14 Nov 20 | By pp-admin | Pedal Power
Minister Berry opened three new mountain bike trails at Cotter Pines today.
These new trails have been built through a unique collaboration between Canberra’s oldest volunteer trail building group, Kowalski Brothers Trailworks, leading local trail building firm, Iconic Trails, Pedal Power ACT, and ACT Parks and Conservation Service. The ACT Government provided funding assistance through the Sport and Recreation Capital Assistance Program.
This collaboration has enabled the fast tracking of new trail infrastructure in the Cotter Trails Precinct and added valuable distance and variety to the existing loop of trails built by the Kowalski volunteers over the past two years.
Alan Vogt, coordinator of the Kowalski Brothers is proud of what has been achieved so far.
“Trail building is really hard work when you do it by hand and it can take years to develop a density and diversity of trails that appeal to riders and keep them coming back.”
“When we started at Cotter Pines there were no trails at all. We were keen to explore ways to accelerate the creation of trail so approached Pedal Power and Iconic Trails and proposed a collaborative approach where volunteer and commercial inputs would come together to design and craft new trails,” said Mr Vogt.
Iconic Trails’ Director, Garreth Paton said “We are proud to be part of this initiative and are delighted at how the trails have turned out. With the explosive growth in off road cycling there is such strong demand for more trails and new places to ride. I think this collaborative approach to trail building could be the way of the future to build quality trails while keeping to a tighter budget.”
Pedal Power CEO, Ian Ross said “These new high-quality mountain bike trails in the Cotter Pines will be a boon to Canberra riders hungry for great new places to ride. They will also be a real asset to our Cycle Tourism, and to Canberra’s vision to become the cycling capital of Australia”.
The project has been such a success that the Kowalski Brothers have been awarded a further grant so that more trails can be fast tracked over coming months.
“It is exciting times indeed and we are really proud to play a part in working toward restoring Canberra’s status as the Capital of Mountain Biking,” Mr Vogt said.
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