MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — Baldwin County outdoor enthusiasts have a brand new trail to ride this week.

Up until the mid-1990s, the property known as Bartram Forest was little more than 1,600 acres and a seed orchard maintained by the Georgia Forestry Commission. When the commission began transitioning their seed operations to nurseries further south, local residents began using the forest as a walking and educational trail to learn about Middle Georgia’s flora and fauna. After years of providing a place for residents to enjoy the outdoors, Bartram will now be a destination for mountain bikers in Baldwin County and around the Southeast.

“The original trail that goes out from the park entrance was built in the mid-nineties by Bud Merritt and some other local mountain bikers, and they partnered with the Georgia Forestry Commission to do an educational and interpretive trail,” said Tom Glover, chairman of the local bicycle advocacy group Bike Walk Baldwin and owner of Milledgeville’s Cogentes IT company. “Four years ago when I was starting our youth mountain biking team here, we needed a place to practice that wasn’t as difficult as Selma Irwin [nature preserve] … My daughter and son and I started coming out here doing the cleanup and gradually started getting some other people involved, and here we are four years later with 11 miles of single-track trails and about 30 kids on the team.”

At a well-attended ceremony at the Bartram Forest entrance, local residents and dignitaries gathered to officially designate the miles of forest trail cleared by Glover and fellow volunteers. The ribbon-cutting featured a $2,500 check presentation from the Washington Electric Foundation to Bike Walk Baldwin for the trail’s entrance kiosk and waypoint signage, and showcased a network of trails that ramble through Bartram’s picturesque and densely-packed pine groves. Also on hand was GFC statewide director Chuck Williams, who expressed excitement that more Georgia residents might visit one of Baldwin’s natural treasures.

 

“We have roughly 10 million Georgians in our state, but less than half a million of those are timberland owners,” said Williams. “I think it’s always in our best interest to create opportunities for the non-timberland owning public to interact with our forests. To understand  the commercial implications of forestry as well as things like clean air, clean water, wildlife, and their habitats, at the end of the day the forestry community needs the public to at least have a working understanding of what a forest means.”

 

With 78 waypoints directing bikers through a 6.5-mile beginner trail, an 8.5-mile intermediate trail, and an 11-mile intermediate-advanced trail, what once was a rarely-used section of GFC land will play host to hikers and bikers from around the region. As the coach of Milledgeville’s Old Capitol Youth Cycling Team, Glover trains local youth mountain bikers as part of the National Interscholastic Cycling Association, or NICA. Featuring cyclists from around Middle Georgia, Glover and his team of coaches tutor young cyclists on the finer points of mountain biking, and has already begun using the Bartram Trail to gain statewide recognition for Badlwin County.

 

“We’re getting a lot of attention here from the league. On Feb. 10 and 11, we’ve got the Georgia League Leaders Summit that is being held in Milledgeville, which will be the first time the summit has come out of North Georgia” said Glover, referring to the  annual conference of NICA’s Georgia Branch. “In October, we’ll be hosting a NICA race right here at Bartram on our home course, and we’re anticipating about 3,000 people.”

 

While Bartram’s newly unveiled trails figure to attract cyclists from across Georgia and around the surrounding states, perhaps the biggest impact of the new trails will be felt by Baldwin County residents. Among the attendees of Wednesday’s unveiling were Janice and Bud Merritt, local residents and amateur cyclists. For the past 20 years, the Merritts have helped clear trails throughout the forest and are two of Bartram’s most frequent visitors (one of the forest’s bike trails, ‘Bud’s Loop’, bears Bud’s name). As the Merritts returned to the trailhead as the first-ever riders of the unveiled path, the couple expressed excitement that the efforts of Glover and others have improved one of Baldwin’s most precious resources.

 

The thing about what Tom’s done out here is that it doesn’t matter whether you’re a beginner, intermediate, or advanced, everyone out here can have fun,” said Bud.

 

“It’s a beautiful spot. There’s wildflowers out here, people bring their dogs and take them through the walk; it’s nice,” added Janice. “We’re very excited to have some extra miles of trail.”