In the early days of mountain biking in Tallahassee, the only purpose-built mountain bike trails that existed were Redbug and Magnolia. Both of those trails were much like they are today, rough and rooty. Neither trail was beginner-friendly. Ken Foster, a local mountain biker, wanted to get new people into the sport of mountain biking. He recognized the need for a beginner-friendly mountain bike trail in town and felt like the Munson Hills area would be a good place to build one.
Foster, along with Mike McCue, Joel Bird, J.B. Ritter, and Robert Seidler, were responsible for creating the original loop at Munson Hills. According to McCue, the National Forest Service was transitioning from its focus on logging by increasing opportunities for recreation. Steve Sherwood, the recreational ranger for the Apalachicola National Forest at the time, was a big proponent of mountain biking. He started asking around to see if there was anyone in town who could build mountain bike trails. Seidler introduced Sherwood to Foster and McCue.
McCue said Sherwood knew the Munson Hills area had a population of red cockaded woodpeckers, a threatened species. He theorized that establishing a recreational trail would complement the goal of habitat preservation and double the chances that clear cutting this portion of the forest could be prevented.
With Sherwood’s permission, Foster and McCue laid out the original trail
McCue and Foster were primarily responsible for the original trail design. As Foster put it, “McCue was the designer. I was the enthusiastic partner.” Beginning in 1988, they worked on the trail for nearly two years, often spending the night camping out in the woods and working on the trail during the day.
At the time, the Munson Hills area was very popular with motocross riders. Every year, there was a big motocross event known as the Hare Scrabbles where riders had to get from Point A to Point B in the shortest amount of time possible. Because of this event, there were many different trails that had already been cut through the forest.
Foster said that “we were very conscious of [the motorcycle usage]. We didn’t want to design a trail that motorcyclists would want to ride.” Instead, they set out with the intent to purposely avoid building a motorcycle-friendly trail or use the trails motorcyclists had already established in the forest.
Foster and McCue laid out the original trail in a manner that avoided the existing roads when possible and crossed them at 90-degree angles when necessary. They did this so that motorcyclists wouldn’t be tempted to veer off from a road onto the trail and so that people riding the trail wouldn’t get confused about where the trail went. They designed the trail to be windy so it would be unattractive to a motorcyclist who liked to ride through the forest at speed. They also made it narrow in places to deter equestrians from riding the trail.
Foster said “we wanted a trail that had turns, but not turns that were so tight it made riders want to cut the trail. We wanted to have those sweeping, broad turns that there was no advantage to cutting.” As Foster put it, those signature turns make it “so flowy you want to keep going.”
Foster and McCue walked the woods together, flagging the line as they went. By McCue’s estimate, it took them the better part of a year to lay out the line. McCue said the Forest Service helped them out by providing them with aerial photos of the area, which were rare and expense to come by back then. The pair used the photos to help understand how the points of interest that they found in the woods could be connected along the trail’s path.
Once they had done that, Foster asked Seidler if he could borrow Seidler’s Gravely Walking Tractor. His intention was to mow the trail so they could see exactly where it was going to be. Foster spent two days in the forest cutting the original trail. Afterwards, he let the Forest Service know what he had done, not thinking it would be an issue. The Forest Service was not pleased. However, once the trail had been mowed, people began riding it and the trail was born. As Foster recalls, “the Forest Service couldn’t really say no at that point.”
The original trail was fun, but it wasn’t perfect
As Foster recalls, the original loop, which was completed in 1989, was approximately 4 miles in length. It encompassed the Tall Pines Shortcut and the part of the Munson Loop that intersected with Tall Pines and went south and east from there back to the big hill.
However, the original design wasn’t perfect. Foster said that “we made several mistakes.” For example, the original trail going up Munson Hill was straight up through sand. Foster said that “we sandwiched about three feet of conveyor belt materials between two 2x6’s to hold the sand back while allowing a flexible material to ride over.”
The original trailhead was located a little over a mile down from the St. Marks Trailhead, where the concrete pad, sign, and water fountain currently are located immediately west of the St. Marks Trail. During one August, the area received over 30 inches of rain, flooding the area where the original trailhead was located. Foster and Ace Lashley redesigned the trail around the flooded areas, creating the Paper Cup Trail in the process, which got its name from the flattened paper Dixie Cups they stabled to the trees when they marked out the new trail line. The Forest Service later did a land-swap, making it an official trail in the late 2000s.
By 1994, a second phase of Munson Hills was completed, extending it to the 8-mile loop it is today. McCue said that, when a delegation from the Washington D.C. office of the U.S. Forest Service came down to inspect the trail, they told him that it was the first purpose-built mountain bike trail in the entire National Forest System.
During the Great Recession, the Federal Government made funds available to the National Forest Service for capital improvements through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Jim Schmid, who was the trails coordinator for the National Forests in Florida, asked for $25,000 to remediate the trail. In July of 2009, the Forest Service not only approved Schmid’s request but also provided an additional $225,000 for capital improvement and maintenance work to Munson Hills. Schmid brought in Valerie Naylor with Trail Dynamics to do an assessment on the trail in September of 2009. Once the assessment was done, bids were solicited, and Trail Dynamics was selected to do the work. They began work on the trail in 2010 and it took a little over a year for them to complete it.
Jose Sanchez, a past TMBA president, said that the goal of the project was to remediate the trail and get rid of some of the sandy areas. He said there was a lot of back and forth about what material would be used for the trail and many riders were opposed to changing its surface. Sanchez said that Trail Dynamics first tried using a limerock road base for the trail, but it was slippery and not fun to ride. That’s when the decision was made to use sand clay for the trail surface. In addition to resurfacing the trail, Trail Dynamics built in some grade reversals and made the trail more sustainable. They also re-routed the trail away from some of the ponds to protect the environmentally sensitive areas.
Today, Munson Hills is one of the most popular trails in Tallahassee
Foster said that he “wanted Munson Hills to be a beginner trail where people riding down the St. Marks Trail would see it, wonder what it was, and start riding off into the woods.” His vision has become a reality time and again, introducing new riders to the joys of mountain biking while providing experienced riders with a fast, flowy ride through one of Florida’s most beautiful pine scrub forests.
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