Just be sure that the tracks ARE abandoned. Uh, pardon me boys, is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo?

That sounds lovely. I live in an urban/suburban area that’s got a pretty good hiking culture. We have trails that run alongside the railroad tracks—these aren’t abandoned railroads, though. Trains will pass through every few days or so (probably. I don’t actually know the schedule!)

It’s called “rails to trails” we have several in the area, the tracks get removed for the record.

@ARE_you_kidding_me Thanks, couldn’t remember what that was called. Looked like pretty decent hiking country, from the different scenes I saw.

Sure We have some.

We have them here. I ride on them sometimes.

Yup, have risen on a few, and another is part of a huge trail system here in Canada.

Yes, I know rails-to-trails well!

There were interurban trains all around the American midwest 100 years ago, and a lot of bike paths follow those routes.

I have bicycled between Milwaukee and Chicago (90 miles each way) a couple of times, and most of the route is old railbed.

I also ride in Michigan, and you can travel all around the state on rails-to-trails routes, from the coast of Lake Michigan across the state to Detroit.

Rails to Trails Conservancy

There are several here in Idaho. One goes about 11 miles and has tunnels and trestles.

They’ve been doing this since the 1970s. They are everywhere now. The best, safest and most scenic bike trails, 19,872 miles of them, on the 50,000 mile U.S. Bike Route System (USBRS) are on old rail beds—including the TransAmerica Trail from Astoria, Oregon to Williamsburg, Virginia. As Amtrak continues to abandon their passenger service in the Midwest, more tracks will be made available.

Yeah. I live really close to one. I used to live within 100 feet of it. It’s an interesting place. In the daytime, it’s a jogger’s paradise. I used to walk my dog there a few times a day.
At night, it’s a bad place. Homeless people, outlaws, gangs etc roam it. It’s barricaded at every road crossing, which means no cop cars. It’s a good place to do something illegal, or run after you did something illegal. There used to be a bank close to it. People would rob it, then hop on a dirt bike, and fly down the trail to escape. The cops could only use a helicopter to pursue them. The bank closed a few years ago. I don’t know for sure, but I assumed it was because it got robbed a lot due to the path.

Gunshots were common at night, and early morning.

It’s definitely scenic. It basically goes through the marsh. There are some nice secluded places on it. There is a wooden bridge on it, that is perfectfor stargazing at night, or fishing. I gave my pet bird a burial at sea there. RIP Mr. Loomis…
It actually snowed several years ago. My friends and I had snowball fights all night on the path. It was wild seeing all the palm trees and tropical plants covered in snow and ice.

I still use it to walk, or bike when I’ve been drinking.

One of the coolest trail conversions I have been on is the virginia creeper. If you start at the top it’s a day long, scenic downhill coast with cool little stops in the small towns along the way.

Like many said above, it’s been going on for a long time. In Pinellas County in FL (that’s the county where Clearwater is) there is the Pinellas Trail, which is miles and miles of trail used for walking, jogging, bicycling, and skating that is mostly former railroad, maybe it all is? It’s about 35 miles long going right through many towns that are very nice to walk around in their own right.