Revelstoke provided us with a very special opportunity to work with the next generation of riders. We were able to mold the young minds of 12 exceptional students from the local high school. Not only are these guys stoked on riding, they are stoked on building too. They have been among the hardest workers we’ve seen so far.
Our host for this visit was the Revelstoke Secondary School Bike Club but we also worked closely with the local recreation officer in charge of the McPherson trails. After touring many of the trails we decided to focus our work on the first few hundred meters of a trail called Tantrum. We planned to add some spice to the existing trail to demonstrate that even a beginner trail can provide a fun experience for everyone. There were also quite a few puddles to fix.
We split our 30 volunteers into 4 groups. Each group had a fun project to tackle. Project #1: new piece of benchcut that included a properly built insloped turn.
Project #2: shaping a lovely mound of dirt into an introductory tabletop.
Project #3: provide a technical rock line off the main trail
Project #4: build a causeway at the entrance to raise the tread out of a wet area. Everywhere in between we also added in knicks to any area that required some extra drainage. We got everything done just as the last rays of sun were ducking behind the mountains.
Saturday morning we held a club care workshop with representatives from many of the clubs in the area. We generated a wish list of things they would like to see happen in their community over the next few years which included better communication between clubs, gaining legal access to another riding area and hosting more volunteer trail days. We also provided some insight and direction for their current trail system. After a morning of constructive discussions we headed out to meet up with the high school kids for a well-deserved ride.
We’d like to thank our host Jeff Colvin from the Revelstoke Secondary School for getting his students involved. Also a big thank you to Ken Gibson, the land manager/recreation officer, for touring us around the trails.