Trail/jump building in South March Highlands, Kanata, Ontario

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Trail/jump building in South March Highlands, Kanata, Ontario
Author Message
flag k-rider92
Posted: Mar 31, 2010 at 6:38 Quote
stprider16 wrote:
thanks for the links i find that site useful stil gotta get my omba/imba membership in since i'll be doing trail days and helping out with that, and thanks for tryin to keep mtbing alive keep up the good workSalute

Yo guys this is important do not ride of build anything at huntmar
flag stprider16
Posted: Mar 31, 2010 at 6:45 Quote
k-rider92 wrote:
stprider16 wrote:
thanks for the links i find that site useful stil gotta get my omba/imba membership in since i'll be doing trail days and helping out with that, and thanks for tryin to keep mtbing alive keep up the good workSalute

Yo guys this is important do not ride of build anything at huntmar

dont ride huntmar? why cant we ride the trails there that are part of smh. edit: cause ive been riding the actual trails in there and since 2 nights ago somebody has been building in there on the jump next to the root gap made a kicker at the bottom of the landing and it wasnt even built well it has no curve its just flat and pointless
flag k-rider92
Posted: Mar 31, 2010 at 8:14 Quote
stprider16 wrote:
k-rider92 wrote:
stprider16 wrote:
thanks for the links i find that site useful stil gotta get my omba/imba membership in since i'll be doing trail days and helping out with that, and thanks for tryin to keep mtbing alive keep up the good workSalute

Yo guys this is important do not ride of build anything at huntmar

dont ride huntmar? why cant we ride the trails there that are part of smh. edit: cause ive been riding the actual trails in there and since 2 nights ago somebody has been building in there on the jump next to the root gap made a kicker at the bottom of the landing and it wasnt even built well it has no curve its just flat and pointless

Here a email i got from john B OMBAs presidents i contacted him order to gain permition to build something at huntmar, he had this to say

Hi Kris,

Thanks a lot for contacting me directly. I am really glad that yourself and your friends are so into building trails and riding. The unfortunate situation is that it is not myself who would have to give you permission to build a trail at Huntmar or anywhere else in South March Highlands, it is the City of Ottawa. We have been negotiating with the City and fixing up the trails to meet IMBA (International Mountain Bike Association) environmental standards for about 5 years now. The good news is that we are VERY close to getting official permission to ride and maintain the cross-country trails. The bad news is that despite our best efforts, I do not believe that the City will give permission for people to ride or build DH and free-ride trails. There are a number of legitimate reasons for this:

(1) The existing trails at Huntmar have not been built according to accepted safety and environmental standards. A LOT of trees have already been cut down, and the trails/jumps do NOT blend into the environment like the XC trails. The City and their environmental assessment team are not happy about this.

(2) A lot of hikers, dog walkers, bird watchers, children and XC riders use those trails, and having DH riders there poses a legitimate safety hazard due to the poor sight-lines on the trails and the higher speeds that DH riders reach (I know, I am a DH rider myself, just not in SMH - I have ridden Fortune, Bogie, Whistler, Bromont, Ste. Anne, Whiteface, and a bunch of other places without lifts). Since this is public land, not private, we have to be considerate of all the people who might want to use the area. I am sure you have probably been at Camp Fortune when the leafers are there, and understand what a safety hazard it is to have hikers and riders on DH trails. The lower speeds of XC bikes on the technical trails mean that they don't pose nearly as much of a hazard to other trail users.

(3) The terrain at Huntmar is very steep. This means that in order to build environmentally sustainable trails you would have to cut deep bench-cuts into the hill side, and probably do a lot of rock armoring as well. In such a small area, with so few trees left (since so many have been cut down) such trails would not blend into the environment even if they were sustainable. This is not considered appropriate in a conservation area, where people wish to experience nature.

For all these reasons, the City is very likely not going to allow us to keep the DH and free-ride stuff at Huntmar. I regret this, but if it means getting official access to the rest of the area, then I believe it is a reasonable sacrifice to make. The best solution to this situation would be to get permission from the City to build free-ride stuff and dirt jumps elsewhere, on land that is not in an environmental conservation area. OMBA is currently in the early stages of working on a proposal to do just this. I don't know how long it will take, but since we have developed such a good relationship with the City, I believe there is a good chance we can accomplish our goal. Hopefully you and your friends can support us in this matter. I ask that you spread the word to not do any more building at Huntmar, and even stop riding it. Obviously I have no authority, so I am only asking. You can give my contact information to any of your friends who would like to talk about this more. We could even try to arrange a meeting where all of you come talk to me and we can talk about what to do in the future. Come to think of it, if I could show the City how many young people want these types of trails, it would probably make it easier to get permission to build dirt jumps somewhere else in the City. It has not been announced yet, but we will be holding a premiere of the next Anthill Films biking movie in the next 6 weeks or so; perhaps if you and your friends come to that, we can talk more then.

