A golden Nickel

New trail in Peru, Ind., will extend to Rochester

PERU, Ind. — Lovers of the outdoors have breathed life into U.S. 31’s boring drive to Indianapolis.

They’ve built a 13-mile paved biking/walking/skiing trail that leads from Peru to Cassville, Ind., a burg just north of Kokomo.

Organizers are finalizing plans to pave another 20 miles next year. That would extend the Nickel Plate Trail north to Rochester, which, like Peru, is a couple of miles off of U.S. 31.

A total of 33 miles when done. Imagine that as a break in the long drive.

I find a steady flow of cyclists on the trail as it wends through Miami County on a sunny Wednesday afternoon. Two men in the town of Bunker Hill take their daily ride out on wheelchairs.

This will make a worthy competitor for the much-loved Kal-Haven Trail, also a former railway bed that runs 34.5 flat miles from Kalamazoo to South Haven, Mich.

Both are a little more than an hour’s drive from South Bend. The Kal-Haven’s crushed-stone surface is stable enough for skinny tires. The Nickel Plate is paved, Mike Kuepper boasts.

“This is going to be absolutely stunning when this is all done,” says Kuepper, driving me in his car on rolling backroads through soybean fields that are turning bright gold.

He stops to show me a seven-mile stretch north of Peru where volunteers hacked through jungle-thick vegetation along the future route, mostly wooded.

The railroad had already removed the wooden ties and metal rails, traces of a line that opened in the 1850s. All that’s left, Kuepper says, is to pave.

A longtime Rotarian, runner and cyclist, the Peru business owner embarked on a mission to build this trail when he heard that the old railway land was available 10 years ago while at a Rotary meeting. He formed a nonprofit group and chased after government grants.

North of Peru, we find the trail’s chief engineer, Harry Denham, who has built and flown his own helicopter and ultralight airplane, worked as a train conductor for 47 years and also did construction for decades. He happily saws and hammers lumber on a remote bridge with a handful of polite volunteers: local jail inmates.

He calls the trail “one of the nicest things that’s come to Miami County.”

Beyond the bridge, Denham says the trail will cut through a big patch of native prairie grasses and flowers.

The trail is marked with the smallest of towns, like Deedsville, about 100 people, where a pop machine runs outside of an antique store. At this rest stop along the future trail, lifelong resident Kathy Carlson sits with the shop owner and ponders, “I don’t know what this (trail) will do to Deedsville; I hope it will help.”

Kuepper and I walk away. He says, “I think they’ll be surprised.”

Along the paved 13 miles, businesses tell me that cyclists stop for a bite or a drink throughout the week, just like on the Kal-Haven.

Once the northern part is paved, Kuepper says, cyclists will be directed along quiet Peru streets to link up with the southern part until a connecting trail is built.

From Peru, the paved trail move south along the Little Pipe Creek through a heavily wooded area that supports wildflowers in the spring.

A friendly neighbor has added her touch with a “frog pond” sign and statues of a frog and two kids, plus an umbrella by the trail bench.

At mile 5.5, an open lot in Bunker Hill will become a town park with a building in the style of a train depot.

I stop into Bertie’s Tavern, which offers brew or, for $5, a smoked-sausage sandwich with fries or, for $5.75, a chicken meal. They’re known for pizzas. And they’ll fill your water bottle. Free.

At mile 6.5, the trail runs parallel to the Bunker Hill drag strip, a few feet away. Races are on Friday nights and Saturdays and Sundays.

After lots of soybean fields and a corridor of trees, I hit the end at tiny Cassville. A sign at this trailhead bears a map to the nearby Cassville Market for subs, pizzas and drinks. Cyclists stop by each weekend. That kind of mutual benefit makes Kuepper proud of the Nickel Plate. “It’s a labor of love,” he says.

On the Trail appears monthly in Travel. Got ideas on places to hike, bike, ski or paddle? Contact Joseph Dits: (574) 235-6158 or jdits@sbtinfo.com.

At just one road crossing along the Nickel Plate Trail, the old railroad tracks remain in the pavement, a visual definition for the term Rails-to-Trails.

More Information

Nickel Plate info

Peru trail head: Heading south on U.S. 31, take U.S. 24 east into Peru (not the first U.S. 24 exit but the second, which is the business route). Turn right at McDonald’s restaurant onto old U.S. 31 (business route). Cross Wabash River. Turn left on Wallick. Find the trail’s small parking lot a block later.

Admission: No fee. Dogs allowed on leash.

Skis: Bring them in winter. Snowplows always leave room for skiing.

On the Web: www.nickelplatetrail.org.

On Oct. 3: There will be a 5K, 15K and peewee fun run to benefit the Nickel Plate Trail. Registration at 7:30 a.m. at Broadway and 7th in Peru. 15K follows part of the trail. Walkers allowed in 5K. $10-$25. More at www.nickelplatetrail.org.

More photos: Check out www.southbendtribune.com for more images of the Nickel Plate Trail.