Love trails? Get excited, because there are a few more coming to Cuyahoga Valley National Park (CVNP) soon—including the park’s first mountain biking trail.

Last month, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced a $249,000 grant to the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park for new trail construction in CVNP. The gift will fund construction, as well as initial planning and design work, for several high-priority trail projects from the park’s 2013 Trail Management Plan.

Construction is scheduled to begin this year for a system of off-road biking trails on the eastern edge of CVNP, flanking the area around the I-80 Ohio turnpike. The first 2.6-mile phase of the project is scheduled for construction in 2015, with the next 6.2-mile phase to begin in 2016.

Area for the new mountain biking trails in CVNP (Note: Not to scale)

The Knight Foundation grant will also fund a couple other hiking trail projects in the national park, including a new loop on Furnace Run Trail connected to the Everett Covered Bridge trailhead, and a new trail connecting the Conservancy’s Hines Hill campus to the Stanford House and Towpath Trail.

These projects are part of CVNP’s TRAILS FOREVER initiative. This program is co-managed by the Conservancy and the National Park Service to ensure the national park can maintain and operate, in perpetuity, a world-class trail system.