Are you a mountain biking enthusiast based in Tallahassee, Florida looking to join a vibrant and dedicated community of riders? Look no further than the Tallahassee Mountain Bike Association (TMBA)!
When you live in an area with several different mountain bike trails, it’s great to be able to ride from trail to trail without being on the road. For communities who want to increase access to outdoor recreation, building connector trails is a must.
One individual who saw the need for such trails in Tallahassee was John Harvey. While Harvey, by his estimate, built 20 connector trails in town, the Fern Trail is by far the most important one, providing a connection between downtown and Tom Brown Park.
Harvey realized there was a green corridor from Magnolia Drive to Tom Brown
Ken Foster, a past TMBA president, called Harvey a big idea guy. “He would scour maps and ride his bike all over the place.” One of Harvey’s big ideas came to him one day in the Spring of 1994. As Harvey was driving down Park Avenue it occurred to him there was a green corridor stretching from Magnolia Drive east to Lake Lafayette and beyond. He wondered if it were possible to build a trail from one end to the other.
At that time, Park Avenue was two-lane all the way and scary for cyclists. The only other alternatives to get from downtown to the east-side park system was Highway 90 or US 27. A trail that paralleled the historic RR tracks in a green corridor would be a much more fun and safer route and could make commuting by Mountain Bike a viable and desirable alternative for many East Tallahassee residents.
Most of the land in the green corridor was either future parkland or future development and was sitting there looking pretty with no posted signs in sight. The Victory Garden neighborhood and the Industrial Plaza properties were question marks, but at worst the routing could share the railroad grade in those sections.
Harvey then started scouting out a potential route for the trail
Harvey spent several months surveying the east-side greenway looking for potential trail routes and access points. The first key link was the strip between the railroad tracks and the businesses on Industrial Plaza Drive, then under Capital Circle to Weems Road and Tom Brown Park.
The day he surveyed the Victory Garden neighborhood and found that all the units were shielded from the drainage creek by a mound and thick growth, he realized he could sneak a connector trail through there as well. That meant it would be possible to install a continuous single-track trail from near Magnolia Drive all the way out to Tom Brown Park.
Riders would only have to touch pavement when crossing Park Avenue and Victory Garden Drive. And Harvey would only need to join the railroad grade to cross the drainage creek.
Once the potential route had been scouted, Harvey began building a trail
After identifying the potential corridor, Harvey spent over a year laying out the trail route. He fully explored each greenspace segment to identify scenic landmarks and sightlines, logical access points and crossings, while designing a well-drained contour route that would have a sweet flow for bikers and runners.
The future Governors Marketplace site contained a beautiful forest, big hills and seep springs lined with huge ferns. The Park Avenue crossing zone had low spots to skirt on both sides but much of the segment from Park Avenue to Capital Circle contained scenic woods and nice hills as well.
After thoroughly exploring the full corridor and flagging the route, Harvey started construction. He began in the middle and built outward toward both ends. When he felt more like hiking than trail work, he would walk the unbuilt flagged sections with a fresh eye and make small tweaks and sometimes major revisions to the routing.
Often when he went to bed at night, Harvey would visualize trail sections and think through different layout options before dozing off. Some segments were altered many times before they were ultimately built. A hole in the privacy fence behind Winn Dixie made the perfect trailhead for the unofficial 3.3-mile nature trail through the core of East Tallahassee. The east end trailhead was just beyond the Capital Circle overpass of the railroad tracks, popping out on the back access road for the Armory, very close to Tom Brown Park.
Harvey built the Fern Trail by doing solo work parties squeezed in before his workday, during his lunch hour, and at sunrise on most weekends, putting in nearly 3,000 hours over the course of about 4 years. He used his hands to clear each trail section first, picking up debris and pulling out vegetation. Then he would use hand tools, primarily loppers, but also an axe, mattock and rake to finish each section.
Harvey’s goal was to create a pleasant and relatively low maintenance trail for all user types that would not only bring joy to nature lovers and mountain bikers but serve as an important car-free transportation link for commuters and people who lived or recreated on Tallahassee’s east side. Past TMBA president Jose Sanchez said the Fern Trail is “the best and most useful trail in Tallahassee. It’s the big artery that gets you across town safely by bike.”
The initial trail changed over time as Tallahassee grew and development increased, but its mission remains unchanged
When Harvey first built the trail, Governor’s Marketplace and Polos on Park did not exist. When the Governor’s Marketplace construction lopped off the first, and most beautiful section, Harvey said it was not a surprise but a sad day, nonetheless. Next, the creation of Polos on Park took a hunk of forested trail and added another road crossing.
According to Harvey, the Polos reroute more than doubled the length of the trail that stayed adjacent to the drainage creek. However, Harvey said a bridge to cross the creek was built because of the construction. It was an improvement over the original dicey routing that utilized a railroad trestle to cross the creek. Additionally, the new stretch of trail along the south side of the drainage incorporated a scenic small cascade into the user experience.
The Blairstone Parkway was the third major impact to the routing of the Fern Trail, but it included an overpass over the trail and some trailhead parking. When Governor’s Park was established, it brought legitimacy to the Fern Trail and enshrined it as an important element of Tallahassee’s growing trail network.
After building the Fern Trail, Harvey went on to create and improve other trails in Tallahassee
The Fern Trail was Harvey’s first trail of significant length, but certainly not his last. He would continue to expand the Fern Trail by building the Kohl’s Trail and the Fort Knox Connector.
Then, using the expertise he gained from building out the Fern Trail, along with his focus on connectivity and sustainability, Harvey would go on to work closely with the Tallahassee Parks Department to implement reroutes on the Redbug, Magnolia and Cadillac Trails and to design the Lafayette Heritage multi-use trail. Maclay Gardens State Park asked his advice on a potential singletrack trail in the Overstreet District, and he designed the three inside loops and north connector trail for the park.
Harvey also served on the planning board for multiple state parks and national forests and served as the Chair of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee of the Capital Region Transportation Agency.
Harvey said that “I think I’m most proud of my input and influence on the Tallahassee - Leon County Greenways Master Plan. It’s also very rewarding to me that the Fern Trail system continues to bring joy and connectivity to Tallahassee residents and visitors.”
Harvey currently lives in Alexandria, Virginia and is in the process of building an unofficial Fern-like trail system on the east side of town.
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