Before Anyone Moves the Odessa Mountain Bike Park, Ride the Rockstacker Course

"We're simply saying it is possible that sometime in the future that we may or may not sell that land," Odessa Mayor Cal Hendrick said at the Aug. 25 City Council meeting. "There's no offer."

A month earlier, the July headlines read like a closing notice. Hendrick's version is the most recent public position anyone has reported, and it is much less final. The Permian Basin Bicycle Association still lists the Odessa Mountain Bike Park off Eastridge Road as open daily, and says it built and maintains the park. On Saturday, Oct. 24, PBBA is putting its biggest event of the fall on those trails.

The race also lays out what this whole debate is about. The city has put a number on rebuilding trail miles somewhere else. The riders' case rests on something a budget line can't buy.

What Has Actually Been Said Since July

Here is the record as reported, in order:

• Late July 2026. The city told PBBA it intended to end the lease so the property could be developed for residential and commercial use.
• Same week. City Manager Aaron Smith told NewsWest9 the city was in no rush, that the site would need a formal evaluation first, and that the process could take anywhere from 60 days to six months.
• Aug. 25, 2026. PBBA members and residents used the public forum at City Council to ask for a lease renewal. "My kids use it. My grandkids use it. It's been used by my family for a long time," a resident said. Hendrick said the city hadn't received a formal offer from any buyer, only expressions of interest.
• September 2026. Neither the Aug. 25 nor the Sept. 8 joint workshop agenda listed the bike park. As of this writing, no news outlet has reported a vote, a signed development agreement, or a chosen relocation site.

If Smith's 60-day-to-six-month window started with the July notice, its early end falls about now and its late end runs into early 2027. The petition PBBA started on Change.org had just under 2,000 signatures on the night of the Aug. 25 meeting. Its live counter now shows about 2,056. The petition asks the city to keep the current site and let PBBA keep running it.

What the Relocation Number Covers

Smith's offer was specific. "We were told it's about a hundred thousand dollars to do ten miles of trails, so I think we can find that in our budget to help with that seed money," he said in July. He described three general areas for a new site in north, south and west Odessa. NewsWest9 reported Comanche Trail Park as one option under consideration, not a selection.

Measured against what exists now, $100,000 for 10 miles lines up on mileage. PBBA describes the current park as more than 11 miles of trail on 95 leased acres. Trailforks totals it at 10 miles, in a listing last updated May 9, 2025. July reporting put the site at 93 acres. On trail distance alone, the seed money roughly matches the current park.

First Alert 7 reported that Smith would like to see mountain biking "expanded, improved, and even multiple locations." On paper that adds capacity.

PBBA president Bradley Benavides argues from somewhere else. "People keep coming back to it because it's right in the middle of everything, it's just very easy for people to get to," he said. The parking lot sits behind Odessa Fire Station No. 5 in East Odessa. Local cyclists told NewsWest9 the park serves more than 500 mountain bikers, plus trail runners, hikers and youth cross-country teams. The $100,000 figure covers building trail. It doesn't cover moving all of those users to a new address, and neither does any other line in the reported plan.

The ground itself matters too. Trailforks describes the site as an abandoned caliche quarry, with a mostly flat green outer loop around more technical trails in the middle. MTB Project lists two caliche pits, bridges, berms, drops and a teeter-totter near the pavilion. KOSA reported that the park has drawn thousands of volunteer hours and tens of thousands of dollars since it opened in 2011. Trail on flat ground can be priced per mile. The elevation changes in an old quarry come with the site.

The Race Card Doubles as a Trail Map

The Rockstacker Challenge registration page breaks the park into the units riders use. A blue lap is 9 miles and the green loop is 3.5.

The schedule moves from long adult laps to youth heats to runners, so one property carries an adult race, a beginner kids' loop and a foot race on the same afternoon. That is the full range of users Benavides and the NewsWest9 cyclists described. PBBA marks its trails green for beginner, blue for intermediate and red for expert. Trailforks lists the trails by name, including the Outer Green Loop, Rock Gardens, Champion, North Loop, South Loop and the Practice Loop.

Registration closes at 11:59 p.m. Eastern on Oct. 23, the night before. On a regular day, the park is open sunrise to sunset. You need a PBBA membership or a daily pass, and helmets are required. Trailforks warns that sections may close after rain. A wet October week can change race-day conditions on caliche.

Where Else Odessa Riders Have Ground

Talk of relocation sends riders to look at the alternatives. Here is what's around:

• Midland Trail Park, 3215 FM 307, Midland. This is PBBA's other park. It has the same sunrise-to-sunset hours and the same membership or day-pass rule, and you get in from a temporary driveway next to the Harris Field Fire Training Center. It's the only other club-run singletrack in that list, and it's in another city.
• Comanche Trail Park. The OdessaTex.com recreation page lists a 3.2-mile walking and biking trail. It's also the one location NewsWest9 reported by name as a possible relocation site.
• UTPB loop. Discover Odessa lists a 3.6-mile paved route around campus, along with shorter Comanche South and West loops. These are paved or general-use paths, not mountain bike trail.

A community advocacy site, Keep Odessa Trails, has posted a rendering that keeps the park and adds a paved accessible loop, a playground, a pump track and a skate area. The site says plainly that the rendering is a community vision and not an adopted City plan. In the meantime, Smith has asked residents to come to Council meetings and comment while the evaluation continues.

Oct. 24, From the Quarry to Downtown

The 5K trail run starts at 3:00 p.m. on Eastridge Road. One hour later, the Odessa Día de los Muertos Festival opens downtown. It runs 4 to 10 p.m., the parade steps off at 7, and the Odessa Chamber lists it as free and open to the community. A Cat 3 rider who starts at 11:30 can finish a 9-mile lap, watch the youth heats and the trail run, and still be downtown before the parade.

What happens to the park after that depends on the city's evaluation, and as of Sept. 30 nobody has reported a decision. Today the address is 7155 1/2 Eastridge Road, the parking is behind Fire Station No. 5, and the course is ready for Oct. 24.

I keep up with this kind of question because land use in West Texas usually turns on the same issues: who holds the lease, what an evaluation weighs, and what a parcel's location is worth that a per-mile budget can't measure. If you'd like to talk through what the Eastridge Road decision could mean for East Odessa as it moves forward, Taylor Dickerson is easy to reach. Let's Connect.