Ever wonder where people on the Raccoon River Valley Trail are from? Check this report from Joe Hanner, the RRVT manager in Guthrie County, from the addresses listed on “daily permit” applications over a week’s time. He was surprised and delighted to count people from 11 different states and a Canadian province!
PANORA, Iowa, July 1, 2010 -- Want some additional evidence of what a tourism amenity the Raccoon River Valley Trail is for west central Iowa?
Joe Hanner, the conservation director and trail manager in Guthrie County, got a good reminder this week when he checked the dispenser tubes where daily permits are sold at the trailheads in that county. People fill out a quick form on an envelope, stick $2 in it and drop it into those tubes. They carry with them a perforated receipt showing their permit number, so they prove they have paid if they are checked.
“On Sunday (June 27), I picked up trail permits from the dispenser tubes we have in Panora, Yale and Linden,” Hanner said. “There were daily permits that had been purchased by people from Hutchinson, Kansas; Bismarck, North Dakota; Cleveland, Georgia; Montrose, Colorado; Kansas City, Missouri; Houston, Texas; Cheyenne, Wyoming; Liberty, Missouri; Princeton, Minnesota; Goshen, Indiana; Bolingbrook, Illinois; Ontario Canada and various towns around Iowa.”
He said that had been in “approximately one week” since he’d previously picked up the permit applications.
Amazing!