I will try to give you a call in the next week or so, but I am very busy at work (I am an engineer) and dealing with the City. Please don't be offended if it takes me a while to get back to you. I will do my best and I ask only for a little bit of patience.

Thanks again for contacting me,
John
flag stprider16
Posted: Mar 31, 2010 at 8:20 Quote
alrighty then, i'll talk to my manager at work hes ride co-ordinator for omba this year and i'll see what he has to say about it, looks like were going to centrum tonight which is even not the best place to go...
flag k-rider92
Posted: Mar 31, 2010 at 8:40 Quote
stprider16 wrote:
alrighty then, i'll talk to my manager at work hes ride co-ordinator for omba this year and i'll see what he has to say about it, looks like were going to centrum tonight which is even not the best place to go...

Im prob gonna go ride tonight not sure
flag drumbeat2
Posted: Apr 7, 2010 at 13:07 Quote
Are we really gonna be getting approval from city for DH and freeride trails? No we aren't. NCC and City are dbags about their land, thus we need to be extra secret about it and not get caught, it seems like this is the only way to be able to ride dh/freeride without driving out to fortune.
flag jbod
O+
Posted: Apr 25, 2010 at 20:24 Quote
drumbeat2 wrote:
Are we really gonna be getting approval from city for DH and freeride trails? No we aren't. NCC and City are dbags about their land, thus we need to be extra secret about it and not get caught, it seems like this is the only way to be able to ride dh/freeride without driving out to fortune.

While I certainly can't tell anyone what to do, I will just point out that illegal trail building is probably the single biggest reason that the city and NCC are "dbags" about their land. This all comes back to liability and public safety. For instance, do you want to be the one who builds an unsafe jump or structure that is then found by a 10 year old kid who hurts themselves because they did not know any better? It is all well and good to talk about personal responsibility for ones actions, but especially in the case of children we have to do our best to provide safe facilities. By building things illegally, it is a fact that you will make things more difficult for those of us who are trying to provide facilities for everyone in an above-board manner. Not saying I like it, but that is the way it is.

As for the approval of DH/free-ride trails...with a little bit of patience and by working with land managers instead of against them, you might be surprised what can be done. We (OMBA) are investigating the possibility of getting dirt jumps and free-ride type stuff built on public land. Can't say it is going to happen tomorrow, but you never know what can be done. For instance:

http://waterlooinsider.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/kitcheners-mclennan-bike-park/

That's about as free-ride/DH as it gets, and it was built with full approval on public land, because people worked with the city instead of against it.

John
flag stprider16
Posted: Apr 25, 2010 at 20:27 Quote
ive been talking with chris g and he was saying that there might be plans of some dirt jumps and freeride stuff and i'm super stoked on that id love for that to actually happen, would be great to have a legal spot to have some jumps/drops and decently fast trails to pinn
flag k-rider92
Posted: Apr 26, 2010 at 7:41 Quote
jbod wrote:
drumbeat2 wrote:
Are we really gonna be getting approval from city for DH and freeride trails? No we aren't. NCC and City are dbags about their land, thus we need to be extra secret about it and not get caught, it seems like this is the only way to be able to ride dh/freeride without driving out to fortune.

While I certainly can't tell anyone what to do, I will just point out that illegal trail building is probably the single biggest reason that the city and NCC are "dbags" about their land. This all comes back to liability and public safety. For instance, do you want to be the one who builds an unsafe jump or structure that is then found by a 10 year old kid who hurts themselves because they did not know any better? It is all well and good to talk about personal responsibility for ones actions, but especially in the case of children we have to do our best to provide safe facilities. By building things illegally, it is a fact that you will make things more difficult for those of us who are trying to provide facilities for everyone in an above-board manner. Not saying I like it, but that is the way it is.

As for the approval of DH/free-ride trails...with a little bit of patience and by working with land managers instead of against them, you might be surprised what can be done. We (OMBA) are investigating the possibility of getting dirt jumps and free-ride type stuff built on public land. Can't say it is going to happen tomorrow, but you never know what can be done. For instance:

http://waterlooinsider.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/kitcheners-mclennan-bike-park/

That's about as free-ride/DH as it gets, and it was built with full approval on public land, because people worked with the city instead of against it.

John

huntmar has the most patential, if they can just put ride at own risk, and put warning where the jumps are, and than name hunt mar the dh part of the trail, couldnt just warning banner, foid all liable issuse?
flag drumbeat2
Posted: Apr 27, 2010 at 13:28 Quote
k-rider92 wrote:
jbod wrote:
drumbeat2 wrote:
Are we really gonna be getting approval from city for DH and freeride trails? No we aren't. NCC and City are dbags about their land, thus we need to be extra secret about it and not get caught, it seems like this is the only way to be able to ride dh/freeride without driving out to fortune.

