In 2004, I started this quest to build public trails in Fayetteville and Lincoln County, I looked at state property (Flintville Hatchery), and I looked at private and public property around Fayetteville and Lincoln County. My kids and I have always spent a lot of time at Don Davidson Park fishing the small lake there. In 2004 I asked the Fayetteville Parks and Recreation Director, Rickey Honey, for permission to build a small mountain bike trail for my kids to ride, “he agreed and the trail was done in a week”. Less than a mile in length this trail was perfect for children; back and forth my son would ride through the woods of Don Davidson Park. Mother Nature quickly took this land back with the spring rains jump starting all sorts of weeds and bushes. My family gave up on this trail, we new this was not a project that we could sustain physically or financially.
From 2005 to 2008, I built two more trails in Fayetteville and Lincoln County- one a short one mile loop behind the Lincoln County High School for the cross country team and another for two land owners so they could host a national mountain bike race,” Dirt Sweat and Gears”. Still at the end of 2008 our community didn’t have a public trail, a place to walk or ride a bicycle 365 day of the year. All this work did give me the confidence to host the first cyclocross race series in Fayetteville and Lincoln County in October and November of 2008. With the knowledge I gained from promoting 6 cyclocross races I now knew what it would take to have a trail or greenway in my community. I now know that trails are the vision of a few but it takes community to make them a sustainable amenity. After all the races were over in the fall of 2008 I took December of 2008 and January 2009 off to recharge my batteries.
February 7, 2009, I asked my daughter Rachael to go for a walk with me at Don Davidson Park, “who knew this was the day that we would finally find our trail…our “Trail for Kids”. Two days later at the Fayetteville Parks and Recreation board meeting I asked the board to give me permission to build a 3 mile trail around the park, they agreed. The next weekend with the help of three volunteers we broke ground on our trail. Work went quickly with all the experience I had gained from past projects. At the end of the first day I asked my volunteers, ages ranging from 12-14, on a fun scale between 1-10 how much fun they had had today. I heard a 2 come from Casey so I grabbed a bicycle from the back of my truck to see if I could increase the fun factor. We all took turns riding what we had built a few hours earlier, I asked Casey the same question again and he replied, “A seven”. I’m sure today if you asked those three kids that helped me on the first workday February 15, 2009, how much fun they had on a scale of 1-10, “a 10 would echo from their mouths”.
March 17, 2009 I had recruited more local kids to help with the trail, Casey Harmon, Cody Keele, Micah Keele, and Rachael and Hunter Freeman gave me the best birthday present I could ask for, “more trail”. We finished a loop we now call Leopard Frog Loop, this trail has an abundance of flower and fauna, leopard frogs, butterflies, finches, woodpeckers, and dragon flies all call this trail home. More work was completed in March and immediately the trails were being used by mountain bike riders and walkers.
At the end of April, mile 2 was completed; mile 3 was by far the hardest, with the weather getting hotter and equipment stating to break down. The community stepped in, Pendergrass Supply and Rental donated materials for the bridges and gave me a good deal on supplies (bar chain oil and files). Locals donated tools (chainsaws, rakes, and clippers) they kept my cost down so I could work a few hours a day on the trail and still work my day job. May brought more kids to the trail which only confirmed what I had thought the whole time, “kids love trails”. Finally June 1, success, the perimeter trail and the Leopard Frog Trail were connected and 3 miles of mountain biking and walking trails were cut, still this project wasn’t close to being finished- signs, bridges, maintenance, and computer work, all needed to be done before this trail could be officially open. Businesses donated paint for the signs; Friends of the Trail donated wood for the Trail head and even more friends (trails users were starting to pick up garbage along the trail). By August the trail was 90% completed, locals were seen daily riding or walking the trail, I would ask them how they found the trail and they would reply, “We saw someone riding a bicycle through the woods”.
September I planned on sharing this trail with as many bicycle racers I could by hosting another cyclocross series at Don Davidson Park. September 25 and 26 over 100 riders raced through the woods in a down poor of rain to christen these trails. October 17, 18, 25, and 26 saw more racers testing their limits on these new trails. Riders asked who built these trails, and I replied, “we did”. Their entry fees and their tires both helped insure these trails would last more than they did the first time. Riders commented on how this park was perfect for a bicycle trail, “I just smiled and agreed” parks and trails who wouldn’t want the two together. After the series was over I went back into promoting the trails with the pictures my wife took from the cyclocross series. Kids as young as 7 and retired teachers in their 60’s raced on these trails, one man from Florida and another from Johnson city drove to Fayetteville to race on these trails. A pictures is worth a 1000 words, how about a 1000 reasons to support Trails for Kids, marketing these trails is half the battle, locals are slowly finding out… blogs, forums, newspaper articles, and of course word of mouth are all key tools when building sustainable trails. The internet has been the most useful tool to target potential trail users; these websites have helped tremendously 1,557 views on one thread and the blog has been a hit as well, updated weekly, slideshows of the current floral and fauna keep trail users coming back.
http://www.nationalmountainbike.com/board/showthread.php?t=8516&highlight=Beat+Freak
http://trailsforkids.blogspot.com/
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