Dr. John C. Hill particularly enjoys the project he has dedicated several years to because its results are tangible.
Hill, who works as a Survey Project Coordinator at HDI, has been working to build an accessible mountain biking trail in Woodford County with several community partners. He’s done everything from coordinating funding to physically clearing the course with his own two hands. And now, when it’s almost time to officially open the course, he loves being able to look at the physical result of his work and know that something that previously didn’t exist in an accessible form now does.
The idea was born when Hill’s wife wanted to take him and his daughter mountain biking for Mother’s Day in 2020. As he kept biking, Hill enjoyed the experience and got to thinking about how accessible this hobby was.
“Through that hobby, I realized there’s no way in Kentucky for people with a disability to ride a mountain bike on some of these trails,” Hill said. “We don’t have the equipment, or the trails might not be appropriate for people, let’s say, riding a recumbent bike.”
Hill got to work after that, collaborating with Laura Butler, who is involved with multiple HDI projects, and funding the initial project through HDI’s Fund For Excellence grants, but knew that the FFE grant would only go so far.
“Because that FFE provided a short-term opportunity for money and to work on a project, I knew that in order to make that project something more sustainable that people would use, I would eventually need to find more funding,” he said.
Now, he has funding through the Land-grant Engagement Academy at UK which will allow for maintenance of the trail and ensure the project is sustainable in the long term, as well as a loan program for equipment, including adaptive mountain bikes and to host workshops to help people find the bikes that are right for them.
“One part of that is to teach how you fit somebody for a bike and make sure everything’s adjusted properly. The second part of it is safety. And then the third part is being able to ride those bikes on the trail and learn trail etiquette, and some rudimentary maintenance for bikes,” Hill said. “The whole idea is ‘Okay, we have this mountain bike trail. Now, how can we get people to the site and get them to start, mountain biking or learning how to mountain bike?’”
For Hill, this project has been lengthy and demanding, but he’s thrilled to see the team’s hard work finally unveiled to the public.
“It’s been it’s been a process. I’ve spent over 98 hours doing physical labor out there over the course of 2 or 3 years, pulling honeysuckle, doing maintenance on the trail, that sort of thing,” he said.
Hill also noted that a big part of the reason this project has made it this far is because of the support of multiple partners. In particular, he highlighted the University of Kentucky Community Innovation Lab, Midway University, UK Healthcare, the Kentucky Mountain Bike Association, and the Healthy Kentucky Initiative. The ribbon cutting for the trail will be held in late spring or early summer. To learn more, visit https://bgmtbinitiative.weebly.com/.
