JUST A LITTLE BIT AHEAD OF MY TIME.

Remember this story?  "I can't claim to have invented the railroad right of way as a bike trail, but abandoned stretches of the Milwaukee Electric's Muskego Lakes Division and Lakeside Belt Line near my house were sufficiently well-graded that I could ride my coaster-brake bike on them, making interurban noises as I accelerated."

I subsequently made this argument.  "But as a pioneer of the use of abandoned interurban rights-of-way for bike trails (in those days I was trespassing) I fully endorse the use of interurban rights-of-way as bike trails."  Other neighborhood kids also trespassed upon the former railway.  "I claim to have invented the use of abandoned railroad grades as bike trails years ago, although numerous other South Side kids also used the former Lakeside Belt Line and Muskego Lakes branch for such purposes. In our old age, we get to see those rights-of-way being made less rough on bicycles."

Now, look what Milwaukee County is doing with ... the Lakeside Belt Line and Muskego Lakes branch.

The 10-foot-wide, multi-use trail will be suitable for activities such as walking, running, cycling, dog-walking or in-line skating.

Future plans call for the trail to extend east through Milwaukee and St. Francis to Lake Michigan, as well as north into West Allis.

The trail will be part of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy’s Route of the Badger, a plan for a 700-mile inclusive regional trail network in southeastern Wisconsin.

I wonder if any contemporary ten-year-olds know how to make interurban noises.

Portions of the Northern, Watertown, and Muskego Lakes lines were previously adapted for trails.