Peddling Mountain Bike Trails at Memorial Park
Houston Chronicle, September 26, 2002
By Christina Case, President
Greater Houston Off-Road Biking Assoc.

The battle over mountain biking in Houston and in Memorial Park has waged on for over eight years now.  As the president of the Greater Houston Off-Road Biking Association, or GHORBA, I have been part of this ceaseless effort for the past three years.  I have spent countless hours in meetings, writing e-mails, and calling officials in the Parks and Recreation Department to promote a dialogue between the riders and the city in hopes of finding a middle ground for us all.  This effort has proven to be a fruitless run-around.

It's been said for years, and is quite evident, that the trails at Memorial Park were built without benefit of the knowledge of erosion-control techniques.  This is not a new concept; most of the trails across the nation were built incorrectly.  The difference between other trails and those at Memorial Park is that the land managers at most other locations recognize the problem and fix the trails.  The city’s parks department does not have the budget or the personnel to maintain the trails at Memorial Park; it never has and never will. 

GHORBA volunteers are repairing the trails at Huntsville State Park in cooperation with and under the supervision of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.  Multiple trail reroutes have been completed, including installation of the new trail bed appropriate to the surrounding topography, construction of a trail to shed water into the surrounding area rather than down the trail and revegetation of the old trail bed.  GHORBA has volunteered to do this same thing at Memorial Park for years and been denied outright at every attempt. 

It has only been in the last few months that GHORBA received any assistance at all from the Houston parks department.  GHORBA has been finally allowed to host regularly scheduled work parties once per month and use of wheel barrows for volunteers to transport donated soil for creation of natural water diversions.  But true to Houston, rain has dampened our efforts to complete much of the soil work.

Almost two-thirds of the wooded area on the south side of the Memorial Park has now been deemed "sensitive," which means the Memorial Park Conservancy and the Houston Parks Board consider the designated area unacceptable for any activity to occupy.   But consider this:  

§      The Army Corps of Engineers allows many types of activities to occur in wetlands and headwaters with the correct permits and proper construction. 

§      State and national parks/forests all over the country have trails throughout sensitive areas, and entry is provided with elevated bridges or protections that make the area accessible to hikers, equestrians, and cyclists alike. 

§      The Memorial Park Master Plan is prescribing erosion-control devices to be installed after all of the users are banned, rather than looking at installing them for the users and the environment.  The existence of the trails in Memorial Park does not have to be in conflict with nature, but the powers that be seem to see it no other way.

People will say that the mountain-biking community is incapable of governing itself and preventing building of illegal trails.  To some degree that may be true.  But consider that the mountain-biking community has over 20,000 active riders who utilize the grand total of nine legitimate miles of trail in Harris County - these trails exist in Memorial Park.  Every other single-track trail, meaning not paved or improved surface, suitable to mountain biking, is located more than an hour's drive in non-rush-hour conditions from downtown.

For a significant many, mountain biking is a lifestyle just like running, not just a weekend foray to a state park once or twice a year.  An hour-and-a-half drive one way every day after work is just not practical and won't be made by most riders.

GHORBA has been working with the Harris County Flood Control and other land managers to create new venues to ride.  The would-have-been Olympic mountain bike park or The Hill at Sims Bayou are still viable projects, but they won't even be rideable for another four to six years if construction and vegetation schedules proceed as planned.  Any other prospects GHORBA has for new trails are in very beginning stages of planning and will not be rideable for a minimum of two to four years.  And that is only if the projects are allowed to proceed, since GHORBA has received threats of reprisal if the Memorial Park situation is not accepted.  Trails can be built cheaply with volunteer labor and donated materials if space is given, but most open space is purposely dedicated to other uses or non-recreative preservation. 

To the point:  Mountain bike riders have nowhere else to ride in this city but Memorial Park, and illegal trail building is the main symptom of this lack of access.  Are mountain-bike riders special in their lack of access?  No.  But we're also taxpayers, just like other cyclists and user groups.  We just want a fair shake with the system, to ride, enjoy nature, and to maintain the trails we love.