The Calumet River stretches for nearly 90 miles from Lake Michigan, wrapping its way around Chicago's south suburbs and northwest Indiana. At first look, the ghostly industrial river doesn't seem like a prime recreational area. Wetlands, little blue herons and other wildlife have returned in recent years, but remains of abandoned steel mills - and the pollution they left behind - continue to tarnish a resource once relished by Native Americans.

Yet Steve Buchtel and several other community organizers in the Southland don't see the river the same way most people have for 40- plus years. The 39-year-old bike enthusiast is working with more than 30 organizations and communities to build the Calumet Sag Trail, a proposed 26-mile multi-use trail along the Cal Sag and Calumet River that would run from Lemont to Burnham. The path would effectively connect with several other trails in the area, creating an 80-mile loop around the Chicago Southland, and striking a balance between economic and environmental needs in the area. Parts of the path could open as soon as 2012.

"When we talk about the trail, we talk about its impact on a triple bottom line," says Buchtel, a Homewood resident who works as the Southland coordinator for the Chicago Bicycle Federation. "The triple bottom line is an idea that you can't have a successful and sustainable initiative, business or enterprise if you ignore any one of three things: ignore the environment, ignore the economics of the area and ignore the quality of life of people. The trail actually hits a triple bottom line."

For Buchtel and many trail activists, the Calumet Sag Trail not only will encourage an increasingly obese population to get outside, but it also will provide an alternative transportation route for commuters looking for cheaper ways to get to a train station or to local shops. And to many, what makes the trail unique is its placement in the heart of the south suburbs.

Unlike a lot of suburban areas on the north or west side of Chicago, the Southland was built for manufacturing communities. When industries started to close in the 1970s, thousands of workers lost their jobs, and many south suburban economies were hit hard.

"Ever since those factories moved, the south suburbs have been trying to figure out how to replace those high paying jobs that aren't there anymore," Buchtel says. "Plus you have all this old infrastructure, these old industrial sites. They have all sorts of problems cleaning them up now, all sorts of toxic stuff, so it's very expensive to try to revive any of that. But I think as a result, though, the south suburbs are kind of primed to go in a different direction."

A new trail could be part of that direction - even if it will take serious efforts by several communities to fund, maintain and promote the trail. Though the proposed trail is 26-miles it will create a much longer continuous loop, connecting to the Burnham Greenway trail, the Major Taylor Trail, the I&M Canal State Trail and the Centennial Trail. Advocates hope those connections attract avid bikers as well as families to the path.

"There are good parks and good trails (in the Southland), but you can't get between them or to some of them easily," says Gregg Calpino, a Flossmoor resident who moved from the city to the suburbs in 2001. Though Calpino grew up in the area, when he moved back to the suburbs, he approached transportation from a parent's perspective. He was surprised at the lack of connections between trails and how difficult it could be to bike to different parks. He says he and his wife have a hard time biking to simple places with their kids because sidewalks end and busy streets aren't safe for young children. "Those missing links are the most frustrating." He says.

Despite some missing links, in many ways, trails are more important in the suburbs than they are in the city. Residents in the suburbs are more dependent on cars and less likely to ride bikes on major streets, Buchtel explains. People respond to trails in the suburbs, he adds, but that doesn't always make funding easy.

Projected costs for the trail currently hover around $20 million. Communities involved in the project have signed inter-governmental agreements to commit to the money and have applied for federal grants that cover 80 percent of the costs. (Communities are expected to contribute 20 percent for whatever grant given). For the communities on the eastern end of the trail, Blue Island has received $1.2 million for phase one and phase two engineering. For communities along the western end of the trail, Palos Heights received a $424,948 grant from the Congestion Mitigation Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ) for phase one engineering. (In January, Palos applied for money for phase two engineering).

During those two phases, which combined can take nearly 3.5 years, engineers will look at environmental impact, possible alignment for the trail, flood issues and design. David Landeweer, an engineer who is leading this project for the URS Corporation, says building a trail around the river won't pose difficulties, because most of the ground is rocky and solid. But he says developing the trail along its eastern end might be more difficult, because there are several corridors to look at, and much of the land is privately owned.

While more people and businesses are beginning to see the benefit of trails, hopes and good intentions don't always translate into funding. According to Tom Murtha of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, which programs CMAQ funds, the organization is typically able to fund only about 10 percent of requests each year - the Cal-Sag Trail was successful for 2008 because of aggressive programming.

Ders Anderson, greenways director for the advocacy group Open Lands, says loss of federal funding hurts trail initiatives. Yet he sees the Calumet Sag Trail as one of the key open space corridors in the Chicago region. Continuous and open space trails, he says, are popular with the public.

"A lot of times we're trying to develop trails in fairly dense areas with a lot of population. You don't have the ability to kind of disappear in the corridor and feel that you're far away from everything." He says. "It's just kind of emotionally and psychologically a really satisfying experience to get into 20 miles of open space where . . .you're going to feel like your miles away from the Chicago region. It just takes you into a different place and time."

Gayle Greenwald, a Palos Heights resident and member of the city's recreational advisory board, is anxiously awaiting the trail. Greenwald, who's also a member of the biking group the Palos Peddlers, was one of the first residents tobe an advocate for the bike trail. The teacher, who is in her 40s, is a recreational biker that rides her bike three times a week in warm weather. She loves the Old Plank Trail, but it wasn't until she visited the western suburbs that she noticed potential for a new bike path in the Southland.

"I've been to Naperville and walked on the Riverwalk, and this seemed like something that Palos Heights and the south suburbs should have," Greenwald says. "It would be an attraction for our part of the Chicago area."

More information on the bike path can be found at calsagtrail.org.

Copyright 2008 Chicago Athlete magazine