This year has been a busy year for Blacksheep Mountain Bike Club.
In the works since 2017, the Trowbridge Forest Recreational Trail Master Plan outlines major expansions to the existing mountain bike trail system across Centennial Park, Trowbridge Falls Park, Kinsmen Park and Shuniah Mines. This year, several large-scale projects were completed adding kilometres of trails and other amenities.
In September, the “Balsam Connector,” which links the Shuniah Mines section of the biking trail system to Balsam Street was completed. Last week saw the grand opening of a new skills park at Kinsmen Park, says club president Tristin Radley-Hansen. “Now they’re working on the Mesa section at Centennial.”
About 35 per cent to 40 per cent of the master plan is complete, he says. “There’s still a fair bit to do, but it should be all done by fall of next year.”
Mountain biking has been growing in popularity for the past few years, even before the pandemic. Membership at Blacksheep Mountain Bike Club reached 518 this year, and the trail system averages around a hundred riders a day during the summer months. “This summer the trail counter tracked over 12,830 people,” Radley-Hansen adds.
The season starts at the end of May usually, though with this spring being so dry, people were able to use the trails as early as the end of April. Group rides, races and events wrapped up in October, and there are a few more weeks until the fat bikes begin coming out in numbers.
“The most important time to avoid the trails is during freeze and thaw cycles,” Radley-Hansen says. Some trails may also be susceptible to damage after a lot of rain, and the club asks members not to ride when their tires leave marks on the ground. The club’s website has a comprehensive trail condition map as well, notifying the public of trail closures and conditions.
Radley-Hansen says a wide range of ages and skills join their club. “We have tons of kids that are getting into mountain biking - at least a quarter of members are kids,” he says. “We’ve also got people who come out for racing, who are over 50.”
One of the goals of the Trowbridge Forest Recreational Trail Master Plan is to attract tourists to the area. Despite the travel restrictions this year, Radley-Hansen says they did get some race participants from outside the region, and the trails’ proximity to the highway makes them attractive to people doing a cross-country trip. ”Everyone has to cross Thunder Bay to go across the country,” he points out.
The president of the club says he loves the variety of terrain available in Thunder Bay. “We don’t have the mountains of BC but we have hills, and really good dirt to dig in. It’s a beautiful landscape to work in,” he says.
Being an avid downhill skier, he doesn’t go fat biking during the winter, but says many of the club’s members do. “In some ways, the potential for winter fat biking is endless because of the size of the trails that we have, and the amount of area it covers. BC is great, but they get so much snow. There’s only a certain amount packing that you can do. But here’s there’s lots of potential,” he says.
