by Angela Sucich

Feature

Mountain Bike Organizations Get Constructive in the Face of Adversity

Photo by Dennis BennettUrban skills facilities like the I-5 Colonnade Bike Park are growing in popularity with city administrators around the nation.

In spite of the current financial crisis, mountain bike organizations in Washington, Idaho, Oregon and British Columbia are pushing ahead with their trail building programs as they continue to develop bike parks and maintain trail systems in the Northwest.

These groups are responding to the call for expanded trail use, a demand witnessed by the National Park Service’s December 2008 proposal to loosen restrictions on parks that are considering opening trails to bicycles. But there are plenty of riding opportunities to get excited about in Northwest mountain bikers’ own backyards. Here are updates on several trail projects in and around your neighborhood.

The new model of urban bike park: Seattle’s I-5 Colonnade

Completed in September 2008, the I-5 Colonnade Mountain Bike Park is Seattle’s first urban facility, funded and constructed by Washington-based Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance. An army of volunteers donated 14,000 work hours to help the non-profit organization create over 1.5 miles of trail within two acres of space for novice to advanced riders. The park’s trails, jumps, drops, log rides, ramps and skinnies are designed to please cross-country, freeride, trials and BMX aficionados.

City-sponsored urban bike parks like Colonnade offer a solution to the problem of building on restricted forest land, and they have the potential to bring exposure to the sport of mountain biking while drumming up publicity for the trail building organization. But given the high price of real estate in Seattle – even allowing for the recent housing crisis – how is it that a non-profit like Evergreen was able to build a fully functional, highly-technical bike park, complete with sculpted trail, structures and skill-building features, amid Seattle’s Eastlake and Capitol Hill neighborhoods?

“There are a lot of elements to it,” says John Lang, executive director of Evergreen. “The first was a lot of cycling advocacy … but I think there was a lot of community support as well, because the location was so … desolate. It was like a wasteland, basically. The neighbors – the community – wanted something to happen there.”

Other groups who wanted something to happen there were Seattle Parks and Recreation, King County Parks and Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, all of whom came on board to support Evergreen’s constructive work with an underutilized area notorious for illicit and unsafe activities.

Photo by Dennis BennettAiring it out under the bridge, one of the many obstacles at Colonnade.

“One of the stories is that we brought out a work party, and instead of building, they ended up picking up needles – about a thousand needles,” says Lang. “It was that type of environment … There was a lot of recognition [by Seattle Parks and others] that something needed to be done there, so we provided a really unique solution for them.”

And their solution avoided ruffling the feathers of environmentalists and developers, who had little reason to compete for the bit of property under Interstate-5.

“It’s become a nice connector between Capitol Hill and Eastlake. You see joggers and walkers and people with their dogs. It’s been a nice element to the community as well,” says Lang.

Evergreen and Seattle Parks and Recreation are now trying to work out a future plan for maintenance of Colonnade. The project’s success has opened up other opportunities for Evergreen, like the Duthie Hill Mountain Bike Park.

Photo by Sonse SutezzoWork in progress in Eagle, Idaho.

King County Parks approached Evergreen to develop the park, which will include 12 miles of progressively challenging mountain bike trails for different levels of riders – including kids – in a 120-acre area on the Sammamish Plateau. Evergreen has committed $40,000 in support of Duthie Hill trail building, to add to $175,000 in King County Parks and other public funds. While awaiting approval of appropriate permits to begin trail construction, Evergreen is continuing to clear and prepare the trail, and has designated every Wednesday in April for work parties. The park is on schedule to open in about a year’s time.

Bike park makes Eagle, Idaho, into suburban heaven

Having an existing model in Colonnade to show to other municipalities helped Evergreen demonstrate its vision and its expertise in carrying out large-scale, community-based build projects. Another group with similar demonstrated success is SWIMBA (Southwest Idaho Mountain Bike Association). SWIMBA is currently building the Idaho Velodrome and Cycle Park, a family-centered, total cycling facility located in Eagle, Idaho. Portions of the Cycle Park were completed last fall, and SWIMBA hopes to continue with construction as funding becomes available.

Chris Cook of SWIMBA believes that this facility stands out among the many bike parks popping up all over the country. “I think this facility is unique because it combines so many aspects of cycling in one place. It is truly one of a kind.”

Since construction began in 2008, SWIMBA, in partnership with the City of Eagle and Ada County, has built a dual slalom and 4X course, dirt jumps, two pump tracks, a skills park and 10 miles of cross-country trails. Volunteers accomplished all of this work, with help from Alpine Parks. Funding is coming from private donors, City of Eagle, Southwest Idaho Mountain Bike Association and REI, but Cook acknowledges that they are feeling the effects of the struggling economy.

“The current economic environment has put a serious kink in fundraising; we have the volunteers willing to put in the time but we are lacking in the funds for all of the projects.”

And SWIMBA will need those funds, given the long list of items on their building schedule for 2009, which includes freeride, BMX and cyclocross projects. Construction on the velodrome is not expected to begin until after 2009.

Bike park boom helps offset British Columbia’s trail building freeze

Bike parks are sprouting up everywhere. In the case of British Columbia, these urban/suburban bike centers offer welcome riding opportunities in spite of a province-wide ban on forest trail building.

Last June, the city of Burnaby, east of Vancouver, opened a second mountain bike skills facility in the Burnaby Mountain Conservation Area, joining the other facility at South Burnaby’s Taylor Park, which has been open since 2006. In the Okanagan Valley, the city of Kelowna anticipates the construction of its first mountain bike skills park after a year of planning, and it expects the C$243,000 project to be completed in the fall. In one more example, the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation is now considering the proposal of a BMX and mountain bike facility in Vanier Park.

