WINAMAC — Friends of the Panhandle Pathwayplan to get the trail's northern end extended through downtown Winamac by the end of next year.
Already about 22 miles long, the trail is set to gain a little more than a mile through town using the old railroad right-of-way, according to Friends president John Bawcum. The property is owned by the Town of Winamac and the Friends group is working with the town to use two grants to fund the project.
One grant is through the Recreational Trails Program, which provided $51,000. The other is a $249,000 Indiana Department of Transportation Safe Routes to School grant awarded in 2012. Both were received approximately the same time, Bawcum said.
"By the end of next year we should have the trail all the way" to Ind. 14, Bawcum said.
Beyond that, the trail group plans to continue seeking funding and land to extend the trail about 3 more miles to connect to Tippecanoe River State Park.
"We have a couple of routes we're considering," Bawcum said. Both traverse privately owned land, so the group is currently talking with landowners about the possibility of obtaining right-of-ways.
It's a long process similar to what the group went through to connect the Panhandle Pathway to Winamac on the south side of town, Bawcum said.
"You have to approach each landowner with the idea," he explained. "If they agree to a right-of-way, that's wonderful. The problem is, if you have one in a series that says no, you're done."
On the south side of Winamac, it took the group about two and a half years to obtain the necessary right-of-ways from about five landowners.
Should ongoing efforts to connect the Panhandle Pathway to both Tippecanoe River State Park and to France Park in Cass County succeed, the group would realize its long-term vision.
"The vision is 'park to park,' " Bawcum said. "France Park to the state park. ... If you're a camper, you can camp at one end, go to the other end, camp if you like, come back — make a weekend of it."