Lake Mead Parkway Trail

I am a bike trail enthusiast. Bike trails are asphalt ribbons of enthusiasm flowing across the landscape. They are adorable. Whether they are former railroads, circumvent a mountain range, or pass through the open spaces of an urban community; they celebrate the landscape. They give hikers, bicyclists, roller bladers, and sometimes equestrian riders enthusiasm. Being engineered for bicyclists, the hills are generally gentle, the curves soft, and the sight-​lines far. The majority of bike trails are A.D.A accessible which give people with disabilities enthusiasm. In recent years the bike trail revolution has landed in the City of Henderson. The City has been on bike trail building binge. The Bike Trail revolution has transformed the City of Henderson into the City of Enthusiasm.
The Lake Mead Parkway Trail is the newest addition to the City’s bike trail system. It is a ribbon of asphalt travelling across the Lake Mead Parkway corridor from Boulder Highway northeast to a junction of the River Mountains Loop Trail in the open spaces bordering the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. It is a trail featuring two totally different segments. From Boulder Highway to Athen’s Avenue (last stop light before Lake Las Vegas) it is a relatively flat trail passing through suburbia. Northeast of Athen’s Avenue, it turns into a hilly, windy trail overlooking a desert bordered by the River Mountains and a distant Lake Las Vegas. This is a swath of open space where the Wetlands Park, River Mountains, and Lake Mead National Recreation Area merge into an enthusiastic vista.
I am a bike trail enthusiast to the degree that last Sunday, I was determined to hike the Lake Mead Bike Trail from the Athen’s Avenue CVS parking lot to Laker Plaza a few hundred feet east of Lake Las Vegas Parkway in 112 degrees heat. Enthusiasm conquered any doubt about hiking in triple digit temps.
What I saw is a work in progress. Currently trail markers are nonexistent. There is a want of signage informing trail users that they are approaching the River Mountains Loop Trail and Wetlands Connector Trail. Construction has the trail temporary truncated at the tunnel that it will share with the Wetlands Connector Trail under Lake Mead Parkway. Guardrails are under construction. A trailhead by Goulda Street that will share with the Wetlands Connector Trail is being built. Makes more sense than CVS. Sheltered benches are up. Modern streetlamps adorn the trail. I have been told that they have a motion sensor that makes light brighter when people pass by.
I was most impressed by the connectivity to other trails. In a way it is the bicycle trail equivalent to the spaghetti bowl. In the rural segment the River Mountains Loop Trail (RMLT) feeds into it from Equestrian Park & Boulder City. For a few hundred yards the trails overlap. Then there is a major split. To the left, the trail intersects a Wetlands Park/​Lake Las Vegas bound Wetlands Connector Trail through a tunnel. If you continue straight, it continues as the Lake Mead National Recreation Area bound RMLT. This connectivity creates hours of hiking & bicycling opportunities.
I learned that in life enthusiasm overcomes negativity. It was enthusiasm that led me on an enjoyable adventure in 112 degree temperature. It is an adventure on a a new bike trail that I am enthusiastic to share on Unilocal.
The Daniel. S Unilocal 100 Challenge. Review 85.