Youth riders are credited for doing most of the work to upgrade trails at Brown Drive Park in Ladysmith into international mountain bike sanctioned standards. (Mike Gregory/Town of Ladysmith)

By Ian Holmes

Ladysmith trails

Ladysmith youth steer mountain bike trail improvements

Sep 7, 2020 | 8:51 AM

LADYSMITH — Mountain biking advocates in Ladysmith hope improvements to a small local trail network leads to many more riding opportunities.

Volunteers recently finished enhancing the safety of existing hybrid trails at Brown Drive Park, which includes safer flow trails and jumps.

Rich Huggins, vice president of Cowichan Trails Stewardship Society’s Ladysmith chapter, said completing an initial phase offers local youth riders a safe place to hone their craft.

“It’s giving the kids an opportunity to practice their skills and eventually move onto whether it’s bigger jumps or trails that are a little more challenging.”

Huggins said youth provided much of sweat equity in creating the first sanctioned mountain bike trail in Ladysmith. He said by later this year a small skills park, pump track and signage will be in place.

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Huggins said it’s hoped this community-driven initiative will lead to other trail expansions in the Ladysmith area, pointing to large swaths of forestry and crown own land behind the town.

“We can showcase to them that these are the standards that we build trails to, so when we approach them we can give examples that we’re not just a rag-tag group,” Huggins told NanaimoNewsNOW.

He said improved mountain biking infrastructure is good timing with the sport exploding in popularity regionally due to the pandemic.

“People are ordering bikes and they’re not going to get them until the fall or winter which wasn’t the case a year ago. It’s huge and a great sport, it’s only getting bigger and bigger,” Higgins said.

A majority of participants supported recreational biking options in Brown Drive Park following a public engagement campaign.

ian@nanaimonewsnow.com
On Twitter: @reporterholmes