Trail Report: May 3, 2018

Hinton Bike Park

Please avoid the bike park's Dirt Jumps, Skills Area and Flow Master until further notice.

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Happy Creek Trail System

Outer trails are drying up nice!! Just get there, The J, Cleo's, Halloween Connector, Halloween, west happy are all 98% dry, ready to ride. 

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Jack's Trail System

No trail reports available.

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Gasifier

Access Road to Gasifier

Gasifier is about 98% too! But the road to the top still has a lot of snow on parts. So if you like pushing your bike up hill, it's good to go!

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Hinton Bike Park Not Ready Yet!

The Hinton Bike Park is "closed" due to poor conditions.  This is a critical time of the year when the frost is coming out of the ground and making trails, jumps, berms, etc very soft and muddy.   Any ruts and erosion created during this time means higher maintenance and dollars spent on repairs later this spring.

Please help keep the Hinton Bike Park and the trail networks in the best shape possible by refraining to bike the trails until conditions are suitable.

Tim Trahan Recognized at AGM

Jay Hore, HMBA President, thanked Tim Trahan at the Hinton Mountain Bike Association AGM on April 12th, 2018.  Tim was a member of the HMBA Board of Directors (Operations/Trails) for 5 years, Sprockids Coordinator for 4 years, Sprockids Coach for 6 years and avid volunteer for over 10 years!

Thank you Tim for your commitment and energy.  It's members like yourself that have been the building blocks to our amazing mountain bike mecca!

Your chance to give input!

The Hinton Mountain Bike Association is looking for feedback, we'd love to hear from you!

Some Stats on Trail Usage

The HMBA invested in some trail counters last Fall and 3 were installed on trails within the Happy Creek Trail System this winter. We were curious to see what trail usage was in winter months. The average air temperature is added to the graph, and we can see that the colder temperatures didn't sway some of our trail users! Data from our trail counters will help estimate trail usage, monitor growth in usage and also to compare usage between seasons. All this data will be valuable in any future grants - we can use these numbers to show how awesome our trails are, year-round!!

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Trail Usage Stats

October Winds = Downed Trees

There are many reports of trees down at the Hinton Bike Park and on our trail systems. Please ride with care!! Our trail guardians (aka volunteers) have been removing some of these trees, but it may be a while before it's all cleared up.

Rock Band: A new ending to a great ride

Rock Band was a trail added to the Happy Creek Trail system in Spring of 2016 in the form of a short but sweet 0.6 km technical downhill trail option (Difficulty rating: Advanced (black)).   Read about the initial build here.  The last 70m of this trail went through a low-lying area and the above-average accumulation of rain in the Summer of 2016 made it clear that we needed to find a solution for this wet section, dubbed "Shrek's Swamp".  

In the Spring of 2017, the Hinton Mountain Bike Association applied for the Hinton Community Grant and was awarded $2,035 to build a boardwalk for Rock Band.

Thanks to the contributions of many volunteers in the past few months, the donation of lumber from West Fraser Mills Ltd., and the Hinton Community Grant, a long, winding technical feature was added to Rock Band's song.

There is still a short section to complete to make it perfect, but it's definitely good to Rock'ON as is.  Many thanks to all the awesome volunteers who made this happen - over 75 hours of volunteer time was put into this project!

Lumber donated from West Fraser Mills Ltd.

Thank you West Fraser Mills Ltd, Hinton Divison and the Town of Hinton for your contributions and support!

First step: cutting all the slats

Overall, almost 400 slats needed to be cut

Putting the Rokon + trail to good use!

Some added excitement for the day!  Luckily, no one or thing got hurt in this kerfuffle.

Other modes of transportation.  And yes, this mode had it's own kurfuffles!

Good way to build up those riding arms!

Workin' on the line

View from the exit

View from the entry point

Give Feeback!

We'd love to hear your thoughts about the latest 2017 Trail Maps for Hinton! Only 500 pamphlets were printed recently and can be found at the Hinton Bike Park sign-in kiosk, Vicious Cycle (Hinton), The Hinton Voice, Travel Alberta Hinton Visitor Information Centre, Maximum Work Gear and Bike Boy.  

Please let us know what you think! We will take all suggestions and feedback into consideration for our next batch of maps.

Jack's Trail System Report

Trail highlighted in yellow.

"Dan's Deadly Downhill", part of the upper loop of Jack's Trail System, has many downed trees and debris across the trail. Pine beetle infected trees, pine beetle abatement work and strong winds have contributed to the debris. Please stay on the lower loops until the trail has been cleared up. Thanks!

New to our Trails? Here's what we recommend!

New to our trails? One of the loops that locals enjoy is highlighted in yellow, approximately 8.6 km. About 200 m elevation gain. Start on Just Get There and finish on Happy Creek (West side). The trail head is roughly 2 km from the Hinton Bike Park parking lot. This loop has bit of of everything: up and ups, rewarded with downs and flowy single track. And don't forget to stop at our favorite EZ lookout!

Caution on some Trails

You may see some CAUTION notices on our trails.

The Rock Band trail is awesome, but the bottom section is still very wet. Best to avoid this trail until the wet area is re-mediated later this summer.

The Lower Bighorn, between the Beaver Boardwalk and the powerline right-of-way is eroded, so please ride with care, especially when going in the downhill direction.

Thanks!

Pembina Pipeline Corp Investing in Hinton

We are SUPER excited to announce the donation of $15,000 from Pembina Pipeline Corporation's Community Investment Program. This amazing donation has funded our newest trail in the Hinton Bike Park, unofficially named "Pembina Sprockids Trail".

