Attn. mountain bikers: The Mt. Airy trail is on its way

Hannah K. Sparling | Cincinnati Enquirer

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It’s been decades of dreaming, hoping and planning.

On Tuesday, shovels will finally hit the dirt.

Sure, they’ll be ceremonial shovels – better suited for a shirt-and-tie photo op than actual digging – but the groundbreaking for the new Mount Airy Forest mountain bike trail marks the start of a project that, for some in Cincinnati, has been a long time coming.

“This project is so special to the mountain-biking community,” said Doug McClintock, an avid cyclist and president of the Cincinnati Off-Road Alliance.

CORA is partnering with Cincinnati Parks to build the new 4- to 5-mile trail, nestled in the forest between West Fork Road and I-74.

It will be a natural surface trail, meaning it will be made from whatever already exists on the land – no outside dirt or rocks.

And it will be multi-use, open to cyclists, joggers and walkers.

The groundbreaking is Tuesday afternoon. The real work starts this Sunday, with the first volunteer construction day. McClintock’s hope is to get the first mile or so open for riding by fall.

“There is so much excitement and will to make this massive volunteer effort happen,” he said. “We are pretty confident that we’re going to be able to get a bunch of work done pretty quickly.”

A new partnership: Mount Airy trail gets green light

The trail will cost somewhere between $25,000 and $30,000, McClintock said, all of which is being covered by donations. The city is providing the land, so that’s free. The volunteer labor is free, too. But CORA still needs fences, gates, signs and equipment to build and maintain the trail.

“It’s not just people out in the woods,” McClintock said. “There is a real cost that is borne, and it’s not just buying Gatorade and PowerBars for the volunteers.”

CORA has been working toward a Mount Airy trail for more than 20 years, McClintock said. The group manages about 60 miles of trail around the region – at Devou Park in Covington, for example, and at Ceasar Creek State Park in Waynesville – but this will be the first mountain-bike trail on Cincinnati Parks land.

McClintock hopes it will lead to others.

“This project is kind of a foot-in-the-door for CORA,” he said, “to show Parks that our track record at other places is good for a reason.”

The groundbreaking is at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Mount Airy Forest. Follow @hksparling on Twitter for details.