IMBA CANADA Blog

Members of Positive Action for Keppoch in Antigonish, Nova Scotia

During our visits, we often speak about the limitless potential of the given landscape. In Antigonish we discovered the limitless potential of an organization. The Positive Action for Keppoch (PAK) group was formed when the municipality of the County of Antigonish put the kybosh on a 25 million dollar project to re-vitalize their local ski hill. Residents didn’t want to see Keppoch-Beaver mountain sit unused so formed PAK in an effort to revitalize the area from a grassroots approach instead. They have garnered more support than they initially thought possible and have already secured a 25-year lease on the land to develop trails.

Currently there are only a handful of advanced downhill runs on the mountain but the main push is to get as many beginner and intermediate multi purpose and multi-season trails established before expanding on the downhill component. Eventually, PAK would like to see downhill skiing back on the hill but they realize that it may take a while to reach that ultimate goal.

We spent much of our time with the local builders developing the overall plan and layout of the trails within the mountains boundaries. We had over 20 adults and almost 10 kids show up on Saturday for the classroom session and afternoon build. Our project consisted of merging an intermediate and advanced downhill trail right at the base of the mountain. We reclaimed the old trail that hadn’t been benchcut into the sideslope and was widening as riders slid on exposed roots. After a rough start (4 of our volunteers got stung by bees…so sorry!) we all got a little dusty and built 150 meters of new benchcut trail which included 3 really fun insloped turns. At the end of the day many people took the opportunity to test ride our sweet Trek bikes on the newly built singletrack.

On Sunday morning the local mountain bikers invited us out to sample some of the riding outside of Keppoch mountain. We were absolutely spoiled on the 3-hour ride. We climbed to see some amazing views of the harbour and surrounding area, sampled some of the local racer/builder singletrack and enjoyed the camaraderie between the other riders.

"Lots of energy in the Antigonish riders!" quote from John Chaisson post Sunday ride

We’d like to thank the entire PAK group for their enthusiasm and for letting us share their success with them. A special thanks to John Chaisson for organizing all of the logistics of our visit, Al and Terese Tracey for putting us up in their home and for the entertaining dinner at the family cottage. A big thank you to Gregg Stewart for being our go-to guy during the visit and Donny and John for the shuttles on Thursday night.

(Koo’-shi-boo-gwak’) Say it fast, no, really fast. Meaning “River of the Long Tides”, it took us a week of trying to tell others where we were going next to get it right. Not only is it fun to say, but upon arrival we decided right away we were going to stay the night. Family-friendly bike paths form an active transportation network across the park. You can travel between all the parks activities by bicycle without riding on any roads and bike racks are found everywhere. The campground is beautiful and so is the long sandy beach. Those weren’t the main reason for our visit, though.

About four or five years ago the park was having serious problems with the Major Kollock trail. There was deep mud everywhere and the tread was widening terribly. Mountain bikes were using the trail quite heavily even though it was designated for hiking only. IMBA was contacted to help with a solution and the park decided to perform an experiment. They invited the other maritime national parks and everyone in the community to see what they were up to. After a trail building school it took about two more years to revamp the trail from end to end. We were there simply to do a checkup and we’re pleased to say that everything looks fantastic.

Camilla Vautour with product development is now looking at improving the mountain bike offer in the park even further. She says that neighboring Fundy National Park has many kilometres of hiking trails, waterfalls, high tides and other things that Kouchibouguac is too small and too flat to provide. That’s why she wants the park to specialize in something different, not to compete, but to compliment the national parks experience in New Brunswick. We say, “Bravo!”

There are three things that draw people to Newfoundland & Labrador: whales, icebergs and trails. While we didn’t get to see any icebergs or whales, we did experience many trails.

Group of Terra Nova Park staff, volunteers on day one

We were in Terra Nova National Park for an entire week. There are relatively few trails in the park and only two that were designated for cycling. Unfortunately, those trails were completely unsuitable for biking because of erosion and standing water. Fortunately, the staff at Terra Nova are open minded about converting some existing hiking trail to multiuse, as well as increasing the amount of singletrack available to both hikers and bikers. The most exciting of these is the potential to connect the Louil Hill loop, which sees the highest unofficial mountain bike traffic in the park, with the Malady Head campground and lookout trail.

