Progress and Challenges for the Lower Yahara River Trail Extension
by Moore Vang, age 15
Dane County park officials have been working on a boardwalk that includes North America’s longest inland pedestrian boardwalk bridge for non-motorized transportation for more than 25 years. Some progress has been made, but the project still battles challenges.
The trail between Madison and Stoughton has been on pause since the summer of 2017, when the first section of construction, from Madison to McFarland was finished. There is a major issue with connecting the two existing sections of the path. The consequence of this is that bikers now have to go along the busy Highway AB for nearly two miles until they can get back on route.
The second section of the Lower Yahara River Trail began construction in 2022 and finished in early July 2024 and goes between Fish Camp County Park and Lake Kegonsa State Park. The trail is 1.6 miles long and is a blend of a boardwalk and paved trail, which crosses over Door Creek. It is connected to the Village of McFarland, which includes the two-mile on-road route.
This part of the project took almost six years to get started because there were no bike lanes on Highway AB. Chris James, the county’s park manager, said “We didn’t want a bunch of bikers riding on a busy road.”
The second section of the Lower Yahara River Trail was built on an elevated surface and along marshy land. During the construction, there were trees cut down, negotiations with local agencies, and intensive planning. Even with these issues, workers were able to finish the second part in just over a year, due to the fact that the county already owned the land. However, that will not be the case with the last few sections of the trail.
In order to continue the path, construction will have to go over privately owned land, meaning that this land will have to be purchased.
“Trails like this have become increasingly rare because they’re nearly impossible,” said Craig Weinhold, a board member of Madison Bikes.
Wisconsin’s eminent domain law was removed in 2017, which prevented local governments from being able to acquire private land for trails. For this reason, the second section’s trail avoided private property by curving the path north from Lake Kegonsa. Chris James is optimistic and said that buying the private property is a minor inconvenience, and the last few parts will be done in the next four to five years.
“I know it seems like a long way out to get the project done, but we don’t have nearly the same scale of things to address that we did with the first two phases,” Chris James said.
The next step for the trail is to connect Fish Camp County Park and McFarland and make a definitive stretch down to Stoughton. In addition to this, Dane County Park officials plan on implementing a path that runs from McFarland to Fish Camp, through the Lower Mud Lake Natural Resource Area, to fix the bike issue with Highway AB.
“As we slowly build these segments, it gives us an idea of what properties we need to buy next. Everything eventually catches up to itself,” James said.
The Lower Yahara River Trail is exclusively for biking, hiking, and any type of non-motorized transportation. Once it is completed, the people of Dane County and its surrounding areas will have convenient recreational options for transportation between Madison and Stoughton.
[Sources: County of Dane; Wisconsin State Journal]
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