It’s a treat for us to shout out Trail Census star volunteer Barbara Amodio! Barbara is an East Coast Greenway Alliance CT Ambassador and a founding member of Bike Walk Bolton, a volunteer organization advocating the expansion of safe, practical and accessible trails in their community. Starting in 2012, Barbara bicycled sections of the East Coast Greenway each year until she completed the entire corridor from Maine to Florida. The experience drew her closer to trails at home and the organizations working to increasing their safety and accessibility for users.

     As a leader in these organizations as well as the Hop River Trail Alliance, she applied for a grant opportunity to fund the installment of trail use counters on the Hop River Trail through our CT Trail Census program. Barbara and fellow trail stewards have been involved since our program’s beginning, gathering trail use data that aids in advocating for expansion of trails and safety features by showing where people use trails, even where it may not be obvious! For example, when a new connection was constructed between the Hop River State Park Trail and the Charter Oak Greenway in Manchester, trail use data demonstrated an increase in trail activity. She is also looking forward to measuring differences in trail use before and after installation of daytime lighting in the Hop River Trail Tunnel – coming soon!

     Of her years of trail work and advocacy, Barbara is particularly proud of the Hop River Trail Alliance’s work to obtain funding for signage along the entire Hop River Trail, and continually helping trail corridors connect across CT. She is also proud that, thanks to the efforts of Bike Walk Bolton using Connecticut Trail Census data, the entire Hop River Trail is now ADA accessible. We, too, are proud to partner with Barbara, the East Coast Greenway Alliance, Bike Walk Bolton, and the Hop River Trail Alliance!