White Rock Lake trail improvements are really underway

Last Saturday was a sunny 70 degrees and White Rock Lake was hopping. The dog park at Mockingbird is still halfway underwater and the entrance is clearly marked CLOSED — but minor details such as this didn’t stop scores of canines and their determined companions from making use of the drier regions. But that’s not really what this is about. This is about seeing progress and the fruit of many lake-lovers’ labors.

My favorite jogging course takes me along Van Dyke down to the lakeside via Mockingbird. From there, I cross the bridge over the water and follow the trail, ogling the pretty mansions and then the sailboats along Lawther for about 1.5 miles before turning around. But I stopped running that course many weeks ago because of the massive construction, dirt and dust and the reduced amount of room for runners, which I feared would result in my being hit either by a car or a bike. But last Saturday was so lovely, that the lake just seemed to be calling my name. I had been previously pumped about the trail improvements —I knew about all the work the city as well as organizations such as For the Love of the Lake was doing. But actual change seemed far away. It doesn’t feel that way anymore, though. My weekend trek revealed a whole new stretch of track. It’s nowhere near done, but at least now I can tangibly appreciate what we are getting here. It’s a nice wide soft path similar to the Katy Trail that we don’t have to share with cars. The White Rock Lake Master Plan once seemed like a pipe dream to me. But hey, it doesn’t take much to make me happy (for a little while anyway). Pretty soon, I’ll have no excuse at all not to train for that marathon in December.

Comments

[Julie]

So is anything ever going to be done about the dog park being underwater? Or is the dog park just unusable until we hit the arid days of summer?

[Robert]

Does anyone know anything about a proposed plan to incorporate the and from the old Santa Fe Train line into a jogging trail leading to White Rock Lake?

[Christina Hughes-Babb]

Robert - make sure you read the soon-to-be-delivered May issue of the East Dallas Advocate. I'm writing a short piece on plans for the Santa Fe Trail.