[Ed. Note: The Eastern Trail is specifically mentioned in this article that appeared in USA Today on March 22]

East Coast Greenway will connect trails from Maine to Florida
The 3,000-mile East Coast Greenway connects biking and walking paths and will eventually create a park from the Canadian border to Key West, Florida.

In 2015, Florida cyclist Stefanie Boewe suffered a collapsed lung. During her long recovery she read an article about the East Coast Greenway, a 3,000-mile route that connects existing biking and walking paths and will eventually create a linear park from the Canadian border to Florida’s southernmost point. Having grown up in Germany, touring by bike as a child, Boewe realized she missed long-distance cycling. As she recuperated, she began daydreaming about biking the greenway and visiting friends along the East Coast.

“I thought, ‘If I ever recover from this, I’m going to tell these lungs that they can’t say what I can and cannot do,’” Boewe said. “Plus, I had adopted this dog who goes crazy running with a bike.”

In 2017, over a stretch of 89 days, Boewe biked the entire greenway from Key West, Florida, to Calais, Maine, pulling a trailer and accompanied by her 6-year-old Australian shepherd, Murf. She joined a small tribe of cyclists and walkers who have taken on the whole greenway — even though it’s only one-third complete. For these pioneers, creating a patchwork route of protected paths and sometimes-busy roadways was a small price to pay for the adventure — and bragging rights — of being among the first to complete the East Coast Greenway.

Read the entire article on-line here.