Survey shows the popularity of the Trout Run Trail is soaring

To find out just how popular the Trout Run Trail is, a group of volunteers held a trail count along the trail in mid-July.  Those results have now been tabulated--and they show the trail being used a total of 1,434 times in a two-day period.

The volunteers took their clipboards to locations at the end of Dug Road and near the TRT arch.  They counted bike riders, walkers and runners from 6:00 in the morning until 8:00 at night on Friday, July 17th and Saturday, July 18th.

There were a total of 624 people using the trail on Friday and 810 using the trail on Saturday.  On Friday 419 of the people who were using the trail were bicyclists, with 205 either walkers or runners.  On Friday 579 of the users were bicyclists and 227 were walkers or runners.

Not surprisingly, given the July temperatures, the morning hours were the most popular for trail users--especially the 8:30 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. time period.  348 people used the trail during that time period on Friday, while 478 used it then on Saturday.

One statistic that might be a concern: a significant percentage of people riding their bikes on the trail did not use helmets.  125 bike riders did not have helmets on Friday--30 percent of the riders--while 178 bike riders did not have helmets on Saturday--31 percent.