Urban trails opening soon in McAlester
A grand opening next weekend for a multi-use trail system just north of downtown McAlester will celebrate establishing an outdoor community gathering point and the prospect of increased tourism in the area.
McAlester’s multi-use trail system just north of downtown, known as the McAlester Urban Trails, features trails for biking, hiking, walking and exploring. It is on North Strong Boulevard between Polk Avenue and Pierce Avenue.
There are several trails to choose from, depending on what the user wants to do. There is a big, wide double track trail meant for walking, running, biking and enjoying trail scenes. There are also single track trails built to varying degrees of difficulty for those who want to challenge themselves while either hiking or biking. The trails give people options of what to do, depending on their mood.
The four people who have brought this to life are Blake Lynch, Randy Saunier, Jeff Mann and Richard Peckio.
Four years ago, Lynch and Mann came up with the idea. Lynch had gone through a program called Leadership Oklahoma. One thing that came from the program was ideas on ways to improve McAlester’s community. They created the Southeast Oklahoma Trail Club with the intention of creating urban trails, but struggled to get it started until Saunier joined the cause.
“Randy Saunier came up with his idea completely separate of us,” Lynch said. “I would say it was just a happy circumstance where a bunch of people with the same idea kind of found each other at a good time to get these things together.”
Saunier has focused on the wide double track trail. This is the trail mainly used for walking and running. The trail is known as the “Glen Stone Trail,” which is named after Glen Stone, a local and national coaching legend in the track and field community during his 20-year tenure at Eastern Oklahoma State College.
Stone had a vision of building a trail similar to this in Chaddick Park.
“When I went over to Bentonville and saw what the Walton family had done over there, I got this idea to build a trail,” Saunier said.
He felt as if Stone had hit him over the head and told him that this was his chance.
The Glen Stone Trail came from how instrumental Stone was while a coach at Eastern. However, the Glen Stone Trail holds more significance to Saunier than just being connected to Glen Stone.
Saunier’s father built Rotary Park back in the 1970s. He cleaned up the area before bringing in sand and building a pond. The pond is the Debra Saunier Pond, which was dedicated to Saunier’s younger sister, who passed away. The pond connects to the water trails McAlester is currently building, and the Glen Stone Trail and the water trails connected to the pond cross paths.
It is all connected, and it is a continuation of what his father started
“Richard Peckio has been instrumental in helping me do this,” Saunier said. “He’s been my righthand man. He’s just an incredible worker.”
While Saunier and Peckio focused on the Glen Stone Trail, Lynch and Mann focused on the single track trails. These trails can be used for hiking, but they are designed for bikes as well, serving as an incentive to bring cyclists to the area.
“What we do know is there are a lot of folks that travel from Texas to Arkansas to ride mountain bikes,” Lynch said.
There is a focus on figuring out the economic impact of mountain bike tourism in Northwest Arkansas and how to bring it to McAlester.
There are several goals with the urban trails. The primary one is making a place for the community. Currently, local people are the main ones using the trails.
“We want everybody to be able to have a place to do outdoor recreational activities that’s accessible,” Lynch said.
The second goal is to bring in traffic going back and forth to Northwest Arkansas with mountain bikes. The increase of activity in the community will help boost the local economy.
While the City of McAlester has been supportive of the project, the McAlester Urban Trails has had no funding from the city.
“It is all privately funded through donations and through the individual people who were working on the system at this time,” Lynch said, noting the City of McAlester granted some of the passage across the canal for the project.
The ultimate goal for the trails is to connect it to downtown and have 10 to 15 miles for people to walk without having to leave city limits.
The grand opening for the McAlester Urban Trails will take place from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 29. The event will include giveaway items from McAlester Activities Coalition.
Opening day will feature bike giveaways as well as door prizes just for stopping by. There will also be a “4 Loops Challenge” and those who complete it will be entered to win a special prize.
Boss’n’Hogs BBQ will be on site for lunch.
To prepare for the grand opening, McAlester Urban Trails founders will host volunteer work nights from 5 p.m. until dark each day from June 23-27. The volunteer events will focus on light cleanup, trail prep and getting everything ready in general for opening day.
Volunteers are encouraged to bring their own gloves and wear clothes they don’t mind getting dirty. Volunteers will meet each night at the trailhead.
Those who want to lend a hand during the volunteer nights can sign up at ridemcalester.com/volunteer.
