Kelowna, BC takes a pickaxe to illegal mountain bike courses

Mike Vandeman

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-co...bike-parks.html

____


Kelowna takes pickaxe to illegal mountain bike courses



Last Updated: Monday, June 16, 2008 | 4:15 PM ET Comments26Recommend11



CBC News

Parks staff are destroying jumps like these in Knox Mountain Park,
about three kilometers from downtown Kelowna. (City of Kelowna)

The City of Kelowna is tearing down what it calls rogue parks built by
mountain bike riders in remote areas of the city's parks.

But local riders say the city has to find a better way to respond to
the demand for facilities for the popular sport.

On Friday several parks department workers used shovels to tear down a
half-dozen jumps, some up to two metres high, built on a hilltop in
Kelowna's Knox Mountain Park.

Barb Davidson, a planner with the parks department, said the city is
tearing down the jumps because of liability issues, and that anyone
building illegal bike parks could be fined.

Bike riders say there are eight to 10 bike parks with jumps like these
in the Kelowna area. (City of Kelowna)

"The bottom line is they are defacing public property. When we find
out about one on parkland it's our duty to remove it," said Davidson.

Johnny Smoke, president of the Mountain Bikers of the Central
Okanagan, said the riders who built the jumps will see the issue
differently: "They are going to be choked." (this guy used to live in
Vancouver, and abuse the North Shore, before he moved his commercial
mtb tour business to the mountains in Kelowna)

He notes the City of Kelowna is planning several bike parks, but it
could take a year to build the first one.

"In the City of Kelowna itself I think you are looking at four or five
of them, and in the general regional district you are probably looking
at eight or 10. They are small parks, community oriented, generally
speaking for younger people," said Smoke.

Smoke maintains there is evidence of great interest in the sport,
after 500 people joined the new Central Okanagan club this spring.

If Kelowna plans carefully, he said, it can become a destination for
mountain biking like Whistler or parts of the U.S.

"It's a slam dunk. It should have been done a long time ago," said
Smoke.

The city has scheduled a review of its plans for new bike parks on
Monday and an open house for June 24.
--
I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to
humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8
years fighting auto dependence and road construction.)

Please don't put a cell phone next to any part of your body that you are fond of!

http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande