This post is long, but please take the time to read it.  It’s taken almost four years, a couple thousand hours of time, and a lot of generously donated funds to get here.  Before you enjoy the fruits of this labor and funding, I need you to take ten minutes to read this.  The opening of the trails is definitely a time to celebrate, but there are some things all of us need to remember to help it be successful.  Some important information is intentionally buried in here to encourage you to read.

If you feel that other users are interfering with your experience, please be patient.  I don’t want people to conclude that multi-use trails don’t work when the real problem is a regional population of several hundred thousand and only 5-ish miles of trail.  If the trails are too crowded, we should all be ecstatic that many people are using them.  And, the solution should be to build more trails – not argue with each other.

There is going to be a learning curve for those who have not spent time on multi-use trails.  As a mountain biker, whenever I come across a hiker or runner that reacts like I’m a charging bull, I know they haven’t spent much time on multi-use trails.  With experienced hikers, runners, and riders, passing each other is almost always smooth and quick.  Please be patient and open-minded as everyone learns.  Multi-use trails work all over the world, and our trails were carefully constructed to facilitate usage by hikers, runners, and riders.

Beyond that, I don’t have all the answers.   We may have to tweak management of the trails to optimize user experience.  Maybe Bimini will ultimately need to be directional travel?  Maybe we’ll need to consider some additional foot-traffic-only trail?  We’ll figure out those sorts of things together and as we go, but I’ll be very hesitant to reach firm conclusions until the entire 25 miles is constructed and we see how it functions as a carefully designed system.

Whether you’re a hiker, runner, or rider, please take out your earbuds.  You cannot be aware of your surroundings and considerate of other users if you can’t hear anything.  Instead of music or podcasts, try listening to the sounds of the forest, your breath, and the sound of your feet or tires on the dirt.

We are working on getting the trails into commonly-used databases and apps, but all the trails will be signed and the kiosk will have a map by Sunday.  Using 1706 Old River Road in googlemaps will pretty much get you there.  Go north on River Road, turn left on Old River Road, cross Standing Boy Creek, and turn down the next gravel road on your left.  The parking area, kiosk, and start of Primary Goods will be obvious.

This Website is not intended to help you figure out how to ride the trails.  The map depcited here is the master plan map.  This website is about getting the trails built.  Use the typical resources (e.g., MTB Project or cvasorba.org for mountain biking) to see trail maps, etc.  We’re not going to reinvent the wheel here.

The trails are closed for hunting until 10:00 AM each day until January 15th.

We’re working to get more parking, but in the meantime please bring some awareness to the parking situation.  If the parking lot is filling up and your vehicle allows it, please look for a good place to park other than the graded spots.  But, please don’t block the access road or get anywhere near the shoulder of Old River Road.  Also, please send me pics of the full lot and overflowing cars.

Perhaps most importantly, DO NOT USE WET TRAILS!  This applies to hikers, runners, and bikers – everyone.  To begin with, we’ll post trail closures on Instagram and Facebook.  Please go ahead and get in the habit of checking social media if it’s rained recently or we’re in freeze/thaw conditions.  Closure of the trails is not a polite request; it’s in our Land Use Agreement with DNR.  If you use the trails when they are closed, you will be trespassing.  Note that we do not have the capacity to respond to messages about trail status.  Please look at Instagram and Facebook.

The trails will be closed when they are wet enough that we’ll leave footprints or tire ruts – in other words, indentations in the trail surface.  The reason is that the footprint or rut will collect water, which will make that portion of trail will stay wet longer, which will cause more footprints and ruts, which will lead to a big puddle in the trail,  which will lead to people avoiding the puddle, which will widen the trail, which will just create a bigger puddle, and it will end up a big mess.  Using wet trails is an incredibly selfish act that is disrespectful to all the effort and resources that have gone into constructing the trails as well as the time and energy of the volunteers that will have to clean up the mess. 

Please do not take it upon yourself to “improve” the trail.  However, please do help by taking the time to stop and clear limbs and branches off the trail.  But beyond that, please leave the trail alone.  If it’s not in the Master Plan, we don’t have permission to do it and it’s not right to do it.   The time to do things beyond clearing the trail is on organized trail workdays (and we hope you’ll be willing to participate).

Everyone who has been involved with this project would love to hear your feedback.  I’m happy to explain how the blue and black trails will compare to the green/beginner trails (e.g., they’ll be very different).  And, I certainly want to know if mountain bikers aren’t making use of the site lines or if runners are using earbuds with the volume up so high they can’t hear anything.  Please let us know your experiences and your thoughts.

