Friday, December 6, 2013

Construction Underway At Buffalo Creek Park





If you haven't heard of Buffalo Creek Park, this is a new addition to the Town of Lake Lure.  The 200-acre property was obtained with the help of Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy and grant assistance from the NC Parks and Recreation Trust Fund.  The goal of the new park is to provide a unique mountain biking experience in the Hickory Nut Gorge.  At present Hickory Nut Gorge has numerous hiking experiences but until now there has been no place for mountain bikers to enjoy this wonderful area.  Of course the trails will provide a wonderful hiking experience as well, but it is the hope that mountain bikers will flock to the new trail once construction is completed. 

Construction on the trail began on October 7th and is currently ongoing.  To date, approximately 2.25 miles of trail have been completed out of a planned 5 miles, and that's just Phase 1 of the project.  The trail is being constructed by renowned trail building company, Trail Dynamics, who have had great success in building trails throughout North Carolina and other states as well.

The quality of work has been amazing thus far with great attention being placed on proper drainage and erosion control.  Trail Dynamics uses a low impact approach in order to minimize damage to the natural community, leaving as small a footprint as possible.  This approach is important because the property provides important habitat for green salamanders, which make their homes in the crevices of boulders that are scattered throughout the forest of Buffalo Creek Park. We are hoping to see the loop completed sometime in January.  Until then, I will tease with pictures.





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