Trail conditions

Mccormick Woods remains soggy, especially the SW corner, please wait until the sign at the trail head 'Trail Closed' to be removed by the trail steward, John Steward. John could also use help adding additional trail just past the culvert.

Ampitheater Trail, is wet in some spots, please wait until 24 hours past end of rainfall to allow the trail to dry. Trail work, additional trail, continues every Thursday 9 - noon at the LP tank trailhead.

McCormick Trail Map

Trailbuilding day at Tippecanoe Amphitheater - Saturday June 27

Many thanks to everyone who came out to help build trail today at the amphitheater. We had 4 teams of trailbuilders, and we accomplished lots of benching and concealment of exposed soil. We currently have about 1 mile of completed trail, but the work continues. Stay tuned for next month's trail session (on a Saturday near the end of July).
Thanks to Arni's for providing much-needed pizzas for lunch. We really appreciate the donation!

Above - front to back: Lobo supervises while Matt Hardebeck and Eric McNelley finish up a section of trail.

Below - front to back: Tyler, Jeff Nisen and Jeff Heasley rough out the trail tread.










Below - Our trailbuilding group for the day - left to right:
Jane Sellers, Cristyn Elder, Vicki Albitz, Tyler Johnson, Eric McNelley, Matt Hardebeck, Molly Gillam, Lobo, Jeff Heasley, Jeff Nisen, Tom Albitz, John Stewart

Not pictured but also helped:
Duane Sellers, Charlie Myer, Phyllis Myer

Trailbuilding day at Tippecanoe Amphitheater - Saturday June 27

The Hoosier Mountain Biking Association of Lafayette will again be hosting a volunteer trailbuilding day on Saturday, June 27, 2009. The multi-use trail system will serve walkers, runners, mountain bikers, and other non-motorized trail users. Bring work gloves and bug repellent and meet us in the parking lot of the Tippecanoe Amphitheater at:

4449 State Road 43 North
Lafayette, IN 47906-5753

Time: 8:30AM - 12:00PM

Pizza and refreshments will be provided after the work session. Please email us for more info: lafayettetrails@gmail.com.

Amphitheater trailbuilding day - May 23, 2009

Thanks to everyone who showed up and volunteered to help us build trail at the soon-to-be-fabulous Tippecanoe Amphitheater multi-use trail system. We benched trail, removed honeysuckle, rerouted and cleared trail corridors, and ate pizza donated by Papa John's in West Lafayette (thanks, Regina).

Right: Charlie Myer, John Stewart, Delmer Hensley and Eric McNelley bench new trail.


Below: Tom Albitz and Jane Sellers clear the trail corridor.

















Right: Phyllis Myer clears the trail corridor.


Below: Bob Haan gets medieval on a honeysuckle bush.






















Photo right:
Top row: Tyler Johnson, Cristyn Elder, Bob Haan, Tom Albitz, Delmer Hensley, Mike McNelley, John Stewart
Bottom row: Charlie Myer, Lobo

Thanks also to Adriana and Remus, who left before we could get photos of them.

McCormick Woods Update

March 21st trailwork session was a success with 13 people showing up. 

The entire system was walked raking when necessary plus removing downed limbs and trimming back branches. 

The narrow ravine on the outer loop in the back was replaced with a bench-cut trail and rerouting on the upper section.

Due to flooding the culvert installed in 08 required some reconstruction.

All in all the trail is in exceptional condition due to a dryer than normal spring.

A Warmer Riding Alternative

Recently one of the forum member asked about good places to ride within 10 hours of Lafayette. Well this is a bit further but especially during cold winter in Indiana it provides a fairly warm and fun place to ride. Per Tom it's around a 16 hour drive from Lafayette and on the way if you're heading to Orlando.
Just South of Ocala Florida on Interstate 75 near Exit 341 is Santos Trail system. It's a project by OMBA (Ocala Mountain Bike Association) to create trails in the abandoned Florida Barge Canal area. Trails consist of mountain biking, hiking and horse trails with biking and horses separated from each other. The terrain is very diverse with elevation changes of 20+ feet as the trail sig zags across the Florida landscape. Almost all of the trail is in the woods and even crosses Interstate 75 on a bridge that is bordered with vegetation with the only evidence of the Interstate being the noise.
We rode there two days this week. The first day was at the East trailhead on the heavier used trails where the complete array of levels is available. Easy loop trails around the more difficult and double black diamond trails in the center. The center also includes a challenge park with up to 20' drops off a cliff onto a ramp of dirt. Uh, we didn't even think about anything like that. A double black trail around the challenge park was riddled with rocks, ladder bridges and difficult trail with quick up/downs combined with tight turns and more. It easily will challenge the majority of riders. Needless to say we did not clear several areas! Our mileage for this area was around 13 miles and we did not cover all of the trails.
The second day we headed to the West trailhead and rode cross country trails for nearly 20 miles. These too were in wooded areas with lots of variation in the trail. It did provide some challenges with quick ups/downs combined with twisty trail.
We did ride to the center of the "Land Bridge" which is the connector over Interstate 75 (see pic). The two areas we rode do connect West of the Land Bridge but the connector trail is not as diverse.

Tom riding the Land Bridge directly over the Northbound lane of Interstate 75! This one of the few wide trails of the system!

Charlie riding some of the cross country trails from the West Trailhead

Riding the Bunny Trail at Santos East Trailhead

Expert trail around challenge park!

Expert trail around challenge park!

Challenge park features!

Links to sites pertaining to Santos:

OMBA web site:
IMBA's site for epic trails:
Florida Barge Canal History:

Email lafayettetrails@gmail.com for a tour of Santos by Tom Albitz!