The long wait for spring is over for Campbell River’s dirt jumpers.
As of Wednesday, April 21, the Rotary Bike Park at the Sportsplex is open for the season.
“(The city has) been working super hard at getting everything ready,” said Campbell River Bike Park Society president Nicole Freeman. “They just took down the barriers on Wednesday so it is now open to the public to use all of the features in the park, which is really cool.”
The winter was a bit rough on the new features, which was expected. The maintenance team did a lot of work on the drainage as well as some resurfacing work on the larger features.
“If anything, the most trouble was when we had snow and kids were using it for tobogganing. That’s what caused the most damage on some of the steeper landings,” said Freeman. “For the most part, I have to admit that people have been quite respectful in how they use the park. It took quite a beating over the wintertime.”
The goal is to keep the park open for the season, despite the forecast of rain over the next few weeks. In fact, the rain is likely going to help make the jumps stronger, rather than weaken the structures.
“I would say that very very adverse weather could close down the black line, but no the idea would be that from now on we would just respond to different maintenance requirements as we go and try to lessen any shut down time as much as possible,” Freeman said. “The rain will probably be a good thing, because it’s super dry and we could use some moisture on the dirt to try and keep things from cracking.”
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