For the first IMBA Trailbuilding School we took the park staff and other trails community members to the Newman Sound campground. Children in the campground have no where to ride bicycles other than on the busy roads. The park is visiting the idea of a dedicated children’s bike park at the edge of the campground. During the workshop we focused on design and layout. Everyone had the chance to measure grades, flag corridor and set pin flags. It was interesting to see the completely different ideas that each group presented. Even more interesting was watching them empathize with seven year olds on bicycles. Some were more in touch with their inner child than others!

Whale jaw bones framed the entrance to these trails in Sandy Cove

The second Trailbuilding School was spent in the community of Sandy Cove just outside of the park. Over 300 years ago, most of the small towns on the Eastport Peninsula were connected by trails. In the late 1990’s the Eastport Peninsula Heritage Society was established to connect the old heritage trails together. On the “Old Trails” we taught rerouting with new bench cut, reclamation and rock armoring. We couldn’t believe how hard the group worked and their attention to detail was amazing. They even went as far as replanting moss to provide an astounding aesthetic finish.

We want to give a huge thanks to Kevin Robinson from Terra Nova National Park for organizing the visit. Thank you to all of the staff who helped with maps, tools, digging and armoring. A special shout-out needs to go to Andy Hennebury who is working hard to establish quality trails all over Newfoundland.

While in Terra Nova National Park our coordinator was trying desperately to contact us though we had no phone or internet access. A group of mountain bikers from Cornerbrook had discovered that we were in the province and were willing to do anything to schedule a visit before we left. We were destined for Gros Morne National Park anyway, and since days off are for sissies, we were more than happy to stop in.

Geoff Wareham was the instigator and our host for this visit and as soon as we arrived he took us around to see the existing trails. We decided that Cornerbrook had enormous potential for an expansive trail network beginning right in town with family-friendly trails leaving the brand new city park and connecting all the way out to epic cross country loops and shuttle accessible downhills. Then people could ride their bikes right back into downtown for their post-ride beer. They’ll have to build it first, though.

With a flurry of phone calls, Geoff was able to arrange an impromptu meeting with everyone who was anyone in the city. Peter Alderhead, the local bike shop owner, hosted us at his coffee shop along with representatives from the municipality, recreation, city planning, provincial tourism and business development. Everyone contacted had only a couple of hours notice, but they all dropped what they were doing in the middle of their work day and arrived ready to take notes.

What happens next is up to them. We went through maps and discussed steps to applying for an official IMBA visit next year. Most of the terrain surrounding Cornerbrook is crown land like the rest of Newfoundland so official and protected access will have to be arranged. We’re hopeful that they can get organized enough to at least begin making changes before we pass that way again.

While we were there, Geoff was good enough to be our tour guide to Gros Morne National Park. Both the climb and the vistas at Gros Morne mountain were breathtaking. Deanne had been adamant that we couldn’t leave until we saw a moose. We saw four of them as well as a caribou and black bear all on the same trail. We’ll be planting suggestions about a visit there next year as well.

Day one group at Fundy National Park

Day two group at Fundy National Park

Fundy National Park is a stunning park about an hour away from Moncton, New Brunswick. It sees some of Canada’s highest tides and has an abundance of waterfalls. Fundy was established in 1948 and most of the current trails were created at that time. We focused on White Tail, the only trail that connects Chignecto Campground to the main visitor activity area (playground, golf course, outdoor theatre). White Tail is currently a hiking only trail but sees the most ‘poached’ bicycle use in the park. Overall the trail runs along old forestry or ox cart roads, has many steep sections and the connecting pieces are showing their age. The hope is that with a little bit of work the trail will be officially opened to bikes.

