Weatherford Mountain Bike Club

Founded in October 2014 the Weatherford Mountain Bike Club (WMBC) is an organization of citizen volunteers dedicated to building sustainable, multi-use nature trails in City of Weatherford parks and the Parker County region. The WMBC was created by four Weatherford citizens who desired to see the development of trails within city parks to serve the bicycling, trail running and hiking communities.

Because there was already an existing network of trails used by cyclist, runners and hikers the primary focus of the WMBC is the development of multi-use trails at Soldier Spring Park. In doing their due diligence, the WMBC dedicated over 200 hours of study noting the conditions of the existing network of natural surface trails in the park. Areas of moderate to severe erosion were detailed, as well as trails that could be incorporated into a looped network. Also studied were the existing asphalt hike/bike trails, the proposed locations of the Monarch Butterfly Way Station and the Veteran’s Memorial site inside the park. In the end the WMBC created a detailed map highlighting the over 2.25 miles of existing multi-use trails and nearly 3/4 of an acre of eroded areas of the park.

Using latest aerial photography and LiDAR topography the WMBC created a second map detailing the alignment of a proposed 4.4 mile looped multi-use nature trail for Soldier Spring Park. The trail alignment was defined to minimize interaction with the existing asphalt hike/bike trail, serve the butterfly way station and eliminate interaction with the Veteran’s Memorial site altogether. A timeline was set by the WMBC to create the looped network of nature trails over a two year period beginning October 2015.

On March 18, 2015 the WMBC met with City of Weatherford staff including the director of parks, the city manager, director of capital transportation projects and a member of the city council to discuss the merits of creating multi-use nature trails in Soldier Spring Park. WMBC delivered a Memorandum of Understanding between the citizen volunteers and the City of Weatherford. The MOU outlined the purpose, benefits and mutual interests of creating a partnership between the club and the City. Included in the MOU were details establishing the guidelines and the framework for cooperation between the two entities.

On April 21, 2015 the City of Weatherford Parks & Recreational Advisory Board approved the proposal presented by the WMBC to consolidate, rehabilitate and develop the existing multi-use trails in Soldier Spring Park.

In early June the WMBC was informed by the director of parks that the City of Weatherford has proposed that multi-use nature trails like the one being proposed for Soldier Spring Park be included in the comprehensive park master plan. The motion to include these types of trails on the master plan will go before the City of Weatherford Parks & Recreational Advisory Board on Tuesday, July 21 for approval. If the motion is recommended the location of future multi-use trails would then be studied by the City, the City’s hired park consultant and the citizens of Weatherford via town hall meetings.

The WMBC applauds the City of Weatherford for its decision to propose the inclusion of multi-use nature trails in their comprehensive parks master plan. This is GREAT news for all recreational trail user groups! There is a great potential for Weatherford to treat these trails as they would any other park amenity if the motion passes the parks board. Imagine not only a network of multi-use trails in one park, but multiple parks!