Support Greenville County trails today!

Ty Houck, the Director of Greenways, Natural and Historic Resources for Greenville County, sent out an email last week about four possible grants for the Swamp Rabbit, the Gateway Bike Swills Trail, and other trails in the county:

‘The Greenville County Recreation District is applying for 4 grants for trails. Part of the grant application includes a public meeting.  It seems responsible and fitting that we find a way to have those meetings without asking everyone to get in a car to drive to somewhere to sit and watch a PowerPoint presentation. So I am bringing the presentations to you. Please take a few minutes to view the presentations attached and send a confirmation e-mail through the link on the presentation.  Strong public support has a significant impact on winning these grants.’

All four presentations can be found online here, so please take a minute to view the powerpoint slide shows and send a confirmation email to the address provided. The deadline for your response is today (Tuesday, March 22^nd), so please take a minute to do this right now.

As Ty said, strong public support is needed to secure these grants. Let’s make a big push on this final day and bring that grant money to Greenville.

Vote for the Swamp Rabbit Trail

When I stepped down from the advocacy chairperson position with the Greenville Spinners in 2008, I quit writing this blog. I needed time to focus on family, work, cycling, and my Bicycle Design blog, so I decided to end this one. Since that time though, I have continued to be active in local bicycle advocacy issues. During the past few years, Greenville has continued to make strides toward becoming a bike friendly place, and we were even designated as a Bicycle Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists. So after a 2+ year hiatus, I have decided to resurrect this blog…well, sort of. New posts here will likely be few and far between (it’s an occasional blog as the header says). Even if it is not frequently updated though, I want to have a place to share some of the bike advocacy related news that affects us all as cyclists in Greenville. I hope that you will subscribe to the feed and follow along.

Right now, the GHS Swamp Rabbit Trail is in the running for $250,000 from the Pepsi Refresh Project. On the Swamp Rabbit Pepsi Refresh page, they outline how the money will be used if it is awarded:

• $ 175,000-Safe crossing devices at the 22 road crossings and 1 rail crossing
• $ 50,000-advance warning lights on roads
• $ 25,000- Construction of "Tree Roundabouts"

If you have ridden on the Swamp Rabbit, especially with kids, you know that those safe crossing devices are something that the trail really needs. Click here and vote today, and everyday until November 30^th, to push the “Create transportation equality” grant up into one of the top two positions. Pepsi will be giving the money to someone, and it would be great to have it here in Greenville to make our trail safer for all users. It is worth a shot, so vote early and often.

Trail Work days at Paris Mountain

A lot has been happening on the bicycle advocacy front lately, including preliminary work on a bicycle parking ordinance for the city of Greenville. I have received quite a few ideas for new bicycle related projects from readers of this blog and I greatly appreciate all of them. Keep the ideas coming with comments or emails and, as always, let me know if you are interested in getting involved with local advocacy efforts.

As I suspect is the case with most of you, the type of riding that I do varies from day to day. I commute to work by bike a few days a week, but I also enjoy recreational road riding and mountain biking on the weekends. The latter is what this post is about.

A recent article in Bike Magazine pointed out that Chattanooga is building 100 miles of singletrack trail within 10 miles of the city limits by 2010. That is an ambitious goal, but SORBA Chattanooga is on track to complete the trail network in that time frame. The goal is to turn Chattanooga into “a world class destination” for mountain biking on par with destinations like Moab or Whistler. The effort is not only great for mountain bikers in the area; it is also part of the city’s overall plan to become bike friendly. In the League of American Bicyclists’ 2006 Bicycle Friendly Communities case study document, Chattanooga’s “Singletrack Mind” initiative is listed as one of the highlights that led to the city’s Bronze BFC designation.

Like Chattanooga, Greenville is geographically located in an area that is perfect for mountain biking and hiking. Adding to our existing trails network is just another piece of the puzzle in turning Greenville into a world class cycling town. You can help right away. Paris Mountain State Park urgently needs volunteer help and donations to match the current trail building grant. I encourage all of you who ride at the park to show up for at least one of the scheduled trail work days. See the message below from the park for more information and to sign up. Paris Mountain has a great system of trails that many of us enjoy riding, so this is a great opportunity to give back. I won’t be able to make it the first weekend, but hope to see some of you out there on the weekend of August 11th and 12th.


Hello Friends,

The final stage of our trail grant is approaching here at Paris Mountain State Park. We are going to need a lot of help in building this new section, as well as meeting our projected deadline of September 30th. Your help in meeting this match will help ensure that trails in the South Carolina State Park system continue to grow. Above all you will be able to become part of the legacy of Paris Mountain State Park.

This legacy includes the hardworking members of the Civilian Conservation Corps that built this park in the 1930s from the natural resources found on the park. Our trails are built in the same way, and by getting your hands dirty you become part of this growing legacy.

Bring your family and friends. Trail work is also a great teambuilding exercise for companies.

Our trail work days are:

Saturday July 28 and Sunday 29, 2007
Saturday August 11 and Sunday August 12, 2007

We will be meeting at the Park Center parking lot (2nd lot on the left) at 8am. We will be breaking for lunch and heading back out around noon for anyone who wants to work in the afternoon – admission is free for all volunteers. Be sure to wear boots, pants and work gloves.

To sign up for a work day, or if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call us at 244-5565 or e-mail the Trail Crew Boss, Shawn Llewllyn at splspokes@hotmail.com.

Come out and take advantage of this opportunity to be involved in the completion the Paris Mountain State Park trail plan that has been 4 years in the making.