Mark Johnson/Liberty TribuneWorking by hand, Andrew Bilen of Liberty clears brush from the planned path of a new hiking and biking trail on Saturday, Feb. 16, at the Stocksdale Park/Walnut Woods Conservation Area on the east side of Liberty. The trail, when done, will wind through a series of wooded areas.
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Volunteers blaze mountain bike trail through Walnut Woods area
By Angie Anaya Borgedalen
A group of volunteers from Earth Riders Trails Association converged on Liberty Saturday, Feb. 16, with polaskis, rogue hoes, maclouds and a dingo to clear a trail through Walnut Woods Conservation Area at Stocksdale Park.
If you don’t know what that equipment is, you are obviously not a mountain bike riding enthusiast, said Clay Lozier, who has been working on the trail for weeks with a couple of other local volunteers. Lozier is an avid bike rider and trail runner.
According to Lozier, the tools are ideal for building primitive trails through wooded areas. A polaski is a heavy hoe and axe combination, a rogue hoe is a very heavy duty hoe, a macloud is a combination rake and hoe, and a dingo is a mechanized tool, which is used in the preliminary digging.
“These tools and a lot of elbow grease will create a wonderful trail,” Lozier said.
By a stroke of good luck and timing, Liberty was able to use the services of the trail-building volunteers. Lozier said ERTA volunteers were available that day because a trail project they were scheduled to work on at Swope Park in Kansas City fell through.
“With this many volunteers, we made progress,” Lozier said. “This was an offer we couldn’t afford to pass up.”
The wet, frozen ground, though, hindered the volunteers’ efforts.
“We got a lot done but not much as we’d hoped,” Lozier said. “We’ll have another work day, probably in March when the weather is more cooperative.”
After learning of the opportunity the week before, the City Council unanimously approved a cooperative agreement at its meeting Feb. 11 with ERTA and the Missouri Department of Conservation, which owns Walnut Woods and leases it to the city for a $1 a year.
Chris Deal, parks director, said Walnut Woods was about 65 acres and adjacent Stocksdale Park was about 112 acres. When completed the trail will be approximately six miles long, with three miles in Walnut Woods linked to three miles in Stocksdale.
Lozier said first a six-foot wide corridor is trimmed back of foliage and small trees and in the next phase an 18-inch trail is created down to bare ground. He said they tried to avoid cutting down trees that were larger than three inches in diameter.
“This is hard, time-consuming work, swinging those heavy tools,” Lozier said, “but all the surveys I’ve seen show that people love trails and more trails.”
Deal said the city currently had about 14 miles of asphalt trails and one mile of natural trail. He said the long-range plan was to connect trails city to city as development occured.
Dale Walker, who lives across the street from the park, said in the past people left beer bottles and other debris behind. But Deal said once the trail was used, much of the partying would be curtailed.
“By national surveys, when established trails are developed and they are used by serious biking and hiking participants, this actually deters the underage drinking and other vandalism because people are around,” Deal said.”
Liberty Editor Angie Anaya Borgedalen can be reached at 781-4941 or aborgedalen@npgco.com.
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If you don’t know what that equipment is, you are obviously not a mountain bike riding enthusiast, said Clay Lozier, who has been working on the trail for weeks with a couple of other local volunteers. Lozier is an avid bike rider and trail runner.
According to Lozier, the tools are ideal for building primitive trails through wooded areas. A polaski is a heavy hoe and axe combination, a rogue hoe is a very heavy duty hoe, a macloud is a combination rake and hoe, and a dingo is a mechanized tool, which is used in the preliminary digging.
“These tools and a lot of elbow grease will create a wonderful trail,” Lozier said.
By a stroke of good luck and timing, Liberty was able to use the services of the trail-building volunteers. Lozier said ERTA volunteers were available that day because a trail project they were scheduled to work on at Swope Park in Kansas City fell through.
“With this many volunteers, we made progress,” Lozier said. “This was an offer we couldn’t afford to pass up.”
The wet, frozen ground, though, hindered the volunteers’ efforts.
“We got a lot done but not much as we’d hoped,” Lozier said. “We’ll have another work day, probably in March when the weather is more cooperative.”
After learning of the opportunity the week before, the City Council unanimously approved a cooperative agreement at its meeting Feb. 11 with ERTA and the Missouri Department of Conservation, which owns Walnut Woods and leases it to the city for a $1 a year.
Chris Deal, parks director, said Walnut Woods was about 65 acres and adjacent Stocksdale Park was about 112 acres. When completed the trail will be approximately six miles long, with three miles in Walnut Woods linked to three miles in Stocksdale.
Lozier said first a six-foot wide corridor is trimmed back of foliage and small trees and in the next phase an 18-inch trail is created down to bare ground. He said they tried to avoid cutting down trees that were larger than three inches in diameter.
“This is hard, time-consuming work, swinging those heavy tools,” Lozier said, “but all the surveys I’ve seen show that people love trails and more trails.”
Deal said the city currently had about 14 miles of asphalt trails and one mile of natural trail. He said the long-range plan was to connect trails city to city as development occured.
Dale Walker, who lives across the street from the park, said in the past people left beer bottles and other debris behind. But Deal said once the trail was used, much of the partying would be curtailed.
“By national surveys, when established trails are developed and they are used by serious biking and hiking participants, this actually deters the underage drinking and other vandalism because people are around,” Deal said.”
Liberty Editor Angie Anaya Borgedalen can be reached at 781-4941 or aborgedalen@npgco.com.