Hinton stakes its claim with a Jay Hoots skills park and free-ride trails 

When the Hinton Mountain Bike Park opens this fall, it will have rolled from dream to reality in less than a year.

Built with grants, contributions solicited from business and industry, in-kind support and sweat equity, it will be the first municipal all-inclusive mountain bike park in Alberta and the biggest in Canada.

“Everything fell into place,” said Stephen Hanus, property and project manager for the town of Hinton and vice-president of the Hinton Mountain Bike Association.

The centrepiece is a skills park designed by Jay Hoots of North Vancouver. Just west of Robb Road, the new park hooks up with 20 km of trails in the existing Happy Creek and Jack’s systems that can be reached easily from just about anywhere in Hinton.

With the enthusiastic backing of town administrators, businesses and the public at large, the club formed just last fall is raising more than $200,000 in grants, donations of money, material, equipment and volunteer labour.

“We’ve been amazed by support from all parts of  the town administration, from council, businesses and the community,” said Hanus. “They wanted to know how they could help. They encouraged us to ‘do the best job you can, and don’t limit yourself.’ When you have community leaders give that support it makes the process go as well as it can.”

“We have a board walk in town on Maxwell Lake; it’s an amazing path through marshland. People came in droves for work bees on that project and we hope to achieve that too. We can build a pretty amazing bike park with that kind of energy.”

The club found the perfect piece of land for the project, on Hinton’s southern boundary - 37 acres of upland and forest, owned and leased by the town, “right next to the hospital,” Hanus said with a straight face.

“That’s huge; it’s the key to the long term success of the project. It’s good land with suitable soil conditions drainage and topography; it’s zoned for park so once the infrastructure is in, it won’t go to housing,” he said. 

“Most parks have a block or two, we have a big area, with space for parking, a drop zone, north shore style riding, slopes, a dry gully, natural berms, bridges over natural features – a safe setting for riders to develop and practice skills.”

Hanus said that the biggest challenge now is for Hoots, who has designed 24 other parks in Canada,  including one at the Canmore Nordic Centre, “to meet expectations.” 

Hoots said he welcomes the challenge and “the enthusiasm of new blood. I don’t think communities understand the passion of mountain bikers and volunteers for projects like this.”

The park will incorporate existing multi-use trails, with “aggressive design in some areas to accommodate all riding skills,” said Hanus, who has “a mandate to formalize mountain biking in Hinton.”

“Bike parks can be easily expanded or changed,” he said. “Even within the existing footprint, it’s very pliable and we had a good start with the old trail areas.”

Some special skills features will be built offsite and moved to the park this fall, and it’s his hope that it will be open and rideable in September. 

“It’s a huge resource for the whole region,” said Hanus. “We hope to draw some of the two million driving by every year. We’re next to a world heritage site; this will help put Hinton on the map with Jasper Traffic.”

Anyone who wants to check out the project and the trails can download maps at: www.bikehinton.com.