Photo by Jessica Stewart / St. Joseph News-Press / Purchase this photo

Randy Tracy rides on the Corby north trail Friday afternoon. Mr. Tracy was involved in building the first off-road mountain biking trail in St. Joseph.

St. Joseph might not have the number of bicyclists that inhabit other Midwestern cities, but they’re dedicated.

Omaha and Lincoln, Neb., and Lawrence, Kan., are bicycle-friendly towns with numerous bicycle paths, clubs and events. But St. Joseph’s mountain bike trails grow miles longer every year, due to volunteers with a passion for pedaling.

“For the number of people we have riding here,” said Lancen Milhouse, 30, an engineer at Boehringer Ingleheim Vetmedica who has been riding for 12 years, “a very high percentage do trail work.”

An estimated “hundreds” of hours of work have gone into clearing wooded areas off the city’s Parkway in the past few years. Chain saws, pruners, industrial weedwhackers, rakes and leaf blowers are used to make paths through thickets along the Parkway. The occasional poison ivy breakout and slithering reptile are hazards of the work, but the payoff is an intense ride.

“They are very well designed,” said Mr. Milhouse, who has given up road bicycling. “ ... typically pretty fast and pretty fun and just enjoyable trails to ride.”

Randy Tracy helped build St. Joseph’s first, and for the longest time, the only off-road trail for mountain bikes in St. Joseph. He admits that the design of the course and the skill level required to navigate it probably turned off a majority of beginners.

“That’s why we wanted something a little more tame and little more family friendly,” said Mr. Tracy, who has been riding mountain bikes since 1985.

The trails near Corby Pond (Corby South and Corby North), which were completed a couple years ago, helped boost the number of local mountain bike riders, Mr. Tracy said.

“Mountain biking is kind of making a comeback,” he said, mentioning that many riders were influenced to go to road biking after Lance Armstrong’s triumphs at the Tour de France but are now coming back to the trails. “It’s maybe back to 50/50.”

The newest trail, which still needs bridge work over some muddy spots, is called Girl Scout Trail, located off the Northwest Parkway just east of Krug Park at the location of the old Girl Scout day camp.

Shawn Force, a local bicycle shop owner and the ring-leader in the midst of the volunteers, said the six-mile Girl Scout Trail brings St. Joseph’s total new trail mileage to 16.

“The idea is to actually incorporate a variety of terrain,” Mr. Force said of the different trails, the maps to which can be found at http://stjtrailmaps.blogspot.com/.

A race, called the Robidoux Roundup will be held May 18 at the South Corby Trail. Entry fees will go toward the purchase of equipment to maintain the trails. For more information about the race, call Mr. Force at 279-1500.