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Dirt bike group presents vision for Sugar Run

AWA hears plans for trail network

When West Central Pennsylvania Off-Highway Motorcycle Association President Seth Long was young, there were lots of places in Blair County to ride off-road on dirt bikes.

Now there are no such places open to the public, either for free or for a price, with riders having lost access to 5,000 acres over the last four years — even though there are plenty of bicycling, hiking and horseback riding trails, according to Long.

“(So) we are traveling out of the area,” Long told the Altoona Water Authority board on Thursday, speaking of his association members. “(Because of that) we all came together and said, ‘We need to try to do something about this.'”

That “something” is a plan that his association has been discussing with authority officials in recent months to create a trail network on authority land between Sugar Run Road and the western side of Lake Altoona, with a trailhead off Sugar Run.

On Thursday, Long outlined a proposed 15-mile multi-user, single-track trail network that would involve new and existing routes, along with barriers to close off some existing routes that don’t fit the requirements of the association or the authority.

Existing trails would be chosen or rejected and new trails designed based on erosion concerns, steepness issues and authority prohibitions against trails being too close to water resources or buildings.

The association would model the network on a 20-mile system of trails on Shade Mountain in Bald Eagle State Park, owned by the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and maintained by a trail organization, Long said.

That Shade Mountain network has been successful, and there have been no issues, according to Long.

As with the Shade Mountain trail, the Sugar Run network would be open to dirt bikes, mountain bikers, hikers and horseback riders, but not ATV riders, who are meant to be discouraged by the single-track design, which they find “unattractive,” according to Long.

Perhaps 20 to 25 people would typically use the Sugar Run network on a nice Saturday morning in summer, Long guessed, when asked to estimate how heavily it would be used by authority solicitor David Gaines.

One or two users might be typical of a workday, Long said.

The network would draw from as far as an hour and a half away — but not farther, because it’s not extensive enough, Long predicted.

GPS technology would be employed in plotting the network.

Standard trail right-of-way and yield requirements would apply when the trail is in operation.

There is sufficient parking at the trailhead off Sugar Run Road, Long said.

There shouldn’t be liability worries, based on the Recreational Use of Land and Water Act, which provides immunity for landowners, according to Long.

Immunity doesn’t mean you can’t be sued, said authority solicitor David Gaines.

The organization would not need an agreement with the authority, although it would be willing to operate under one, Long said.

In the past, the authority has had agreements in similar circumstances, although it doesn’t have one with a group of mountain bikers led by city employees who’ve created a trail system off Glen White Road above the Horseshoe Curve, according to Gaines and authority General Manager Mark Perry.

The authority would operate the Sugar Run network under an agreement with the Game Commission, with hunting permitted in exchange for the commission enforcing laws, alongside any rules the authority asks it to enforce, in keeping with practice in other authority owned areas, Perry has said.

That agreement helps ensure against problematic authority liability.

The proposed network butts up against Lake Altoona, but is actually not watershed land for the authority’s system, Perry said.

Authority staffers, the board and the association plan to continue talking.

It would take formal action by the board for the trail network to become a reality.

If that approval is granted, it would take the volunteer association about a year to bring it to fruition, Long said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.

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