A mountain bike trail planned at Sugar Land Memorial Park will honor Justin Petersen Brindley, a local outdoor enthusiast who died last year while rafting on the Colorado River.
JUSTIN BRINDLEY BIKE TRAIL – Justin P. Brindley pictured near Moab, Utah. The City of Sugar Land will construct a mountain bike trail in Brindley’s memory at Sugar Land Memorial Park. Brindley died last year while rafting on the Colorado River.
During last week’s meeting, the Sugar Land City Council accepted a $55,000 donation from Brindley’s parents for the construction of a two-mile mountain bike trail south of University Boulevard and Commonwealth Boulevard near the Brazos River. This is the area where Brindley, a Clements High School graduate, spend much of his early life riding bikes and enjoying the outdoors.
According to family members, Brindley’s “keen interest in the outdoors started early with much time spent biking and fishing along Ditch H and the Brazos River” near the location of the future trail that will bear his name. He became an avid sportsman and outdoorsman, regularly traveling to Moab, Utah; Colorado; and northern California for mountain bike excursions.
In addition to biking, Brindley spent his time surfing, wind surfing, skiing, snowboarding, skateboarding, camping, hiking, fly fishing and rafting.
Just 30 years old at the time of his death, he had already lived a lifetime of outdoor adventure. At the age of five, he scaled Guadalupe Peak, the highest summit in Texas. More recently, he reached the peak of several mountains in Colorado, climbing over 14,000 feet.
Brindley was also a competitive sailor who raced in numerous offshore events such as the Harvest Moon Regattas to Port Aransas, two to Vera Cruz, Mexico and one to Biloxi, Mississippi.
During Tropical Depression Allison, he steered his boat through a dense pack of oil production rigs off the Louisiana coast in driving horizontal rain at night.
Brindley’s travels included China, Russia, Poland, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Columbia, Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, England, India and Bangladesh.
“Justin embraced life with a passion, was a ‘people’ person who never met a stranger, made friends wherever he went, found good in everyone and lived by the philosophy adopted from a Ralph Waldo Emerson saying, ‘Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail,’” his father, Robert Brindley said.
Construction of Justin P. Brindley Trail will provide for the first mountain bike trail in the city. The two-mile, single track trail is designed for beginner and intermediate cyclists but will have several technical offshoots for more experienced riders.
The trail is identified as a recreational element in the Sugar Land Memorial Park Master Plan. It will be designed to complement a new pavilion, restroom facilities, play fields and a dog park that are currently scheduled for the park’s next phase this spring.
Completion of Justin P. Brindley Trail is expected by September.
27. January 2009 at 4:54 pm
Sweet Justin Rest In Peace!
“Justin embraced life with a passion, was a ‘people’ person who never met a stranger; made friends wherever he went, found good in everyone and lived by the philosophy adopted from a Ralph Waldo Emerson saying,
‘Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.’”, his father Robert Brindley said.