Rough ride

At the start of the summer, six combat veterans began a 3,700-mile bicycle ride across the country for America’s semiquincentennial. The journey that started in Washington, D.C., took them along the Great American Rail-Trail, the first multiuse, coast-to-coast trail built on a framework of disused rail lines.

One of the six, former U.S. Navy Seabee Technical Security Specialist Mary Montigny from Portsmouth, R.I., kept a blog on TrackMyTour where she shared her daily adventures—and challenges. One of the biggest? The trail itself. While some sections are well maintained, others are barely passable. That might not change anytime soon.

The U.S. Department of Transpor­tation began stripping hundreds of millions of dollars earmarked for building bicycle and hiking trails in July 2025. A year later, that intensified with the Build America 250 Act, a $580 billion bipartisan bill to reauthorize transportation-­related funding through fiscal year 2031. This bill will not include funds for bike paths and walking paths, according to Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Graves plans to emphasize funding for motorized transportation instead. That leaves trail enthusiasts facing an uncertain future.

Congress paved the way for the Great American Rail-Trail in 1983 as the train routes that once criss-crossed the country began to sit idle in favor of different methods of transportation. In response, lawmakers passed the Rails-to-Trails Act and established “railbanking” as a way to preserve many unused railway corridors for interim trail and potential future rail use. By 1986, interest in rail-trails sparked the formation of the Rails to Trails Conservancy (RTC).

Brandi Horton, RTC’s VP of Com­mu­nications, calls the trails “wildly popular.”

“There are, at times, more people using the Monon Trail in Carmel, Ind., than in the stands at the Colts’ Lucas Oil Stadium,” she said.

The “Great American” currently passes through 12 states and connects thousands of miles of rail-trails and other multiuse trails. It’s 56% complete, with many of the still-disconnected segments in Wyoming and Montana. The current pause in funding will slow progress on connecting rail-trail segments, Horton said, making funding hard for more expensive infrastructure like bridges and tunnels.

Proponents of the trail say it could bring in more than $229.4 million in ­visitor spending each year, but some landowners adjacent to rail-trails say economic benefit data obscures the ongoing battle over land rights. They have fought lengthy court battles over allegations the federal government took private land without just compensation when it approved the ­conversion of abandoned rail lines into a public trail. Over the last 15 years, thousands of ­owners have filed claims against the government in more than 150 cases.

Even with those challenges, studies from across the country repeatedly show rail-trails as a net benefit to trail-adjacent property owners. Property values are the same or higher than non-adjacent properties, and crime proved not to be a concern.

Montigny, taking a short rest break in Anaconda, Mont., on July 30, said she fears the already challenged trail ­system is in danger of crumbling into oblivion. On one Montana section ­vibrations from the trail damaged her bicycle.

Montigny plans to finish her cross-country journey on Aug. 29, a significant date. “It’s the day that I enlisted in the service, and also the day I completed the Appalachian Trail,” she said. The remaining warrior cyclists are also scheduled to end their journeys at the end of August.