Riding your bike “off-road” on trails sure looks like a lot of fun. But if you’ve shied away from trying it because you didn’t know the in’s and out’s of what’s involved; or leaving the security of nice, level pavement scares you; we have just the event for you.
A group of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County agencies has created a plan for a pop-up mountain bike trail at Cordelia Park in June. With the help of Trips for Kids Charlotte, the Tarheel Trailblazers, and a half dozen other nonprofits and community groups including Partners for Parks, the demonstration project is an opportunity to teach bike safety to the public and gather information about park needs for Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation.
Feedback collected from the one-week project will give Meck Park & Rec information they need for building future unpaved trails around the county. According to the MCP&R’s master plan, Meck Playbook, unpaved trails are the second-most requested facility type for parks. Cordelia Park is the perfect fit for a demonstration event because the land is great for a small, youth-friendly trail course, and it’s close to nonprofit biking partners.
Mecklenburg County Public Health is taking the lead on this project, after it was first suggested by Charlotte DOT for Open Streets 704 in the Spring of 2020. The two agencies are working together, along with MCP&R and the nonprofits, as a way to make Bike Charlotte’s reach stretch beyond its current Bike Month in May. Strengthening community partnerships with the shared goal of greater bike participation is a key goal in the multi-agency approach.
What will it look like?
The project involves two courses during the week — a beginner trail and an intermediate trail. The beginner trail has wide turns, a lesser gradient, and an open landscape. The intermediate trail has a gradient and more turns. Both trails are one-way for safety, and are far enough away from the Little Sugar Creek Greenway and playground to avoid collisions or conflicts. The project team will set up the courses Monday, June 14th, and will host participants every afternoon until Saturday, June 19th. The team will dismantle the courses Sunday, June 20th. The first weeks of summer will allow kids to participate since they are out of school by Memorial Day this year and will be looking for something fun to do. Volunteers from the community partners will clean up and set up the courses each morning for use each afternoon, and they will be closed at night and stacked with hay bales to discourage night use. A day’s activities will also be canceled if there’s bad weather, for safety reasons. Current COVID protocols will be in place for the safety of staff, partners, and participants. Project leaders will have basic bike maintenance tools handy for bikes that need them, and Public Health will have a limited supply of helmets for participants who don’t have one. With Cordelia Park’s key connections to the Little Sugar Creek Greenway and Cross Charlotte Trail, this will prove to be a popular spot for a bike event that is Breathing Life Into Our Community as we all return to the great outdoors for summer.
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