For Richard Anderson, the Pinehurst Mountain Bike Trail is a beautiful escape.
"We come here to exercise and get away from things," he says. "It's got lots of animals and wildlife and fresh air, and it's beautiful. There's no other place like this."
Which is why he says what he's seeing now is heartbreaking. "They're destroying this place!"
Anderson says the trees are disappearing from Pinehurst, and he wants to know why.
"When you're riding mountain bikes in say July or June or August, and it's so powerfully hot, you want a place where you can come ride in the shade," he says.
He's not the only one scratching his head.
Cyclist Daniel Sucre was struggling to get his bike through the surrounding debris. "They should stop doing it. They stop breaking the park. Because the park is a great park."
It's all about maintenance
A canal running next to the trail is operated by the Lake Worth Drainage District.
The district explained it is removing exotic trees with weak root structures that sit on its right of way next to the canal.
The fear is that the trees will fall in, causing a blockage and possible flooding.
"Even if that were the case and they had to come back a few feet, do they really need to go all the way back here into the forest?" Anderson asks.
While it may be too late to put the brakes on the maintenance project, Anderson is hoping something can be done to help a trail that means so much to so many. "It's not just the physical activity, but it's what it does for people on an emotional level. On a spiritual level too."
Anderson says he's reaching out to county officials and fellow cyclists to see what, if anything, can be done about the tree removal.
Florida Off Road Cycling Enthusiasts, the group that maintains and conserves the park, says that while the work going on there now is a little frustrating, it does support the maintenance project.
