ROGERS -- A new trail being built behind Arkansas Arts Academy's will introduce youngsters to mountain biking, a growing sport in Northwest Arkansas.
Biking is a lifetime fitness activity, said Mary Ley, chief executive officer at the charter school. She helped obtain community grants to bring bikes to several Bentonville schools during her tenure there. Riding bikes gives children a way to get around without being dependent upon parents, she said. And bikes are a great fitness level equalizer.
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Archery Addition
Arkansas Arts Academy will also add archery to physical education classes this year, Mary Ley, chief executive officer said. Grants from Cabela’s and the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission kickstarted the program which cost about $4,000 to start.
Source: Staff Report
The Outback Art Trail -- adjacent to the academy's kindergarten through eighth grade campus at 2005 S. 12th St. -- will be open to the community after school hours. The trail will have outdoor panels to display student art, an extension of the hall displays. It will have native trees and be landscaped to attract butterflies.
"It's a good trail to be introduced to the sport," Ley said.
The trail will be about a half-mile long with a bridge, some A-frames or wooden ramps and a couple of log skinnies or logs cut in half for students to ride along, said Chris Jessee, Crossland Construction trail superintendent.
The trail will circle the playground when finished in mid-February. Much of the trail will be flat, partly because some of the land is in the watershed, Jessee said. The challenges for young riders will be optional. The loop won't be boring, he said.
"It'll have some character to it," he said.
The introductory trail was built with children's safety in mind, Jessee said. Parents can walk alongside a child on the trail, making it an easy training ground, he said.
Mountain biking is poised to grow in Northwest Arkansas, said Alan Ley, director of Bike Bentonville and Mary Ley's husband.
Northwest Arkansas has built a base of cycling enthusiasts in the past couple years. Bentonville was named a Bike Friendly City by the League of American Bicycles. Trails at Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area and Devil's Den State Park helped put them on the radar of the International Mountain Bicycling Association. Retailers told him national bike sales have gone up 2.3 percent this year, but Northwest Arkansas bike sales were up 14.9 percent -- the highest increase in the U.S.
Friends of the biking association are working to put together an Arkansas league for the National Interscholastic Cycling Association, Alan Ley said.
A dozen states have the ninth- through 12th-grade leagues, including Alabama, Georgia, Texas and Tennessee. Northwest Arkansas schools have clubs, but they aren't competitive. A league would have four events a year, and draw people from around the area, Alan Ley said.
"We're going to make it happen," he said.
Rogers stands to benefit from more mountain bike visitors, said Barney Hayes, park director. The Slaughter Pen trail has been a draw for Bentonville, and a trail at Mount Kessler is going to be the Fayetteville destination. Rogers will have the trails around Lake Atalanta.
The work is 98 to 99 percent done on the mountain bike trails around the lake, Hayes said. Signs will go up in the next month or so. There are about 10 miles of trails, he said.
The league and trails will draw bike-oriented families from all over, he said.
Jessee, who is overseeing the construction at Arkansas Arts Academy, said Blowing Springs, Slaughter Pen and Lake Atalanta are good rides. His love for the sport is what has him out in the cold building the miniature trail behind the school.
Trail riding, like what will be taught at the academy, sets students up for the more advanced mountain biking techniques, Alan Ley said.
Biking teaches balance, coordination and focus, and will make young riders into better drivers, Ley said.
"You have to pay attention when you're riding a bike," he said.
Student bikes are on order -- paid for through a grant received earlier this year -- and will arrive in January, Mary Ley said. Lewis & Clark Outfitters won a contract for the 60 bikes and annual maintenance with a nearly $24,000 bid. Sixty donated helmets go with the assortment of bike sizes. A combination of just under $30,000 in grants from the Endeavor and Walton Family foundations helped pay for the single track dirt trail behind the school, Ley said.
The bikes will be used in physical education classes. Active students are healthy mentally and physically, Ley said. Biking makes those lessons fun.
"I don't know of a better way to meet all those in one thing," she said.
NW News on 01/01/2015