On September 4, 2026, HVTT Board President, Donna Inversin, appeared on Adventure Outdoors on Lake Tahoe Television! Here is the transcript below, and be sure to check out the video!
SHAWN: Well, all things are going well so far, but let’s talk about the rail trail. If people aren’t familiar with this project, give us a little backstory.
DONNA: The Historic Virginia and Truckee Trail: what we’re doing is finding the routes, wherever we can, of the old Virginia and Truckee Railroad, which was really the first Nevada railroad to service the Comstock silver mining industry.
SHAWN: Oh, okay.
DONNA: Started in 1868. And what we found is a lot of the old railroad route, and we’re building a 10-foot-wide, mostly paved path that’ll be 70 miles long, connecting the five counties of Northwestern Nevada.
SHAWN: Wow.
DONNA: That’s Washoe, Carson, Douglas, Lyon, and Storey counties, and the communities within that, Reno, Sparks, Carson City, Virginia City, Minden, and Gardnerville.
We already connect to the Tahoe Pyramid Trail, which goes from the dam at Lake Tahoe to Pyramid Lake. They’re also looking at adding a spur to Fernley. And when we get to Minden, we will connect to the Martin Slough Trail, so it’ll take us all the way to Gardnerville.
And within all of those communities, we want to connect to the paths that are being built in those communities to connect to the housing developments, schools. And our path already will connect to every museum with little off-path jumps, to every museum in Reno, Sparks, Carson City, Virginia City, Minden and Gardnerville.
Now it’s a multi-use trail, meaning pedestrians, bicyclists, and equestrians even.
SHAWN: And what’s wonderful is vulnerable users. So, as you age, which is going to be me one of these days, you need one of those little scooters, electric scooters, to get around.
DONNA: This is interconnecting the communities. That’s one of our big goals.
SHAWN: Okay. So let’s talk about your goals, because this is not cheap, and some of the federal funding has fallen out here.
DONNA: So we want to get people engaged and involved in the conversation.
SHAWN: What’s the best way they can do that, and how can they get engaged?
DONNA: They can become members and corporations. We’d love to have corporations supporting us. We need to do some feasibility studies for some portions of the trails, like building the bridge over the Carson River to connect Douglas and Carson Counties.
If we do a feasibility study, then the counties are more likely to go after the grants to build that bridge and pave that trail.
SHAWN: So the feasibility studies are a few thousand, tens, hundreds of thousands of dollars.
DONNA: Yeah, they can be. Oh, they’re, they’re not cheap, and corporations can help. But one reason corporations want to get involved is that it’s going to be economically beneficial for them. This trail is 70 miles long, and with all of our connections to other paths, we’re going to have about 300 miles of paved trails.
SHAWN: OK – we’re putting that QR code up there – just go to the QR code and sign up to help!