Our visit started with sitting in on a visioning exercise led by Mark Schmidt for the Fundy Park staff to determine some priorities for the trails within the park. 20 potential projects were presented for prioritization to Parks staff and community members. A common theme that surfaced was the allocation of more trails for mountain bike use. We did two trailbuilding schools while we were in Fundy. One for Parks staff and a second for volunteer groups who work on trails just outside of the park.

Nestled right next to the park is the small village of Alma, which has a population of about 300. Alma is home to one gem of a trail called Green Snake. Unfortunately this trail currently does not have an easily accessible entrance or exit. Built in 2003 after an IMBA workshop Green Snake hasn’t seen a lick of maintenance since it was built. It is a perfect example of sustainably built rolling contour trail and only needs a few small knicks to make it completely dry and ride smoothly again. We helped a few of the keen local mountain bikers locate a suitable entrance and hopefully soon the Green Snake trail will be accessible right from town.

We’d like to thank Matt Smith and his family for hosting us, the Parks Canada staff who came out to get their hands dirty and we can’t forget a special thanks to Vernon and the crew at the Octopus’s Garden for making the most amazing lunches and coffee in town.

Gorefest is an 8-hour endurance race that has been running since 1997 and is now based in Gore, Nova Scotia. Mark and Lora attended this event when they were Trail Care Crew and the section of trail that they worked on during their visit is still holding up perfectly. Gorefest is an important event because it provides a fun atmosphere that attracts riders of all abilities. You don’t have to be an elite racer to appreciate the bike toss and naked nighttime crit. Just like any other 8, 12 or 24 hour event the main goal of the event is to get together with friends, ride and have fun.

We arrived on Saturday morning to find about a dozen eager volunteers itching to get some trail work done. Our project was to tweak a trail that in the past had always been used as an uphill but that needed to be adjusted to flow well as a downhill. We conquered a few projects by lunchtime and after lunch Chad took five really keen volunteers back onto the trail to continue work. After everything was wrapped up we hopped on the bikes and rode a lap around the racecourse.

After a boisterous night on Saturday we registered for the event and managed to get in a few good laps before having to get back to work. We met with the primary builder and did a quick in the field trailbuilding school to help him trouble shoot some problem areas and provide insight on future development.

We want to thank Mike Phillips, the organizer of Gorefest for letting us participate in such a fun event (we’re going to work on our bike tossing skills for next year).

After camping at Blomidon Provincial Park we headed into Wolfville, Nova Scotia to work with the Annapolis Valley Mountain Bike Association (AVMBA). Glenn McMullen, the president of the IMBA affiliate club, is also the owner of 52 acres just 10 minutes from town. The purpose of our visit with the AVMBA was to help design a trail network close to town with a focus on beginner trails, and to train some new volunteers to help build the trails. Glenn had done some scouting around the property and discovered that some corridors had been cleared, most likely from past logging operations, so he began to lay down trail in the open corridors. After consulting a map of the existing trails along with topographic maps and aerial photos we helped Glenn lay out a stacked loop system on his property so that there was something for everyone to ride.

With the help and enthusiasm of four volunteers we spent time designing, building and repairing trail to make a large section of trail more beginner friendly. At the end of the day everyone who we talked to and worked with understood the importance of beginner trails within the context of their trail systems and promised us to go back and rework existing trail. We left Glenn with enough ideas and work to last him a few more years but we hope to return to see how his trails have improved.

A big thank you to Glenn and his partner Angela for hosting us in their beautiful home and cooking us the most kick-ass scallops we’ve ever eaten.

Prince Edward Island is well known for many things; Anne of Green Gables, the vibrant red soil, potatoes and the birthplace of the Confederation. Canada’s smallest province is just teeming with history and we couldn’t wait to pay the good folks of PEI a visit. We arrived in Charlottetown a day early and met with Luke, a long standing member of the cycling community, who gave us a crash course on the history of cycling on PEI. After experiencing some of the trails first hand we quickly decided where the focus of our visit should be. Getting beginner trails established on the Island.

