Western Reserve Back Roads: Trail user creates Web site to celebrate local resource

By CARL E. FEATHER

Lifestyle Editor

Bill Luoma paused just north of the Clay Street bridge and studied the trees arching over the Western Reserve Greenway Trail as it reached toward the Munson Road staging area.

"This is one of my favorite stretches," Luoma said. "This time of day, it's very peaceful."

Luoma and I had just walked the short segment from the Austinburg parking lot north to the bridge. It was morning, his favorite time to be on the trail, and on the way to the bridge we'd stopped at a couple of WRGT landmarks that hold special significance: the water tower and pump house of the former railroad.

"I remember this when it was a railroad," Bill said. "I and a friend of mine, back in 1972, would come down here and throw stones at the water tower."

Luoma still remembers the unique sound the tower made when stuck by the stones and ore shook lose from the passing hopper cars, but these days he treats the artifact with greater respect. At 49, he has a reverence for the past and the men who labored to clear the land, lay the rails and make the railroad run. As he ride his bicycle on the WRGT, especially in the spring, he notices the many vestiges of those days: rusty spikes and fishplates, rails tossed aside in the woods, old buildings like the pump house, and even a section of curved rail that hints of a derailment on the otherwise straight-shot line.

"I always like to see those signs that this was once a railroad," he says.

His WRGT nickname, Trail Bum, even hints of the railroading connection.

"This used to be a railroad track and who lives along the railroad track? Bums. Plus, my wife didn't want to be known as a trail tramp," says Luoma in explaining how he got his nickname.

Luoma's trail moniker exists in cyberspace, as well, where it introduces Web surfers to the wonders of the WRGT at www.trailbum.com.

The Web page is a labor of love Luoma created and maintains outside the blessings of the Ashtabula County Metroparks. Nevertheless, the park Web site links to Luoma's page because of the many resources available there.

For starters, Luoma used his GPS unit to map the entire trail and create accurate mileage charts between the various parking lots, intersected roads and features. The charts can be downloaded and printed without additional software.

His site also includes a photographic journal of the trail through the seasons, including a gallery of wildflowers, his favorite natural feature of the trail.

Luoma reports that the best trout lilies are found around mile marker 20, the nicest trillium at mile marker 22 and finest jack-in-the-pulpits at Allen Road.

Visiting his Web page, you'll also learn that beyond the fence at Coffee Creek is a tunnel that carries the muddy stream's flow under the trail. Several years ago, when Luoma was gathering photographs for his Web site, he and his wife Cheryl decided to explore the pump house via the tunnel.

It had rained hard the night before and Coffee Creek, normally only ankle deep, was transformed into a waist-deep torrent. Nevertheless, Luoma and his wife waded into the dark tunnel.

"That was the creepiest thing I've ever done," he says. "A stick (under the water) poked my wife and she thought she'd been bit by a sea serpent. She screamed."

Logging the miles

Luoma has his wife to thank for introducing him to the trail. He says the Ashtabula Dream Center was holding a bicycle riding event, and his wife thought it would be a good excuse to finally act upon their discussions about purchasing bikes and becoming more physically active. Luoma says he wasn't interested in riding, but agreed to take his wife to the trail for the event. Once he saw the trail and experienced it from a bicycle, he became hooked on the resource.

"I said 'This is pretty cool,'" he said. "I could just picture in my mind an old steam engine coming through here."

Several years of heavy trail use followed, each annually logged 1,400 miles on their bicycles. Acquiring a new dog in 2005 cut into their riding, but Luoma says they will probably do 500 miles each this year.

They have rode as far as the Trumbull County trail head, 40.6 miles. He doesn't recommend novices make that trip, however. Luoma experienced some serious muscle spasms because he wasn't conditioned for the distance.

"We don't go for speed," he says. "I go for the relaxation and peacefulness. There are very few places around that are as peaceful as this."

His typical ride takes him from his Woodman Avenue home to Sanborn Road, sometimes Austinburg. In the winter, he and Cheryl exchange their bicycles for snowmobile boots and outfits. There's never a time of year he's not on the trail.

Luoma has made numerous friends on the WRGT and was, for a short while, a Bike Patrol member.

"I felt like I had this big neon sign on me," Luoma says, referring to the green shirts patrol members wear. "Deep down, I'm a shy person," he says.

However, Luoma enjoys talking about his favorite Ashtabula County resource. His only regret is that there's not more time in the week to spend on it.

"If I was retired, I'd be out here every day," he says.

Visit the trail online at www.trailbum.com.