Hinton bike park takes aim at regional cyclists

After a year of careful planning, grant applications and stunt engineering, Hinton is now home to one of the nation’s largest skills parks. 

The mountain bike community gathered Sun, June 14 for the official opening of the new skills park, which includes a vast array of jumps, rails and obstacles for bikers of all levels.

“This is the culmination of a vision to create one of the largest skills parks in the country,” said Stephen Hanus, president of the Hinton Mountain Bike Association.

After raising close to $400,000 and securing expert bike park designer Jay Hoots, the park has been unofficially open for some time, however the community turned out for the official opening. Hoots brought with him a team of expert stunt riders for the event to help showcase what was possible at the park. 

Amidst the high-flying act, Hanus was thrilled.

“You can’t pull the smile off of our faces. We put all of our spare time into this and it was fun for our friends and family. But now we can enjoy what we started,” Hanus said.

A litany of mountain bikers descended on the opening to test out the park, with many spouting rave reviews.

Hanus said the park will keep trails in the backcountry safer for cyclists.

“In the backcountry, most of the stunts were pretty extreme and you don’t know who built them. This allows people to progress naturally,” Hanus said.

Previously, cyclists would have to travel to Edmonton, Grand Prairie or Canmore to find anything close to this sort of facility, Hanus said. 

The mountain bike club will continue to provide labour and expertise to the park, however it is now officially the property of the town. The park is free to attend, which Hanus said is a bonus over similar parks.

Hinton town councillor Mike Jodoin said the entire mountain bike community rallied together to construct the park. Volunteer bikers from Hinton, Jasper, Valemount and Grand Cache all helped contribute to the park he said, which will act as a tourist attraction for the area as well.

“There’s nothing like this around and it’s all inclusive. In a resource community , we can diversify our economy with tourism. We need something to pull through these times.”

Jodoin said the park is an example of something Hinton can offer that Jasper can’t.

“We have an opportunity here that the national park prohibits. We can capitalize on that,” Jodoin said.