Head a couple of kilometres past the adjacent trail heads on Kitselas Road on a Tuesday night and you'll see a handful of cars parked on the side of the road. Climb up the steep, muddy makeshift entranceway, keep close to the yellow flags, and eventually dense forest will give way to the beginnings of fresh new trail being shaped, sculpted and packed by several dedicated volunteers.
This particular trail is called Grade Reversal, and it's the latest in a series of upgrades to the Terrace Mountain trail system that Terrace Off Road Cycling Association (TORCA) and various volunteers and stakeholders have taken on over the past few years, including Steinhoe Ridge.
And at Terrace's more downhill riding area, Copper Mountain, a keen group of volunteers are working improve that system as well. A number of these builders attended a TORCA-sponsored trailbuilding course in May, learning the foundations and basic skills of trail building, and getting a sense of the bigger picture.
Grade Reversal will be 2.1 km in total once it's finished, starting off about halfway up the trail of the Terrace Mountain bike loop called Flathead and coming out onto Kitselas Road. A month in, there's still a lot of work to be done – think 2 km of work. But the project in progress is impressive, and the volunteers helping to create it are avid bikers, meaning they are testing out the jumps and making sure they ride well.
“We're looking for a nice, fast flowy trail that's good for intermediate and expert riders,” said volunteer Tony Moore. “Intermediates will be able to just ride over everything, and the experts can go fast and get some airtime.”
This level of difficulty is different from the Steinhoe trail, which has been the group’s main priority since work began in 2011.
“Over the past few years, the most consistent request in regards to trails in our area has been for more beginner friendly mountain bike trails,” said TORCA's Tara Irwin. “This is our goal with Steinhoe.”
Steinhoe's design has evolved since its conception – at first it was going to be an “out and back” trail, starting and ending on Kitselas Road. But it's now going to be a loop that connects to Spring Creek. Last month, a bridge was installed above the little creek to allow the connection. The Ministry of Forests supplied the material and the labour – provincial fire crews brushed out the trail and put in the bridge while waiting to get called to fight fires.
Now that the bridge is in, the next step is to go in with a mini-excavator, paid for through a grant from the Terrace Community Forests, and build as much trail as possible over a 10-day stretch.
As of late last week, about 4.5 km of the 7km trail was finished. While this push with the mini-excavator will be a big help in completing the trail, there's still at least a season of work to go, said Irwin, noting more builders and more funding could cut that time down.
But even throughout construction, the trail has been getting a lot of use – and not just by bikers. Hikers are a huge part of the trail community, and the hiking club has been a major supporter of the new trails as well, said Irwin.
“It's good to see more people walking, helping to pack down the trails,” she said. “The hiking club's probably used Steinhoe more than the bikers.”