Bay Trail : New Fairfield Bay Mountain Bike Resource

I was recently asked by Frank Wimberley of the Greers Ferry Trails Council to give a call out to Debbi Brawli and her efforts to develop a sytem of mountain bike trails at Fairfield Bay. Frank has been hard at work developing trails in the Heber Springs area. From the Council's website:
The Greers Ferry Lake Trails Council (GFLTC) is a local grass roots organization that was formed early in 2010 to promote, plan, and build a multiuse trails system in the Greers Ferry Lake (North Central Arkansas) area.

Frank and Debbi are at opposite ends of the lake, but both are on a mission! Debbi and her team have received the blessing of the City of Fairfield Bay and the Fairfield Bay Community Council to develop a system of mountain bike trails utilizing roads that were laid out for expansion of the community but that were never developed.

 Rather than paraphrase Debbi's responses to my inquiries, I'll take the easy way out and copy/paste from her e-mails:

The idea is to take some of the undeveloped areas of Fairfield Bay (up to 100 miles of roads) and turn them into mountain biking & hiking trails.  This has been approved by the city of Fairfield Bay and the Fairfield Bay Community Club Board of Directors.  Here is the article in the Fairfield Bay News:  http://fairfieldbaynews.com/board-applauds-new-trail-feature-in-fairfield-bay/

 

 We have drawn out potential trails on the old plat maps, and I am sending Phase I to you.  There will be at least 3 more phases, I think.  Really, all we need is to have directional signs to mark the trails.  It would be great to have the trails rated, but we’re not really sure who could do that for us.  Frank Webber has mentioned coming here, but he won’t be here until late March.  I went out there Sunday and put white survey flags at each corner.  There are no street signs anywhere out there, so I would not have been able to find the turns without this plat map and MapmyRide.  Any help mapping out the rest of these trails (would involve just walking or riding) asap would be very much appreciated.  The sooner we get people out there, the better the community will accept it.  This is all very new to me, so I really don’t know what I am doing.  I just had an idea that it needed to be done.  I have ridden Syllamo a few times and hiked the North Sylamore Creek Trail many times last year.  I love Mountain View, but this is a gorgeous area also, with much potential, and much closer to Little Rock!

The most urgent need is to have people help with marking the trails so they can be used immediately.

 

Here is a link to the Bay Trails Facebook Page.

 

 

I have bemoaned the surprising lack of mountain bike resources in the Greers Ferry Lake area, so I am delighted by this initiative. We have a place near Heber Springs on the Little Red River and there are more miles of single track in Burns Park than there are in all of Cleburne County (please correct me if I'm wrong!).

Many of us spend some time around Greers Ferry, so next time you head to the lake, take your MTB, drop Debbi a note on the Facebook page, and check out the new trails. I didn't get directions to the start points, but I know she would be glad to give you a little information.