“Everybody knew [that the trail closures were] coming for a long time, so it hasn’t been too bad so far,” said Matt Staneland of the Jasper Park Cycling Association. He and other members of the mountain biking community participated in public consultations with Parks Canada about the trail closures. One of the positive things that emerged from those discussions was wildland trails.
“[Parks] did a really good job of taking the trails that we did use and making them into [wildland trails],” said Staneland.
Though wildland trails are official multi-use routes, Parks Canada does not maintain them, therefore it’s up to citizens to care for them. So, this summer, the JPCA is enjoying the lesser travelled, more rugged wildland trails, while also helping to maintain and shape them.
“JPCA is part of the Jasper Trail Alliance as well; members of our board sit on that board, so we just want to take a real strong initiative as one of the strong, key user groups,” said Staneland about JPCA’s participation in trail maintenance.
“We want to make these wild routes the best we possibly can, and so we’ve taken the initiative to work with the JTA to get all the certifications, and get out there and make the trails better.”
Staneland and JPCA vice-chair Tristan Overy are both certified certifiers, meaning they can authorize individuals for official trail maintenance, just like the trail alliance does.
So far JPCA has certified nine individuals.
The association has been working on the newly adopted “5 to 5” trail that runs from the Mile 5 bridge to the Valley of the Five Lakes trailhead.
“What we’re focused on right now is getting all the sight lines good in those areas and then we’re going to start working on some of the wildland routes on the Bench,” he said.
“It’s nice that people are able to take more ownership over the trails and keep them up to a high standard if we want to.”
For information on how to get involved with the JPCA, visit their website at .
