Thanks to last week's Making Tracks column, a surprising, wonderful story on the Okanagan Rail Trail came out of the blue.

The ORT response was from some unexpected sources—behind-the-scenes volunteers who have never been fully recognized and should have received the highest public praise for their many years of passionate dedication to creating this world-class experience—and they still want to remain anonymous, not wanting to take any credit.

For a little recent history on the former CN Rail line completed on Sept. 10, 1925, an economics professor saw the potential of converting the abandoned railway line into a 50-kilometre epic rail trail 13 years ago.

"We fully financed the economic impact study and all costs associated with the Okanagan Rail Trail Initiative and the cost to raise the money (over $50,000) to ensure that donor money was only spent on moving dirt. Anything outside of building the base trail was paid for by each local government landowner," the professor said this week.

"We tried to meet with every donor that contributed more than........

© Castanet