Bike Walk Brentwood is working with the City of Brentwood to build a world-class mountain bike trail for the community in Marcella Vivrette Smith Park. While mountain bike trails have always been “on the drawing board” for the park, Bike Walk Brentwood wants to make sure they are a priority. The city has provided 45 acres of space on which to build the trail, and Bike Walk Brentwood is working with an adjoining HOA to have access to more space that is not currently being utilized.
A memo of understanding has been signed between Bike Walk Brentwood and the City of Brentwood to begin trail design work on the mountain bike trails. The trial design process should be completed in about two months after funds have been raised. Once the organization has a city-approved trail design in place, they will begin the trail building phase of the project.
Bike Walk Brentwood will be working with Rock Solid Trail Contracting to design and build the mountain bike trails. Rock Solid Trail Contracting has designed and built some of the best trails in the country including mountain bike destinations in Bentonville, Arkansas; Copper Harbor, Michigan; and Cuyuna, Minnesota. Trail design will cost will be about $14,000 with the trail building cost being about $100,000. Exact numbers will be available once the trial design is complete as the design and building cost is based on the exact trail length.
“The demand for mountain bikes and mountain bike trails is exploding,” said Marty Tank, the Brentwood cyclist. “Bike shops are having a hard time keeping mountain bikes in stock.”
Tank feels the sport is growing because it is as thrilling as it is restorative. It gets riders outside into nature which is therapeutic. The exercise is great for the body. Mountain biking can also sometimes be challenging, so overcoming mental and physical obstacles is rewarding.
“It gets kids and adults away from screens and provides their daily dose of vitamin N – Nature,” adds Tank.
It is also a growing sport in the schools. Tennessee National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) has seen large growth every year with Williamson County composite (WILCO) teams — there is a middle school and a high school team — being the fastest growing teams in the state. Brentwood is home to the 6th-grade girl’s first and third place finishers, as well as the fourth-place freshman boy’s finisher at the 2021 State Championship race. The Middle School WILCO team won the team points state championship, as well as the overall team series points competition.
Tennessee NICA teams compete all over the state. This year they had one race in the Memphis area, one race in the Knoxville region and four races in the Nashville region.
Most of the mountain bike athletes in Brentwood compete on composite teams and go to many different schools. Once a school reaches a certain threshold, they get spun off the composite team on to a school team. With such large growth, school teams are spinning off of the composite team every year. Grassland Middle School has a team that has been spun off of the WILCO team.
One of the biggest reasons to build the trails is for the kids. First, those who compete have to drive an average travel time to trails of about 25 minutes one way. That puts families at 50 minutes of drive time just for practice. If you live on the south side of Brentwood, you can get to the Franklin trails in about 20 minutes one way, but there is only one and a quarter miles of trail currently, so the vast majority of riders go the extra five minutes to longer trail systems such as Cane Ridge or Percy Warner Parks.
This new outdoor recreation amenity will serve anyone in the City of Brentwood wishing to use the trails provided they are not so wet that riding them will cause them damage. The trails will also provide Brentwood high school and middle school mountain bike league teams to thrive by providing a local practice training location.
“Mountain biking is super fun and tends to bring out the best in people,” said Tank. “I see that in the kids I coach and I think the parents see it in the kids and the kids see it in themselves.”
More information about the trails can be seen on the Brentwood Biker’s YouTube Channel. And donations towards the trails can be made here.
