[Kcam23]

I had the opportunity to ride at OCNP for the first time yesterday, and WOW! It would appear that my jumping skills from younger years have slightly evaded me. I still hit as many as my body would allow, but I have some bumps and bruises to show for it. The trail was great, and many props to the stewards. I did get lost on some of the extra bandit trails that have been added, but still had a blast. Unfortunately, you can't control the neighborhood surrounding it.

When I arrived, there were 4 other vehicles in the trailhead parking lot, and none of them had bike racks. I did see one couple come out from hiking, but the others had people sitting in their cars waiting for "short meetings" with other cars that would drive up and leave. The parking lot was also decorated with colorful tiny ziplock baggies, and sticky, cylindrical, deflated balloons. I guess someone was having some kind of party with micro-sandwiches. My favorite part was the trailhead signs, and how someone must have been getting their guns ready for deer and dove season.

Overall, I had a really good time, and there's nothing DORBA or the trail stewards can do about the non-mtb/hikers. I just wouldn't recommend you leave any of your valuables in plain sight, and make sure your bike rack has a hitch lock.

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[Leafkiller]

Suddenly I feel completely safe riding Cameron Park at night.

 

[Shartist]

Well, aside from mountain biking that map highlights at least one of those trails’ other “multi-uses”

 

[Kcam23]

One of my favorite trails in DFW to ride. Just make sure you hide yo’ kids, hide yo’ wife, while you ride.


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[Schulze]

Haha, someone shot up the sign. That is so Dallas. I'd ride there.

 

[TwiceHorn]

It's a great trail. I have been riding it for years and have had zero incidents in the parking lot or on the trails.

The one tangible drawback to the "activity" in that locale is that some trail markers have a habit of disappearing. That and all the little bandit trails make it the "leisure suit larry" of MTB trails: took me a couple of years to find the jump area because I'd get turned around before I got there. You have to kind of "unlock" some of the loops.

What exactly is "Dallas" about a shot-up trail sign? A Gucci or Vuitton trail sign *might* qualify as "so Dallas." It so happens that much of the better geography for MTB is on the southwest side of Dallas, which, unlike most of the rest of the city, is fairly economically depressed, with all that entails. Every city everywhere has that.

L B Houston is the sketchiest trail in the Metro as far as skanky people and goings-on in the parking lots and occasionally on the trails. It's a very industrial area with apparently quite a bit of "fleshy industry" and homelessness.

Hell, a roadie was murdered with a machete by a homeless, schizophrenic ex-Aggie football player on a paved trail next to Harry Moss and one of the ritzier country clubs in Dallas and Presbyterian Hospital.

Also, OP, if you haven't ridden Boulder Park, in the same general vicinity, it's a lot of fun, also. A bit different.

 

[Kcam23]

Boulder and OCNP are my favorite trails out of the City of Dallas proper. I don’t think there’s any reason to take offense to “That’s so Dallas”. The areas of crime you described are Dallas as well. I worked in Oak Cliff for years, and now have worked in South Dallas for the last 2. I’ve also worked on Greenville and Royal, as well as Greenville and Park. Crime is everywhere. Sometimes it’s just more concentrated. I just wish people who live nearby, and destroy the trails, understood what they have in their neighborhoods. I’ll keep riding them, and keep locking up my belongings, just like I do at North Shore or Sansom.


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[TwiceHorn]

I'm not really offended by it so much as perplexed. Dallas has the rep, partially justifiably, as being superficially materialistic. It's never been particularly high-crime, especially in comparison to other Texas cities. It has a hood, just like every other city. OCNP is in the hood.

If Austin had trails in Rundberg, Plugerville, far east Austin, or some of those areas, they might have bullet holes in trail signs, as well.

 

[Schulze]

I was referring to the lackadaisical attitude toward shooting things. As a kid hanging out at my uncle's place in Garland, we'd hear shots all the time. One time he called the police and the dispatcher wanted to know if anyone was hit. When he said he didn't know, that was that. They were totally uninterested. I'm cool with that. No blood, no foul.

 

[TwiceHorn]

From what I understand, at one time not so long ago, Garland was pretty wild. Meaning rural, farm-y, wild animals wild. So was Arlington.

Now it's more hoodrat wild. But the trail out there doesn't get shot up.

