MISSOULA — There are two parts of Adelle Donohue’s bike commute to work: Before and after she crosses the Clark Fork River.
South of the river, Donohue takes the Milwaukee Trail, a paved and gravel path built on a former railroad track. North of the river, Donohue bikes through parking lots and crosses North Reserve Street, the state’s ninth busiest road, according to Montana Department of Transportation averages.
“I’ve had a couple really close calls just trying to cross the road and someone's turning left trying to beat a light,” said Donohue, a science teacher at Missoula’s Hellgate Middle School.
Donohue’s commute could be getting safer.
Earlier this month, the City of Missoula’s Open Space Advisory Committee (OSAC) unanimously voted to recommend purchasing 1.5 miles of rail bed from the Missoula Montana Airport.
Committee members say it’s a step towards extending the Milwaukee Trail north of the Clark Fork to the city’s fast-growing western neighborhoods, and beyond.
The motion now goes to Missoula’s City Council, which has the final say. A land transfer agreement could be complete by the end of 2024, according to a project timeline.
Trailheads are conspicuously absent in much of western Missoula, the city’s fastest-growing area.
The airport and Hellgate Middle School are both in the Capt. John Mullan neighborhood, where the population jumped 58% from 2010 to 2022, compared to 10% city-wide. Only 8% of neighborhood residents live within a quarter mile of a commuter trail.
Donohue says she doesn’t “see a lot of bikes on the bike rack” at her school.
Extending the Milwaukee Trail to this area has been a city goal for more than a decade. When the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, known as Milwaukee Road, closed regional operations in 1980, it left behind miles of continuous track ideal for constructing a bike path.
“It's an abandoned rail line, so it's already linear. It's already graded. It connects the community,” said Zac Covington, manager of the city’s open space program.
The existing Milwaukee Trail was completed in 2011 and loosely follows the old railroad’s path from the University of Montana to South Grove Street, just below the Clark Fork River. An additional 2.5 miles became the Kim Williams Nature Trail.
Most of the remaining trackbed in Missoula is privately owned. Covington says the city needs to secure land when it becomes available, either by purchase or easement agreements that allow public trails on private land.
In 2023, the City of Missoula, along with Butte-Silver Bow, Granite, Mineral, Missoula and Powell counties, applied for a joint federal grant to support developing a bike trail along the former Milwaukee Road corridor.
The path would be part of the Great American Rail-Trail, a coast-to-coast bike route proposed by the Rails to Trail Conservancy, a Washington D.C.-based organization.
“[Building on Milwaukee Road] would be ideal across the entire state of Montana. Of course, we know a lot of it is in private ownership and we need to get a bit creative,” said Great American Rail Trail Project Manager Kevin Belle, speaking to OSAC.
In the City of Missoula, buying land from Missoula Montana Airport would be just the start.
Two parcels between the airport and the Clark Fork River are owned by Knife River Corporation, a construction contractor. Covington says the city has so far secured an easement for only one of the parcels.
Between land agreements and construction, connecting a path from the airport to downtown could take years.
In the meantime, Adelle Donohue will continue biking to Hellgate Middle School. To stay safe, she wears a reflective vest and attaches lights to her back and bike. Some days she’s one of the only riders on the busy roads.
“It's taken a lot to make it feel somewhat comfortable to me,” Donohue said. “I would imagine that's probably a barrier for a lot of people.”
