Group envisions mountain-biking hub in Riding Mountain National Park

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/04/2015 (3807 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MCCREARY — On the first Saturday in May, people in the town of McCreary, at the base of the Manitoba Escarpment, will take the chains off their bicycles for the second straight year.

The event is called East Gate Unchained. People and their bikes will be shuttled up Highway 19, the road inside Riding Mountain National Park that was built by conscientious objectors to the Second World War.

Then folks will glide down without putting a foot to pedal. Most people don’t bother to take off their bike chains but the point is made.

It’s a wind-at-your-back ride. It’s like canoeing with a strong current and not having to do anything except steer or brake. The finish line, about seven kilometres away, is the historic East Gate entrance, the last original arched entrance to a national park.

The event is part balm for the community that lost its Agassiz Ski Hill, finally demolished earlier this year, but also symbolizes a turning of the page.

Efforts have begun to turn the east side of Riding Mountain into a major mountain-biking hub. Parks Canada has agreed to extend existing trails so they interconnect and come out at the East Gate, creating a hub. The local volunteers are grooming the trails to make them suitable for mountain bikes and “fat tire” winter bikes. The trails will still be suitable for hiking and horseback riding.

There will be trails for all biking skills, from beginner level for families, to intermediate, to expert. The goal is 100 kilometres of trails. About 20 kilometres are completed.

It won’t bring back the ski hill, said one of the organizers, Pam Little, but it will put some of the “ride” back in Riding Mountain.

“We would like to be a destination cycling area,” said Little, who lives near McCreary, 230 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg. “Riding Mountain National Park has to be used as a draw. I think, and many people think, it’s one of the great things about living here.”

The mountain-biking group, Dead Ox Trailblazers, formerly the McCreary Ski and Outdoor Club, with about 80 members, is behind the project. Its volunteers have already built Reeve Ravine, a new single-track cycling trail in the park.

Parks Canada at Riding Mountain is on board. It’s under pressure by the federal government to increase visitations. It currently receives about 290,000 visits per year. Neither can Parks Canada manage all of its trails, especially after having its budget slashed in 2012 and made into a three-season park instead of an all-season one.

There are even talks about the biking group leasing the historic gatekeeper’s log cabin on the East Gate yard. It could be used as a clubhouse and bike rental shop, or as a snack shop, said Little.

How would this generate cash for Parks Canada, since the East Gate hasn’t been staffed in at least 30 years? There is talk of the McCreary group taking over staffing of the park gate and collecting fees, said Little.

“There are real opportunities for the East Gate to stand out as more of a destination,” said park spokesman James Gordon.

The park will retain responsibility for trail maintenance but will be selective in where it puts efforts, Gordon said. Nothing is final on whether the cycling group will run the East Gate. “We’re exploring options,” he said.

“We create the trails and (Parks Canada) creates East Gate as a destination,” said Dennis Buhler, another organizer with the Dead Ox Trailblazers. A good trail is like a “roller-coaster,” he said. “It’s ups and downs and turns, and good lookout points and vistas.”

Cycling hubs are springing up all over. A contingent from McCreary made a fact-finding trip to cycling centres Copper Harbor and Marquette in Michigan, and Duluth, Minn. “It’s one of the fastest-growing pastimes,” said Buhler.

One local council member suggested economic spinoffs from mountain bikers would be virtually nil because cyclists tend to pack their own lunches and don’t spend money locally.

“There’s a perception of mountain bikers as being young and having no money, and that’s just not the case,” said Buhler. “I’m a mountain biker, and we spend a boatload of money.”

In Marquette, he was told cyclists fill up hotels and spend an average of $150 per day.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca