Trail News
GHORBA Awarded $10,000 grant from Bikes Belong Coalition
GHORBA is pleased to announce that we are the recipients of a $10,000 grant from Bikes Belong, a coalition of U.S. bicycle industry leaders that works to put more people on bicycles more often.
GHORBA Vice President of Trails Kevin Highfield prepared the application. With generous letters of support by Lee Neathery of Bike Barn, and TJ Jones of Sun & Ski, we succeeded in winning the grant which will let us accelerate trail construction at Double Lake Recreational Area in the Sam Houston National Forest, near Coldspring, TX.
The funds will be used for trail design, materials and support for expanding the single track trail system.
The proposed trail expansion should give Houston riders a real mountain bike trail – with elevation change, good drainage and an opportunity for technical riding. It should be progressively more challenging, meeting classic IMBA guidelines for design.
An additional goal is the increased visibility of the Sam Houston National Forest, which is a major regional resource of great natural beauty currently unknown to the majority of Houston area residents.
The environment for this project has never been better: we have a great working relationship with the park rangers, we have tremendous support from the local bicycle retail industry and full support from Houston cyclists.
The main challenge to the project will be in meeting federal guidelines for construction in the National Forest, specifically the requirements of the National Environmental Protection Act. As a result of the excellent working relationship forged with the park managers from last years expansion activity, we obtained a Categorical Exclusion from the NEPA requirements and a fast-track approval of the expansions, which we will work to repeat for further projects.
For Further information, contact vptrails@ghorba.org
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