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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (June 8, 2010)
outdoors/recreation Vernonia Wheels Park Gets Rolling Above: Tom Ramsey builds a skateboard ramp to be installed in the Vernonia Wheels Park. Right: George Tice of the Vernonia Lions Club shows off the site of the temporary Wheels Park. After years of planning and numerous stops and starts, the Ver- nonia Wheels Park is finally making some positive progress. A mixed-use park for skate- boards and bicycles, the Wheels Park will be located on the unused tennis courts at the Vernonia High School. The Vernonia Lions Club, working in conjunction with the Vernonia Pre- vention Coalition, have secured per- mission to use the site as a temporary location. The Lions Club began con- struction of wooden ramps and metal grinding bars on Saturday, May 29 th , and will continue to coordinate con- struction of additional features for the park. Tom Ramsey, Jim Prpich and George Tice were working on construction of the wooden ramps; Richard Meyer and Nathan Owen fabricated the metal grind bars from material donated by Dan Titus. “The Lions Club has funds that we’ve raised and will purchase supplies for con- struction,” said Tice, spokesperson for the Lions. “We are looking for community members, es- pecially youth, to help build and set up ramps.” Work parties are also needed to complete installation of a short sec- tion of fence around the park, paint signs and do some general clean-up at the site. The site will be temporary, as FEMA is in the process of buying the school site, at which time all per- manent structures will be required to be removed. That process is not ex- pected to be c o m p l e t e d for at least two years. Tice says the Li- ons Club intended to have several june8 2010 ramps and features built and installed in time for a grand opening on July 4th. According to Tice, additional construction and features will be completed and added to the Wheels Park throughout the summer. In the meantime, a long-time dream for the Vernonia community, and especially for the youth, is finally looking like it will become a reality. For more information or to volunteer contact Larry Snethen at (503) 819- 5636 or any Vernonia Lions member. Mountain Bike Trail Ready to Open at Stub Stewart A long-time dream of the Port- land area mountain biking community is about to become a reality-- a legal place to ride and build trails on public prop- erty. This Roll-over ramp will be the entrance to the mountain bike trail area at Stub Stewart State Park. On May 30th, members of the Northwest Trail Alliance and volun- teers had a chance to officially ride on the trail they have been constructing at Stub Stewart State Park. The previous day, the group had spent working on the newly constructed trail. The ride was the soft opening of the new “bike only” trail-- the official opening was sched- uled for June 5th, which coincides with National Trails Day as well as Oregon State Parks Day. The new trail is located in the northeast section of the park. Currently, North Caddywhomper Way is a mod- erate trail designated for bikes only in that area of the park. The new, as yet unnamed mountain bike trail, will be an intermediate level single track trail that will snake back and forth across the Caddywhomper trail. The trail starts with a split rail fence with a roll-over ramp that riders have to ride to enter the trail. “The fence at the trailhead is kind of a first filter to help keep other users out,”says Stub Stewart Park Ranger, Steve Kruger, who is in charge of trails. The single track trail is the cul- mination of years of work by mountain bike enthusiasts and advocates who have lobbied for a permanent and sanc- tioned place to ride mountain bikes in close proximity to Portland. The project at Stub Stewart Park is a collaboration between Northwest Trail Alliance-- a chapter of the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA), and the Oregon Parks and Recreation Depart- ment. An agreement has been drafted between the two that has allowed volun- teers to design and plan the trail system, construct the trails and maintain them. “That was the plan all along with the Parks Department-- to depend on local mountain bike volunteer orga- nizations to provide the labor to design, build and maintain the trails going for- ward,” said Joe Rykowski, a volunteer Trail Steward with Northwest Trail Al- liance. Rykowski has been instrumen- tal in designing the trail system in conjunction with Stub Stew- art Park staff and has led the volunteer build days portion of the project. “We now have an “Adopt-A- Park” agree- ment in place between North- west Trails Al- liance and Or- egon Parks and Rec, which is a one-year agree- ment which we will renew for m a i n t e n a n c e purposes to keep the trails in working or- der. We will also do monthly 9 inspections of the trails to make sure everything is in good shape,” explained Rykowski. “We’re wrapping up the volunteer work-- that is, working on the trail tread and getting the trail as close to ready as we can,” said Rykowski. “There are still some responsibilities that the park needs to fin- ish out, including the sign plan.” Shawn Holt, who was working on the trail on Saturday, May 29th, is an employee of Fat Tire Farm, a bike shop in Portland. Holt gets paid to build Trail building crews have been hard at work getting new mountain bikes trails ready to ride this summer. mountain bike trails. “Park [Chambers], the owner of that links across one of the big drain- Fat Tire Farm, decided that he wanted to ages and this will all be one big moun- give back to the mountain biking com- tain biking area with about 4-5 miles of munity and so he has me out here help- trails.” ing build trails and he pays me to do Rykowski also mentioned plans this,” says Holt. for another local mountain bike group, “Having Shawn here has been a Westside Trail Federation, to build a huge help in keep- Skills Area. “That will be a little more ing things mov- of an advanced mountain bike single ing forward ,” said track, with more advanced trail to expe- Rykowski. rience. We don’t have a timeline yet; it The section depends on the response to this moun- of trail that is be- tain bike area and that [the Skills Area] ing opened is what would be an enhancement of the area.” Rykowski is calling Rykowski also mentioned that Phase One of the Northwest Trails Alliance has applied project, and is about for and received a Recreation Trails one mile in length, Program Grant to purchase an ST240, a which is about one- machine designed specifically for build- third of the total ing single track trail. “The idea is that planned “mountain Northwest Trail Alliance would man- bike zone.” “ W e age this piece of equipment for other have trail flagged agencies and organizations that are do- out in the south ing projects to build mountain bike trail part of the park and and other shared use trails. That’s really we’re building from what our mission is-- to help support the south up in this building single track opportunities.” direction,” says Rykowski explained that the Rykowski. “The equipment would be available for lease idea is that in a cou- by groups looking to build trails and that ple of years, we’ll the program is intended to include grant have that trail ready opportunities for groups who need assis- to connect up and tance to fund their trail building work. we’ll put in a bridge
