Next summer the Huncity Mountain Bike Club plans to open up the first of six new trails at the 99 Mile Recreation Area.
Huncity president Steve Law said trail building was put on hold last year due to a conflict with the agricultural land reserve. Thanks to the help of Curtis Ofstie, recreation officer for the 100 Mile – Chilcotin Recreation District, the club was able to get approval for their plans last fall and have spent the summer building Sam&Ella a new blue, intermediate, trail with a double black, advanced, feature.
“We started on one of the new trails this year and it’s been done pretty much by volunteers. We have rented a mini-excavator from Performance All Terrain, who has always been very supportive of the bike club and the trails,” Law said. “We got some money from Curtis at the beginning of the year to pay for the excavator and the trail is about three-quarters complete.”
Law said there’s been a large group of club members who have helped build the trails using shovels and rakes, all on a volunteer basis. He noted the trail is about two kilometers long and that if they’d brought in a professional trail builder they’d be charged up to $60,000.
The club currently has over 45 kilometers of trails built and Law said these new trails will add an additional 10 kilometers, once completed. They’ll join the Stormrider, Kraken, Hustle and Flow and Climb and Punishment.
“The 99 Mile has some pretty substantial potential to be a great area and we’ve got some pretty popular trails up there now. It just continues to add to the area, so it will be great to see a few more built,” Law said.
Ofstie said the club’s proposal took longer to authorize because of the ALR. The ALR is land designated by the province to be used primarily for agriculture, to ensure the land is preserved for ‘future agricultural use’.
“Construction of a recreation trail within the ALR is considered to be a ‘non-farm use,’ and so the bike club’s proposal needed to be reviewed and permitted by the Agricultural Land Commission before it could move any further in the trail adjudication process,” Ofstie said. “After reviewing the Huncity Mountain Bike Club’s application, the panel with the ALC ruled in favour of permitting the new mountain bike trails at 99 Mile.”
Ofstie noted the construction of these new mountain biking trails have been approved in accordance with the Forest and Range Practices Act. He said that Huncity has been building mountain bike trails since it entered into a partnership agreement with Recreation Sites and Trails BC in 2014.
“The agreement also ensures that the mountain bike trails are constructed and maintained to provincial standards to ensure the trails are both safe and environmentally sustainable,” Ofstie said.
READ MORE: New features for Huncity Mountain Bike trails
District of 100 Mile House Mayor Maureen Pinkney said council is happy to see the further development of the 99 Mile Recreation area. This year the district helped build a fence around Huncity’s trails to protect them from cattle wandering in from rangeland bordering the 99 Mile.
“We have used some of the Forest Enhancement Society Program funding to assist with a new fence to deter cattle from wrecking the bike jumps on request from Huncity Bike Club,” Pinkney said. “We all are aware that you have to fence cattle out, and range land is all around the parcel. We worked with the Ministry of Recreation and Lands for permission, and thank them very much for their assistance and support.”
Law noted the district also helped cover the $1,500 application fee the club paid the ALC to review their proposal. The club relies on financial aid to keep afloat and Law said they plan to apply for some grants and funding in the near future. This money will be used to bring in some professional trail builders to help lighten the volunteers’ workload.
When asked about what their plans for the other trails are, Law said they have some tentative names including the Ocho, Bermicide, Earth’s Girth, No Regrets, Lack of Contrition, Signs and Zero Remorse. However, he said they won’t know what difficulty rating they’ll receive until they’re built and tested.
“We have those approved trails so we’re going to work on those, that’s our main goal. Ideally, we want to be a larger club so we’re always looking for new members,” Law said. “Our trails are pretty well known already in the mountain biking community so the more people we bring in to 100 Mile to ride the better it is.”