Northwoods opening marks ‘dawn of a new age’ in trails
A diverse gathering of hikers, mountain bikers and other outdoor enthusiasts converged on Cedar Glades Park for the grand opening of the first phase of the Northwoods Trail System Saturday.
Just three days after a cold snap brought snow showers to the Spa City, warmer weather and blues skies set the tone for a day of fun and excitement. The public gathered at the Cedar Glades trailhead for a log-cutting ceremony — in place of a traditional ribbon-cutting — as mountain bikers lined up to be the first to take to the new trail system.
Gary Vernon, program officer for the Walton Family Foundation, said he has ridden the trails several times over the last year as part of his job has been to oversee the quality of the build. The goal has been to make Arkansas a world-class mountain biking destination.
“The whole mission for mountain biking is to create a world-class destination in the state of Arkansas and we’re doing that now, and the Northwoods trails has got all those elements to be a destination trail because it has your beginner level trail for the new mountain bikers and the younger mountain bikers,” Vernon said.
“It also has those more difficult, more challenging lines that you can jump and really rocky, technical rides. You really want to have all of the different types of riding to be a destination and what the Northwoods has done by connecting to Cedar Glades is provide that diversity of experience and it’s really wonderful.”
The total cost of the first phase of the project is $1,299,975, with half the cost — $648,421 — funded through a matching grant from the Walton Family Foundation. The opening of the trail system is the culmination of several years of cooperation between Hot Springs, Steuart and Tom Walton, and the Walton Family Foundation.
“This has been exciting to watch and really a great mountain bike trail starts with a great piece of property and I think the Northwoods is a wonderful piece of property with many, many more miles of potential, so we knew it was going to be good.”
The trail system has been designed and built by the International Mountain Bicycling As-
sociation, Vernon said, which the foundation relies on for most of its mountain biking trail designs.
“The IMBA crew came in and gave us a really good design,” he said. “They had their talented builders come in and take a look at the ravines and the different shapes of the hillsides, and made the best trail out of it.
“We rely on IMBA for a lot of the trail design because they’re one of the best designers in the business. When we can, we use them to build.”
Richard Edwards, IMBA trail solutions director of construction and operations, said eventually there will be over 40 miles of trails in the Northwoods that will take riders through the city, Garland County and Hot Springs National Park.
“This is going to become a similar destination to what northwest Arkansas has become for mountain biking and it’s another step in making the Natural State the southern hub of cycling,” Edwards said.
Specialists with IMBA have been living in Hot Springs, he said, for about a year since the project started in November 2017, and for those riders who have never been to Hot Springs, there’s much to take in.
“The riding is awesome. There’s great places to eat. There’s all different kinds of places to eat. There’s a good after-hours scene. There’s more lodging than you could ever dream of. On a hot day, there’s all kinds of water to cool off in after a ride,” Edwards said. “We’ve had folks living here all year from all over — Oregon, Colorado, New England, Virginia — people who live in some really beautiful places at home and they’ve all really enjoyed living in Hot Springs.
“What IMBA does is we partner with other stakeholders, with communities who want to make trails happen, with land managers, with foundations, and that’s what makes these dreams come true where we can put more trails close to home and create great destinations for people. This project, the city of Hot Springs, Garland County, the Walton Family Foundation, the park service — they’ve all played huge roles in making these dreams become a reality.”
Executive director of IMBA, David Wiens, said Arkansas is leading in a lot of categories of mountain biking trail development in the country.
“They’ve done a very good job of spreading the word so Arkansas is on the lips of mountain bikers all around the country that are talking about it as a place to go,” he said. “Arkansas is centrally located in the country, a little further south, so actually it’s a little more predictable place to go for the shorter seasons and the winter. I know that when we’ve been riding in Arkansas, we’ll see license plates of people from Minnesota and Wisconsin, people getting out of the snow where they can’t ride bikes and they’re coming down here where they know not only are the trails phenomenal, but the communities around the trails the hospitality is great and they’re welcome.”
According to Ken Freeman, trails coordinator for the city of Hot Springs Parks and Recreation Department, being able to have the trails open is “a dawn of a new age for trail likers in Hot Springs because it’s so close to town and it’s such a wilderness feel when you’re out there. It’s really hard to beat.”
The trend in Arkansas and nationwide has been connecting back to nature in search of a healthier lifestyle, according to Gary Spann, Arkansas State Parks director, who added that the Northwoods will encourage people to “break out that bike they haven’t ridden in years.”
“These are phenomenal trails. They are definitely an addition to why people should visit Arkansas,” he said. “What we’ve discovered is the new way to build sustainable trails is to take the ability to build trails that will last a long, long time, that are environmentally aware of what’s around them so they don’t destroy the environment and also allow easy accessibility to places in nature that we would never go otherwise.
“It’s this phenomenal thing that Arkansas has this great gift of having so many places to allow people to enjoy these trails.”
Having traveled to other state parks across the country, Spann said the unique thing about Arkansas is that riders often can hop on their bike in a downtown community and ride to their trail destination as opposed to loading their bikes on a vehicle and driving an hour or more to the trails.
“There are numerous communities in Arkansas that have this opportunity to do this and the fact that Hot Springs has done this, Bentonville has done this, I think is really a great model for other cities to look at,” he said. “This is unique in the nation and I’ve been to other states where people have to put their bikes on a car and drive out of town to a trailhead. Arkansas, you don’t have that problem; you can get on your bike and go.”
The Northwoods trails’ new trails coordinator, Traci Berry, said this will not only benefit visitors but locals.
“It’s a different type of biking than what our area is accustomed to. I feel like it’s going to gain a whole lot of people,” she said. “That’s the thing about these trails is there’s a little bit of something for everybody. I think not only is this going to be great for tourism and the people that we bring into Hot Springs, but it’s going to be wonderful for the community that’s already here on a daily basis. Build it and they will come; build it and they’ll stay.”