From my in-box:

First Organized Hike on former Kellar Branch line on Nov. 21

The Pimiteoui Trail Association at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 21 will join other hiking and nature enthusiasts in the first organized hike on the former Kellar Branch rail line as it is being converted into a recreational trail.

The event will begin on the trail at Prospect Road near the former Cohen Warehouse, and will end at the Junction City shopping center, a distance of about three miles, then return to Peoria Heights, to celebrate at TNT Sports Bar and Grill, 4319 North Prospect Road, Peoria Heights (309/ 688-6000).

Members of the Peoria Heights Village Board are expected to be present, and drawings of the trailhead to be constructed at Marietta and Columbus near Prospect will be available.

The public is invited to this free activity, which is scheduled to take place rain or shine.

Those not up to the entire round trip can park at the Peoria Heights Library, 816 E. Glen, and walk the blacktop section from Glen to Knoxville, a distance of about two miles, then back.

Dogs are welcome, but the section of the trail from Prospect to Glen is gravel instead of blacktop, and thus unsuitable for strollers or bicycles. The trail is being converted into a hard surface, as weather and financing allow, in sections.

I find this so funny. The national Sierra Club says that “freight trucks are only 4% of the vehicles on the road, but spew more than 21% of all global warming pollution from transportation,” and that “we must begin to shift freight to rail.” Meanwhile, local “nature enthusiasts” are celebrating their successful efforts to completely eliminate a rail line to Pioneer Industrial Park. Not only have they ensured that we can’t shift freight to rail, they actually caused freight to shift from rail to truck. Lumber that used to be delivered via rail now has to be moved by semi to Pioneer Park. It seems that only in Peoria do we have “nature enthusiasts” who actively fight for more inefficient and polluting forms of freight transportation.

Even more exciting is the plan for their next step backwards — getting people to make extra car trips by driving to a trailhead to walk or bike instead of just walking or biking from home.

Psst! Hey trail fans! Mother Nature just called. She said to tell you, “Stop trying to help.”