For months, outdoor enthusiasts have peppered Loren Lown with emails and phone calls asking when the newest extension of the Gay Lea Wilson Trail would open.
He now has an answer for them: Wednesday.
The long-awaited completion of the extension, which connects Ankeny to Des Moines, Pleasant Hill and Altoona, was slowed this summer when an illegal dumping ground was discovered along the trail route near Broadway Avenue, said Lown, Polk County Conservation ecologist and administrator.
The wait will be worth it for those who pay attention to the details along the purposefully meandering path cut by the Gay Lea Wilson Trail, Lown said.
A ribbon cutting for the 5.4-mile extension is Wednesday.
Planning for the Gay Lea Wilson Trail began in 1992. Since then the trail has been completed in sections. The first section follows Four Mile Creek through parts of Des Moines’ east side. A second section links Pleasant Hill and Altoona along a former railroad corridor. Ankeny completed a section from Carney Marsh to Southeast Delaware Road in 2011.
When completed, the 35-mile trail will stretch from Ankeny to Pleasant Hill and Altoona. Next year the trail is expected to be linked to the Chichaqua Valley Trail. The trail is part of the 110-mile Central Iowa Trail Network.
“We’ve created great value by connecting this trail system,” Lown said. “It was built with aesthetics in mind. Trails are journeys, not just roads. We want people to amble through and see the woodpeckers and the wildflowers.”
The new trail section can be picked up near Four Mile Creek at East Aurora Avenue on the northeast side of Des Moines. The Ankeny portion of the trail includes a connection to the highly popular High Trestle Trail, Lown said. “It will be possible to get on your bike in Woodward and ride to the Iowa State Fair.”
Said Carl Voss, of the Des Moines Bicycle Collective: “Any additions that connect communities are extremely popular. Whether you are a commuter or recreational rider, it’s a nice way to get around.”
Lown said he and countless others have spent about 15 years consolidating right-of-way land for the project, as well as raising the money from grants and donations it takes to complete roughly a mile of trail. In all, the extension, including development and acquisition costs, was about $3 million.
Ankeny’s Heather Hempy was recently walking her dog along the trail and came to what she thought was the end of the trail extension. Told that a new section of the trail would open on Wednesday, she reflected on the importance of having an easily accessible trail system.
“They are so beautiful,” she said. “They are quiet and private. They give me my ‘me time’.”
Namesake Gay Lea Wilson, the now 55-year-old mother who pushed hard for neighborhood recreation trails on the east side of Des Moines back in the late 1980s, will be at the ribbon-cutting Wednesday to echo that sentiment.
She has grandchildren now who can enjoy the increasing number of trail adventures awaiting central Iowa’s residents.
“Others said we would never be interested in this kind of thing over on the east side,” Wilson said. “We’ve proven them wrong."