Looking for a way to promote community wellness, get youth back on the land, and promote tourism in the area by creating a world-class trail system, the Carcross Tagish First Nation (C/TFN) created the Singletrack to Success (S2S) Project in 2006.
Few people held out any real hope of the S2S project living up to its potential. The obstacles were simply too great: a run-down, ramshackle town rife with social problems, disaffected youth, and the list goes on. In 2007, Norco believed in the project and provided 10 bikes for the Carcross kids to ride with funds provided by C/TFN.
The project started with 15 youth age 14+ working closely with community leaders. While carving trails, leaders taught youth: how to plan and build trails, identify plants, protect heritage sites, traditional place names, and how to give appreciation to nature. Today the new recruits on the S2S crew are too young to remember Carcross before these trails.
‘
It’s given them hope. It’s given them pride in what they do,’ says
Carcross/Tagish First Nation chief.
You can learn more about the project, and see images of the trails in
this article on Pinkbike.
Recently, on May 28, 2016, David Common and David Micheal Lamb of CBC travelled to Carcross to do a feature story on Singletrack to Success for broadcast on the National.
The piece offers a glimpse into how important building and riding trails has been for the local youth, and how they turned Carcross into a riding destination, one trail at a time.
You can find the CBC National piece
here.
Carcross mountain biking trails
MENTIONS: @norcobicycles
Hey no problem at all! Well its just me and my wife and I think we would be down to ride Hero, lots of experience, all day rides welcome!