Carthage residents help build local singletrack trail

Workers with the city and Jasper County, along with volunteers with area bicycle riding organizations completed a cleanup of the Walnut Bottoms areas north of Carthage last week.

On Thursday, the city and representatives of bicycle riding groups will meet to plan the next steps in putting a single-track bicycle trail in the wooded area along Spring River.

It’s a project that the city has been discussing for the past several months as a relatively inexpensive way to improve the quality of life in Carthage by giving bicyclists a place to practice their hobby where they won’t come into conflict with cars and trucks. . . .

“We’re basically doing this with in-house forces and using their departments,” Short said. “Just the amount of garbage and tires we took out of there is amazing. I just wanted to thank them for their work.”

If built, the trail would be placed on 25 acres of land the city owns along North Garrison Street around the Spring River and to the north near Kendricktown.