While I certainly can't tell anyone what to do, I will just point out that illegal trail building is probably the single biggest reason that the city and NCC are "dbags" about their land. This all comes back to liability and public safety. For instance, do you want to be the one who builds an unsafe jump or structure that is then found by a 10 year old kid who hurts themselves because they did not know any better? It is all well and good to talk about personal responsibility for ones actions, but especially in the case of children we have to do our best to provide safe facilities. By building things illegally, it is a fact that you will make things more difficult for those of us who are trying to provide facilities for everyone in an above-board manner. Not saying I like it, but that is the way it is.

As for the approval of DH/free-ride trails...with a little bit of patience and by working with land managers instead of against them, you might be surprised what can be done. We (OMBA) are investigating the possibility of getting dirt jumps and free-ride type stuff built on public land. Can't say it is going to happen tomorrow, but you never know what can be done. For instance:

http://waterlooinsider.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/kitcheners-mclennan-bike-park/

That's about as free-ride/DH as it gets, and it was built with full approval on public land, because people worked with the city instead of against it.

John

huntmar has the most patential, if they can just put ride at own risk, and put warning where the jumps are, and than name hunt mar the dh part of the trail, couldnt just warning banner, foid all liable issuse?

I understand that yes we don't want to be building super sketchy stuff around, and of course our goal is obviously not to injure the most people we can. But wouldn't the city understand if the building isn't monitored all kinds of ghetto builds will keep going up to keep the kids of city busy at riding downhill when the lifts aren't open. You would think they would have some sense as to giving us some land to build on and like Kris was saying, if we did not build for it to be there a few weeks because we know its going to get torn down, maybe we will actually put some good effort into these builds so they will last for years to come. Its all just kind of frustrating. Huntmar has insane potential for great DH runs if we ever got the go ahead to make awesome stuff in there.
flag drumbeat2
Posted: Apr 27, 2010 at 13:31 Quote
And that mclennan park looks sick! I would love to have something like that around here! If there is hope for something like this I'm on board and ready to help out. Honestly i'd do anything especially for admission free park. Too dope
flag jbod
O+
Posted: Apr 27, 2010 at 21:25 Quote
Unfortunately, Huntmar is probably not on the table as a legitimate location for more trail building. Since that whole area is a conservation area, we are probably only going to get permission to maintain existing trails, and then only if they are environmentally sustainable. A lot (not all, but a lot) of the stuff at Huntmar, especially the landing zone for the jumps, are fall line trails that will erode extremely quickly. I won't even comment on the number of trees that have been cut down there; that has already caused us difficulties with environmental assessments.

That being said, as part of the process of getting proposals together, we need to figure out places where we could possibly build stuff. I am currently thinking about the existing skate-parks, if there is any land adjacent to them, Carlington ski hill, the Carp dump, a spot underneath the 416 near Barhaven (look up the park in Seattle for an example of this type of thing; we don't have that much room, but the idea is you build underneath a bridge to keep it out of the rain and make a nice all-weather spot to ride). We will also be proposing a spot by the new rec center that is supposed to be built in Kanata near SMH. If anyone knows of un-used public land that might make for a good spot for jumps, please let me know. If you would like to see the criteria I am using to try to select proposed sites, have a look here:

http://www.imba.com/resources/trail_building/build_freeride_park.html

I have already been to public meetings about doing this type of thing in existing parks, and there was a LOT of resistance from residents. Most of it was pretty irrational, but some of it was reasonable. I will therefore be focusing on sites that are not currently used for anything.

Thanks,
John
flag jbod
O+
Posted: Apr 27, 2010 at 21:28 Quote
..and the Maclennan Park place is INSANE. I saw it when I was in Kitchener for an IMBA conference last September, but did not have a bike with me at the time. It's just like you took 500 m of A-line or Dirt Merchant from Whistler and dropped it on a land-fill in Kitchener. At the time, they had local riders hired to maintain the jumps, the lips of everything were perfectly sculpted and maintained. Very nice. Obviously it would take quite some time to get something of that scale in Ottawa, if it could even be done at all, but if you don't try, you will never get anything.

John
flag k-rider92
Posted: Apr 28, 2010 at 5:16 Quote
jbod wrote:
..and the Maclennan Park place is INSANE. I saw it when I was in Kitchener for an IMBA conference last September, but did not have a bike with me at the time. It's just like you took 500 m of A-line or Dirt Merchant from Whistler and dropped it on a land-fill in Kitchener. At the time, they had local riders hired to maintain the jumps, the lips of everything were perfectly sculpted and maintained. Very nice. Obviously it would take quite some time to get something of that scale in Ottawa, if it could even be done at all, but if you don't try, you will never get anything.

John

i counted the trees cut down there about 29 tree cut, i wanna go plant some i know who cut them.....
flag drumbeat2
Posted: Apr 29, 2010 at 14:20 Quote
Carlington ski hill! so urban! that would be quite neat, nice steepness as well, wed be able to snake a whole lot of lines in there.

 


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