PREVIOUSLY

• New Bicycle Skills Park Might be Coming to the Arcata Community Forest

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It is a good summer to be a cyclist. 

Earlier this season, construction began on a mountain bike park in the McKay tract in Eureka; the Annie and Mary Trail in Arcata was extended to West End; and now, another bike park in the city’s community forest is open for use. 

Volunteers put a few finishing touches on the Landing Chaser Skills Park last Thursday, opening up the park for mountain bikers of all skill levels. Named for its location at an old forest landing — a site for stacking cut logs before they’re hauled to a mill, staffed by a “chaser” — the one-acre park features a rocky climbing trail, a trail with several large wooden platforms that riders can drop off of, and, by the end of the summer, a “skinny features” area with balancing beam-like logs. It’s adjacent to the top of the Peanut Butter and Jump trails, two other pieces of purpose-built bicycle infrastructure.

It was constructed mainly by Arcata city staff over the last couple months, but the original proposal for a park came from a group of mountain bike riders from the Humboldt Composite, a county-wide racing team for sixth-twelfth graders, and the Redwood Coast Mountain Bike Association, who were looking for a place to practice riding some types of terrain that are hard to find here in Humboldt. Much of the park’s final design is theirs. Brenda Odell, a coach with the Humboldt Composite, told the Outpost that Humboldt’s trails are usually rock-free; a boon for many riders, but they often compete in other areas of California where the trails are choked with them. 

She said she was excited to have a place her younger riders could practice. Grayden Larson, a high school senior and team captain, agreed. He’s been on the team since the seventh grade, and said that many of the races they left town for presented some difficulties they couldn’t always prepare for, especially those newer to the sport. Training at the park offers a new way to get in good practice. 

“It’s a really cool thing that the city of Arcata is helping us make and doing for the young guys in our community,” he told the Outpost. “It’s really fun for all skill levels, not just beginners. People like me, and some of my friends, have been riding for a long time. Even still, it’s a super-fun, new addition to jumps and trails out there.”

Community members have been asking the city for a while to build a park with a variety of options for differently skilled mountain bikers, Arcata’s Director of Environmental Services Emily Sinkhorn told the Outpost. Some of the platform drops are only a few inches and end in a ramp, ideal for someone just starting out. Some are higher. It’s also easily accessible, just up one of the old logging roads from Redwood Park or the Fickle Hill parking lot. 

She hopes that the park will siphon away fast riders from other areas of the forest more heavily used by pedestrians, keeping them centralized in an area where the risk of smacking an unaware hiker is lower.