“I’m out there probably two, three times a week,” the east Cobb resident said.
Dusack looks forward to April 5, when the park’s Sope Creek unit will expand access to mountain bikers to 6.7 miles of trails from the current 2.1 miles.
The National Park Service spent much of 2012 working on existing hiking trails to expand them for use by bicyclists, said park Superintendent Patty Wissinger. A grant from the nonprofit National Park Foundation covered $70,000 of the trails’ $80,000 cost. The Southern Off-Road Bicycle Association contributed $5,000, with the National Park Service paying the other $5,000.
“The idea was to improve them so it would be better for both pedestrians and bicycle riders,” she said.
Since the National Park Service has traditionally been hesitant to allow mountain biking on its trails, the plan also meant getting federal approval. Wissinger said the closest National Park site to allow mountain biking is Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area on the Tennessee-Kentucky border.
While the change means hikers will have to share most of Sope Creek’s 10 miles of trails with mountain bikers, Dusack said it could actually be safer for many walkers. He said bicyclists now concentrate on the lone trail now open to them, which runs between Paper Mill Road and the Chattahoochee River.
“If you are walking that section, you might see the same cyclist four or five times,” he said. “Now, with it spread out, there are more places (for cyclists) to go.”
Still, Wissinger said trails could get crowded since more bicyclists could be attracted to Sope Creek, the only one of the Chattahoochee recreation area’s 15 units to allow off-road cycling.
According to the entry for the new trails in the Federal Register, the National Park Service received 205 responses during a public comment period last year, with all but one of them expressing “clear support” for the bicycle trails. The only comment showing concern came from a homeowner who wanted to see the trail made one-way in an uphill direction near their home, because of concerns about speeding bicyclists.
Wissinger said the mountain biking trails will use a system having cyclists ride clockwise on the trail loop on certain days, and counter-clockwise on others. They will advise hikers to walk in the opposite direction of the bicyclists for safety.
To help with the transition, Wissinger said 20 volunteers, wearing special jerseys, will be placed around the park.
“They’ll be out there every day, educating visitors on the rules of the trail,” she said.
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Also want to say Thanks and encourage our community to support the SORBA people and Blanket's Creek efforts for bike trails- they are great and we should keep them that way.
Now some attention needed to make the Silver Comet Trail a more interesting destination & bring it up to its full potential..
Its a great ride for long haul bikers looking to log miles, but for the casual biker, can be quite boring. Out & back.
Would be nice if some sort of loops could be mapped out. Loop around to the south side of the East West Connector . Add boardwalks like Mason Mill Park in Decatur.
Also some destination 'lookout' areas would be nice. Bike paths should take paths down along the water and stream , see Big Creek Greenway, Alpharetta & Azalea Drive, Roswell.
There are also walking trails right past the Cooper Lake Road bridge, that are posted 'no bikes' allowed. That seems to be a good area to add mountain bike trails, like Rope Mill Park in Woodstock.
SCT has the potential to be interesting like the Atlanta Beltline around Freedom Park, 4th Ward Park & Inman Park (connecting neighborhoods, condos, lofts & resturants) but artists, bikers AND tree planters need to be included in the mix.
City of Smyrna should 'partner' w/ creative folks, PATh , Trees Atlanta & Cobb County. Learn from success.
A favorite myth of mountain bikers is that mountain biking is no more harmful to wildlife, people, and the environment than hiking, and that science supports that view. Of course, it's not true. To settle the matter once and for all, I read all of the research they cited, and wrote a review of the research on mountain biking impacts (see http://mjvande.nfshost.com/scb7.htm ). I found that of the seven studies they cited, (1) all were written by mountain bikers, and (2) in every case, the authors misinterpreted their own data, in order to come to the conclusion that they favored. They also studiously avoided mentioning another scientific study (Wisdom et al) which did not favor mountain biking, and came to the opposite conclusions.
Those were all experimental studies. Two other studies (by White et al and by Jeff Marion) used a survey design, which is inherently incapable of answering that question (comparing hiking with mountain biking). I only mention them because mountain bikers often cite them, but scientifically, they are worthless.
Mountain biking accelerates erosion, creates V-shaped ruts, kills small animals and plants on and next to the trail, drives wildlife and other trail users out of the area, and, worst of all, teaches kids that the rough treatment of nature is okay (it's NOT!). What's good about THAT?
To see exactly what harm mountain biking does to the land, watch this 5-minute video: http://vimeo.com/48784297.
For more information: http://mjvande.nfshost.com/mtbfaq.htm .