Represent
by Mike Sullivan

Fort Pierce Bike Trail

Ask almost anyone who rides off road in Florida and they will have fond memories of a little secret spot known as the Fort Pierce Bike trail. This little gem of a trail was started about 15 years ago on a privately owned piece of property who’s owner was conveniently never around. The trail itself has morphed over the years with re-routes around downed trees and people finding ways to get around the mud that seems to plague many Florida trails. The trail is currently about 4.5 miles long, but what it lacks in distance it makes up in fun. If you ever get a chance to check out some of those public video sites like youtube, search fort pierce bike trail and you can see all the fun we’d been having. It’s got everything from steep downhills, small drops and banked turns to log rides 4’ off the ground and a handful of skinnies to keep things interesting. All of this is on nice solid hard-packed Florida dirt tucked away in an easement of the South Florida Water Management District.

The biggest hurdle that the trail has faced in it’s 15 year lifespan has been that it was never a legalized trail. Our first major obstacle came when the original land owner sold the property to a church that was looking to put a school on it, this happening about 5 years ago. The church closed the property and had police officers arresting trespassers and of course we all thought the trail was lost. After about a year, the church discovered that they would not be able to meet the zoning requirements to build a school on that property and became somewhat less interested in it. The security was discontinued and the land owners basically kept a hands-off approach to the riders. Basically if you get hurt you were trespassing, if you don’t get hurt we don’t know nuthin’. This worked out pretty well for all of the riders in the area who planned on riding anyway. To make a long story short, the property was sold again to a commercial developer in January of this year and as a condition of the sale, the South Florida Water Management District required the property owners to fence off the trail which was within their jurisdictional easement. Our group Airborne MTB is now in the process….again of trying to work out agreements with the land owners and hopefully the local government to set up a county bike park. So far, all is going well so keep your fingers crossed for us and maybe say a little prayer. Hopefully in a few months or so we will be able to get out there and ride again and send you some awesome vids and pics of South Florida’s favorite trail.