This BIG cheque was presented by Clint Walker, of Pembina Pipeline, to Jay Hore (HMBA President) and Julie Duval (HMBA Treasurer). Jay Hoots from Hoots Inc., and his crew were hired to build this sweet new trail. Hoots Inc. has also donated over $3,000 of labour towards the building of the Pembina Sprockids Trail. Revenue accumulated from our Hinton Sprockids Program registrations and donations have also contributed to this trail build.

The trail is over 600m of gently sloped terrain and is suitable for younger bikers and novices.

Thank you Hoots Inc. and crew for this new addition and THANK YOU Pembina Pipeline for investing in our community!!!

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A new trail well suited for riders of all abilities!

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Hinton Bike Park back in Great Shape!

Hoots Inc. and crew have completed three weeks of maintenance and trail building work at the Hinton Bike Park!

Thanks!

 The HMBA would like to thank Jay, Alan, Dalan, Fraser and Ben for the awesome work done!!!

The HMBA would also like to thank the Town of Hinton for the Community Grant received in April. This grant ensured that the Drop Zone, Fo'Shore and Slope Wars skill areas got inspected, re-shaped, and buffed.

Business Time

Other areas in the park that received similar maintenance include the Skills Area, Dirt Jumps, Business time, Midway Pump Track and Jodoin's Journey. Funds for this work was provided by the HMBA, the Town of Hinton's Bike Park Annual Maintenance Fund and from donated services/labour by Hoots Inc.

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Dirt Jumps

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Midway Pump Track

Lastly, the Hinton Bike Park now has a new trail!!! This trail is freshly built over approximately 600m of gently sloped terrain. It was designed with the younger bikers in mind, to allow easier access to the mid-areas of the park. This trail was funded by a generous benefactor which we hope to announce soon! Registration revenue and donations from the Hinton Sprockids program also contributed to this build!

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New trail

Bike Park Closures

We have been very busy putting valuable grant, donation, and maintenance dollars to work on buffing the Hinton Bike Park. There are still some closures marked with Red Tape throughout the park.

PLEASE RESPECT CLOSURES marked by red tape - the dirt jumps, upper pump track, drop zone, slope wars need time to set. Once they have set they will be rock solid for the season.

Thank you for your patience, the rain has been slowing the process but we will be there soon!

Ride DIRT not MUD!

Let's all do our part and avoid these kinds of situations!

Leave Trees Standing

It has been brought to our attention by some of our members that someone has been cutting down trees along some of the HMBA trails. Although folks might think they are doing the right thing and helping maintain the trails or making riding them easier, please refrain from cutting down any standing trees.

Our ability as an organization to keep using these trails and bringing an unreal riding experience to Hinton is based on preserving the forest and minimizing our impact on our natural surroundings as much as possible. If you feel the need to cut down trees or do some work on trails, stand by! We will be announcing a work bee soon where there will be no shortage of work.

If you have any questions regarding the trails or if you see an issue or dangerous trees please send us a note and we can always come and take a look.

Thanks everyone! Get out and ride!

Pine Beetle Control

Update from West Fraser Mills Ltd.

The HMBA has been in touch with West Fraser regarding the Mountain Pine Beetle work being done near Hinton.  They have a huge undertaking ahead of them and have begun work already.  They will have approximately 1500 trees to fall in the HMBA trails area - both in Jacks Trail System and Happy Creek Trail System.  The trees will not be burnt, but they will be felled, limbed and peeled.

The results will be very noticeable, especially on the Bighorn trail and a few other trails that have a large number of trees infected by the beetles.

Infested tree

Popcorn-like pitch tubes created by the beetles.

Key messages from West Fraser

• Crews will be walking into most locations as quading would only get them so far. Some may even be biking in.
• Crews will not be quading on our trails and if they do, it will only be to cross them.
• Before falling trees, they will use signs and have staff along affected trails to advise users to avoid walking or riding the trail where the work will be happening.  Users will be advised both at the entrance and exit points of the trail.
• Limbs will be pulled away from the trails and all peeling's and limbs, cones etc will be raked off the trails.
• Trees will be fallen away from trails as much as possible to help avoid any damages to the trails themselves.
• Any stumps within 5m of the trail will be rounded off.
• The trees, once fallen and peeled, will be bucked to small lengths and left in the bush away from the trails.
• The work needs to be complete by June 15th.  This means it will be an intense activity and will have some impact on accessing some trails but it will be short term.

Contact

If for some reason you run into any issues from crew members or just the public at large, you may contact Hal Jackson at 780-865-8741 and point him in the direction of the issue.

Please note that similar pine beetle control is being done within town limits, but under a different contractor.  Their methods may differ.  Contact the Town of Hinton if you have any concerns of the beetle control work being done within town limits.

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Ride DIRT, not MUD

Spring is indeed upon us! Current conditions in the Hinton Bike Park and many of our trails are very wet and muddy. Please refrain from riding in these poor conditions as it deteriorates our trails. It won't be long before we can all go out and enjoy riding!

Winter Trails

Want to know which trails get groomed? Check out our map!

Please note that these trails are 100% groomed by volunteers. Grooming depends on snow conditions, weather, volunteer availability and equipment functioning (they do break down!).  More info about our grooming...

Get access to a georeferenced and printable pdf map here (8.5"x11", 1400dpi, 4.3GB)

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