The following article is from the Fall.09 issue of Rails to Trails about our members Clay & Dixie Gatchel and is printed with permission of Rail to Trails Conservancy.
 NEW DIRECTION
Dixie and Clay Gatchel could never get enough of the outdoors. They were avid skiers, volunteered in national parks and more recently took up hiking. The Puyallup, Wash., duo discovered rail-trails in 2000 after driving by the Foothills Trail near their home. While cycling on the trail, they met rail-trail enthusiast Ernie Bay, who encouraged them to join his courtesy bicycle patrol.
They did.
At the end of a November 23, 2005, ride, Clay caught his right pedal on a bol¬lard placed in the trail to discourage cars from coming onto the paved pathway. He catapulted over the handlebars and called out to Dixie.
He couldn't move.
The impact collapsed his third and fourth cervical vertebrae, leaving him quadriplegic. Ten days later he died from pneumonia at 87.
After 58 years of marriage, the shock sent Dixie into a deep funk. She felt lost. Eventually she ventured out onto the trail by herself, but it seemed so lonely without Clay. She didn't know how to change a tire or replace a busted chain.
Bay convinced her to attend Rails-to-Trails Conservancy's 2007 TrailLink Conference in Portland, Ore. The keynote speech about active transportation inspired her. She liked the idea of using rail-trails as seamless connections between towns and public transportation stops.
"It’s all about getting people to leave their cars in their garages whenever possible," she says. "Especially for short trips."
The 85-year-old got involved with a grass¬roots campaign to establish a regional active transportation network in Pierce County, Wash. She now spends her days advocating for the cause. She writes a regular column on the subject for a local newsletter, prepares case statements for funding requests, orga¬nizes stakeholder meetings and makes sure the public understands what active transpor¬tation is and why it's important.
"It gave me a new reason to go on living and do something useful," she says. "I'm not the kind of person who can just sit around."
Never comfortable talking in front of a crowd, Dixie joined Toastmasters so she'd feel confident speaking about active transportation before city councils and other large groups. Whenever she feels nervous or discouraged, she thinks of Clay: "He would be right here with me."
Jennifer Vogelsong is a journalist at the York Daily Record/York Sunday News in York, Pa. Her most memorable rail-trail experience was coming face-to-face with a moose on the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail in Anchorage, Alaska. |
