FAYETTEVILLE -- Members of the Ozark Off Road Cyclists mountain biking club are planning some major improvements to the roughly 7-mile soft-surface trail at Lake Fayetteville that they built and have maintained for the past several years.
The biggest additions are a "pump track" and two "skills courses" -- one for beginners and one for more advanced riders -- on the northwest side of the lake, near a parking lot for the North Shore Disc Golf course.
According to the club's president emeritus, Phil Penny, the pump track will be a 200- to 300-foot fiberglass loop. Bikers will be able to use a pumping motion to traverse the track without pedaling.
The wooden skills courses will have hills and curves that mountain bikers can use to perfect their craft.
The club also plans to move a section of trail out of a fairway for the disc golf course, repair erosion problems in the northwest corner of the park and build a 6-foot-tall "wall ride" north of the parking lot, between the paved Lake Fayetteville trail and South Turner Street.
Other sections of the soft-surface trail, including a stretch along a small peninsula on the south end of the lake's spillway, are also set for improvement. The Ozark Off Road Cyclists plan to erect fences in one area of the trail to keep users on a defined path.
Metro on 07/08/2015