Circle Trail Tour May 3

We are so fortunate to have hiking/biking trails in Wichita Falls. Although not yet complete, the trail will eventually form a circle around the city and be about 23 miles long. 

A special event coming up will highlight a 14-mile section of the trail between Lake Wichita Park and Lucy Park. The City of Wichita Falls is holding a Circle Trail Tour on Saturday, May 3, 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM. This is a free event. Although  this event is being held to celebrate national Bike Month, you can walk, run, skateboard or rollerblade the trail.

There will be 10 sponsored “cheer stops” hosted by local organizations including: Bike Safe Wichita Falls, Texas Parks and Wildlife, German-American Club, Hotter ‘n Hell Hundred, The Bike Stop, YMCA, Texas Medical Association, Riverside Cycling Center, Wichita County Medical Alliance, Wee-Chi-Tah Trail Race, East of the Falls CDC and Wichita County Sheriff’s Office Citizens Academy.

Each stop will provide drinks and snacks. Some stops are planning entertainment, games and demonstrations. Participants can also pick up a passport from any sponsor, which can then be stamped at each stop and turned in for a chance to win prizes. The event will be officially start at 10:am at Lucy Park but participants can begin at any point along the route. 

For more information please contact the Public Information Office at 761-7401.

I am wondering if I can manage to walk the 14 mile trail in 5 hours. Hmmmm. Well. at least part of it. Hope to see some of you out there.

Christmas Tree Drop Off

If you had a live Christmas tree this year, you need to know where to dispose of it, unless you have enough room for a nice brush pile on your own property.

The City of Wichita Falls Sanitation Department has opened locations at Lucy Park (at the back of the park near the river) and Kiwanis Park (next to the park maintenance building near the entrance to the park) for easy disposal of natural Christmas trees. The free drop-off areas are open twenty-four hours a day.

Only real trees that have been completely stripped of the tree stand, all decorations and lights will be accepted. No artificial trees will be accepted. The trees will be recycled as mulch and used around trees, shrubs and flower beds in each park. 

City residents can also use the Landfill or Transfer Station for FREE tree disposal anytime during normal operating hours. Residents are encouraged to take advantage of these disposal methods, as there is no curbside pickup of Christmas trees. Trees left out by the curb will not be picked up by sanitation crews. 


If you choose,  you may also drop off trees at the Inland Fisheries office at 409 Chester Avenue (off Old Jacksboro Hwy). Those trees are used to improve fish habitat at Lake Arrowhead State Park.

City Cleanup Saturday

I can tell in moving around the city that we didn't have the huge turnout for the community cleanup we needed, but some areas look a lot better than they did before. When I was on my way to Scotland Park to register our group, I passed a group of about 50 men who were cleaning up the horrible mess under the overhead at the Kell intersection. If there was an area that needed to be cleaned up, that was it. A big thank you to whatever group tackled that area. The Texas Master Naturalists had Lucy Park. The city had already done a very good job of cleaning up the main area of the park due to a community activity that afternoon, so our group concentrated on the rear, wooded area of the park. We spent nearly 3 hours and hauled out a lot of trash and some aluminum cans for recycling. We didn't get it as neat as we would have liked, but other projects had us leaving shortly after noon, so we had to stop. Many thanks to the Keep Wichita Falls Beautiful organization for sponsoring this event and to the many volunteers that came out that day.

Trash Tirade

I'm on a trash tirade this morning. At the Park Board meeting this past week I was telling the other Park Board members that Lucy Park looked as bad as I have ever seen it just before Hotter 'n Hell weekend. There was trash everywhere.

I have been one of the proponents of increasing Lake Wichita shoreline access for fishing. But I was at Wild Bird Rescue Saturday and walked down to the shore on a break at the old boat launch where a father and son had just been fishing. The trash in that area (see photos above) makes me wonder about the wisdom of that work. I don't know that these two had anything to do with the mess on the shore, but the fishing line packages, fishing line and bait containers indicate some fisherman (or woman) left the mess there.

Littering is one of my "hot button" issues. It just really sets me off to see people leave a mess. Unfortunately, I don't often see people make a mess (which my husband says is a good thing as I have a tendency to say something about it), but obviously someone is leaving trash around. We should use a little peer pressure to encourage people to clean up after themselves. When we plan an event, trash pickup (and recycling) needs to be part of the planning process.

Littering is a crime. True, the fine isn't all that big, but money talks. When Park personnel have to be used to clean up trash, they can't mow or do other important maintenance work in our parks and along our trails. I would prefer to see the money that is now spent on trash pick up or graffitti clean up used to beautify more medians or spent on other needed improvements in our city, not cleaning up after people who have no respect for their neighbors.

So, what can we do?

• Clean up after ourselves. If we bring it in, we need to take it out.
• Clean up trash when we see it. I don't pick up all of the trash I see (I wouldn't get anywhere) but I try to pick up some trash and put it in the nearest trash container.
• Apply peer pressure when we see others litter.
• Participate in city cleanups.

Are you part of a group that would like to help keep Wichita Falls looking clean? The Rolling Plains Texas Master Naturalists clean up Plum Lake once a quarter and Sikes Lake every September. Jack Murphy (Park and Recreation Director for City of Wichita Falls) said he would be willing to work with volunteer groups that would be responsible for certain areas on a regular basis.

The first time the Master Naturalists did Plum Lake, it was a major job, but we can usually clean up the shoreline in less than 2 hours now that we do it on a regular basis.

Great Morning for Invasives Observations

A beautiful morning for a walk. The weather was clear and in the 50's.

I decided to walk one of the city trails and make some Invaders observations. I chose the Falls Trail between the entrance to Lucy Park and the pedestrian bridge behind the MPEC.

The picture to the left is of a mimosa tree, one of the 134 species of plants the Texas Master Naturalists are helping to document in Texas. I made 25 observations in just this short section of trail. I am sure I would have made more if I was better at plant ID.

If you haven't discovered the city's trails system yet, it is one of the best-kept secrets in the city. This particular section is not as heavily used as some of the areas, probably because of concerns for safety. Personally, I have never had a problem, but I have had others tell me they don't walk that stretch as a portion of it goes through a run down area of town. But it is a very scenic stretch of the river (as scenic as the Wichita River gets anyway) except in the winter, when the vegetation dies back and you can see all of the trash.