Big Bend National Park Proposal To Develop Multi-Use Biking Trail

[SHANEA]

It's not like the place is going to be overrun by mountain bikers, probably have a rally once a year - which will be good economic stimulus money for the area.    It's not located near a MSA like San Antonio or anything with a million plus people hungry for someplace to go mountain biking.  When I lived in Austin, the Bull Creek, Green Belt, etc. were open to mountain bikers - I hiked and mountain biked around there - no issue.  Emma Long was wild - very tough mountain biking - also shared with motorbikes, rarely ever encountered one, but you could hear them before they saw you.  I miss the vast trails of Austin.

I'm all for it as they are taxpayers too and taxpayers keep BIBE running with their tax dollars.

I dont' think I've ever encountered a mountain biker out there - I have encountered numerous road / touring bikers on the roads - going up the basin road on a mountain bike - it sure didn't look like the ole boy was having a good time.

[VivaTerlingua]

It's not like they're converting an existing trail to a mountain biking trail.  They're putting in a mountain bike trail in a generally unused area of the park.  I fail to see how people riding bikes on this trail is going to affect anybody's enjoyment of any of the existing trails.

I've ridden the Contrabando loop in the state park several times,  the trail and surrounding vegetation looks no worse than an any of the hiking trails in the national park.  In fact many of the trails in the national park have unnatural features such as retaining walls and culverts.  I've not seen these things on a mountain bike trail.

I enjoy both activities and when I am hiking I would prefer not to encounter a mountain bike, but have no problem with a trail built for biking.