GPS signs would improve safety on the Trout Run Trail

Mike Huinker with one of the GPS emergency signs that will be put up along the Trout Run Trail

As decorahnews.com reported last October, GPS signs have been installed along the Prairie Farmer Trail to give bike riders bearings they can relay to emergency responders in case of an accident.  Now that same system is about to come to the Trout Run Trail.

21 signs will soon be installed every half mile along the trail.  The white and blue signs will display GPS coordinates that will allow first responders, ambulance crews, police and fire department members and others to quickly find someone who has had an accident on the trail.

Funding for the signs comes in part from the Decorah Rotary Club and the Winneshiek County E 9-1-1 Board.

Longtime Trout Run Trail activist Mike Huinker says the signs "could save a life."  On other trails there have been examples of emergency responders heading in the wrong directions because they were given inaccurate information.

Winneshiek County Conservation Board Director Barb Schroeder says she is also working with a Decorah Boy Scout to have their Eagle Scout project involve putting similar signs along the Freeport Trail.