Interesting note, Stevie Ray Vaughn grew up a couple of blocks from OCNP.

 

[narcoleptic]

A bunch of a Plano-dwellers scared of their own shadow in here. Oak Cliff isn't anything like it used to be. Even back then, don't look for none, you won't find none.

 

[Kcam23]

A bunch of a Plano-dwellers scared of their own shadow in here. Oak Cliff isn't anything like it used to be. Even back then, don't look for none, you won't find none.

Ha ha, where do you live in Oak Cliff? That part of Oak Cliff is trying to turn around with the Bishop Arts area, but just because you don't look for the crime, doesn't mean it isn't there. Especially the more south you go.

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[TwiceHorn]

Ha ha, where do you live in Oak Cliff? That part of Oak Cliff is trying to turn around with the Bishop Arts area, but just because you don't look for the crime, doesn't mean it isn't there. Especially the more south you go.

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You're both right. OCNP is not South Oak Cliff. But 20 years ago, it was worse than it is now. The Kessler Park invasion of whiteys has had side effects.

I've actually heard of more depredations (broken into cars) more recently at Boulder than OCNP.

Pleasant Grove is worse than all parts of Oak Cliff. It's what OC used to be. LexisNexis® Community Crime Map

Vickery Meadow/Four Points is probably the worst place in Dallas and it's a couple of miles from the best neighborhoods in Dallas.

 

[Leafkiller]

Back in the late 90s I lived in an apartment at NW hwy and Skillman. It was a great area with a lot of beautiful apartment complexes. The complex we lived in could have had Ewoks swinging from the trees and had a beautiful creek running through it. The area started to become more violent. Working nights I heard gun shots all the time and then sirens. We had talked about moving back to Waco but actually seeing a drive by shooting convinced us to hurry up and decide. We went back to that area a couple of years ago to see how much had changed. The old apartment complex was now a parking lot for a super Wal-Mart. We were so sad. But hey the Taco Bell/Dominos/KFC place was still there and going.

 

[Kcam23]

Back in the late 90s I lived in an apartment at NW hwy and Skillman. It was a great area with a lot of beautiful apartment complexes. The complex we lived in could have had Ewoks swinging from the trees and had a beautiful creek running through it. The area started to become more violent. Working nights I heard gun shots all the time and then sirens. We had talked about moving back to Waco but actually seeing a drive by shooting convinced us to hurry up and decide. We went back to that area a couple of years ago to see how much had changed. The old apartment complex was now a parking lot for a super Wal-Mart. We were so sad. But hey the Taco Bell/Dominos/KFC place was still there and going.

That area did have a good run, and was a pretty good college/bar friendly area. If you head a little farther north up Greenville, 5 points was one if the deadliest areas in Dallas for a while. That title has since returned to South Dallas, but pretty much any area is susceptible. Police presence is the biggest factor, and since DPD is 500+ short on staffing, areas like trailheads being used for target practice and drug deals will be a low priority.

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[Schulze]

I don't see anything wrong with open spaces being used for recreational pharmaceutical or 2nd Amendment activities, but maybe there needs to be some better targets set up to incentivize those mislead gunmen to not shoot the maps? Seems logical to me.

 

[Cleared2land]

After a ride and as I was departing from Boulder a few weeks ago, we saw police at a vehicle had been broken into (side window smashed out) on a busy, high traffic weekend morning. It's a bummer.

 

[TwiceHorn]

After a ride and as I was departing from Boulder a few weeks ago, we saw police at a vehicle had been broken into (side window smashed out) on a busy, high traffic weekend morning. It's a bummer.

Was that last Sunday? Man, I went down there, not thinking about the church crowd or anything and it was packed. Parking lot full, 10-12 cars on both sides of the road. I headed back to OCNP, which was fine.

If so, surprising there was criminal action, as many people as were around.

 

[Kcam23]

We've stopped parking at the actual park, and parking at the Wells Fargo building on Hampton. It's surrounded by police vehicles, and security vehicles. The DPD helicopter is kept there, and there are a ton of cameras. It adds maybe a mile to your ride, and you enter on B Loop, but it's worth it.

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[TwiceHorn]

Is there a fence opening on B that lets you in? Or is it that kind of long rocky rut along the highway? I cant remember if there's a fence there or not?