Lake Meredith National Recreation Area TCC Visit
Write this down on a post-it and stick it on the fridge: Mountain biking at Lake Meredith. You’ll want to ride there in the next couple years. That is, if you’re into flowy singletrack, sweeping vistas, and cool breezes upon grassy mesas. Lake Meredith National Recreation Area is in the Texas Panhandle, a short hour north of Amarillo. Traditionally, the spot has been used for boating, off-roading, hunting and swimming, but it will soon be home to mountain biking trails – the fun kind.
See the people? That's where the trail will be!
For some background, IMBA has been working with the National Park Service for over 20 years to develop mountain biking trails on Park Service land. Since National Park designation is the highest level of land protection in the U.S., developing those trails is easier said than done. Not impossible, but the amount of bureaucracy involved in creating singletrack trails has unfortunately been quite a deterrent.
Lake Meredith National Recreation Area is charging ahead, though, confident that mountain biking trails are the key to the park’s revitalization. Lake Meredith’s water is slowly drying up (along with the water-related activities). As a result, progressive land managers consider mountain biking to be the area’s next great recreational opportunity, so they are working through the rulemaking processes to provide those opportunities on their land. Presently, the other major riding area is Palo Duro Canyon, a Texas State Park to the south of Amarillo. The riding there is great – over 20 miles super flowy singletrack throughout the second largest canyon in the U.S. There is plenty of demand for mountain biking in the Panhandle, so Lake Meredith would provide a new area for riders, along with the facilities (camping, showers, shops) to make a weekend out of it.
Imagining the singletrack...
So far, the enlightened folks at Lake Meredith have gone through most of the rulemaking processes for the trails to be designed and built. The final aspects of the process will be completed over the next 18 months or so, such as further public involvement (if you’re in the Texas Panhandle area, make yourself heard!), completion of the Lake Meredith General Management Plan, and other bureaucratic formalities. The objective to build fun trails remains, throughout all the paperwork, and we’re lucky to have the brightest folks behind it. Some initial field work has also been completed: the rough corridor for the trail has been flagged, and did I mention that it’s swoopy, flowy, technical in some areas and mellow in others, along a beautiful contour line, and something to look very forward to? Don’t lose that post-it!
One last thought: The staff at Lake Meredith is striving to build these trails in partnership with the local Amarillo biking community. Their resources are not necessarily limited, but they are committed to involving the locals from Fritch, Amarillo and throughout the Texas Panhandle to create mountain biking trails that are community-supported, fun for everyone, and sustainable. Trails that are built with the involvement of the local community meet the community’s needs and stick around long after those who built them have moved on. So get involved — you won’t regret it.
A meadow to rest your legs after the switchback climb