If you are already an avid hiker, runner, or biker, please remember that the green trails are not about you.  Personally, I too am most excited about the blue and black trails.  But, we’re doing it right – which means building true green trails and building them first.  Intermediate and advanced trails are coming.

I’m really, really excited about everyone seeing and using the trails.  I hope you think they’re as fun and wonderful as I do.  If you do, please donate using the “donate” tab at the top of the page so we can build the rest of the trails.

Thanks and I look forward to seeing you on the trails!

Most of phase 1 will open on Sunday, September 8^th!!!  This means that beginning at sun up this coming Sunday, everyone is welcome to come hike, run, and ride (and flow).  Just please respect the caution tape on the trails still under construction.  More details on parking, signage, etc. to come.

The trails will be closed the day of Saturday, September 14^th for a dove hunt.  And, we can’t open this coming Saturday because there is a dove hunt on the 7th.  After the 14th, there will be no more hunting closures in 2019.

I’m not going to try to list everyone that has helped get us to here, but many, many thanks to all of you.  I do want to specifically thank the Trail Solutions crew, who got here in early June and worked through the heat, chiggers, and yellow jackets to make the trails happen.   They normally work up north during the summer and don’t get paid anything extra to suffer through a summer of building down here.  If you see them, please let them know how much we appreciate what they’ve done for us.  I am deeply grateful to them.

There will be a lot more information to come. Please be understanding if I share information you already know.  I want to make this the best possible experience for everyone, and that means over-educating. Above all else, please keep an open mind, be considerate, and use common sense when you’re on trails.

 

Segments 2,3 and 5 will open late August or early September, and Segments 1 and part of 4 will be constructed and open this Fall.  However,  we discussed and decided on names for all the trails to make sure the right names got on the right trails.  Here they are:

Seg 1: [Kids Trail]: Quality Time.  Trail description will make clear that intended for beginners and kids.  Will have skills features intended for those groups as well as more advanced riders.

Seg 2 [Green Trail Out of Parking Area]: Primary Goods.  John Rawls was a famous philosopher who penned A Theory of Justice in the early 1970s.  Rawls conceptualized primary goods are those goods that are most representative of citizens’ fundamental interests.

Seg 3, 4, 5 [Green Loop]: Bimini.  Juan Ponce de León and his search for the Fountain of Youth included references to Bimini.  Native South American peoples, such as the Arawak, told him of a land called “Bimini” where the fountain could be found.

Seg 6 [Green Climb]: Doughboy.  Homage to Fort Benning and the term’s usage in reference to members of the Army.

Seg 7 [Green Gravity]: The Bug.  A popular form of gambling when Phenix City was Sin City.  As in, “catch the bug.”

Seg 8-11 [Inner Blue Loop]: See See Rider.  Homage to Columbusite Ma Rainey, who originally recorded See See Rider in the 1920s.

Seg 13-16 [Outer Blue Loop]: Lonely Hunter.  Homage to Columbusite Carson McCullers and her work, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.

Seg 12 [Blue Connector]: Tie Snake.  Chattahoochee’s Loch Ness Monster

Seg 17 [black; after the tornado this trail may become a bit more handcut/traditional trail. Picturing hand built, exposed, and steeper where we can do it.]: Stockade.  Stockade Blues is famous song by Columbus native Thomas P. Darby; picked up by soldiers across the world.

Seg 18 [blue; flowiest, we will ultimately strive to have a trail with little pedaling and plenty of air time available, though it won’t be a full-on jump trail]: Swavey’s.  Swavey’s was the first flight school in Columbus in the 1930s.

Seg 19 [blue; enduro, rocks, some climbing; keep it narrow and lots of rock booters and drops]: Ironclad.  Homage to ironclad ships and Columbus’ place in the naval history of the Civil War.

Seg 20 [black; same as Seg 19 except black]: Bless Your Heart.

Seg 21 [black; the one that gets all the pics, a short run with hopefully big options]:  Sittin’ Pretty.

I feel like I need to address what’s going on at Standing Boy the next month or so (hopefully we’ll be open by early September and the worries contained in this post will be behind us).

As you probably saw in the paper, RJ Ripper (see here) is riding out there this weekend with some NICA kids and the people that have most consistently come to trail workdays.  I asked some people to give me input on who’s invited, but I’m sure the list is not perfect.  I apologize for that.

In order to do the ride, I had go back and forth with DNR and get a permission letter that stipulates the conditions of the ride (including a limit on the number of riders).  I also had to work through things with Trail Solutions, who had concerns.  I’m also really nervous about parking (cause there ain’t hardly any right now).  But, Trees Columbus (who puts on the film festival) has had my back on this project for years, and now it’s my turn to have theirs.  I’m more than happy to do that for them, because that’s how partnerships/friendships work.

