I just watched an entertaining and poignant video, “5 Extra Years,” that promotes Nike’s research on global inactivity and its resulting stark report, Designed to Move: A Physical Activity Action Agenda. If the embed doesn’t work, use this link.

I’ve heard that inactivity would soon eclipse smoking as the world’s number one cause of premature death. The report’s findings show that in 2012, 5.3 million deaths will be attributed to inactivity, vs. 5 million for smoking. It’s a new world.

The most stark finding, for me, is the potential loss of years of high quality life for this current generation of children. At current levels of inactivity, they risk being the first generation in the history of the developed world to not live as many years as their parents.

I’ve heard this before too. The Friends of the Cal-Sag Trail, a volunteer organization that I’ve long been involved with, produced a video last year that drove home the danger of inactivity to Illinois families and communities, and how a trail could help save them. Watch their video too.

The Friends are hosting their annual fundraiser, Bridges & Blues, on November 3. You can read more about it and get tickets at http://bridgesandblues.org. Their fundraising helps Cal-Sag communities pay for the trail’s construction and the signs and amenities that will integrate its use in families’ every day lives. Check your calendar, and see if you can attend.

You stepped outside this morning to blue sky and a cool breeze that smelled vividly of a great trail ride or run.  

Allow us to extend that a smidge. We started a YouTube playlist for Illinois trail videos on our YouTube channel.

My Google feed highlighted a video of Springfield’s Interurban trail this morning. YouTube, of course, served me related videos and now I’m in danger of killing the productivity of my whole morning. So I’m stopping after watching and posting 4 vids. I’ll add more as I find them.

Enjoy! And send us your recommendations for the playlist! 

Moving the Friends of the Cal-Sag Trail’s video to Vimeo (it just looks better) lured us into watching it again. It’s wonderful. It’s a moving statement about what’s at stake for every Illinois community lacking a trail network connection. Enjoy!

For all the extreme situations and environments these hardened riders pedal through, the trailer for Reveal the Path captures the elemental appeal that our best trails have—that we might see something not only different, but differently.

Like goats in trees, right around 1:10.

(Thanks to supporter Tom Armstrong for sharing!)

A friend sent us this this morning: Muskegon (MI) County commissioner “Bicycle Bob” Scolnik wanted to create a “love note” to the City of Muskegon, and instead of putting pen to paper, Bob pedaled out with video camera to the Lakeshore Bicycle Trail.

Local trails make where we live worth celebrating! Do you have a video or photo that celebrates where you live or visit in Illinois? Please share it with us!