“It was a fantastic success,” said Los Caminos del Rio Executive Director Eric Ellman, whose group organized the event. “We brought people together.”

Los Caminos del Rio board member Raciel Juarez said the event was historic because the neighboring cities of Edinburg and McAllen, along with their chambers of commerce, cooperated.

“It’s the first community project where two cities and two chambers of commerce have worked together. I have never seen that before,” Juarez said.

The 20-mile bike ride was staged on the banks of the Edinburg Main Canal which, Juarez said, is the oldest canal in the Rio Grande Valley. “The event has helped make people aware the canal is part of our heritage,” Juarez added.

Los Caminos del Rio was formed by Texas Historical Commission in 1991 to preserve and promote the environmental and cultural heritage of the Rio Grande borderlands from Brownsville to Laredo.

Ellman said the group hopes to use the success of the bike ride to press Valley cities and irrigation districts to open up the Valley’s canal system to recreational pursuits like bike riding. The end result, the group hopes, will be hundreds of miles of world class off-road trails.

“McAllen is not a very bike-able city. They’ve got a few miles of bike trails but you’ve got to drive your car to get there,” Ellman said. “The good news is it could be, if not world class, national class city for alternative transportation, and specifically bicycling, if we could make use of this web of hundreds of miles of irrigation and drainage canals.”

Ellman paid tribute to Mitch Sawyer, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Texas-Pan American, for writing a masters thesis ten years ago on what would be involved in turning 50 miles of canals into trails without having to pave them or spend very much money. Ellman said the thesis was given to Valley cities where it gathered dust.

“Ten years ago there was a lot more open land,” Ellman said, suggesting city leaders across the Valley may be more receptive to improving recreational facilities today.

“It’s inevitable that these canals will become the Valley’s greenbelts. And they could easily be turned into bike trails,” Ellman said. “You don’t need pavement to mountain bike; cyclists don’t need miniature roads. Most people I know with a mountain bike don’t want pavement. They want to go off road, it’s softer; it’s nicer, it’s better for the environment.”

Ellman thanked the Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley, AVANCE-RGV, and the National Hispanic Professional Organization, for co-sponsoring the bike ride.

He also acknowledged the support of McAllen City Commissioner Jim Darling and City Manager Mike Perez. The city signed a one-day insurance policy to give additional liability coverage to Hidalgo County Irrigation District No. 1.

State Rep. Aaron Peña, D-Edinburg, participated in the bike ride. In his opening remarks, Peña pointed out that it was the building of the Valley's canal system 100 years ago that led to the growth of the region and viability for its agricultural base.

Los Caminos Del Rio board member Don Medina joked that he was the “poster child” for biking riding because his level of fitness was not as good as it could be. “It has been a great day for everybody involved,” Medina said.

The next step, Medina said, was to ask Valley legislators to press the Texas Department of Transportation to reinstate “enhancement money” for multi-modal projects. “By doing things like this, getting people on the trails, you take people off the streets. That lowers congestion,” Medina said.

Mark Peña, a member of the Edinburg Environment Advisory Board, said the Valley’s historic canal system was a “real gift” at a time when the region was transitioning from a rural to an urban community.

“The whole idea behind the bike ride was to get people behind the effort to convert the canal system into a recreational hike and bike trail. It’s perfect,” Peña said.

“It’s a win-win for everybody. The irrigation districts can still use the canals to serve the farms and cities. But the municipalities can also utilize them for their citizens for recreational use. They can keep the trails beautiful; keep them mowed and accessible.”

Peña added that the neat thing about the canals was that they were right in the middle of neighborhoods. “They are easily accessible. It’s beautiful because you’ve got the water; you see a lot of wildlife. I’m looking forward to the day that it is well-developed with signage and accessible for the disabled,” Peña said.