Two of Hill County’s finest community oriented organizations, Hill County Paw Pals and Hillsboro Police Department Community Outreach Programs, have joined together again to launch their third annual “Waggin’ Trail Bike Ride” on Saturday, September 25.  The event is planned with five routes to meet the needs of avid cyclists to the casual rider which include 66, 54, 40, 26, and 10 mile routes.  Registration begins at 7:30pm with staggered starts beginning at 9:00am at 126 West Elm Street (Antique Village) in Hillsboro, Texas.  Hillsboro is conveniently located 56 miles south of Dallas/Worth or 32 miles north of Waco on I-35.  Once in downtown Hillsboro, the business Antique Village (start point), is located one block west of the courthouse on Highway 22 (Elm Street).

The planned routes of Waggin’ Trail Bike Ride offer cyclists a unique tour of Central Texas.  Hill County is 986 square miles of rural area that is joined together with miles and miles of splendid paved farm-to-market roads.  With a combined population of only 33,000, Hill County offers open spaces.  On many areas of the bike ride, one can see for miles around—the splendid beauty of open land—flowing creeks, pastures with cattle and horses grazing, farmers’ cultivated fields, and proud, rural communities.  The varied routes all explore the back roads of Hill County and go through communities that were established during the 1850’s when Hill County was created and named after Dr. George W. Hill, a settler who served as a congressman and Secretary of War for the Republic of Texas.

This year’s event has been planned in conjunction with “Go Texan Cotton Pickin’ Fair” and “Roadhouse America Elm Street Rod Run (car show)—fun for entire family!

Planning committee for this year’s event are (in alphabetical order):

 Detective Israel Abrego (HPD), Chief Tony Cain (HPD), Vivian Caldwell (HCBGC), Lana Crow (HCPP), Barbara Diltz (HCPP), Dana Fuchs (HCPP), Mike Hendricks (HCPP), Carol Knight (HCPP), John Knight (HCPP), Warren Smith (HCPP), and Greg Solomon (HCC)

Hill County Paw Pals and Hillsboro Police Department Community Outreach Programs successfully concluded their joint fund raiser—“Waggin’ Trails Bike Ride 2009”. Designed routes of 10, 28, 40, 58, and 70 miles were provided to challenge cyclists of all levels. The success of this event stemmed from a supporting community, volunteers, sponsors and the outstanding professional support providing by our area Emergency Response Agencies—Woodbury Volunteer Fire Department, Bynum Volunteer Fire Department, and Hillsboro Community Emergency Response (CERT). Hill County Sheriff Jeff Lyon also represented the Hill County Sheriff Office in the command communications center. We are blessed to have a community willing to support two important causes: A group facilitating the installation of a county animal shelter and a program organized to reduce crime by increasing community involvement.

The main event sponsor was Outlets at Hillsboro. The following businesses (in alphabetical order) were our diamond sponsors: Brookshire Grocery Company, Citizens National Bank, Dixie LP-Gas, Expressions Photography, HILCO, Hill Regional Hospital, Hillsboro Lions Club, Hog Wild Graphics, Jackson Insurance and Financial Services, Tipton International Inc., and Tucker Lumber. The following (in alphabetical order) were our valued sponsors: B & G Tire, Days Inn, First National Bank of Central Texas, H-E-B, Hill College, Hill County Insurance Agency—Siddons, Hill Family Dental, Julie Siddons Realtors, KHBR 1560 AM Radio, Marshall & Marshall Funeral Directors, Rick’s Quick Lube, and Starbucks Corporation. Sincere thanks to our area newspapers for providing space to help advertise with our related news articles: Hubbard City News, Itasca Paw Print Press, The Reporter Newspaper and Whitney LakeLander.

First impressions for an event that draws cyclists from long distances are very important and begin to form during the registration period. Both Hillsboro Lions Club and Whitney High School Paw Pals Club awakened early to start registering our cycling guests at 6:30am. All cyclists were registered, outfitted with T-shirts, provided maps of their routes, and lined up for the start of the ride at 8:00am.

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