I Walked By An Area Close To The Public Today In Fort Worth's Gateway Park

I'd not visited the Gateway Park trail in a long time, til today.

That trail was damaged quite some time ago from the Trinity River flooding after the remains of Hurricane Hermine dropped too much rain for the river to easily handle.

For a long time after Hermine left town the Gateway Park trail was blocked, with a sign on the blockage informing trail walkers that the trail was closed.

Eventually the trail was reopened, though the damage has not been repaired, but interesting signs have been installed on the cyclone fencing, that blocks access to the damaged area, informing people that the "AREA CLOSE TO THE PUBLIC."

I did not need a sign to tell me that the area where I was standing was close to the public. I'm part of the public and I knew, quite clearly, that I was close to the area.

Another sign informed me that "TRAIL IS CLOSED TEMPORARILY FOR MAINTENANCE DO NOT ENTER"

Closed for maintenance? I did not see much maintenance going on.

Closed temporarily? It's been years, that does not seem very temporary to me.

As I walked along the sections of the trail that weren't closed, I saw a dirt path heading towards the river.

I followed that path and was surprised to see the remains of a very old trail that the river had washed out a long time ago, likely long before Hermine visited Fort Worth.

No cyclone fence or warning sign stopped me from walking on this old paved trail. You can't tell it very clearly from the picture, but, that is the paved trail, broken off, at the bottom of the picture. If I walked off the end of that trail I would have had myself a fun, long fall to the river below.

Chunks of fallen paved trail lay on the river bed, along with old tires and other flotsam.

A couple years ago a mountain bike trail was blazed in Gateway Park. I've never biked this mountain bike trail. My previous times seeing this trail it did not look as if very many people biked it. Today I saw the Gateway Park mountain bike trail and it now looks well ridden.

I shall return at some point in time in the near future to pedal the Gateway Park mountain bike trail.