DAPHNE, Ala. — It was a dream that took its first steps to realization in the yard behind a bar, with the chickens scratching, a couple of cases of warm beer and the rain threatening.

Now 15 years and $5 million later, one woman’s vision of a dedicated trail for hikers and bikers running the 32 miles from Battleship Park to the Weeks Bay Reserve is nearing completion.

The Eastern Shore Trail, as the project was named, was recently recognized as a National Recreational Trail by the U.S. Department of the Interior and all but a mile and a half from State Highway 181 to Weeks Bay is open for use and due to be completed soon.

Plans are underway to extend the trail to Magnolia Springs, Foley and eventually to connect with the coastal network of trails around Gulf Shores and Orange Beach.

Starting out

Inspired by similar trails she had seen on her travels, Teko Wiseman of Fairhope thought that the Eastern Shore would be the perfect setting for a long distance walking and biking trail.

“We lived all over the world and they have trails everywhere,” Wiseman, now 82, said. “So I put a notice in the paper and said there would be a meeting at Judge Roy Bean’s for people who were interested. Judge Roy Bean’s was a local landmark on U.S. Highway 98 in Daphne, burned to the ground in 2005.

“About 30 people showed up and that was too many for the bar, so we had to move outside. We were there in the dark with the chickens; the owner, Jack West, brought a few cases of warm beer, and it was coming on to rain,” she said.

Despite the inauspicious surrounding, the Baldwin County Trailblazers was formed that night in 1995 and within weeks it was incorporated and had been granted non-profit status.

See the rest of this story in the June 23 Daphne Bulletin.