Iowa City’s Parks and Recreation Department opened a new Ice House Single Track Trail located at Terrell Mill Park.

The bike track trail was officially ready for public use on Aug. 14, and it includes beginner and intermediate routes with features around the old Englert Ice House foundation. The trail also connects to the Iowa River Trail and other local routes to make it easily accessible for cyclists.

Iowa City Parks and Forestry Superintendent Tyler Baird said the trail fills a gap in Iowa City’s outdoor recreation offerings, catering to various age groups.

“[The trail] is something that we had envisioned and hoped for for quite a while and the bicycle community had been asking for,” Baird said. “We happened to find the right spot for it finally.”

The process involved years of consideration and planning to find the optimal location within the park system, he said.

The design and build of the trail were done in-house by the city staff, with some expertise sought from the superintendent of parks at Coralville, as Coralville has had single-track trails for some time. Staff then walked the site, picked a route, and created a GPS-style map for the build crew to follow. The crew made the necessary adjustments on-site and rode segments of the trail to ensure it felt right for biking.

In addition, Baird shared that the wooden features around the Ice House Single Track Trail were created using Iowa City lumber.

“A lot of the wood with the decking on the built features came from lumber from trees that we took down around town that needed to come down, and we were able to reuse that,” Baird said. “So, it was a fun feature of the trail, reusing some of our urban lumber to put it to a nice use and create some amenities.”

Ryan Baker, owner of World of Bikes, was excited for the long-awaited trail.

“It’ll be a bonus to some of the great trails that we already have in place and hopefully give some accessibility to people that may not be able to get out to some of the other trail systems in the area,” Baker said.

Baker and his family also donated to the Ice House Single Track Trail in honor of his late father.

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“We had gotten a considerable amount of money through donations through his memorial,” Baker said. “We decided that when the Parks Department was going to put this in, we would offer to pay for the bench and workstation at the trailhead in his memory.”

Baker also believes the trail is a bonus to the current trail network that will offer new opportunities for outdoor recreation.

Matt Burkey, the Iowa Bicycle Coalition’s Safe Routes to School coordinator, discussed the Ice House Single Track Trail’s role in making Johnson County a destination for mountain biking, tourism, and making the community more livable.

“When people travel to try mountain bike trails, it’s great to have many different options nearby,” Burkey said. “With the Ice House, Carol Mill Park in Iowa City, Woodpecker and Creekside mountain bike trails in Coralville, and Sugar Bottom trails up north in Johnson County, it makes a really great opportunity to boost tourism and make Johnson County a more livable community.”

The Ice House Single Track Trail will also allow residents to have an opportunity to use mountain bike trails locally, Burkey said.

In addition, Burkey said the Iowa Bicycle Coalition’s mission is to ensure that bicycling in Iowa is safe, enjoyable, and accessible for all. One important upcoming event is the National Walk & Roll to School Day. The event is an opportunity to promote active transportation to schools and get more kids and families walking and biking together instead of driving to school.

In the future, Iowa City’s Parks and Recreation Department hopes to create more opportunities for cyclists in the community, and the new trail has already begun receiving positive feedback.

“We’ve had some emails from people who have used it that have expressed how much they appreciate having a place in Iowa City where they can go,” Baird said. “It’s just a cool space to do some single-track or off-road biking right in town.”