McCallum Park bike, hiking trails aiming for June completion

Adventurous hikers and bikers who want to veer off the straight, paved path will have a new trail this summer.

Mike Enervold of TrailVisions has begun work on a mountain biking and hiking trail at McCallum Park, with plans to complete it by June. The work was approved by the City Council in January for $20,300.

The dirt trail will extend about a mile, including both city park and Freshwater Land Trust property. Enervold said the wooded and rugged hillsides will be more challenging, and more scenic, than gravel paths in the rest of McCallum Park.

“It will wind and meander through the hillside,” Enervold said.

Work began on the trail at the end of April, but the idea was first introduced by leaders of the Vestavia Hills High School mountain biking team in late 2015 as an alternative to practicing at Oak Mountain State Park. 

Team director Doug Brown said team members planned to help with the construction of the trail.

“We’ll get them working on some raking and some of the easier light tasks to help them feel the community spirit,” Enervold said.

The mountain biking team at VHHS is about three years old. In February 2016, Brown and head coach Tina Chanslor said they hoped having a trail near the school would generate more interest from students to join the team.

“All we have to do is get them out one time, and then they’re hooked on the sport,” Chanslor said.

Brown also said in 2016 that the team would help with ongoing maintenance of the trail.

Enervold said building the trail in the wooded portion of McCallum Park is a way to take advantage of overlooked or unused property.

“This is going to be a really neat example of how to optimize use in a public park,” he said. “Because it’s just a small little pocket park, it’s going to be neat, and people will like having this in their backyard.”

The trail is left with many of its natural features, along with a few beginner to intermediate bike-specific elements added. However, Enervold said every difficult or bike-oriented feature also will have a way to bypass it for pedestrians or bikers looking for a less challenging route.

“Sometimes people want rocks and features in their mountain bike trails and running trails, and other times people don’t,” Enervold said.

McCallum Park is at 3332 Rosemary Lane, on the south side of the VHHS campus.