From the fallout of a demolished, unauthorized mountain bike trail in Windsor is new hope avid cyclists and trail users will get something that meets their wishes.
A new grassroots group is waiting on paperwork to be incorporated as the Essex County Trail Association (ECTA) which will work hand in hand with the city to come up with the trail designs users will enjoy.
On Tuesday, an open house organized by the City of Windsor helped staff gather public input for its off-road biking study underway.
The @CityWindsorON is holding an open house to gather input for its off road biking study #cklw @AM800News pic.twitter.com/qNaYitd2Pf
— Ricardo Veneza (@RicardoVeneza) September 18, 2018
The city is looking to provide improved trails in Malden Park and Little River Corridor Park for off-road riders following the demolition of an illegal track near the Little River Rd. entrance to the Ganatchio Trail. Issues had also sprung up over use of Black Oak Heritage Park which was fenced off and then re-opened earlier this year.
Windsorite Andy Jenner is one of the co-founders of ECTA and says the city needs to take advantage of the few natural assets it has.
"There are areas of opportunities in Windsor," says Jenner. "No, we're not a London, we're not like Toronto or anything like that — we are minus a lot of green space here."
He feels proper trails in the city will be well used by both casual and advanced riders.
"It's an on-your-time type sport that'll get you into shape as much as you want. There's racing clubs if you want to get into racing but, we're looking to just provide a venue that's for everybody," says Jenner.
Preliminary trail designs are displayed at the City of Windsor's Off-Road Biking Open House at the Malden Park Visitors Centre on September 18, 2018. (Photo by Ricardo Veneza)
Head of the city's parks and recreation department, Jan Wilson, stresses all of the city's current trails will remain — only enhancements are being considered.
"We want to make sure that the park remains accessible to all the users so, the cross country runners who use this park extensively for practices and competitions, all the way up to provincial and national levels have been held here, we want to make sure that that can still happen here too," says Wilson.
While the fledgling ECTA group doesn't have any members yet — Jenner is waiting to see the group be formally incorporated before signing up members — he expects they and other trail users will prove to be a benefit to the parks that house the routes.
"We actually keep the areas clean," says Jenner. "We care about the trails just as much — we're the ones picking up garbage — but, it also keeps anything that's not looking right, if some kids have gone in and built something that's not right, we can take care of it right away."
Preliminary trail designs are displayed at the City of Windsor's Off-Road Biking Open House at the Malden Park Visitors Centre on September 18, 2018. (Photo by Ricardo Veneza)
Wilson says through the consultation work so far, two types of trail use has emerged as favoured by riders — those for tricks known as "pump" trails and single-track cycling done on more narrow trails.
She says beginner, intermediate and advanced courses are being considered with appropriate safety precautions to keep people from inadvertently wondering onto a course too difficult for their skill level — including signage, education and design considerations.
"You don't have the advanced course right off the parking lot where in order to get to the beginner course you have to get through the advanced course," says Wilson. "It's sort of like ski hills where you have the beginner hill up to the double black diamonds so, there would be that similar type of information that we would give to the community when they come to these parks."
City council has set aside $500,000 for off-road cycling infrastructure.