Getting outside on the Pecatonica Prairie Trail
Getting outside on the Pecatonica Prairie Trail
By Greg Vassmer • Contributor
With the dark of winter, I have less chance to be outdoors, less light in the day. For me, it is the time to finally work on all the things I put off in summer when I was riding my bike. For others, winter is exactly the season to be outdoors. In our area, there is a single recreational opportunity satisfying both.
Starting at Liberty Park in Rockford and following the Chicago and North Western (C&NW) right-of-way all the way to Freeport is a nearly 30 mile stretch of path and trail known as the Pecatonica Prairie Trail. For much of the way, the trail is part of the Grand Illinois Trail, a 575 mile bike trail forming a loop around northern Illinois which is itself a part of the 3,700 mile coast-to-coast Great American Rail Trail.
With the ebb and flow of interested people and money, the Pecatonica Prairie Trail has developed in fits and starts over the years, but for the past 50 years it has hosted runners, hikers, cross-country skiers and cyclists.
The nation’s first rail-trail is the well-known Elroy-Sparta trail in central Wisconsin. Opened in 1967, it started a trend at the end of the 1960s to create non-motorized recreational corridors along the increasing miles of abandoned railroad right-of-way. The trail was part of that boom, becoming a hiking path in the mid-1970s when Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) bought the old C&NW right-of-way in 1972. Late in 1975, the non-profit Pecatonica Prairie Path organization began making improvements to the bridges as well as adding picnic tables along the route.
For the most part the trail does not pass near roads or houses, so remnants of various prairie types, wetlands, and the Pecatonica River itself are found along the path, increasing the attraction. By the late 1990s, ComEd leased the use of the route to Winnebago and Stephenson counties with restrictions, including the requirement that no motorized traffic be allowed with exception to their own. To manage the path, a group of five founding government organizations established a commission to meet, manage and promote the path, and upgrade it to a multiuse trail. These founding five – the City of Freeport, Stephenson County, Freeport Park District, Rockford Park District, and Winnebago County – meet quarterly to further trail plans, gather public input, and manage money allocated to them. Other area government agencies in the towns of Winnebago and Pecatonica are closely aligned with the Commission.
Presently, the trail surface is a mix of 10-foot wide pavement or crushed rock with stretches of grassy path. It begins with a nature trail section leading out of Liberty Park in Rockford. This section is part of current Rockford Park District grant proposals intended to pay for engineering studies needed before construction. The next and most developed section runs from Meridian Road to the Winnebago County line west of the Winnebago County Fairgrounds in Pecatonica and through the towns of Winnebago and Pecatonica. This is the longest rideable section for bicyclists. In this section, you can find the small engineering marvel of the Route 20 underpass built in 2009. It adjoins a parking lot and access point for snowmobile trails, crossing the farmlands north and south of the trail.
A bit more wild but rideable section extends west beyond the Winnebago County line to Farwell Bridge Road. Beyond that, through the town of Ridott up to the Route 20 bypass around Freeport, the trail is really a nature hike. This last stretch has some of the most interesting features: an original C&NW railroad bridge crossing the Pecatonica River and the bridge footings for the Rockford and Freeport Interurban Railway, whose grade can be seen at many points along the trail. The bridge is closed now, but some people still take the risk of crossing. Finally, near the bridge you pass the ghost town of Nevada, founded in the 1850s and all but gone by 1910, thanks to cholera and some mysterious circumstances.
Once across the Freeport bypass and a short stretch of quiet road riding, the developed trail picks up again just before Route 75 and is well developed through Freeport all the way to Tutty’s Crossing. Once there, you have access to the Jane Addams Trail and points north all the way to Madison, Wis. There is parking at several points along the trail; some are simply at the roadside but also at trailheads in Winnebago at Benton Street and at Hoisington Road, in Pecatonica at Pecatonica Road and at Sumner Park, in Ridott at Lincoln Park, and in Freeport at Tutty’s Crossing.
There are also several parks along the way or nearby. Memorial Park in Winnebago, Blassingham and Sumner Parks in Pecatonica, the Pecatonica Wetlands Forest Preserve, and Atten’s Landing on Farwell Bridge Road. The wetlands are the largest of these with 1,047 acres oxbow ponds, marshes, nesting eagles and forest. There are several hiking trails. Along the trail, small remnant prairies have provided seed stock for other area prairie restorations. Please be careful when on the natural sections of the trail as the surfaces have varying widths, exposed ballast rock, and sometimes tall overgrowth.
The Pecatonica Prairie Trail is a dynamic place. You could encounter the local high school track team doing a workout, dogsled mushers training their dogs, cross-country skiers, hikers with full backpacks training for a trip out west, a periodic ComEd contractor, joggers, and – of course – bicycles. One time there was even a helicopter-mounted giant chainsaw trimming the trees. So even with winter upon us, as the trail is open year-round, the Pecatonica Prairie Trail is a peaceful place to be outdoors.