What if you could incorporate a little bit of mountain biking into your child's regular schedule... every day? It was questions like this that led to the town council of Eagle, Colorado, to approve a proposal from resident parents to build a 'flow to school' trail next to existing city sidewalks.
Mike McCormack is a race promoter and father of two who moved to Eagle two years ago.
"One thing we noticed as soon as we arrived: little dirt trails punctuating the town’s 13 miles of paved rec path. Just little offshoots, really; sometimes no more than 50 feet," he said. "But do you know what my minions did on every single trip to school or to the library? They ripped each 50-foot section. First on their Striders, and then on their mountain bikes. From there an idea began to take shape. The three blocks between our house and the kids' school features a 10-foot wide rec path. That path sees hundreds of kids each morning and afternoon as they wind their way to and from Brush Creek Elementary. The path itself is also wrapped in a mini-greenbelt with gently rolling terrain, tall grass and blooming sage. The 'What if…' thoughts began to coalesce each day as I rode to and from school with our kids."
Fast forward to this week, and Eagle Open Space staff, local trail builders, parents and about 30 kids were out sticking flags in the ground to mark where trails could be built after Eagle’s Town Council unanimously approved a proposal titled, “Singletrack Sidewalks – the flow to school program.”
McCormack worked with local trail builder Momentum Trail Concepts, members of the local mountain-bike advocacy group led county planner Adam Palmer and other parents to put together and now begin executing on the plan.
At this point, that plan is to connect Eagle's seven main neighborhoods with each other and the two public schools, along with Eagle's existing trails. The time frame is five years.
Momentum Trail Concepts’ Matt Thompson works with kids to map out new neighborhood trails
