Renovations may soon be coming to the 6.5 mile bike trail through the forested slopes near Maskenthine Lake. The news came after a presentation detailing proposed grant-funded improvements to the trail at the beginning of the monthly Lower Elkhorn Natural Resources District subcommittee meeting on Thursday.
Rhonda Wright, a Stanton-based bike enthusiast, made the case for the necessity of the additions, including revitalization of forested areas, a makeover to the trail kiosk, improvements to the trailhead and reconstruction of a half-mile or so of trail wiped out by a tornado. She even invited members of the board to join her on a tour of the trail. The improvements, with a bill of $79,270, would be funded through a Nebraska Game and Parks Commission grant that would reimburse 80% of the cost to the district according to LENRD grant coordinator Julie Wragge, bringing the local cost down to just under $16,000.
In a follow-up with the Daily News, Wragge said the district’s final request to the board would likely be closer to $50,000, in line with a proposal last year that was never officially submitted and lacked a formal presentation. Wragge said the application for the grant, which requires approval of a resolution by the board in favor of the project, would be due by September. Wright is part of a group of volunteers that help to maintain the trail which has weathered a slew of harsh conditions over the past few years beyond the tornado, including drought, pine needle blight.
She said the trail, a non-paved single-track knifing through rolling forests of cedar and ponderosa and crossing over a natural spring, is the only of its kind within a 50-mile radius, with major implications for recreation as well as competition in the region. She noted that mountain-biking is one of the fastest-growing sports in the country, especially among people under 18, a claim backed up by a 2022 study on injury prevention strategies in the sport. Sharing data from the exercise app Strava, Wright said that 318 individual riders had been recorded on the trail for a total of over 4,000 visits, which she estimated to be only 20% of the total ridership.
The trail is also used regularly for mountain biking races, drawing teams from across the state. “All of these things make it super, super exciting,” she said. LENRD general manager Brian Bruckner shared some of Wright’s enthusiasm, expressing support for the program at the beginning of the presentation, and later stated that the proposal would be taken up at the district’s next full board meeting on Thursday, July 25.
“We’ve got a passionate group of individuals who continue to use it, we think it’s a great amenity to offer,” he said. “I think it would be a wise investment for us to try and pursue some grant funds to improve things out there.” Upon questioning from board director Michael Fleer, Bruckner clarified that the district would need to budget for the full cost of the project and be reimbursed by the state after the fact.
Expenses for the district would be restricted to the funding match for the grant, with additional upkeep efforts to be continued by the volunteer group. Beyond mountain-biking, Wright said the trail is also used by visitors on foot. She shared an anecdote from a coworker who learned of the trail from Wright before she took her son to Maskenthine Lake to go fishing.
“She said ‘This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,’” Wright recalled, though she said she’s uncertain just how heavily used the trail is by non-cyclists. Nonetheless, she said, the more the merrier. “More people on the trail helps with erosion to a certain point,” Wright said.
“The tracks on the trail keep the grass from creeping in, so we'd love to have more people on it.”.
