PA R K E R C O U N T Y T O D AY
JULY 2015
without the city’s permission,” said Colvin. “We will build, maintain, and then
get insurance to indemnify the City for the trails."
The current asphalt trails at Soldier Spring Park encompass over one mile and
were built in the 1970s. These city-owned and maintained trails are not ADA
compliant and are showing their age in places. Although Soldier Spring Park
is one large parcel, the asphalt trails do not currently connect to the baseball
fields, the tennis courts or the planned veterans memorial. According to Colvin,
the other 2.25 miles of earthen trails that exist fall into three categories: usable,
rehabilitative, and trails that should be shut down because of erosion issues or
hazardous conditions including areas where dirt jumps have been built. These
unplanned trails are called bandit or rogue trails.
At the onset, the group would like to develop and connect two miles of trails
in a single loop using some of the trails that already exist. In the second year
an additional 2.25 loop of trails is proposed, connecting to the first one. All
of the trails that the group is proposing to develop and maintain would constitute a very small addition to the trails that already exist within the park. The
existing trail system and the eroded area constitute just over 2 acres within the
55-acre city park. The Weatherford Mountain Bike Club would like to evaluate
and consolidate what is currently there, improving the current trails while also
shutting down the portions that are dangerous, too steep, made into jumps or
are eroded. The additional trails would only add 1.25 acres of volunteer-maintained trails that could be used by not only mountain bike riders but by hikers,
cross-country runners, free runners and walkers. The proposed loop would be
a total of 4.42 miles and encompass only 3.32 acres of land. “There are always
some reservations from citizens who live near a park when these types of trails
go in. The irony of it is when the trails go in and a year passes that they become
the biggest advocates,” said Colvin.
Colvin said that he and his group just want to enhance and add to Soldier
Spring Park. “I want people to know that we aren’t taking anything away from
this park. It’s still going to be a really nice natural area and the trails would
be respectful of the natural area. Rehabilitating the trails that are there will let
people really see the whole park. This would also be a hiking trail, running
trail, not just a mountain biking trail. It would be for all recreational users,” he
said. “I see this trail at Soldier Spring Park where you might have a busy day
of 30-35 people on the trail. This is something that will be really cool for the
neighborhood,” Colvin continued. Although there are very active groups of
mountain bike riders throughout the Metroplex, Colvin said, “The vast majority of the users of the trail will be locals. It will be a short trail at 4 miles. That
length of trail is not conducive to folks making long road trips. There are other,
longer trails much closer to the majority of the trail users,” said Colvin. The
group estimates that the number of mountain bike users would be 5-12 per day
with the heaviest concentrations on the weekends and in the evenings. “The
majority of the time there won’t be anybody riding a bike on it,” said Colvin.
Questions have arisen about using the park for timed races, but Colvin said,
“I hope we never have races here. There are lots of costs and headaches to
doing a race. We don’t have any short-term plans to have any races out there.”
Concerns have also been raised about the speed at which mountain bike riders
move and whether jumping is part of what riders look for in a trail. Weatherford City Council member Heidi Wilder is a mountain bike rider and recently
returned from a ride in Santa Fe, NM. She described herself as an avid mountain bike rider who doesn’t do jumps and rides her bike 2 to 3 mph. She said
speeds depend on the terrain. “You can’t get speeds of 25 mph on a mountain
bike. Maybe at Telluride or Purgatory, but we don’t have that kind of terrain
here,” she said. “We have some BMXers doing the offshoots here and at the
Mineral Wells trail. I know of no mountain bikers who jump or go 25 mph,”
she added. She didn’t have any knowledge of the Weatherford Mountain Bike
Club’s proposal, but said any recommendations, changes or improvements to
the parks will be reflected in the master plan that is currently being prepared by
the parks department and the parks advisory board.
City of Weatherford Director of Parks and Recreation Shannon Goodman
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