By Kass Stone
Post-Tribune correspondent

GRIFFITH - Lake County Parks unveiled the Oak Savannah Trail at Oak Ridge Prairie County Park here Saturday.

The trail runs through Griffith, Calumet Township, Merrillville and Hobart.
 
It ties into Porter County's Prairie Dune Trail, which can be taken to the National Lakeshore.

The trail has been under construction for four years and still has a small section in Hobart that needs to be completed. 

It has taken that long because the county park department had to negotiate with each community through which it passed, as well as with individual property owners on whose property the trail crosses.
 
At the opening, representatives from different police departments whose jurisdiction the trail runs through were present.

Also on hand were biking enthusiasts from across Lake County. A varied collection bicycles, ATVs and even Segway scooters, driven by members of the Gary Police Department, helped kick off the trail's official opening. 

"It's exciting," Sandy Basala, superintendent of visitor centers for Lake County Parks and Recreation, said about the trail and what it offers area residents. "It is such a valuable resource. It is really an important connection east and west of the different bike trails."

"What makes this so significant is that it ties into the Prairie Dunes Trail in Portage and to the National Lakeshore," continued Basala. "That means people can ride from Griffith all the way to the National Lakeshore now."

Lake County Parks and Recreation intends to link the new trail to the Erie Lackawanna Trail, which currently runs from Hammond to the county government center in Crown Point. 

"This is a great deal for me," said Gary's Rodney Graves, president of Calumet Citizens for Connecting Communities (C4), an organization that promotes the creation and use of off-road thoroughfares in the Calumet area. 

"I've been bicycling this region since I was a kid," Graves said. "To get this trail across an area where there is such an abundance of automobile traffic is really important." 

"What's great is that this corridor is going to continue on west," said Graves, about the eventual link that will be made between Oak Savanna and the Erie Lackawanna trails. 

"This is already now one of the biggest points in the area to go from point A to point B. We've been known for being a place of heavy industry and cycling has been hard, but now that we have an off-road trail like this, it's going to be a lot more fun." 

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