If there ever was a perfect destination for mountain biking here locally, it’s Iroquois Park.
We’re talking approx. 700 acres of hilly terrain that already has a partially developed trail system. In addition to the acreage, there’s ample parking, along with restrooms and a lodge located at the top section of the park.
How many people are aware that back in 1994, the Master Plan for Louisville’s Olmsted Parks & Parkways, A Guide to Renewal and Management, had the following statement about Iroquois Park, under the Resolving Trail Issues heading “It is recommended that horses and mountain bicyclists not be permitted to use the trails on the sloped forests above Rundill Road until trail repairs are implemented and there is an agreement on trail use.”
It’s clear from the Master Plan that mountain biking was an accepted activity, and that as soon as trail repairs and some type of Land Use Agreement were taken care of, the entire park would be open to mountain bikers (not just the trails on the lower sections).
Since that original study, Olmsted (and Metro Parks) have taken advantage of the relatively short tenures of local mountain biking leadership, leading to today’s view that mountain biking shouldn’t be allowed in the park, nor should it even be pursued.
Please remember that Olmsted designed parks to be democratic institutions, places where people of all classes and interests could meet, share experiences, and appreciate one another. So what happened at Iroquois, that caused mountain bikers to be banned?
To help keep things in perspective, you also have to remember that we had access to Jefferson Memorial Forest at the same time, and shortly thereafter, we were also banned from that location. (In later years Metro Parks almost installed a Frisbee golf course at Waverly, which would’ve destroyed much of the trail system, and much more recently, plans were under way to boot us out of Cherokee Park.)
We (the “democratic institution” that Olmsted designed his parks for) simply stood by helplessly as a group of upper class, affluent and privileged individuals made closed door decisions in regards to our parks.
As a former Iroquois Parks Champion (one of a small number of Saturday morning volunteers restoring the natural areas of the park) I sat in on many a meeting when our former Olmsted Executive Director falsely claimed that dirt trails would support horses at Iroquois, but not mountain bikes.
Speaking of horses, Metro Parks has spent untold thousands of dollars on a stable and a trail system specifically designed for horses, only to see the stable close a couple of years back due to lack of demand. Why does Metro Parks continue to force-feed the public an out dated and elitist trail policy (wasting our tax dollars in the process)?
Out of concern for the neglected natural areas of Iroquois I recently mailed out over 70 full color pages of advocacy work (to the powers that be) in the hopes that we could work together to undo the damage done by Metro Parks.
There’s several heavily rutted, eroded service roads needlessly created by Metro Parks within the park. There’s also several small “hills” (numerous dump truck loads of dirt piled out of sight of most park visitors, that has become a dangerous and unsightly playground) that need to be removed. (Remember just last year when our Parks Director was so concerned about the “illegal and dangerous” jumps – we’re talking maybe 2 to 3 feet high- in Cherokee Park.) Where’s his concern with these dangerous and unsightly hills created by parks? (Sounds a bit hypocritical to me!)
And last, but certainly not least, Metro Parks has for years been using a large section of the park for dumping logs and debris (once again, out of sight of most park visitors). This logging operation within the park needs to stop, and a newfound respect for our natural forested areas must be adopted.
For anyone interested in riding at Iroquois, an absolute gold-mine of a trail system, please contact your elected officials and other city leaders, and request that Metro Parks adopt a more family (and mtb) friendly trail policy!
Currently our options are to wait years and years for the new Floyd's Fork park properties to be developed (which is looking more and more like an equestrian playground) and hope that decent mtb trails are developed, or to approach our city leaders and request we get access to one of our former riding venues.
You could also point that they're unable to maintain our current parks, so how will they be able to maintain all of the new parkland being acquired via the City of Parks initiative(?).
I couldn't agree more. My
I couldn't agree more. My office is very close to the park and I have driven through there several times. Each time I am struck by how different it is from Cherokee. The road to the top is only open to vehicles a few days a week, which I can't figure out. and the other roads in the park are littered with no parking signs. Making access to the trails and forrest in general very difficult. Just seems that Olmsted or Metro parks has Iroquois Park on lock down.
I guess most folks are spoiled by how user friendly Cherokee is. The scenic loop, ample parking, and open trails really make that the destination of choice whether you are riding, walking, or jogging.
I sent a couple of emails out raising this issue and got a respone back from the Metro council person that has that district. She simply said she would forward my concerns to MP. The other email went to Olmsted to try get an explanation on why mountain bikes weren't allowed, and why the road was only open a few days a week?
Hope to get a response soon, but I am not holding my breath.
Sean, excellent advocacy
Sean, excellent advocacy work!!!
I'm sure if large numbers of mountain bikers contacted both the elected councilperson for Iroquois (Butler- district 15) along with Metro Council's Park Chair (Stuckel- district 17) we would eventually regain the access that we lost.
For anyone wishing to review the Master Plan, please visit our local library and check out 712.5 MAS. Until I started doing some research on Olmsted, and stumbled across the Master Plan, I was unaware that we once had access to Iroquois and were just waiting on a user agreement to be finalized for complete trail access.