During our stay we had the opportunity to meet with the head of forestry for the Island, the director and technical delegate of Cycling PEI and two local landowners. At each meeting we offered solutions and insight on how to improve trails and mountain biking on PEI. The most important goal of our visit became providing direction for mountain bike trail development on PEI.

We focused our efforts on the first 5 kilometers of existing trail in Murray River and were delighted to find so much history lying around the forest. Old homesteads, vehicles, and artifacts littered the sides of the trail, which made the trail interesting and unique. However, the trail itself was not spectacular. We designed a new 50 meter section of trail which eliminated fall line, provided better flow to the trail and left the local builders a template to work with. On Saturday after the trail building school we worked with 4 volunteers to create a beautiful bench cut which looked like a piece of red ribbon laying the forest and was so smooth to ride that even the non-mountain biker in the group was able to ride it.

A big thanks to our two hosts Luke and Alison MacDonald, and Paul and Susan Jenkins. Thank you to Cycling PEI for putting us up at the Rodd Hotels and bringing us to the beautiful province of Prince Edward Island.

With the busy season rev’ing up, I prepare myself for a fair amount of time spent in airport gate waiting rooms.  Following the IMBA Summit, en route to Charlottetown via Toronto, I stopped at one of the hundreds of convenience stores that litter most airports.  Normally I would head straight to the cycling section but this time my eyes were drawn to the running section.  Scanning through the various mags, I came across one I had yet to try reading, “Canadian Running - Trail Special”.

Flipping through, I stumbled on an article titled “Canada’s 10 Must-Do Trail Races,” and immediately wanted to find out more.  One race that was mentioned, the Brookvale Trail Ultra Marathon, had the following photo that caught my eye:

Back in May of 2009, IMBA Canada trail specialists, Mark Schmidt & Daniel Scott, traveled to the Brookvale Nordic Center to conduct a trail building workshop.  One of the projects that was undertaken  was the rock armouring of continually wet section of trail as illustrated in the blog article “Mountain Biking in the Maritimes - Part 1“.

It is great to see this section being enjoyed by trail enthusiasts and hopefully runners & mountain bikers everywhere will think about checking out this great locale for some fun trails.

Check out the whole article at HERE at Canadian Runner
Photo courtesy of Canadian Runner, 2010.

Design Concept Workshop
Prince Edward Island National Park, PEI

Somehow is seems somewhat fitting that IMBA Canada’s resident redhead, Daniel Scott, was given the opportunity to conduct a workshop on the site that inspired one of Canada’s most famous fictitious redheads, Anne of Green Gables.  This beautiful property is part of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Cavendish National Historic Site, situated along the northern shore of Prince Edward Island.

The purpose of the workshop was to address a myriad of issues that are facing the three trails found on site - Balsam Hollow, Lover’s Lane & Haunted Woods.  According to staff, these trails handle approximately 25,000 of the 140,000 visitors that come to experience the magic that captured the author’s imagination some 100 years ago.

In order to tackle these issues, Maurice Roy (Site Manager), rallied a select group of Parks Canada staff from various departments to participate and provide their expertise.  Folk came to the table representing Environmental Integrity, Cultural Integrity / Visitor Experience, & Asset Management.  Over a three day period, these folk worked with Daniel to identify the problems they each faced with the trails, the solutions they’d like to see implemented and together developed solutions which everyone agreed upon.

Despite major differences in job titles or backgrounds, all the participants quickly became a team, listening to each others concerns, fielding questions when more understanding was needed and respecting each others’ interests.  At the end of the workshop, each person involved came away with not only a better understanding of sustainable trail design but also the awareness that all fields are in fact intricately integrated with one another.

So what was the outcome of all this interdisciplinary teamwork?  A new conceptual plan has been developed that is to be reviewed further while funding is acquired to implement the next phase.

IMBA Canada would like to thank all the participants who so graciously dedicated their time to making this workshop such a success!  Everyone came away feeling positively that this project will greatly enhance the overall integrity of Green Gables Heritage Place.

Click HERE to learn more about Green Gables Heritage Place.