Happy trails to you

Greenway is complete.

Fourteen years after the plan was approved, Broward County has a hiking and biking trail that starts at the Everglades and ends up at the ocean.

The $6.8 million Cypress Creek Greenway’s trailhead, at the west end of Atlantic Boulevard and the Sawgrass Expressway, was completed last year, the finishing touch to a 23.2-mile trail that runs along the C-14 Canal for a stretch.

It ends up at the eastern extremity of Atlantic Boulevard, after 10.6 miles along a multipurpose path separated from cars and 12.6 miles alongside traffic. It’s part of a plan “that will promote bicycle-riding, walking and other activities,” said Jo Sesodia, director of planning and development management for Broward County.

The trail, mostly constructed between 2009 and 2012, is the longest stretch of paved, recreational path in Broward County and second only in total length to the Conservation Levee Greenway, an unpaved, 48-mile path that stretches from Miramar to Parkland, according to a Broward County website.

The Cypress Creek trail also passes by Fern Forest Park and the Margate Boat Ramp. For many bikers and walkers west of the Florida’s Turnpike, though, the Cypress Creek trail ends at Lyons Road.

If bikers or walkers are heading to the ocean, the path’s only way around the expressway requires walking or biking 1.6 miles south along Lyons Road to McNab Road.

And for Celia Conti, 66, a Plantation resident, that might as well be a dead end. “Putting regular bikers down Lyons Road is not a good idea,” she said. “I know the part around Southgate Boulevard, though. That part is very nice.”

A new set of trails that Pompano Beach this month purchased could prove a link to a

less treacherous passage east.

The city now owns 2.5 miles worth of trails that circle around nine lakes that were once golf courses in the Palm Aire subdivision. The City Commission unanimously approved the $765,000 purchase earlier this month.

The project was the brainchild of Palm Aire citizens, who didn’t want to see the abandoned golf courses get developed into more homes. The golf courses had been closed since Hurricane Wilma roared through in 2005.

The project is almost complete. Now, only the western-most loop around a lake is still under construction.

“There might even be a possibility to interconnect all the trails in Palm Aire to the Broward County Cypress Creek Expressway,” said Darlene Smith, a Palm Aire resident, who became part of the effort to get Pompano to buy it.

Now, the greenway on McNab Road is just a stone’s throw from the new Palm Aire trails.

Going through Palm Aire was actually one of the first ideas that was looked at when the Cypress Creek Greenway was being planned, said Mark Horowitz, a special projects engineer with Broward County, who helped write the greenway master plan for Broward County. “The turnpike area is a real challenge to get past,” he said.

The idea thrilled Pompano City Commission members.

“In great cities, you have great open spaces and this is another step in that direction,” said Pompano Beach City Commission member Rex Hardin.