If you have driven Pierceton Road past the trailhead this month, you have seen it: a mound of raw dirt sitting where the gravel parking lot gives way to singletrack. It looks like construction leftovers. It is actually the start of something Kosciusko County Velo has been chasing for five years, and the dirt itself has a backstory worth knowing before you ride past it again.
That dirt came from across town. Grace College is excavating the site of its new Community Fieldhouse at Miller Athletic Complex, and rather than trucking the spoil to a landfill, the college is hauling it to Hauth Trailhead to help build the next phase of the Winona Lake Bike Park. KCV Cycling president Mike Cusick summed up the scale of what's coming at the April groundbreaking: "As you can see, there's some dirt out here already, but nothing on the scale you're going to see."
Here is what's actually happening at that trailhead, why it connects to a much larger investment most residents haven't heard the full story on, and where to go afterward if you want to watch it happen with a coffee in hand.
Trail Fest Weekend Starts Friday, September 25
The 5th Annual Winona Lake Trail Fest, hosted by KCV Cycling with support from Lake City Restoration, kicks off Friday, September 25, at the Hauth Trailhead. It is built around the trail system that already loops through this corner of town, and it doubles as the club's main fundraiser for the bike park under construction next door. The weekend schedule:
- 7:00 PM Friday: on-site registration opens for the Finding Big Foot Kids' Guided Night Ride & Scavenger Hunt, open to riders 17 and under with parents welcome to ride alongside them
- 7:30 PM Friday: the night ride and scavenger hunt begin
- 8:30 AM Saturday: race-day registration opens
- 10:30 AM Saturday: the 6-Hour and 12-Hour MTB relay races start, with solo, duo, and four-person team categories
- All weekend: trail fun runs, live music, a beer garden, and food trucks on site
Online registration closes Wednesday, September 23, at noon and saves riders $10 off the day-of price. You can register directly at bikereg.com/wltf. Every dollar raised goes toward the Winona Lake Bike Park, which is where the story gets bigger than one weekend of racing.
What the Dirt Is Actually For
KCV Cycling acquired the 15 acres next to the Winona Lake Trails back in 2021 with a plan that went well past a parking lot: a pump track, a kids' bike playground, jump lines, a skills zone, a clubhouse with restrooms, and enough event space to host both Trail Fest and the club's spring Fat & Skinny Tire Fest permanently on site.
Phase one closed out in August 2025. The club paid off its mortgage on the land, finished the design work, and cut the ribbon on the Hauth Trailhead itself so riders finally had somewhere to park. Phase two broke ground this past April, and it's the part you can now see from the road: core construction of the pump track, playground, jump lines, and skills zone.
That phase carries a $1.7 million price tag, and it isn't riding on bake-sale money. Grace College and the Lilly Endowment's Catalyst Corridor initiative committed $1 million toward it, and the K21 Health Foundation matched with a $375,000 grant on top of that. KCV has been raising the remaining balance through events like Trail Fest ever since. Site prep started this fall, and the club is targeting completion by late 2026, with the pace depending on how fundraising goes between now and then. You can see the full breakdown and donate directly through KCV Cycling's bike park page.
A $27 Million Reason This Corner of Town Looks Different
The bike park isn't happening in isolation. It's one piece of the Catalyst Corridor, a $27 million initiative funded by the Lilly Endowment through its College and Community Collaboration program, built around four goals for Warsaw and Winona Lake: innovation initiatives, well-being amenities, connection routes, and better placemaking. Grace College worked with the Town of Winona Lake and the City of Warsaw to shape the proposal, and the bike park groundbreaking this spring shared the same afternoon as the groundbreaking for the college's new Community Fieldhouse.
That fieldhouse, going up at Miller Athletic Complex, will include eight new pickleball courts next to the six tennis courts already there, and it connects directly to the Heritage Trail and the Winona Lake bike trails, sitting just across from the bike park site. Catalyst Corridor executive director Dr. Emi Kreklau was straightforward about what she sees coming together there: "We are so excited to support this project." The practical version of that sentence is this: the stretch of Pierceton Road that used to be one trailhead is turning into a connected loop between the trails, a college athletics complex, and eventually the Village, all funded and timed as one project rather than a string of separate ones.
For anyone who already rides, walks, or drives this part of town, that's the detail worth holding onto. The dirt pile isn't a standalone bike park getting built in a vacuum. It's the visible edge of a nine-figure regional investment that happens to be landing on the trail you already use.
After the Ride
Trail Fest weekend ends the way most good weekends here do, with everyone drifting a few minutes down the road to the Village at Winona to eat. A few reliable stops for after you've racked the bike:
- The River Coffeehouse for coffee and something quick before the Saturday race start
- Social Ice Cream & Sandwich Shop for hand-dipped ice cream and sandwiches once the kids' night ride wraps up
- Light Rail Café & Roaster if you want a slower sit-down coffee away from the trailhead crowd
- Cerulean for a proper dinner if you're making a night of it
- BoatHouse Restaurant for lakeside seating if the weather holds
Hours and seasonal specials shift, so it's worth checking The Village at Winona's site before you head over, especially on a busy festival weekend.
What to Watch For Next
Phase two construction will run through the fall and into next year, so expect the dirt pile to move around, grow, and eventually turn into recognizable shapes: the pump track first, then the skills zone and jump lines. KCV's fundraising doesn't stop when Trail Fest ends either. The same donation push carries through to next spring's Fat & Skinny Tire Fest, which has used this trailhead as its home base for years and will likely be the first big event to ride the finished phase.
None of this required a real estate transaction to matter to you. It's just what's happening a few minutes from home this month, funded by names you'll now recognize the next time you see them on a sign at the trailhead.
If you're already part of this lake community and want to talk about anything from watershed stewardship to what's next for your own place here, Stacie Schlichtenmyer is happy to chat any time. Let's Connect.