THRILLS, SKILLS & SPILLS
Fish Creek bike park dream come true
And the kids are going nuts for it! They are coming out with their parents, at lunch, after school, on the weekends, and having a blast.
On my second lap around the Blue Loop — it features a sweet collection of rollers, rocks, jumps, bumps and berms — I decide to test my skills (after all, it is a skills park) and see what I’m made of. As it turns out, not much. At breakneck speed - 5 km/ h? - I careen over a death-defying one-foot drop and for, oh, maybe a millisecond, I’m airborne. With my trusty Pee-wee Herman-inspired hot rod (no basket), I feel the weightlessness, the pure bliss, of shooting into the stratosphere. And for that millisecond, I’m all that, king of the world, the hotshot extraordinaire of the Fish Creek Mountain Bike Skills Park. But then I landed.
Regardless of your form (I could probably use some help), the newly-minted Fish Creek Mountain Bike Skills Park, which is located near the entrance to Sikome Lake on Bow Bottom Trail S.E., is fast becoming the go-to place for Calgary’s growing entourage of mountain bikers to get their thrills. Or, in my case, their spills.
The park, which is the ideal place for handle-bar-eating beginners ( like me) to work on their riding skills, has been a long time coming. In fact, according to David Mills, the Executive Director of the Calgary Mountain Bike Alliance, the idea of building a mountain bike park in Calgary began as early as 2002. And for Mills, as well as hundreds of local riders, the park is a dream come true.
“Jeff Gruttz, a founding member of the CMBA, was likely the first person to approach the City of Calgary for a public skills park,” says Mills. “And that was over 15 years ago. He was continually rebuffed. But he didn’t stop pursuing this. Without him, and a few other people, such as local rider Danny Laroche and Radek Burkat (who is the founder of www. pinkbike.com, Calgary’s hub for cyclists and, according to Mills, the most popular mountain biking website in the world), this park would not be here.”
Not surprisingly, one of the concerns from Alberta Parks (they provided the land, however, the skills park has been funded through government grants, private donors, and a number of private corporations) was the nature and difficulty of the features. “Large drops and gap jumps won’t be built,” says Mills. “Alberta Parks was clear they wanted a park for beginner and intermediate riders. Advanced features typically include jumps and drops that can’t be rolled over. There is mandatory air time. With this restriction, we can still build jumps, however, they have to be completely filled in. An example of this is a tabletop jump. The main challenge with this is the huge quantity of fill soil that’s required. But this is a problem that we can easily solve,” says Mills.
For the many enthusiastic riders of all ages who have been frequenting the park, the “problems” they’ll have to solve include two pumptracks and two skills loops that, when ridden in their entirety, yield approximately two kilometres of super- fun, single-track riding that is more than enough to get the adrenalin flowing. These constitute Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the park. Phase 3, which will be constructed at a later date when more funding is available, will consist of a series of dirt jumps and other intermediate features.
While the park is not yet officially open, it’s not uncommon for a couple of hundred riders to stop by for a spin on any given weekend, a testament to the popularity of the sport of mountain biking in Calgary.
“This is the first legal public skills park in Calgary,” says Mills. “And the kids are going nuts for it! They are coming out with their parents, at lunch, after school, on the weekends, and having a blast. They could be parked on a couch in front of screens or at the malls, but instead they’re outside getting exercise and having fun. I think every neighbourhood in Calgary should have one of these!”
Naturally, because the park is geared for beginners and youngsters ( helmets are mandatory), it’s an awesome entry point for riders to get their feet wet and grow their interest and skills in the exciting sport of mountain biking. “The terrain in and around Calgary is ideal for mountain biking,” says Mills. “Other areas within the city, such as Paskapoo Slopes, Bowmont Park, and 12 Mile Coulee, are all great places for a quick ride. And when you consider the constantly expanding network of trails in Kananaskis, Canmore, Fernie, and beyond, the mountain biking community around here has plenty of reasons to be excited.”
For me, always a sucker when it comes to a little white-knuckle excitement, the park, which is located just fifteen minutes from my front door (via my Pee-wee Herman cruiser), is certainly enough incentive to dip my toes into the sport a little deeper. And, yes, brush up on my skills. Fingers crossed I get a shiny new mountain bike on Father’s Day.