A Trail Friendly Community is a great place to live and to visit, where a variety of trail experiences can be found in a reasonable distance from the community’s center. It is a place where officials, trail organizations, residents, and businesses all recognize the importance of trail-based recreation and play a role in developing and maintaining those amenities. Before IMBA launched the Trail Friendly Community self-assessment in October 2024, we asked a handful of IMBA Local Member Organizations and trail champions from a variety of communities to review the self-assessment. One was Weatherford, Texas, home to the Weatherford Mountain Bike Club. Check out their experience with the self-assessment in this blog.

Pilot Community: Lawrence, Kansas

Another community that worked with IMBA on piloting the Trail Friendly Community self-assessment was Lawrence, Kansas. Lawrence is located in the northeastern part of Kansas, about 40 miles west of Kansas City and 25 miles east of Topeka. While Lawrence isn’t considered mountainous, it is surrounded by gently rolling hills and scenic countryside that appeals to all sorts of outdoor enthusiasts.

Lawrence has serious community partnerships power. In 2023, working with community partners such as Evergy, Inc. and the Friends of Lawrence Area Trails, the Lawrence Mountain Bike Club received an IMBA Trail Accelerator Grant to explore expansion of trails near Cameron’s Bluff along the Kansas river. Trail Accelerator Grants are an excellent way to get new infrastructure projects started and take demonstrated commitment from collaborative community partners, which Lawrence has.

Trail Champ: Sarah Hill-Nelson

Lawrence also has stand-out trail champions like Sarah Hill-Nelson. Sarah Hill-Nelson is a NICA mom and coach, the GRiT coordinator, an avid gravel enthusiast and mountain bike rider, a community-organizer engaged with multiple community groups, and a leader of Bowersock Hydropower, the only operating hydroelectric power plant in Kansas. Sarah sat down with Marty Caivano, IMBA’s Local Community Engagement Manager to discuss the Trail Friendly Community self-assessment and how she’d like to use it to further trails and collaborations in Lawrence.

Championing Trail Friendly Communities

Marty: Sarah, you work with a few different organizations, but you’re kind of an independent trail champion, right?

Sarah: Yeah, we have the Lawrence Mountain Bike Club in the area stewarding some of the trails, and we’ve formed a coalition with Friends of Lawrence Area Trails that includes the Friends of the Kaw, local bike shops including Sunflower and Trek, and others. We also have various groups: the Sunday Chug crew, the Lawrence Bike Club, and more. Our local government is starting to see the value of trails, too. We have a long-time trail champion at Lawrence Parks and Rec, Mark Hecker. He started the Lawrence Loop and has been pushing trail projects forward for years. We’ve also got a new Parks and Rec director who gets the value of trails and the idea of a recreation corridor along the river.

But yes, I think with regard to Cameron’s Bluff it’s fair to say I’m a linchpin of these groups. I’ve been working on this for about 20 years now. I started with someone from Evergy (a Kansas-based regulated utility) who later went on to lead the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. He’s been a behind-the-scenes champion for this project, stepping in when needed to help me. 

Marty: What’s the vibe like in Lawrence for trails and ridership?

Sarah: Lawrence has a big gravel riding scene. The biking community is really positive. Sunflower Outdoor & Bike has been a community shop for decades and is a leader here. There’s a really cool community ride called the Sunday Chug. It leaves from Sunflower every Sunday, with up to 70-100 riders rolling out at a pace that everyone can join, about 13 miles per hour. There’s a coffee stop, and it’s super social. The Trek store is also very active and the store manager, Christian Beer, keeps things moving along with events.

Dream Expansions: The River Corridor

Marty: You mentioned a recreation corridor—tell me more about your overall vision for trails in Lawrence.

Sarah: Well, I took some inspiration from IMBA’s "Trails Close to Home" initiative because it really resonated with us here in Kansas. My vision is to make trails easily accessible for everyone. It’s not about grandiose projects—it’s about creating small nodes of trails that generate momentum and get people out.

Personally, I’m really passionate about the river corridor. Lawrence is here because of the river, and I’d love to see it become a recreation hub. Upstream, we have a coal-fired power plant that will be retired eventually, and there’s a lot of land there that could be used for recreation. My long-term goal is to get Evergy on board to make that space accessible for people.

Growing up here, if you wanted to go hunting or fishing, you had to know a farmer or land-owner. Even kayaking or canoeing the Kaw (the Kansas River) was a bit of a pirate operation—we used to drag canoes over the railroad tracks. Now, Friends of the Kaw has put in boat launches, making the river accessible to people legally and safely. 

My vision is to have all of this—biking, hiking, fishing, kayaking—within walking distance of downtown Lawrence. That would be amazing.

Piloting the Trail Friendly Community Self-assessment

Marty: So to jump into the assessment itself, obviously you were one of our beta testers. Do you remember just some nuts and bolts—how long it took you to fill it out?

Sarah: I feel like it didn’t take that long, maybe around 30 minutes.

Marty: If you know your trails well and don’t need to do a lot of research, about half an hour is what we expected. Did you have anyone else fill it out, or talk about it with anyone? We were curious if our beta testers discussed it with their boards or others.

Sarah: No, I didn’t share it with anyone, but I can now. After we last spoke, I thought about sharing it with the Lawrence Mountain Bike Club or the Lawrence Bike Club.

