Ronsonic 

I've read that a lot of Walmart execs and employees ride and they've got a thing of using store brand decals on bikes you would never find in one of their stores.

I-Like-To-Bike

Where did you read that bit of gossip?

fietsbob

Bentonville Arkansaw?

Ronsonic 

Not sure, over at pinkbike maybe. Too plausible to bother with being skeptical for me, high-power executives of a multi-national corporation with 160 miles of trails accessible from downtown aren't riding "Mount Rage Attacker" bikes. And I'd be surprised if none of them had a sense of humor about their brand loyalty.

Thomas15

Here where I live in Carbon County PA that's in the Poconos near Jim Thorpe. The "Famous" D&L Rail Trail is supposed to be connected with the Lehigh Canal (Weissport section) making a whopping 57 mile continuous trail which will someday be something like 165 miles. So there is a less than 1 mile gap and a river between the Canal and the Rail Trail just south of JT. Because of the topography there is no easy way to get from Lehighton to Jim Thorpe on a bicycle. Simple solution: build a pedestrian bridge over the river. So in 2014 with the help of the D&L LLC the county had the needed 3.1 MILLION dollars in grant money to build the bridge, which was slated to open in 2016 and bring all kinds of adventure seekers into Jim Thorpe and spend their money.

3.1 million dollars to build a bridge over a 250 foot river. Here we are late 2018 the now 4.3 MILLION dollar bridge is there in all it's glory but needs another Million dollars and another year at least to build on/off ramps and safe passage through the County parking lot in JT. So a 3.1 million dollar 1 mile gap becomes a 5.5 million dollar project that is 3 years at least behind schedule but the D&L LLC is happy because they were able to dedicate the bridge and let RTC Sojurne riders who paid $1000 to make that ride they got to cross the bridge but as soon as the last Sojurne rider cleared the east abutment they barricaded the bridge and that is that. It is an outrage of the 10th order. If it were on schedule and half the original cost it would have been a excess but it's apparently ok because the D&L LLC and the state of PA thinks the county will see so much money spent by adventure seekers from New Your City that they will need to build more banks to store the money. In the mean time the tax payers are looking at this bridge to no where.

Funny but true, in the years 1818-1820 they built the original canal which actually started right at the site of the new pedestrian bridge. Using hand labor 200 years ago they built a 45 mile towpath canal complete with locks and aquaducts in 2 years without heavy equipment just picks and shovels. And toady with all the stuff it takes 4 years to build a 250 foot bridge.

jefnvk

Maybe one guy in the corporate marketing department did it once, but I'm sure associates making $11 an hour aren't going out of their way to make sure people think the bikes they ride on the local trails came from their store.

I mean, I used to sell computers at Office Max, I made no attempt to make people think my personal computer came from there.

Rajflyboy

indyfabz

Wut It's still not open?

Toured through there in September of 2017 during an Erie to Philly ride. Camped in East Side, came down the Lehigh Gorge Trail from White Haven (for the 8 millionth time) and then rejoined the D&L in Bowmanstown. Wish it had been open back then so I could have avoided the PA 903 and Cherry Hill climbs. The trail gap between "NoCat" and Allentown was also a PITA. But from there to Easton it was smooth sailing despite some poor signage.

wipekitty

Not me - but I know people who do so regularly. There's actually a group of MTB enthusiasts from around La Crosse, WI who go down to Bentonville seemingly all the time. Cycling tourism is real!

They ride the trails of course, and pick up ideas for how to improve the local MTB trails.

Thomas15

Yes the *&%# Bridge is not open...yet. As I mentioned they held a dedication on June 11th during the sojurne, the bridge was open for exactly 3 hours and 45 minutes then closed and is still closed. If you read (between the lines) from the propaganda put out by the D&L you could see this coming but as late as March they were saying that a possible work around detour was being looked into. For public consumption, the D&L is trying to convince the public and local business that have been hearing since June 2015 that the bridge will open late 2017 so get ready for hoards of travelers with pickets full of spending money. There is not 1 person in Carbon County that isn't at least a tiny bit pissed off over this.

Further to this, when the local media reports on this fiasco they claim that the issue is the trail on the canal side of the bridge. They discovered a couple of weeks before the supposed opening that they were just shy of $600,000.00 of funding to complete the trail to the bridge. The state (DCNR) supplemented the grant in lightning speed so by the first of August the additional money was there but the Boro of Jim Thorpe (land owner) didn't award the contract to finish the work until Sept 12th and there has been zilch in the media about the bridge since, It is obvious that 1. the contractor cannot start until spring as the weather isn't cooperating and winter is coming on strong, and 2. The amount of work that has to be done to make it ADA compliant and to build a sea wall to protect the sewer plant is going to take in my opinion 6 months to accomplish.

