Following on last year's successful creation of a new natural path on Snake Hill, volunteer members of the Sundre Bike n' Ski Club recently sought permission from council to establish another trail.
"I'll start by saying the Beta Loop was something that we, our club, thought is a means to let our volunteers do something without having to go through a really complicated process," said Paul Shippy, co-chair and co-founder of the club, during council's March 23 meeting.
"Because what we are largely doing with the Beta Loop is setting a path utilizing most of the existing deer trails, and just clearing that trail of logs and trying to make it an intelligent design by using as many trails that are existing as possible," he said, adding that process went well.
Last year's development of the 1.2-kilometre loop involved a collaborative approach among the club, council and administration. Volunteers with the club had flagged a potential path, the town's community peace officer and other members of administration surveyed it and made recommendations, which the club followed before proceeding to clear the path of obstructions, he said.
"So the first thing that I'd like to ask for is the opportunity to do the same thing this year ó this spring ó in another quadrant of Snake Hill," he said.
However, considering time limitations faced by volunteers, the club aspires to create a smaller 600-metre path "that allows us to have a loop within a quadrant."
"The idea being that it's a single-track path that once you're on it, you don't see the main trail and people on the main trail don't see you. You're secluded but you're not," he said.
Such a path provides access to more pristine territory within Snake Hill but without having a major impact, he said.
"There are already existing paths in the trees, but we would be choosing the route as opposed to the deer choosing the route."
The work involved would essentially be like last year ó flag a route, get feedback from town officials, and then proceed to move or cut logs as required as well as mow the trail. The club wanted to get started this month before the foliage begins to grow and the insects start to swarm, he said.
Any existing trails will be met at angles to reduce speeds, but most of the faster action happens on the larger, established trails, he said, adding single-track natural paths are too tight for people to get much speed.
"Similar to the Beta Loop, our club would take responsibility for maintaining that particular path as is deemed necessary by the town's administration ó so whatever regulations administration would have us do to maintain that ó but really we maintain it to keep it clear and keep it safe."
The club's members hope they set a reasonable precedent last year to be able to continue with this similar project this year without getting caught up in too many complications, he said.
"The second thing that we'd be asking for is an opportunity to meet with council in a workshop to discuss the future of the trails as laid out by a bunch of the plans that have been created in the past."
Over the past 10 years or so, numerous recreation plans have been created, and the club expressed an interest in being involved in working with officials to further develop local trails as outlined in those plans, he said.
Coun. Myron Thompson said during his time as an MP, he travelled his riding wherein several areas boasted well-planned trail systems.
"It is a real attraction to a lot of people from other parts of the country," the councillor said.
"This is something that just has to happen in this town," he said.
"We've heard several presentations from Paul, and I'm really wondering why we haven't already approved this."
If there is any red tape holding up the process, Thompson said he wanted to know what it was.
"I want to know what we can do right now tonight that will speed up the process and get these guys on the trails when they requested to be there. Let's get it done, because this will be an extremely beneficial thing to add to the list of other things that we can offer to people in our area," he said.
Coun. Chris Vardas praised the club for following due process and approaching council.
The only potential issues that would have slowed anything down were liabilities and working with administration. But so long as administration gives the club's request a thumbs-up, Vardas said he was "more than happy" to support it.
"There's nothing better than having a volunteer group doing the work for us, as long as it falls into our master plan with our trails and everything ties in nicely," he said.
Other municipalities such as Hinton, Devon, Bragg Creek, Canmore and Banff have embraced mountain biking, but the reality for Sundre is that there's enough work to do on the trail system, said Shippy.
"We don't necessarily at this point need to build mountain bike trails, we just need to connect and work with the trails that we have," he said.
"We have a really good trail network that is in disrepair and needs to be connected to itself. We have segments, segments, (and) segments that need to be connected."
Repairing and connecting those trails is the first step towards making a reality the vision outlined in the recreation plans, which also include points on maintenance and safety, he said, adding the club would like to be an acting arm.
Mayor Terry Leslie wondered what community would not want a group of dedicated volunteers to come together to enhance an existing asset and look after cleaning as well as maintaining it through collaboration with town officials.
However, the mayor also wondered what would happen in a few years should the club fold due to lack of interest.
"Do you foresee the trails just simply falling back to their natural habitat where they become game trails again, or is there an expectation that there might be further development that might have to be taken on to continue to maintain?" he asked.
Shippy said the Beta Loop and the new proposed 600-metre trail would revert to their natural state because the club has no plans to move any dirt nor to add any features.
"But the other question of allowing us to work with administration and council to plan and start working on the trail system, that's the one that's going to take bridges, gravel, engineering ó that's going to take a lot of effort," he said.
"Those are things that, if we work with administration and council, then if we dry up, there's still a mechanism in motion."
Trails were listed as the top priority on the master recreation plan developed in 2014, "and we would like to work on that," he said, reiterating the club's request to meet with council to discuss future plans.
Later in the meeting following Shippy's presentation, council carried a notice of motion for the April 4 meeting, at which time council moved to direct administration to facilitate the club's efforts to proceed with the proposed 600-metre path this spring, as well as another next year.
The motion also included directing administration to add in the 2017-18 municipal budget funds ó subject to future approval by council ó to review and update the 2004 Open Spaces and Master Trails Plan, ensuring alignment with the 2014 Master Recreation Plan.
"Things are going well," Shippy told the Round Up on Friday, April 15.
Volunteers had already flagged the route and got feedback from town officials before getting the green light to clear the path, which the group planned to tackle on Sunday, April 17, along with some maintenance on the Beta Loop, he said.
As more and more people are coming to Sundre specifically to use the local trails, council and administration are seeing the importance of the multi-use paths, he said.
The bike and ski club has a presence on social media to keep informed anyone who's interested in the group's activities.
