Ear to the ground:

“I think we just met the last living member.”
– Recent observation of an elderly gent in a “Members Only” jacket

Other side of the tracks

Move over Million Dollar Highway, a new scenic byway may be coming to Southwest Colorado.

The state’s Byways Commission has proposed the “Tracks Across Borders Byway,” which would follow the historic route of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (D&RG) narrow gauge between Durango and Chama. The proposed 104-mile route would include Durango, Ignacio via Highway 172, Arboles and the New Mexico towns of Dulce and Chama.

Many segments include travel on the original railroad grade, past railroad remnants, old ghost towns and towns with both Native American and Hispanic influences. It would also offer a lesson on the area’s rail history.

The D&RG was Colorado’s first, and ultimately the nation’s largest, narrow gauge railroad system.  The new byway would link it to the area’s other most important narrow gauges – the Durango & Silverton and the Cumbres & Toltec – both built in the early 1880s.

“Byway designation helps identify, interpret and protect significant and irreplaceable resources along its route,” Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad Colorado Commissioner Dan Love said. “It can also assist in promoting economic development by increasing visitor traffic and providing common goals to the communities and landowners along the route.”

Colorado’s Transportation Commission is expected to vote today, April 16. New Mexico’s Transportation Commission is expected to review the proposal May 21.

The last time a byway was added was in 2005. Colorado’s Byways is a program of the Colorado Department of Transportation.

Generation Xbox

Colorado consistently ranks at the top for health, but a new report on kids and exercise would make Michelle Obama shake her head in disgust.

According to the “Colorado Health Report Card,” which was released last week for National Public Health Week, Colorado youth are slipping through the couch cracks when it comes to physical activity.

According to the report, conducted by the Colorado Health Foundation and Colorado Health Institute, Colorado kids rank 24th when it comes to meeting the Centers for Disease Control’s hour-a-day exercise recommendation. Furthermore, the study found only 46 percent of high school students attend one or more PE classes a week. In addition, more than half of Colorado teens spend three or more hours a day staring at a video screen. Nearly half of teens said they could walk or ride a bike, scooter or skateboard to school, but only 20 percent actually did. 

Girls trail boys when it comes to physical activity: 40 percent of teen girls report an hour of physical activity five days a week compared to about 58 percent of teen boys.

 “Physical activity plays a crucial role in combating a number of public health concerns, such as obesity, mental health and chronic heart disease,” Lisa VanRaemdonck, director of the Colorado Association of Local Public Health Officials, said. “A greater emphasis on physical activity efforts could help improve health-related issues across the state.”