Avid mountain bikers one and all, Houston has started an association focused on building and maintaining biking trials on Mount Harry Davis.
Representative of the Houston Hikers Society, Jonathan Van Barneveld, opened the floor on Sept. 12 at 7 p.m. at the Pleasant Valley Plaza explaining the society’s desire to pass down the Mount Harry Davis project to an association whose interest and passion lies in biking.
“The hikers can’t sustain it, nor do we want to, because we are not bikers. But we believe in the community and what this [association] can be. We’ve been waiting for this to happen so that this group can form and we can work together to help build it to where it needs to be and then [the Houston Hikers Society can] pull out,” said Van Barneveld.
Originally the project began with the Morice Outdoor Recreation Society, then later in 2012 the Houston Hikers Society took over. Since then the Houston Hikers Society has received grants to build out trails and in addition received three years of consecutive funding from the Recreation Sites and Trails B.C. branch. Currently the Mount. Harry Davis project is in year two.
The primary focus of the open house meeting was to meet with people within the community that were interested in being apart of the team as board members.“In order for us to receive funding, we need to be an association if we want to continue to build trails. In order for this project to have longevity, we need to form an association,” Miake Elliot, Manager at Countrywide Sports.
Between the group many ideas were exchanged between as to what they would like to see be put in place for next year, and what projects they wanted to focus on completing over their next volunteer work bees.
CountryWide Sports has also donated three $100 certificates to volunteers that complete 10 hours of maintenance on the trails. Two certificates were given out at the meeting to AJ Houlihan and Bradyn Makowichuk., so there is still one more certificate up for grabs.
Whether you are interested in taking your family out for a bike ride to enjoy the beautiful scenery, or whether you are craving that next adrenaline rush as you ride down on two wheels and nail those jumps, the Houston Mountain Bike Association is the place for you to get all the information you need about trails, rates, and volunteer opportunities for you to be involved in. Contact CountryWide Sports at 250-845-0022 for more information.
