Rowlett Creek Preserve

Trail News: Until further notice Loops 5 & 6 [below the railroad tracks] are closed due to the Dart Blue Line construction [06nov09]. The DART Blue Line expansion project is increasing its construction activities [for more information please see posting at http://www.dorba2.com/node/3573 and http://www.dorba2.com/forum/trails-trail-work-issues-and-ideas/4709]. They are currently building the construction roadways, adding drainage pipe, and starting to bore holes for the concrete pillar bridge [2700' long] supports; so keep an eye open for HEAVY EQUIPMENT. There is an orange snow fence erected in the Loop 5a area to prevent trail users from entering the construction area. Thus the bottom of loops5&6 are out of play and will be for up to 18 months. The construction on Loop7 is done and the rebuilding work has begun. Please take care out there if you have to ride across centerville road. Look for a FOTT's request for assistance soon to put the landbridges back in place and addition of armored sections on Loop 7. Once completed this will keep users out of the mud when riding over there. Some photos follow: Looking east from Powerline on Loop5a back east toward RR trestle. This is a current close up shot of the heavy equipment being used to bore the pier holes for the new 2700' rail bridge for DART Blue Line expansion [from Garland to Rowlett] - The wood chipper and excavation construction equipment has finished their job and have been moved out of the power line on Loop5a [just north of the railroad tracks]. However there is now a construction roadway turn around extending over the trail. Please do not ride the old trail, instead ride around it to the right [i.e. north of it, see below photo]. The construction crew knows about our trail and its use and has cleared a path around it for us. They have erected an orange snow fence around it, to keep trail users out of the construction area. It is still important when riding down there to keep an eye out for BIG Heavy Construction Equipment. SYOTT... Trail Description [original posting...updated version is being worked on]: This is an ever-growing loop that the trail steward, Earl Hammond, keeps adding to. It seems every time I go out there, there's more to ride! Mostly flat and twisty, although Earl did manage to find some dips and whoop-de-doos in there. You cross the creek early on, and come close to it on several other points, but be careful, or you'll wind up in it! He has several logs to jump, how many depending on who's moved what, and at one point you end up by the waste-treatment plant (no - you can't hold your breath until you get away from it, but it's not that bad...). In case you were wondering where the hill at the end fo loop 8 came from, it was built by the East Texas Traction Company between 1912 and 1917. In 1912 the electric railroad company started a rail line to run between Garland and Greenville. In 1917 the project was stopped and the rails and equipment salvaged. You can see two pilings on the East side of Rowlett creek if you stand on the bank at the last turn on loop8 and look across the creek. They were cut off at grade during the salvage operation and the creek bank has since eroded around it. I am sure that they will go one of these days in the interrest of progress. The long drop on loop7 is also part of that historical railroad bed. It is fairly easy to follow the route of the rail construction from a current aerial photo by following several long thin ponds and tree lines in a smooth arc from the area on loop7 in a shallow arc arch east-north-east crossing Northeast Parkway as Castle and continuing east to the main body of Lake Ray Hubbard. If you are interested in the history of that railroad before all evidence disappears, there is a book available on railroad history in the area by Jerry Brewer. There is now about 12 miles of trail [currently [2009] we have > 15.5 miles of trail], with more planned in the future.

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