A just-completed Kinnikinnick Park mountain bike trail, built by students in Capilano University's mountain bike operations program, is being met with both accolades and concern from other park users.
At a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Kinnikinnick Park trailhead by Kinni-kinnick Elementary School Saturday, May 1, mountain bikers and community members gathered -mostly - to celebrate the new trail, which runs from Heritage Road down to the Red Trail. This is the first section of a larger trail project, which will extend the trail, in two more phases, down to the southern edge of the park.
"This trail will mean that the neighbourhoods of West Sechelt and West Porpoise Bay will have a constructed connection to provide a safe route to be used by cyclists and pedestrians," Sechelt Coun. Alice Lutes said to a gathered crowd, made up predominantly of bike enthusiasts. "It will create opportunities for residents to travel without motorized vehicles as part of building a sustainable Sechelt. So let's all share and enjoy the asset."
Program instructor Daniel Scott commended students on their three weeks of intense work building the trail.
"I've already had comments about 'This is where my daughter's going to grow up and learn to ride a bike,'" he said.
But dog owner Al Karapita, who was at the ceremony, was one of a small group of Sechelt dog walkers who have raised concerns about the new trail. He said he was concerned that bikes would spoil the "serenity" of the trail.
"If we're using the same trials as the bikes, then that's going to ruin the trails," he said.
Emanuel Machado, Sechelt's manager of sustainability and special services, said currently all trails are open to all uses: cyclists, pedestrians and dog walkers.
He said later this month, council will vote on a staff recommendation to keep the Red and Pink trails as mixed-use trails and ban bikes from the remaining trails. Once all sections of the new bike trail are complete, it is slated to become bike-only.
Karapita also raised a second issue which has become blurred with the trail issue: Sechelt council's decision to end the off-leash designation of the Kinnikinnick sports fields as of June 30. As of that date, dogs will have to be leashed if they're on the sports fields.
Karapita said he's long taken his two dogs to the fields to exercise them, and that they do no damage to the fields.
Machado said the sports fields became off-leash on a trial basis a few years back, and that it hasn't proved a good decision.
"They're highly-maintained sports fields that aren't really designed to have dogs," he said. "It's quite costly to maintain at that level. We have good feedback from baseball and soccer and other users. When we introduce dogs, it's just not a good mix."
Machado said staff have been consulting with community associations to identify three new parks that will become off-leash to compensate for the lost designation at the sports fields.
But Karapita said if the changes go ahead, he has no intention of changing his dog-walking routine.
"I am going to be taking my dog there, and I've talked to other people, and they are too," he said. "So fine us or do whatever you're going to do, but we're not backing up."
