In 2016 the city of Lebanon, Ohio was awarded $150,000 in Recreational Trails Program funds to create a state of the art bike park.
by Taylor Goodrich, Communication and Media Specialist, American Trails
The city of Lebanon, Ohio took an innovative approach to re-purposing an old city owned landfill property, turning it into a bike park which is both enjoyed by the local community, and serves as a tourist attraction to those outside the area. The 45-acre park project, which opened in 2018, includes various off-road bike trails and features such as mountain bike trails, two paved pump tracks, a bike skills course, jump lines, perimeter trail and cyclocross features.
The bike park is a sign of things to come. The Lebanon park is thought to be the first of its kind to open in Ohio, but plans are in the works for other bike parks in the state, including in the city of Dayton, which hosted the 2017 International Trails Symposium. The success of the Lebanon park is a boon to the region, and a shining example of taking land thought to have little value, such as a city owned landfill property, and turning it into something that improves a community.
You can see a video of the making of this bike park from beginning to end here. To learn more about the bike park visit their website.
Taylor Goodrich started with American Trails in January 2018 as Communication and Media Specialist. Taylor currently lives in Dallas, Texas, which is also where she grew up and where she attended the University of North Texas receiving her degree in History. While in college she started doing freelance work editing and writing, and also got into graphic design and discovered she loves the creativity and craft of digital arts. After college she traveled quite a bit, and lived in both the Pacific Northwest and in New Mexico, and while in both of those places took full advantage of what the outdoors had to offer. After moving back to Texas she started moving towards doing graphic design, social media, and communications work full time, and she has contracted with several companies from tech startups, to music festivals, to law firms, to grow their social media and digital communications presence. Taylor loves hiking and kayaking especially, and is glad to be working with an organization that fights for further accessibility and stewardship of our nation’s trails. She feels very lucky that in this position she will be able to use her professional skills and passion for something she is also very personally passionate about, and in helping to grow American Trails.
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