CELEBRATION CAPS GRAND ILLINOIS TRAIL ADVENTURE

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        CELEBRATION CAPS GRAND ILLINOIS TRAIL ADVENTURE
                               
     SPRINGFIELD ILL., May 29, 1996 -- National Trails Day is
Saturday June 1, a day of celebration at West Chicago's Reed-Keppler Park to mark the conclusion of the Grand Illinois
Adventure, a three-week trek along segments of the 475-mile Grand
Illinois Trail by two members of the Illinois Rails-To-Trails
Conservancy. The adventure is co-sponsored by the Department of
Natural Resources.

     A 2 p.m. celebration will recognize the Grand Illinois Trail
and the efforts to expand the trail system in Northern Illinois.
The festivities will take place along a portion of the Illinois
Prairie Path, the first rail-to-trail conversion in the United
States.

     The celebration at Reed-Keppler Park also will serve to
officially open the Geneva Spur, a nine-mile addition to the
Illinois Prairie Path and to dedicate the Jack T. Knuepfer Bridge
on the path between Reed-Keppler Park and the West Chicago
prairie. Knuepfer was DuPage County Board Chairman from 1982-1990, and is a dedicated hiker and a long-time supporter of the
Illinois Prairie Path.

     The National Trails Day event is sponsored by the Illinois
Prairie Path, the Conservation Foundation of DuPage County Trails
Project, and the Trail Riders of DuPage.

     "The Grand Illinois Trail will link state and local trails
into the first long-distance, inter-regional trail in the state,"
said DNR Director Brent Manning. "The trail will offer
unprecedented outdoor recreation opportunities, enhance the
quality of our life, increase property values, and guide visitors
to many of our cultural resources, state parks, historic sites
and other attractions."

     Mike Ulm, State Director of the Rails-To-Trails Conservancy,
and Kandee Hartel, president of Illinois Trail Riders and a
conservancy board member, will join dignitaries, trail
enthusiasts, DNR staff and others, as they conclude their Grand
Illinois Adventure on June 1.

     Everyone is welcome to participate in the day's ride
starting at 8:30 a.m. on the Illinois Prairie Path at 1st Ave. in
Maywood. The ride will head west, make a couple of stops, and
finish at Reed-Keppler Park in West Chicago in time for the
celebration. 

     The Adventure started on May 10, at the Bicycle Museum of
America at Chicago's North Pier. Ulm and Hartel are traveling the
entire 475-mile trail distance from Chicago's lakefront to the
Mississippi River and back again using this emerging trail
network. The pair, biked, rode horseback, hiked, canoed, and used
in-line skates to make the trip. 

     The Grand Illinois Trail was first introduced as a concept
two years ago in the draft State Trails Plan. The plan calls for
linking the Illinois & Michigan and Hennepin Canals, along with
other Northern Illinois trails and state parks by way of
partnerships among state, federal, regional and local units of
government, trail development organizations, constituent groups
and private citizens. These groups, collectively called the
"Grand Illinois Trail Coalition," are working to complete the
trail by the year 2000. The Coalition coordinates work to link
the trail segments and is involved in promoting, interpreting and
marketing the Grand Illinois Trail.

     Manning added, "Together, with the efforts of Mike Ulm,
Kandee Hartel, and our coalition members, the Grand Illinois
Trail is one grand step closer to reality."     
                               
                              ###