The Nelson Cycling Club has teamed up with the Urban Systems Foundation to help make improvements to the Rosemont bike park.
As cyclists and outdoor enthusiasts, the board at Urban Systems have committed to this initiative by developing a plan for phase two of the park and put $10,000 toward the initiative.
“It’s an opportunity to spread our resources locally so that we can make the community better,” said Jan Korinek, of Urban Systems and a member of the Nelson Cycling Club.
The enhancements to the bike park to be made this spring will include improvements to the landscaping, safety and gradual development of riders using the area.
Controlled landscaping, including drainage, the addition of two new jump lines and enhanced curb appeal are just some of the tasks the two groups are looking to be completed in a sustainable manner.
“The thread we want to weave through this whole thing is sustainability,” said Korinek.
“Taking things that are normally thought of as waste and turning them into some element of the bike park, items like left over soil, mulch, disused pipe and concrete chunks.”
Currently the bike park has two jump lines of varying difficulty for riders, but the new plan aims to create two additional groups of jumps to help bridge the gap between difficulty levels.
Wooden jumps to dirt landings will be utilized on the two largest of the jump lines to help reduce maintenance and maximize the dirt material available.
Throughout the rebuilding of the jump sets, measures will be taken to increase safety, like relocating trees.
“Adding two sets of jumps will help riders more gradually progress to the next most challenging jumps,” said Korinek.
The two larger jump lines will be routed behind an existing wall ride feature as well to help minimize conflicts with those using the existing pump track.
“This area gets so much use that we need to do maintenance and make improvements because a lot of the riders need new challenges… I think it’s an ongoing process that we need to be continuing,” said Pay Wray, president of the Nelson Cycling Club.
“The bike park gets really well used by kids and the more we do, the more we’re helping those kids.”
In addition to the $10,000 the Urban Systems Foundation has put forward, the Morrison Family has donated over $600 to the project and many more in kind donations have also been made.
Those interested in donating money, materials or even volunteer time to the project can contact the Urban Systems Foundation at 250-352-9774.
While the building process of the park may mean that some riders will have to ride elsewhere for a short period, the project should be completed in time for the Fat Tire Festival in August.
“Nelson and the area produces so many high calibre cyclists and cycling trails,” said Korinek.
“There are kids in the community who have different heroes than hockey players and baseball players, they have cycling heroes and they want to emulate them… We’re trying to create opportunities for them by giving them a safe place to build confidence and skills.”