Marty: What tools or data did you need to complete it? Did you use anything like Trailforks or Google Maps? What did you use for your community center?

Sarah: I probably used Google Maps, but not Trailforks. Mostly to confirm distances to trailheads. I used Downtown Lawrence for the community center. 

Marty: For folks taking the self-assessment, who do you recommend they engage with or talk to before filling it out?

Sarah: I think it’d be a good exercise for a board to do together, like at the Lawrence Mountain Bike Club. Doing it as a group during a meeting or retreat would be helpful, getting everyone’s opinion. I’d also love to have Parks and Rec fill it out as a group. Maybe engage their tourism boards, like our tourism arm: Explore Lawrence. 

Marty: Does Lawrence currently see much tourism for mountain biking?

Sarah: We do for gravel riding, but not as much for mountain biking. People come from Kansas City to ride in our Sunday group, so that qualifies as tourism. They usually stay after and have lunch downtown. If we had more trails, more mountain bikers could ride the lower trails, have lunch, and then go ride the upper trails.

Marty: When you first read the questions, did you feel they were purposeful? Did they get to the heart of the advocacy you’re doing? Did you feel anything was missing?

Sarah: Yes, I thought they were good questions, and it was valuable. I didn’t feel like anything was missing. It felt comprehensive. Nothing jumped out that I thought, "Wow, they should have asked X, Y, or Z.”

Marty: Did you take any actions after reviewing the recommendations from the assessment?

Sarah: Honestly, I think a lot of it was about engaging with land managers, but we don’t have many land managers here since so much of our land is private. Our process is a bit different.

Marty: Every community has its own situation. It sounds like you were already doing a lot of the recommended actions. You’re very well-connected. 

Sarah: Yeah, I think so. I’ve been trying to engage the grassroots people—finding out who we need to talk to. I’ve been here a while, so that helps.

Trail Friendly Communities Invite Participation

Marty: Do you think Lawrence could be motivated to become a trail-friendly community? Like it could be a community value? 

Sarah: Yes, especially with our new Parks and Rec director. I think it’s about how you see yourself. If you perceive yourself as a trail-friendly community, it motivates you to act that way. We also have a new city manager, and we have this series of values we have to consider for any project. It’s a strategic plan with specific goals. Becoming a trail-friendly community could fit into that.

Marty: Do you think Parks and Rec would see the value in being trail-friendly, and are there other partners?

Sarah: I think we’d have support from the city commission. With our city manager, we’d work with him to make it fit into his plan.

Marty: What do you think would happen if Lawrence became a trail-friendly community?

Sarah: I think our tourism board, Explore Lawrence, would start to run with it. They’d define us that way and we’d get more city funding for trails. I’d love to see something like the Sunday Chug group, where people could come to Sunflower, check out a Garmin, and pick a ride based on wind direction and distance. Bentonville has done a great job with this—creating an adventure experience for people.

Marty: Sounds like you want to create an inviting structure for people who may not know where to start.

Sarah: Exactly. When we put concrete on part of our river loop, it gave people permission to use it. They thought, "Oh, I can do this." It gives people the tools to get outside. And I think if we’re a bike-friendly community, we're more likely to get grants. The city is more likely to allocate dollars, the tourism board will keep promoting it, and I see it as a momentum-gathering snowball effect.

Broader Perspectives and Next Steps

Marty: So when I first told you about the project, did you think, "This could be helpful, but I’m not sure," or did you immediately see its potential?

Sarah: I had some initial skepticism. But after doing it, I realized it’s about training our brains to think in certain ways. I think it would be valuable for the Lawrence Parks and Rec board to take it. The process itself motivates you to think differently. So I’d love to see our board and others go through it.

Marty: That’s great! I hadn’t thought about it that way. I hoped it would help people think about the bigger vision for their area, not just the small issues they focus on daily.

Sarah: Exactly. It makes you think comprehensively about the community. It trains your brain to approach challenges differently. So yes, it helps broaden perspectives.

Marty: Did it have any impact on the way you’ve been thinking about the Cameron’s Bluff Trail Accelerator Grant project?

Sarah: It reinforced the broader vision. I’ve already been thinking that way for some time. When we established the Friends of Lawrence Area Trails, I was adamant that it wasn’t just about Lawrence and Douglas County—it’s all of northeast Kansas. Especially with gravel riding, Lawrence is a launch point for people to explore. It’s possible to turn Lawrence into another node, similar to Bentonville or Emporia, where people could ride for a few days and then explore the area, enjoying the local restaurants and culture.

Marty: How do you think you’ll use the Trail Friendly Community designation if you decide to go for that when that launches in 2025? 

Sarah: I think the Trail Friendly Community designation could help us bring different groups together. We tend to work in silos, and Friends of Lawrence Area Trails is more of an advocacy group—it’s about advocating for funding and coordination. The trail-friendly designation could break down those silos and get everyone working toward the same goal. I’m excited to get that collaborative ball rolling. 

Marty: IMBA is stoked to see the momentum, partnerships, and cycling community in Lawrence. Congrats on all the incredible work! And thanks for helping us launch the Trail Friendly Community Self-assessment. 

Sarah: Absolutely. The Trails Accelerator Grant really gave our project legitimacy, so that’s uplifting when it’s been a long effort. Good things are happening, and we are balancing patience with pushing for the Lawrence we want to see.

Take the Trail Friendly Community Self-assessment today!