Dig In Details

One thing that the COVID-19 public health crisis has shown us is that there is a tremendous demand for safe and accessible trails for exercising and exploring the outdoors. This project will fund the professional design of a shared use trail system and flow trail in a 500 acre park located in the southwest part of San Antonio where there is a disproportionate lack of these types of trails. We believe there is tremendous untapped potential at Pearsall Park to create a regional destination for those seeking natural surface trails for riding their bikes.

Shared-Use Natural Surface Trails

The majority of the shared use, natural surface trail systems for mountain biking, trail running, and hiking are located in the northern half of San Antonio with most of those in the northwestern quadrant of San Antonio. The southern half of San Antonio has few or no trails of this type. Pearsall Park is located in the southwestern part of San Antonio. Although Pearsall Park has many amenities, the proposed trail system will provide park users with something they don't have; the ability to lose themselves in nature while mountain biking, trail running, or hiking through the trails.

Bicycle Flow Trail

The idea for designing flow trails on the previous landfill section of Pearsall Park came from a very similar project undertaken in Cedar Rapids, Iowa called Mount Trashmore (https://youtu.be/1dt2Dq8RWMo , http://www.iowapbs.org/iowaoutdoors/story/30713/mount-trashmore, and https://vimeo.com/286382279). We believe this trail design would make excellent use of an unused area of Pearsall Park, provide a very unique type of trail not present anywhere else in the city, and offer trails to park users where there is a shortage of mountain bike trails. This would definitely be a unique project and we hope to make the Pearsall Park flow trail a similar success for mountain bikers in San Antonio and the surrounding area.