A new mountain bike trail on land owned by the Marathon County Solid Waste Facility could be built this summer.
Members of the Marathon County Solid Waste Committee gave tentative approval Monday to a plan that would let the Central Wisconsin Off-Road Cycling Coalition build a trail on part of the more than 500 acres owned for landfill purposes in the town of Ringle.
The ten miles of trails could cost as much as $264,000 if professionally built, says CWOCC Vice President Matt Block. Club members might be able to do some of the work themselves to save money. The club plans to raise funds for the trail and no county money would be needed for the project, which has been in the planning stages for more than a year.
The Ringle trail would be the third mountain bike area in the county, behind Nine Mile Forest and the new trails at Sylvan Hill Park to be constructed this year. The projects are part of a larger plan to make the county an International Mountain Bike Association ride center, which would be an enormous tourism draw for the area.
County staff will work on a finalized draft agreement that could get approval in spring.