Note- Metro Parks could also use a copy of the million dollar plus Master Plan. It was published in 1994, and there's plenty of references to mountain biking at that time in Olmsted designed parks. Never once, in all of my dealings with parks over the years, did they ever share the fact that mountain biking was once an approved activity at Iroquois.
Don, Who can we contact
Don, Who can we contact (email) about Iroquois Park?
My first suggestion would be
My first suggestion would be to contact your elected councilperson (if you live in Jefferson County). For all city employees, it's first name.last name@louisvilleky.gov. For example, Glen Stuckel, who's the Park Comm. Chairperson, is Glen.Stuckel@louisvilleky.gov.
I would also let Marianne Butler, whose district inlcudes Iroquois, know about the fact that we once had access and lost it due to parks closed door decision making that favors the elite and priveleged classes.
Our councilpersons (these are part-time jobs remember) have very busy/hectic schedules, therefore, one should make it a point to contact them on a fairly regular basis (I have been w/hard copy mailings) until we get their support that will force parks to open up our natural surface dirt trails to working families.
You should also ask them why equestrians have access to every major park in the system, and why mountain bikers only have access to two here in Jefferson County.
There's no good reason why one should have to drive 45 minutes to Otter Creek for a long off-road mtb ride. With our ever-increasing gas prices, we shouldn't have to drive more than 10 minutes to access our public parks for recreational activities.
Best of luck and let us know how the advocacy goes!
I made the mistake of
I made the mistake of driving out to Jefferson Memorial Forest last Friday. I say mistake because it just irritates me everytime I see an 8000 acre tract of land being so poorly managed.
Of couse I had to fire off another correspondence. It simply boggles my mind that you can't ride a bike there or at Iroquois. Both locations have a fair amount of under utilized trails just sitting there.
Sean, nice work again for
Sean, nice work again for taking a few moments to let our elected officials know about the current unfair situation.
Most of our elected officials, and very few if any others know that at one time we had access to Jefferson Memorial Forest. It's nice that Bruce Montana and Stuart Ulfers published Mountain Biking in Kentucky (copies are available in our local library) which provides a documented record of where we were over one decade ago.
There's only one way for us to gain access once again and that's to push back against Metro Parks arrogance and elitist trail policies. If our elected officials heard from us on a regular basis, there's a very good chance that we would get back in. Metro Parks simply manages our public lands, based on the input from our elected officials. If we convince our elected officials to let us back in, Metro Parks has no choice but to go along. With ever rising gas prices (which is also a national energy and security issue) it only makes sense to have access to our public trails. We shouldn't have to drive 45 minutes to Otter Creek for a nice long mtb ride.
I've got a few advocacy submittals in the works, and I definitely plan to make councilwoman Welch (and others) aware that we once had access to JMF and were simply booted out w/o any explanation.
As part of the above advocacy submittals, it's nice that the local library has copies of the Olmsted Master Plan, which clearly shows we once had access to Iroqouis as well. This is a great record of information that needs to be shared w/our elected officials on a regular basis.
I pulled up the aerial
I pulled up the aerial photos on lojic.org, and it looks like to me anyway that a portion of the forest may actually sit in Bullitt Co. Is this possible? I know Metro Parks runs Otter Creek in Meade County.
But wouldn't be nice to find the folks on the Bullitt County side being much more open to mountain biking?
Sean, you're correct on both
Sean, you're correct on both counts; part of the forest meanders thru Bullitt County & Bullitt County officials are in fact much more supportive of mountain biking than Metro Parks is here in Jefferson County. (But the entire JMF system is under the control of our not-so-good friends at Metro Parks).
Early last year I had a long sit-down meeting w/Elaine Wilson, who heads up the Shepherdsville & Bullitt County Tourist & Convention Commission (try fitting that on a business card) and her assistant, Troy Beam, and both were very interested and supportive of mountain biking. They clearly understood that mountain biking offers a low-cost way for residents to stay healthy, along w/potential economic benenfits.
Unforntunately, Bullitt County doesn't have any county owned parks available that would support mountain biking. The recently opened Knobs State Forest is state-owned/operated, and there's currently a very restrictive policy on trail use, as it's under the jurisdiction of Fish & Wildlife, versus the state parks system. I submitted a couple of advocacy letters to our state fish and wildlife director back about that same time, and never received any response.
So unless you get a good number of people willing to put advocacy first (which would also require growing some backbone) rather than trying to buddy-up w/Metro Parks, than we'll just have to wait for whatever comes out of the Floyds Fork Park project sometime during the next DECADE!
It really is a shame, knowing that we once had access to both IROQUOIS & JEFFERSON MEMORIAL FOREST, but Metro Parks has once again pulled the rug over the eyes of many local mountain bikers and they're more than happy to forgo real advocacy work to say that they're buddies w/Metro Parks and their "voice" is being heard.