<\/a>Jacob Crosland, 7, walks his bike around an excavator on the unfinished beginner’s trail at the new Thunder Mountain Bike Park on Saturday. Officials said the trails should be ready to ride on by early next week. (Mark Sabbatini \/ Juneau Empire)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
The trail, along with a 1,000-foot-long beginner’s trail, is expected to be ready to ride early next week, said Reid Harris, president of the Juneau Mountain Bike Alliance, which is collaborating with Trail Mix Inc. and other local entities to build the new bike park mostly with the labor of volunteers. The park near Sítʼ Eetí Shaanáx̱ – Glacier Valley Elementary School is located on about 50 acres of city-owned forest and already has two existing trails, and is expected to eventually have four new trails between about 1,000 and 2,000 feet in length.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Harris said while Juneau has numerous bike trails, most are in the vicinity of downtown and Douglas Island, and the current park offers a design and features different from existing local trails.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“We didn’t want to just like come in with a bulldozer, kind of a big straight slash through the trees, and make it 10 feet wide,” he said. “It’s more like the trail has a six-foot-wide tread. It’s very serpentine. It flows around nicely. It’s got these beautiful build features and jumps that are beginner- and intermediate-friendly, and also appealing for advanced riders.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
<\/a>Bay White (left) and Reid Graham, both 13, take a break while volunteering to work on the nearly completed Thunder Mountain Bike Park on Saturday. Both said they are experienced riders who frequent other mountain bike trails in Juneau. (Mark Sabbatini \/ Juneau Empire)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
The quality of the nearly finished trails was praised by Reid Graham, 13, a Colorado resident who spends half of his summers with his dad in Juneau, and frequently rides existing trails throughout town and showed up to help with Saturday’s volunteer work.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“Those jumps are looking a lot better than the Eaglecrest jumps,” he said, referring to a trail at the city-owned ski area. “The Eaglecrest jumps are gravel, so if you crash you’re kind of screwed.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
But the rugged-ride paths at Thunder Mountain Bike Park started as just plain rugged-to-navigate second-growth forest a few months ago.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“A devil’s club jungle,” said Jim Papoi, a volunteer helping build a jump.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Clearing a path through the trees – standing and fallen – and undergrowth started with a planning process that began well before the first foliage was cleared, said Gary Paasch, owner of a Washington-based company that specializes in building such trails. He studied a topography map and other information, sketching out preliminary lines for possible trails.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
<\/a>Gary Paasch, owner of a professional mountain bike trail-building company in based in Washington state, explains Saturday how a route was selected through second-growth forest for the intermediate-level trail for the new Thunder Mountain Bike Park on Saturday. (Mark Sabbatini \/ Juneau Empire)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
Afterward he and other project leaders bushwhacked through the entire stretch of dense forest four or five times planning the route of the trail.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“We took a survey of what land we’re working with, what features are naturally here and then talked about possible future trails, and the possibility of using this space to get more trails,” he said. “So that kind of determined that ‘OK, here are a few possible lines that could be built at some point.’ And for the skill level and the type of jumpy trail that we’re trying to find, this line provides a good grade and allows us to really kind of mold the terrain, and get all that we possibly can out of a space that we have.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t