News

‘Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds’ are using Ecusta Trail

By Bill Moss, Published: August 24, 2025

The Ecusta Trail is attracting young moms and dads with little kids, elderly people and bicyclists while also than living up to the pre-opening hope that it would be a business driver.

“We have four or five tenants and they have at this point over 60 employees,” Bart Salvaggio, one of the owners of Lennox Station, an adaptive reuse of an old box factory that contains Trailside Brewing Co., the Ecusta Market & Café, a bike rental shop and more. “That’s a pretty big economic impact.”

Salvaggio serves on the county Rail-Trail Advisory Committee (RTAC), which took several minutes during its regular meeting this month to exult in the popularity of the first six-mile leg from Hendersonville to Horse Shoe.

The grand opening celebration “really was a great day,” Assistant County Manager Christopher said. “We had 6,800 people (using the trail) that weekend. That’s a lot of folks. There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people using that trail every day.”

Joe Sanders is an avid road biker who was among the early advocates on the Friends of Ecusta Trail who lobbied government and business leaders for support.

“Peggy and I are on the trail four days a week,” he said. “I see families out there and the trail has offered something that did not exist before — a safe place to get out with their children. And the elderly.”

Next up for RTAC and the Friends is to get amenities purchased and installed — 21 benches, kiosks, mile markers, signage. Total cost was put at $584,000. Todd recommended that the installation work be carried out by a single contractor.

“The more we break this out into multiple contracts the more it’s going to cost,” he said.

Other highlights from the RTAC meeting:

• Friends of Ecusta Trail President Mark Tooley said the nonprofit has banked almost $3 million in private donations and grants. That includes 100 donors of $5,000 or more. Fifty-nine donors who gave more than $10,000 “were promised naming opportunities for amenities along the trail.” Seven-hundred people have signed up to volunteer. The nonprofit is finetuning a trail ambassador program to assist trail users, hand out maps and answer questions.
• Fulltime help is coming. The county Parks & Recreation Department has hired a park tech, Mike McKay, who will work full-time on the Ecusta Trail. “In his interview he knocked it out of the park,” said county rec director Bruce Gilliam. “He is going to make sure leaves are blown off, the trail is safe for people and just do overall maintenance. He’ll be talking to people about the trail. If people have concerns, he’s gonna be able to communicate with them.” The Friends of Ecusta Trail announced that it had hired longtime bicycle enthusiast and parks and recreation veteran Laura Rice as its first full-time executive director.
• Brevard Mayor Maureen Copelof, who joined the meeting remotely, said the opening of the first six miles has people in Transylvania County more fired up than ever. “You guys have really put the pressure on us by opening the trail,” she said. “I think it has really ramped up the excitement here. I think people are really starting to see that this is going to be such a big deal and such a big economic driver.” The city of Brevard plans to extend the Ecusta Trail from its western terminus at Oskar Blues Brewing Co. to Main Street. “The city itself is working with NCDOT on the Estatoe Trail so it looks and functions more like the Ecusta Trail — so it goes from Main Street in Hendersonville to Main Street in Brevard,” Brevard City Manager Wilson Hooper said.
• People have talked about “putting a gold spike at the county line and racing to it,” said Todd, the assistant county manager. The trail is projected to be finished in late 2027. “The trail will be most successful when it’s done in its entirety and that should be the goal of everybody,” Todd said.