In the meantime, while it is true that the conditions on the canal side of the bridge are rough (but passable I have biked to the barricades numerous times) the reason I think everyone is dragging their feet has to do with the west side of the bridge, where the D&L trail cuts through the County parking lot. Same as with the canal side, the money to make needed improvements is there in the bank. However, the way the trail cuts through the parking lot right now is dangerous to say the least and I doubt the county's insurance carrier is thrilled. To build the trail in the optimum configuration will cost the county between 35 and 75 parking spots. Parking already sucks in JT so this is not good news, however the county is getting ready to tear down a building right across the street from the bridge and build a 110 space parking garage for county employees and I believe court/jury members. This will not be done most likely for another 2 years.

The D&L is saying that the bridge will open in spring 2019. My opinion is it will be very late in the year 2019 or maybe mid 2020. Everyone is looking at the east (canal) side but the problem is I think on the west (county parking lot) side, This project dominated the local newspaper's front page for months and since the dedication hardly a word about it. Very strange. I'm reasonably connected to numerous people that are knee deep into the bridge project and literally no one want to even comment or make a guarded prediction on when it will open, except the D&L who speaks in vague terms and with one hand stretched out looking for a donation.

OK enough on that.

When you went down by on the D&L to Northampton Boro and had to detour that is supposed to be done in 2020 but what no one is saying is that once that bridge (Northampton/Coplay) is done, the rt. 329 bridge just up stream is going to be replaced. This is the bridge that now takes trail users from the west (river right) bank to the east (river left) side, so a detour will be a lot more complicated, The Allentown Rt. 22/Fullerton Ave mess solution is still a few years off. On the Delaware Canal section, the Scutter Falls bridge north of Trenton is gumming up the works and The gaps in Bristol are far from being solved. Then the 10 miles from Wilkes-Barre to Mountain Top the land isn't even purchased yet. They have been working on the Middleburg Road rail road crossing (on the black diamond section) for a year or more, it was supposed to be opened this year but there has been zero work completed since spring. If the D&L Trial is the best managed trail in the country, as the RTC is fond of saying, then the rest of the trail networks in this country are really screwed.

Anyway, I think you were referring to Cherry Hill Rd near Lehighton or Parryville? This is very close to where I live, Bicycle Rt. L runs through Franklin Twp where I live. Riding the rail trails 40 miles in an afternoon is easier than 10 miles in my neighborhood!

Witterings

An interesting article in favour of spending money on bike paths

https://road.cc/content/news/134759-...-cost-says-dft

indyfabz

Yeah. From the top of 903 I took Maury, Long Run, Fairyland, Harrity, U.S. 209, Cherry Hill and Fireline to get to Bowmanstown. Cherry Hill starts off tame, but then gets very nasty, especially on a fully-loaded bike. I lost momentum on the double digit grade section and ended up walking a bit. Pretty though.

Leebo

Lots of trails are hand built with volunteer labor. Ma Nemba guy here. Often times in our terrain, power equipment is not needed or desired, plus its too rocky. Sure some bridging and decking are needed for streams and wet areas. 20 workers with a clear flag line can get a lot done in a day. Mcleods, pickaxes, rogue hoes work well. It you want 8' wide flow trails of smooth dirt in the woods? That's another story.

Hiro11

I agree with the OP's question, the math doesn't check out here.

Based on what I've heard, the Walton brothers have spent about $70MM to build ~1,000 miles of trail. Setting aside the fact that 1,000 miles of professionally built singletrack seems like an unfathomable amount of awesomeness to me, that's $70K / mile. That's ridiculously expensive trail building. My local trail building / advocacy group is all volunteer (501c3) and spends less than $20k/year to build ~10 miles of new trail a year and maintain ~100 miles of trails. My local trails see very heavy use (just outside a major city) and have armored stream crossings and berms, waterbars, drainage, carefully maintained trees and undergrowth etc, they're nice, durable trails.

They must be spending money on bike right of ways on roads, advocacy, bike racks etc. That stuff can get expensive quickly. Spending this amount of money on singletrack alone just doesn't seem possible.

Thomas15

I'm just getting back into the saddle after many years off. I think I will make it a goal to pull Cherry Hill sometime this summer. 902 isn't a mole hill either.