After Walking Around Fort Worth's Fosdick Lake A Surprise Was Found On Randol Mill Road

I had myself a mighty fine jog around the neighborhood early this morning of the second day of 2016.

Around noon I headed west to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdick Lake. Which would make that Fosdick Lake, looking cold, that you see here.

On the way to Fosdick Lake I was convinced to make an increasingly rare Town Talk visit, post the walk around the lake.

My route from Fosdick Lake to Town Talk today was via heading north on Oakland, then west on Randol Mill Road. When Randol Mill Road and the Chesapeake Energy wasteland came into view I was surprised by what my eyes were seeing.

New paved trail.

When I reached Randol Mill Road and took a left I quickly came upon another surprise. A big new parking lot, with picnic tables and access to the new paved trail.

I pulled into the new parking lot, parked and exited my vehicle to do some photo documenting.

You can see just a slice of the new paved trail at the edge of the parking lot.

Another view, looking west, again with a slice of the paved trail visible. But what is the structure made of big bricks? Let's look on the other side.

And what do we find? An enclosure for an outhouse, looking a lot like the outhouse enclosures located at America's Biggest Boondoggle's location called Panther Island Pavilion, where there is no island or pavilion, but there are some  mighty fine outhouses, along with a couple outdoor showers to wash off the dirty Trinity River water after one is done rockin' the river.

If I remember right, a few TRV Boondoggle quarterly updates ago mention was made of plans to expand the Trinity Trail east, to Quanah Parker Park. This new paved trail does that. This is a real good thing. If this is a product of America's Biggest Boondoggle it is the first thing I am aware of that The Boondoggle has done which I think it a good thing.

I also saw new paved trail leading out of Gateway Park, heading towards the new paved trail heading in from  the east. I assume the existing bridge across the Trinity River will become the bridge for the new paved trail. The bridge for the new road has made a lot of progress since I saw it during the Thanksgiving floods.

Looking at the rapid progress of the road and bridge and paved trail building I'm guessing by Spring this should be just about finished. At that point in time I will be able to park at the Quanah Parker Park parking lot and roll my bike wheels over paved, car-free trail all the way to downtown Fort Worth and beyond, or to the Fort Worth Stockyards.

Years ago, back when the River Legacy Park paved trail was extended almost all the way to 360 there was talk at the time of that paved trail being extended east to connect to the Dallas Trinity Trail. Methinks doing so would be a HUGE asset to the D/FW zone. If a paved trail connection were also made from Quanah Parker Park, east to River Legacy Park, one would be able to bike from Fort Worth to Dallas.

Who has not dreamed of doing such? Well, probably not many. But, with some amenities along the route, such as one finds along Seattle's Burke-Gilman Trail, paved Trinity Trails between Fort Worth and Dallas could become a popular attraction.