TOPEKA – Rush the Rails is the grand opening event for the Flint Hills Nature Trail, Kansas’ newest and longest nature trail. The event will include rides, competitive races and relays, as well as festivities at various communities along the trail. Registration and events will kick off on Friday, Oct. 6 in Ottawa, Council Grove, and Osawatomie, followed by more fun rides, races and relays along the trail on Saturday, Oct. 7. In addition to introducing Kansans to the Flint Hills Nature Trail, Rush the Rails events will celebrate the hard work and collaboration required to build such a trail.

The Flint Hills Nature Trail is built on an old railroad route that was originally developed in the late 1880s as the Council Grove, Osage City and Ottawa Railway. The Flint Hills Nature Trail stretches 117 miles across east-central Kansas, from Osawatomie in the east to Herington in the west, and passes through communities including Rantoul, Ottawa, Pomona, Vassar, Osage City, Miller, Admire, Allen, Bushong, and Council Grove. The trail passes through five counties: Miami, Franklin, Osage, Lyon, and Morris and features a variety of beautiful Kansas landscapes, including tallgrass prairie, eastern woodlands and rolling hills and bluffs along the Marais des Cygnes River.

The Flint Hills Nature Trail is the seventh-longest rail-trail in America, and the longest trail in Kansas. It follows the general route of the Santa Fe National Historic Trail and forms a component of the coast-to-coast American Discovery Trail.

For more information on Rush The Rails, go to www.rushtherails.com. For more information about the Flint Hills Nature Trail, visit www.kanzatrails.org.

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