The growth of bike parks in cities may seem bittersweet to some, for there is at present a trail building freeze on provincial forestland. In a province-wide initiative, the government created the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts to assess and develop a strategy for the recreational use of forest trails. This ongoing process has effectively halted all trail building, the effects of which are especially being felt in areas like Squamish, where few legal trails exist, and all are overcrowded.

Test of Metal race director and Squamish resident Cliff Miller says that any local club interested in trail construction in the future will have to work directly with the provincial government once the restructuring is finished. He also has no doubt that clandestine trail building is still going on.

“The garden gnomes are out there,” Miller acknowledges.

Miller is glad that the government is finally recognizing that “recreation is taking place on Crown land. They ignored [the trail use] for a long time and are working on the plans now.” However, he is a bit cynical about the glacial pace at which the government works, adding wryly, “The scariest words in the English language are, ‘we’re here from the government, and we’re here to help.’”

Prison threat at South Seatac Park

Many miles south in Washington’s SeaTac area, Miller’s ironic words about government intervention are being felt by advocates of Des Moines’ South Seatac Park, who are taking exception to a joint agreement by several South King County cities to construct a multi-jurisdictional jail facility for misdemeanor crimes near the park’s popular hiking and biking trails.

Photo by Joe SalesRiders of all levels can enjoy Squamish, BC's trails.

In a February 26, 2009 press release, the cities group known as SCORE (South Correctional Entity), which represents seven cities, identified as their preferred site a 14-acre wooded piece of property on the Port of Seattle land. On their official website, the organization outlines a design for a single-story, 668-bed prison and its approximate cost of $80 million. Also listed is the preliminary schedule for the project, with construction slated to begin this September – but not if Wick of Stiff Wick Productions has anything to say about it.

“We’re trying to save South Seatac,” says Wick. “They want to build a jail on the south end of the Park … I’m trying to get Normandy Park and Des Moines to reject that [proposal].”

While SCORE is working toward obtaining the necessary building permits (a process that will also “involve public comment and review,” according to the press release), Wick is trying to organize mountain bikers and others users to stop the jail from being built in the neighborhood.

Wick mentions putting up signs, reaching out to residents, attending city council sessions, meeting with local King County and State representatives, signing petitions and speaking to local bike organizations as ways to bring exposure to this issue. “It can’t be a one-person battle; it’s got to be everybody.”

North Seatac Park on road to recovery

While South Seatac Park is faced with having a jail as a neighbor, its sister park, North Seatac, is threatened with simple neglect. To combat that neglect, Wick is working with the City of Seatac Parks Department, the Port of Seattle and Friends of North Seattle to help restore the northern Des Moines’ park. These groups welcomed Wick’s proposal to clean up North Seatac, revealing motives similar to those of Seattle Parks – Evergreen’s partner in transforming the derelict space under I-5 into Colonnade.

“They had problems with homesteading there, drug problems,” Wick says of the concerned Seatac groups. “They welcomed us to come into the area and make it a more active area [for the community].”

North Seatac Park is indeed becoming a more active area for cyclists. Last fall it was the site of a cyclocross race, and on April 12, 2009, Stiff Wick Productions will host a mountain bike race there. Wick is also working to foster good relationships with other park users, including a rugby organization that holds games in the park’s field.

Although Wick’s long-term goals include looking at building new trails in the park, his priority is clearing existing trails in order to “grow cycling activities there” and to make
it a pleasant place for walkers and people with dogs.

The future of trail building: doing away with absolutes

A common thread running through these bike organizations is their outreach to communities beyond themselves — tapping into a volunteer workforce, certainly, but also forming coalitions with public and private agencies who can help authorize trail construction. This is happening everywhere in the Northwest — in Oregon, PUMP (Portland United Mountain Pedalers) is working in partnership with the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, the Mount St. Helens Institute and the Forest Service to repair two trail areas. In July, PUMP will hold a camping weekend and work party focused on the Toutle Trail in the Redrock Pass area and the Butte Camp Trail up to the Loowit Trail on the southwest side of the mountain.

Some organizations like Evergreen are taking their outreach even further, incorporating the unconventional approach of being open to decommissioning trail.

That approach was a key factor in ending the six-year closure of the Paradise Valley Conservation Area. After being delayed by legal issues and differences in vision by various user and conservation groups, Paradise Valley will have its grand opening on April 22 (and a second weekend opening on April 25). Eleven miles of trail will become available to mountain bikers, and there is also the possibility of building a mountain skills park in the southwest corner.

According to Lang, Evergreen took a leadership role in trying to help identify what the problems were in getting Paradise reopened, and to help to solve them in cooperation with Snohomish County.

“In some cases that meant decommissioning trail – so, closing them down – and some people would be really upset about that. Their philosophy would be, never lose any trail. We [at Evergreen] take a little different approach, which is, these are public lands, so we need to work in partnership with everybody, and try to find the best solution for mountain biking but also the community as well. It means doing an honest assessment of what’s needed out there, and decommissioning some [trail] – but as a result, we have an opportunity to create more trail.”

Trail decommissioning will also happen with the South Fork Snoqualmie Road-to-Trail Conversion on U.S. Forest Service lands, but the tradeoff – 20+ miles of new singletrack – may be plenty worth it. Evergreen’s design and first phase of construction of the South Fork project and the adjacent Olallie Mountain Bike Trail System are expected to begin this spring.