Beyond that, I have an understanding with DNR and Trail Solutions that I can take people out there to ride for the purpose of helping raise the rest of the funds we need to complete Phase 2.  

The goal for phase 2 includes, in order of importance, segments:

• 13-16 (portion of outer blue loop)
• 6, 7 (climb and green gravity)
• 8, 9, and 12 (some of inner blue and rest of outer blue)
• 18 (blue gravity, but we have to get a team of sawyers to deal with tornado damage first)

Total cost for all that is $800,000 (not including the sawyers).

I’m currently signing a contract for 13-16 only.  We’re going to have about $300K left after Phase 1, and segments 13-16 alone cost about $450K (it’s a lot of mileage).

Committing with only a $150K shortage is less of a pinch-squeeze that I’ve run on this project in the past, but I’m trying to decrease rather than increase the amount of sleep I lose over this project.  While I think we can raise a lot more than $150K this fall, I don’t want to make a promise to my friends at Trail Solutions that rests on raising more than that.

The main purpose of the contract is to go ahead and get on their construction schedule before they get booked up.  It will also allow them to achieve some costs savings by planning further in advance.  Hopefully, we will keep amending the contract to add more trail as we raise more money.  The green climb and green gravity are $150K, and I really, really want to get those done in early 2020.

All that is to say that I’m not out there joyriding and treating it like my own personal trail system.  I’m normally taking people that have not mountain biked very much at all, but that can help me find the money for Phase 2 if they get excited about the project.  Often, I’m not even on a bike.  I’m walking the trails with people that don’t ride and aren’t yet ready to try it out.

I desperately want to get the trail system open to everyone, if only for selfish reasons.  Right now, there is nothing more fun than seeing the smiles and hearing the comments when people see the trails.

Trail Solutions is building back towards the parking lot.  I am pushing hard on signage, kiosk, etc. so that we can open the trails as soon as they connect to the parking lot.  I am really anxious and excited for everyone to be able to ride.  The second I am able to do so, I’ll put out the word to come ride.

Unfortunately, until then there are a number of reasons I have to insist everyone stay off the trails.  DNR has not given us permission to open the trails, and we don’t want to damage the relationship and trust I’ve worked so hard to build over the past few years.  Those trails are still a construction zone, and Trail Solutions has OSHA and insurance issues they have to deal with (that’s why the guys wear hardhats while cutting roots with clippers in the 95 degree heat).  Also, there is no parking currently.

Small game season is getting ready to open, which means DNR and hunters are going to be out there at even more random times.  And, DNR is walking the trails pretty regularly to monitor construction and progress.  I really, really don’t need a DNR officer coming across you illegally riding the trails or a hunter snapping a picture and sending it up to Atlanta.  Also, if you’re parked on Old River Road (or in back of Green Island) I’m going to get a text from the neighbors (I’ve asked, and it’s going to include a tag number).  Not only is it going to be really unpleasant to have to call people out, it’s also going to take time and energy away from raising the funds for Phase 2.  Please, please, please don’t make me get these texts and phone calls.

I expect a lot of people will think this post was a bad idea, but I prefer being transparent and hope that transparency will encourage people to stay off the trails.  Once the trails are open, there’s going to be a lot of ways for everyone to pitch in (and everyone is going to need to pitch in).  However, until the trails are open, by far the most important thing you can do to help me make all this a reality is to stay off the trails.  I know it’s tempting, and I really appreciate your discipline and patience.

The Trail Solutions guys have been hard at work building trail since early June.  We are still on schedule to open segments 1 – 5 this year, with a portion opening sometime in early September.  I am really, really, really excited to have some completed and open trail.

UNTIL THE TRAILS ARE OFFICIALLY OPEN, PLEASE STAY OFF THE TRAILS.  They are still a construction area, using uncompacted trails can damage them (longer until completion; more costly to construct), and DNR has not officially sanctioned opening of the trails (please don’t damage the relationship we have worked so hard to build by being selfish and impatient).  Thank you!

I took a bad fall off the bike May 30th and ended up having surgery on my leg.  I’m pretty healed up now, but it slowed down some of the “administrative stuff.”  The final, 100% approved Master Plan is up on the website and the trail map has been updated (no significant changes).  I am waiting on a contract to build more beginning January 2020.  I have several fundraising meetings coming up over the next few weeks.  More on that soon.

Thanks for everyone’s continued interest and support!