. Advocates face a long tough task convincing Norfolk Southern to abandon the track, even though the railroad company hasn't used it since 2002. Trail folks have heard opposition too from property owners who don't want to give up their privacy for a tourist attraction or local commuting route. The Boards of Commissioners in Henderson and Transylvania counties have not endorsed the proposal.

Ready to serve protein shakes

Our hike took right at three hours, but it was only that long because I kept stopping to make pictures. Otherwise, I think we could have walked it in two hours, and on a bicycle our segment would be an easy 20-minute ride.
At Edmundson Produce in Horse Shoe, Carolyn Edmundson told us that she had just moved to the strip center from across the road.
"I think it would be great," she said of the proposed trail. "Actually we're getting ready to do protein shakes anyway. (There's a fitness center next door.) I think we need something around here people would feel safe walking on."
She liked the idea of a path that would bring visitors from Hendersonville and Brevard and points in between. "We need something more to connect everything," she said. "I think it would help the economy all through Hendersonville."
I put her down as a vote in favor of the rail-trail from a real business owner.
Pushing west toward Pisgah, I look forward to stopping at Blue Ridge Pizza in Etowah and seeing the farmland and mountain views.