Mountain-bike course in the works for Fishers

Fishers is moving ahead with plans for a mountain-bike course at its work-in-progress park at 101st Street and Cyntheanne Road, hiring an expert trail builder to design and install it.

Progressive Trail Design will be paid $120,000 for its work at what’s still being called Cyntheanne Park South.

Indianapolis-based landscape architecture firm Rundell Ernstberger & Associates is handling overall park design, and the town is expected to solicit bids for construction in the next couple weeks.

The town has about $3.5 million budgeted for the project, which was promised when Fishers annexed the nearby Geist area.

Parks Director Tony Elliot told the Town Council this week that the 1.5-mile progressive course expected to draw visitors to the park. Beginner and intermediate bicyclists are expected to encounter rugged trails studded with rocks, logs and assorted manmade features like ramps and berms.

Progressive Trail Design’s Jason Stouder told the council the bike trail will be “unique to this area.” The Arkansas-based company’s nearest installation is in Milwaukee, he said.

Elliot said the town wants to open the mountain-bike course and a planned sledding hill at the 60-acre park by late fall. Additional amenities—including a boardwalk trail and treehouses—should follow next year. (There’s been no recent mention of a zip line, which was on an early wish list.)  

Installing such a trail requires expertise, Elliot said in a memo to the council. Using a company that specializes in such projects “will ensure the bike trail will be durable, safe, and usable by riders of all levels.”

Fishers is receiving a “substantially discounted price” by working through the National Joint Powers Alliance, a national pricing cooperative.

The town is in the process of annexing the park property now.