It could have gone to any high school in the province – Kamloops or Kelowna, Whistler, Nelson, or Vancouver. But instead, a team of riders from the Valemount Secondary School took home the championship in high school mountain biking.

That was last year – a significant  accomplishment, as the school with declining numbers (only 85 students this year) competed against the best in the province.

But what’s more impressive is Valemount doesn’t have the trail systems that exist in some of the mountain biking meccas of the province. Something that some local Robson Valley residents agree is missing in the area.

“What we have now is an unofficial trail network. Not all of the trails are actually even recognized by the province yet – they are being maintained and they are being looked after, but it is 100 per cent volunteer work,” said Les van der Roest, teacher and bike club coach at Valemount Secondary School.

A trail system is lacking in the community, he said, and he would like to see the village start building some trails, rather than relying completely on volunteers – some of whom are his students in the school’s mountain bike club.

But one of the main issues the Village would run into if they were to build a trail system is that most of the land inside the village boundary (all 3.9 square kilometers of it) is private land. However, if there were a motion to put a trail system in place in the village, town council would assist in any way they can, according to Mayor Bob Smith.

As long as it is within the village’s budget, mayor Smith said council would make the decision that the trails are important enough, but that something else would have to fall off the priority list.

As for the existing unmarked and unofficial trails, mayor Smith thought 99.9 per cent of them are outside the village boundary and likely on crown land, in the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George.

If a proper licensed society or group was to approach the regional district about putting a bike trail system in place on crown land around the Valemount area, the district said it would be interested in helping them out.

Ken Starchuck, Director of the District of Fraser-Fort George, said he hasn’t been approached by anyone about a trail system, and right now, most people just take their bikes out and find old logging roads or skid trails and ride on them.

“I know at the McBride end (of the Robson Valley), there is basically nothing, there’s no mountain bike trails of any sort here. Basically people go out, they throw their bikes and they start riding around some of the back logging roads,” he said. “They aren’t sanctioned…Regional District isn’t involved in any of that. I’ve never been asked by anybody.”

Starchuck agreed with van der Roest that it is something that lacks in the area.

“For sure, that’s something that’s missing here and, and I’ve never been really asked by anyone to really help them out. But I’d be interested if somebody got a hold of me. But from a Regional District perspective, we don’t and haven’t been involved in that type of thing.”

Starchuck said that the district could look at putting in a trail system within the regional district, in conjunction with the Ministry of Environment, and if it’s crown land that a group wanted to secure to be able to develop into a trail system, they could look into it.

Van der Roest also added a trail system would be good for the village and for tourists.

“It’s a big chunk of our economy, and we need to invest in that. But that’s easy for me to say, I’m not in the village (council) and I have a slight bias.”

Like Starchuck, Mayor Smith also said that no one had contacted him yet regarding a trail system in Valemount, and like the snowmobiling in winter, it is something Tourism Valemount would likely work on.

“We try to be driven by the proper people, then if they come to council and make requests, we can certainly look at those then,” Mayor Smith said.