The Exercise Trail To Wilderness Lodge May Be Closed For a While

bama_ed

It's kind of fun to do the impossible-Walt Disney
Joined
Sep 23, 2004
Folks,

Lots of questions have come up lately about the Exercise Trail (ET) that parallels Wilderness Way between the Fort's Settlement Bus Depot and Wilderness Lodge. Like many of you, I've enjoyed the trail tremendously in the past and am anxious to do so again. A sidewalk has been built in front of the new Tri-Circle-D Ranch barn along the new road extension to connect to the existing WW and ET location. But I am thinking that it may be a while before we can ever use it again (but I believe we will be able to).

I was looking in a pinned thread on the DIS Rumors and News board that features the tweeted images from Bioreconstruct

Bioreconstruct's Twitter Link

and saw a picture posted there from August 16, 2020. It showed a view of the Reflections construction site and I noticed the ET portion at the bottom of the photo was wide and brown (dirt). Here is the picture:

Reflections Bioreconstruct 081620.jpeg

I put a yellow oval around the part I'm referring to:

WL Exercise Trail Demolish Zoom 1.PNG

That's the road Frontier Way (that comes in from the Tent loop 2000 coming in from the bottom right corner to WW).

It looked torn up and wide with the old ET pavement removed. Then I referred to Google Earth photos from March 2020 which showed that portion of the ET and all of the ET down to WL looking the same: wide, brown, and in a ground construction phase. I put another yellow oval on the same spot below:

Wilderness Way and Exercise Trail Dirt.jpg

It looks like the whole ET had been torn up. So I went back into all the various Reflections drawings and found again/remembered that the ET, which already had a few utilities running beneath it, were going to have MORE utilities placed under it for Reflections which meant tearing out the old ET, doing the utility work, and then repaving a new ET sometime in the future.

Here is the drawing with the end of the ET down at WL as an example of the portion to be torn up (the whole ET was torn up actually):

Exercise Trail Utility Work 1.PNG

Timberline Drive is the entrance road into WL. WW intersects it between the entrance gate and the main building on the right.

Here is the same location in a different drawing showing a new repaved and landscaped (with swales no less) once construction/utility work is completed:

Exercise Trail Utility Work 2.PNG

For anyone interested, here is a typical cross-section for the newly proposed ET in terms of pavement layers:

Exercise Trail Utility Work 3.PNG

And here is a cross-section of the proposed ET with the old+new utilities and also the old ET with the original utilities underneath.

Exercise Trail Utility Work 4.PNG

Disney would not want guest traffic to be crossing Frontier Way (which is the Construction Access Road to Reflections) while construction was still underway at Reflections. And Disney may not have finished utility work along the ET yet so won't be repaving it soon. They may not do so until Reflections' buildout is complete. If Reflections goes into semi-permanent hold status, maybe they will pave the new ET so guests can use the corridor in the mean time. Or maybe they won't.

Bottom line is the current plans do call for the Exercise Trail between the Fort and Wilderness Lodge to be replaced and operating in the future. But if they follow through on those plans and when that might be is anybody's guess.

Bama Ed
 
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Thanks Ed.

Great summary write up and pics. I have some of those drawings saved on my computer and knew the ET was to be continued. I just haven't looked close enough to see the current state.

My fear is, as torn up as the area is, they won't repave until Reflections is done. From the aerial pics, the whole area is a big dirt hole. I'm surprised they are running the busses through there to WL. Maybe after the rumored reseeding takes hold and the place looks a little better.

j
 
Thank you Ed. It's disheartening to see that. Every trip to the fort or WL we used that trail multiple times either to walk off a meal, enjoy the nature, or ride our bikes. I guess our next trip in December will once again not include the trail. I hope other amenities will be available to enjoy.

Thanks again for the great update and pictures.
 
Thanks, ya'll.

I had wished that the old/existing ET was still there and the only piece we needed to make it contiguous was something like a short 10-15 ft piece to connect the new sidewalk that's part of the new road extension next to the TCD to connect the old/existing ET.

But the ET has been torn up in the Google Earth photos as of March 2020 and since Bioreconstruct's recent photo shows the FW end of the old ET torn up, it's likely that the rest of it is STILL torn up (unpaved) too all the way to WL. So it's more than just a simple patch/connection paving job to get us from FW to WL.

It will take a complete repaving and reopening - whenever that occurs. :confused3 If it occurs.

Bama Ed
 


Well that would confirm what we know from March. Lots of folks love that path.

And was already discussed here in more detail earlier this week I'm guessing.

As I said, it's gonna be a while before we get our Exercise Trail to Wilderness Lodge back. If we do at all ever.

I think I'll have to take up jogging again and go down Wilderness Way at a hop-skip-and-a-jump pace.:yay:

Bama Ed
 
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Arrived home yesterday from our stay at the cabins in FW. We were visiting the Wilderness Lodge and my very tall husband took a peek at the exercise trail from that end. All of the pipes were no longer sticking out of the ground and the dirt was smoothed over as far as the eye can see. Here's hoping they start paving soon.
 


I only wish they would allow us to take our carts on it, or at least let us take Wilderness Way to the lodge with the cart. 10 foot wide path seems large enough for that.
 
No word, but I don't expect it to return until the new resort/DVC is done. No announcement on when (not if) that will be resumed. The area between the Fort and WL is still an abandoned construction zone with fence and scrims along the road.

j
 
I would guess years.
I think 'Something ' has to be in that space.
WDW doesn't want to do anything else in that area till they have confirmed plan.
 
Thanks for the bioreconstruct link and also the important details you have included . Plan to follow this hopefully it wont get lost or buried.
Maybe I need to rent a pontoon and take heavy duty binoculars .
 
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I know this will cause some chuckles, but my DH spoke to a bus driver today and he said that the exercise trail WILL be put back in. Just didn't say when, so there's hope.

There was construction equipment moving around by the new cast members' building today. Looked like crushed shell possibly to put in a parking lot next to it. We were peeking in between the scrim openings.
 

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