Photos from Crown Point's Erie-Lackwana ribbon cutting

It was a beautiful day at Crown Point, Indiana's ribbon cutting for the finishing segment of the Erie-Lackawana Trail which now connects Hammond, IN. with Summit and Court St. in Crown Point; from there, easy street riding takes you to their town square made famous most recently by the film Public Enemy #1. I've put some photos up.

Crown Point mayor David Uran is proud as can be of the connection, and he should be as a key partner in the segment's completion. And Active Trans is proud too to have contributed to the region's Best Place to Live (according to the Northwest Indiana Times) by producing their bike plan.

A surprise of the day was the attendance of Chris Morfas, long time director and now president of the California Bicycle Coalition. Chris was born and raised in Hammond and was visiting his dad; what a treat for him to hop on a bike that morning and ride a trail the whole way to the celebration!

Better yet, Chris pledged his help with Bikes on South Shore when he's in town. Sometimes, it takes an outside expert for a good idea to make sense for everybody.

I had a wonderful time touring the trail with one of the people responsible for it, Mitch Barloga of the Northwest Indiana Regional Planning Commission.  

But what really has my wheels turning is taking my bike on the South Shore to the beautiful Indiana Dunes State Park or historic Beverly Shores. Chris is back in the area in early March.

Wheels turning.