Meet the cyclists building Pinellas’ first mountain bike trail

Football players don’t have to build their own stadiums. Swimmers don’t dig their own pools. Hockey players don’t bring their own ice. But a group of Tampa Bay mountain bikers proudly—literally—blazes their own trails.

SWAMP (the Southwest Association of Mountain Bike Pedalers) wholly maintains approximately 130 miles of trails in parks around the Tampa Bay area. For many local riders who enjoy them without getting their hands dirty, there’s still one drawback: The Bay’s nearest mountain bike trails are all a one-to-two-hour drive away from Tampa and St. Petersburg’s downtowns.

But that’s about to change, as SWAMP volunteers wrap up phase one of Pinellas County’s first mountain bike system at Lake Seminole Park. After county approval, the project began with volunteers and their yard tools in spring 2024.

Aside from a shorter drive, SWAMP executive director Pat Sanchez is excited that it will be the area’s first trail built to International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA) standards with the help of professionals at Natural TrailBuilders.

“It’s the holy bible, if you will, of mountain biking,” Sanchez told Creative Loafing Tampa.

The system is planned to be about 10 miles of off-road trails and a skills/training course area, with adaptive-friendly routes for those riding recumbent bikes and handcycles.

It’s also being built with the next generation of mountain bikers in mind. With trails that meets National Interscholastic Cycling Association standards, Pinellas will be able to host youth mountain biking competitions, including cross-country and technical races.

That’s huge for Parker Mefford, who, as a high school mountain bike racer, endured hours in the car to practice on trails in outer Hillsborough, Hernando, Polk and Pasco counties. But the thrill he got from beating the Gwazi Berm—a massive wooden feature at Alafia River State Park that looks like you’re riding straight into a wall and feels like a rollercoaster if you get through it—made him passionate enough to start his own team.

“As soon as I rode that, that’s when I fell in love with it and knew that mountain biking was what I wanted to do,” Mefford told CL.

At 14-years-old, he co-founded the Pinellas Sharks Mountain Biking Team with his dad, a former mountain bike racer, and two friends. Now, at 21, he coaches middle and high schoolers for the team, helping them chase that same fear-conquering feeling.

“It takes a little bit to learn how every kid responds to something, how to help a kid get over a fear of something,” Mefford said. “Seeing that kid’s face when they finally go down that rock roll, or something, is awesome.”

“It was dirty, it was terrifying, it was jumpy, buggy…Did I mention terrifying?”

SWAMP executive director Pat Sanchez

If you’re reading this and wondering why these riders can’t go to local bike trails like the Pinellas Trail, you’re thinking of road riding. Yes, both involve bikes, but are completely different sports.

“You get your strength and endurance on a road bike,” Sanchez explains.

“You sit on the seat constantly, but that perpetual motion builds an incredible amount of endurance. You take that endurance and put it in the dirt, and then you get focus and reaction. You have to be really quick. It’s a complete cycle for human functioning to have both of them vs. one or the other. They both play a role. That’s why we (‘bike maniacs’) justify having more than one bike.”

And not all local mountain bike trails are created equal. Of Alafia River State Park, she warns: “You have to be a really experienced rider to really enjoy those trails without having heart failure. … I’m not really an adrenaline seeker. If you find me on a black diamond trail, I got there by accident.”

Balm Boyette Scrub Preserve, a 46-minute drive from downtown Tampa, is what she calls “like a Disney World for everybody.”

“There’s enough of what you like to ride, and you’ll be satisfied after your ride. If you want endurance or black diamond skills, there’s plenty to do.”

"A woman wearing a bicycle helmet and sunglasses leans back in the driver's seat of a red Mahindra tractor with her feet propped up on the steering wheel SWAMP Executive Director Pat Sanchez Credit: Courtesy of Pat Sanchez

For the leader of a mountain biking organization, Sanchez needed more than a little convincing when she started the sport nearly 15 years ago. Her first ride on a bike she thought was way too expensive ($600) included getting chased by a group of wild pigs.

“The jury was pretty much out on how much I was going to like it,” she said. “It was dirty, it was terrifying, it was jumpy, buggy…Did I mention terrifying?”

But on another ride through some switchbacks in Hillsborough County’s Wilderness Park, she ended up in a field of blooming wildflowers.

“A little deer stuck his or her head out like, ‘Oh hi there!’ And I thought, maybe there is something to this.”

Sanchez soon joined fellow “bike maniacs” (as she calls them) at SWAMP. She’s been a volunteer for the last 12 years and has served as executive director since 2018.

“It probably is the most beneficial, healthiest, greatest decision I’ve made for myself in terms of life’s philosophies,” the 73-year-old said. “Everybody can be ahead of the game if they embrace an active sport.”

The challenge, she says, with building the Lake Seminole trail is more complicated than the dirty work. Natural TrailBuilders has advised the group that there are too many variables to set an accurate completion date. Phase one—family-friendly trails with a skills course—was supposed to be finished before the new year, but drought conditions pushed it back several months.

For phases two and three, she said the biggest challenge ahead is funding, mostly to cover the costs of stabilizing material for the trails, boardwalk material for bridges and skid steer equipment rentals. Through donations and county and local grants, SWAMP raised about $100,000 to fund phase one. Sanchez estimates the rest of the project will cost at least $300,000, and could increase by more than $150,000 with adaptive additions.

While applying for grants, she hopes some of that money will come in next month at CroomFest, a 35/50-mile off-road ride and outdoor festival in Brooksville that acts as SWAMP’s biggest fundraiser each year.

“It takes the backing of an entire community, whether it’s sweat equity, muscles, or financial support,” Sanchez said. “People look and go, ‘Oh wow, that’s great. You should do this or that.’ Well, if you’re gonna say ‘you should,’ you should be the one to take that initiative.”

Tickets start at $35 for CroomFest, happening Wednesday-Monday, Feb. 4-9 in Brooksville.

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