It started as a lark, unknown to everyone except the author.
The late John Robertson, who worked as a grant writer for Thrive Allen County until his death in 2015, envisioned cross country skiing as one of the uses for the Lehigh Portland Trail complex south of Iola.
So he slipped it into a grant application to the Kansas Health Foundation in April 2014, one of the key funding mechanisms that paid for the trail development.
That Kansas rarely has enough snow to even dream of such an activity mattered not to the good-hearted Robertson, recalled Thrive Executive Director David Toland.
When pressed about it, Robertson would just laugh.
The grant application was accepted, the trails, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Toland and other Thrive personnel gathered with Robertsons widow, Karen, son Tommy and brother David with a handful of volunteers for a dedication ceremony Monday afternoon.
A sign designating the John Robertson Cross Country Ski Trail is positioned along a portion of the trail that looks out over Elks Lake.
TURNS OUT there was a sentimental twist to Robertsons request.
Robertsons first date with Karen was a cross-country skiing outing in Michigan.
The irony of having designated ski trails in southeast Kansas was not lost on those involved in Mondays dedication ceremony. A pair of skis and poles were propped against the sign, although Toland noted, were not even sure we have the right type of skis.
(They didnt; the consensus among the group was the skis were for downhill courses.)
KAREN ROBERTSON said the grant application story was an apt anecdote when remembering her late husband.
He always thought out of the box, she said. Id imagine, after arguing with God for a couple of years, hes probably looking down at us with that sardonic-looking grin he had, tickled pink about this.
