Perry Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Bob Wilson and President Mark Powell recently took a ride along the Katy Trail in Missouri and brought back with them some ideas on how their successes could be duplicated in our area.

Unlike the local Raccoon River Valley Trail, the Katy Trail is crushed limestone instead of paved, and one 237 mile line across much of the state, rather than a looped trail. Though a lot of the things communities along the two trails are doing is quite similar.

“They say one to five years is hard to turn people into trail communities, after that you’ll see all of the sudden people jumping on the bandwagon” says Wilson.

Wilson says he took a lot of notes and pictures along the way and looks forward to sharing what he learned with communities along our trail.

Wilson adds that they’re also hoping to bring some more bike tourism experts to Perry in the near future to continue to promote the importance of cycling to local communities.