Ind. paddlers hope state will share in water trail

PORTAGE, Ind. — An organization of Indiana canoeists and kayakers is working to create a 1,200-mile "trail" along the shore of Lake Michigan that an organizer says would be the water version of the Appalachian Trail.

Groups in four states are working to establish the route that would encircle the entire lake, said Dan Plath, president of the Northwest Indiana Paddlers Association. He told the Post-Tribune of Merrillville the initial segment would run from the north side of Chicago to New Buffalo, Mich.

The 300-plus member Northwest Indiana Paddlers Association plans to celebrate National Trails Day on June 4 in Portage on the state's Lake Michigan shoreline. The association has invited U.S. Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar to attend its event, and they hope he will include the Lake Michigan Water Trail on the list of new National Recreation Trails announced that day.

"Salazar would be a wonderful plug for the region," said Mitch Barloga, a planner with the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission. The paddlers group started working with the regional planning commission in 2009.

In the last two years, the association has led several expeditions along parts of the initial 65-mile segment. The group has also been active in clearing stretches of waterways in Lake and Porter counties to create other "blueways" for paddlers. One project is a Little Calumet River Trail from Burns Waterway to the National Lakeshore Heron Rookery.

Plath said he hopes to have public access sites and other facilities ready along the entire route by June.