We had a good meeting last night with the Northwest Florida Water Management District. They are eager for us to be using their property. We think the first parcel to be developed will be the one north of Highway 90 and south of I-10 on the Perdido River. They say there are lots of uplands and a pretty good hill but I haven’t seen any topo maps yet. Their main goal is to protect the water. Most of their property is wetlands so we aren’t allowed to impact any of that. They also are protecting against any runoff into the Perdido River. We as bikers are pretty low on the impact scale, right up there with hikers and hunters. By virtue of the fact that we are represented, we get to build bike trails. And all the represented groups are equal so we can’t be out numbered except by the other committee members. If there are 200 equestrian people and only 3 bikers, we still have equal power. Of course once the trails get established, we have to use and maintain them or we get kicked out of the group. This area certainly isn’t as big as Blackwater, only 5000 acres over 5 parcels, it’s still possible to have a desent network of trails. We may be able to tie all 5 parcels together by paved or dirt roads to get a really large loop although maintaining that would suck. Hopefully some people from Alabama and West Pensacola will start using the trail and help maintain it. As soon as I get some maps, I’ll post them.
