Houston can expect a new trail at Mt. Harry Davis before winter comes if everything goes well.
The community is coming together to get the second trail done with the goal of making it rideable in a month or two. Currently, volunteers have raked out a trail on the site and just need help from a Burns Lake engineer with heavy machinery to widen and sculpt the trail to fit regulations.
“We’re going to try to get the second one done this year, I believe,” volunteer Zach De La Mare said. “We brushed it out last year, we had a brush team going at the beginning of the year this year.”
Much of the trail’s progress is now contingent on when the engineer comes to town.
“We were told he was delayed this year to come here, so he’ll hopefully be, later on this month, coming here with his machinery and going to do it,” De La Mare said.
The second trail, named Jack of all Trades, will branch off the first trail, named Broken Spokes. It promises a great view of town and its surroundings. Both trails are rated for beginners.
The new three-kilometre trail will cost $44,235 and has received a $29,000 grant from Northern Development through its Community Halls and Recreation Facilities program, according to details provided by them.
“They came to us, and they’ve been working with a number of communities as part of this whole northern B.C. bike recreation tourism strategy that has been worked on over the past couple of years,” economic development director Dean McKinley said.
“It supports this idea of collaboratively marketing mountain bike tourism opportunities throughout northern B.C. to attract those people that might typically think of Big White or Whistler or Sun Peaks and get them to come up through northern B.C.”
McKinley revealed that Houston will use this trail to market mountain biking to tourists, and added that it will have a wall ride and directional signs to guide users.
Eager riders should hold their horses, though. While the trail has been carved out, there are spots that need further attention from the engineer.
“Right now, it’s not really 100 per cent rideable, there are a few spots that the machine needs to take some brush away.” De La Mare said. “And the one creek bed, it’s fairly rocky, he’ll have to kind of make a new trail.”
“There some wet, damp spots where you’d sink too far on your bike and there’s spots where he’s got to go up through the trees that are fairly rough.”
