Drs. Kevin Urbanczyk and Brad Butler enjoy a ride, and the view, from the trail. Photo by MaryAshley P. Gredell

Campus Hike - Bike Trail Closer to Reality

An eight-mile hiking-biking trail along Sul Ross State University’s Hancock Hill will be part of a City of Alpine grant proposal in the near future.

The City of Alpine has hired a grant writer to make a proposal to the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife for trail improvements within the city and Sul Ross.

If funding becomes available, the trail would be developed for multi-level use – easy, moderate, and difficult – for hikers and mountain bikers, said Dr. Kevin Urbanczyk, professor of Geology and an originator of the Sul Ross trail plan. Urbanczyk said the present proposal would have three proposed entrances and educational components. A short section of one trail head would be wheelchair accessible.

“There is not another university that I have been to that has this immediate access to remote hiking and biking terrain,” he said.

“Trail users would have excellent outdoor activity accessibility. Students could literally step outside their residence halls and be near a trailhead,” Urbanczyk said. “The trail would add educational components for geology, natural history, history, biology, wildlife and astronomy as well.”

Proposed entrances for the trail would be near the Mountainside Residence Hall, behind the Sul Ross Physical Plant and near the tennis courts.

According to Tom Brown of Naismith Engineering, the proposed Sul Ross improvements would include the three trail heads, misters and water fountains, and a riparian restoration along Moss Creek. There would also be a paved walkway, about seventy-five yards long, and an observation/stargazing deck constructed at trail head one.

“These improvements are currently estimated to total approximately $62,000 out of a total budget of $795,000. All trail improvements at this point would be done by volunteers,” said Brown, who is developing the grant proposal.

Urbanczyk said he and other volunteers have been working on trail development for about seven years, but the current proposal was added to the City of Alpine’s master plan in 2007.

The proposed project includes several items requested by the City of Alpine, including renovations at Kokernot Park, Medina Park, Baines Park, and new improvements at Pueblo Nuevo and American Legion parks. Included in the renovations are new playscapes, picnic areas, solar heating for the municipal swimming pool, trail renovations at Kokernot, and a large barbecue pit at the pavilion.