The Bluegrass and Beyond

Saturday morning was cold and gray, but more than 40 people came to Cheapside before 8 a.m. for a five-mile bicycle ride on the first section of the proposed Legacy Trail from downtown to the Kentucky Horse Park.

The group rode five miles out to Coldstream Park, where another 50 or so people came out to comment and offer suggestions to developers of the nine-mile bicycle and pedestrian trail.

“You go to these things and you always see the bikers and walkers, but we’re getting support from everybody,” said Keith Lovan, a city engineer who is project manager for the trail. “They all see something in it for them.”

The city is building the trail almost as a linear park to provide recreation and education about Lexington’s history and culture. The Bluegrass Community Foundation’s Legacy Center is supporting the effort as one of two things it hopes will be tangible legacies to Lexington from the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.

More than $3 million has been raised to build the basic trail from Newtown Pike at Citation Boulevard through Coldstream and Maine Chance farms to the Horse Park before the equestrian games. A site plan will be completed by January and construction will begin next summer. In later years, the trail will be completed in and around existing streets downtown to Cheapside.  For more information about the trail, go to: http://legacycenter.ning.com

(Click on photos to enlarge and see captions.)