Gosh, I though Beatty had a lot of roots.  If ASC is out, I'm not sure if you want to do the blue trails at Riverwalk.  Plus, once you start the second part of the blue trail, you are committed for about 3 miles, although the trail is bi-directional.  There are greens at Riverwalk but they are mostly access roads with one short single track. SWDP is great beginner trail and then you have the Lake Loop at WWC.   My neighbor took his 6 or 7 year old son to Sherman for his first ride.  He said he did fine but I was surprised.

Hadn't even thought about the WWC lake loop just because of the long drive. I wonder if it's really that much farther than Beatty though. I may have to take a look at that one.

I remember Beatty being pretty smooth when I used to ride it, but that was a few years back.   

ASC is only smooth for the first and last 1/2 mile or so.  The rest is pretty root filled.

Park road park has a kids/beginner trail and I think poston park has one too

Sherman has one of the best beginner routes in the area. Start down the central doubletrack via the normal start, but don't turn left with the main trail. Continue down the double track just a but further until the main trail crosses (from left to right) the double track - go right here on the main trail. Then, everytime the main trail crosses the central doubletrack - go right, down the doubletrack untill the next left-to-right crossing and go right on the main trail. This keeps you on the right side of the center doubletrack - do this all the way down till you get to the bottom of the doubletrack. At the botton, visit the 2 lakes if so inclined (a good "destination" and a must for young ones) and then take the main trail back out the normal direction.

This route is great for kids and anyone just getting started. Very smooth, no real obstacles and everyone wants to come back again for more (which is of course the key result!).  If your youngster is a fisherperson and you gots a license, take some poles and a sannich and make an afternoon of it.

Southwest District park is a good alternative on the othe side of town. May need to walk the initial 20 yard downhill entry with the very youngest riders.

We've been talking about a trip to WWC in the coming weekends anyway.  Will definitely need to look into all of this.

Rode the Prairie Loop at ASC today and that wasn't a bad option either and it's only 1.5 on the main loop or a bit more with some detours and only a few tricky spots. Definitely smoother than the school loop

Is there a spot at Riverwalk that you can actually jump in the river?  Wasn't sure if that was acceptable.

you had mentioned cooling off in the river which is why I asked.  I didn't literally mean jump, just enjoy the water.

Carl Fisher wrote on 08/05/15 at 7:47pm:


When you used the word jump the first thing I thought of is when my kids were younger and when they went near water the thing they looked for was a rope to swing out on or a ledge to jump off of, it was just a flash back to those days.