Off-road cycling is coming to two Windsor parks.
The City of Windsor plans to build four to six kilometres of new multi-use trails at Malden Park and up two kilometres in Little River Corridor Park. The new trails will be for beginner, intermediate and advanced off-road cycling, as well as for runners and walkers, and will be bi-directional with a preferred direction, meaning runners are going in the opposite direction and can see cyclists coming.
A trails specialist with the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA), Justin Truelove, is setting and designing the trails. He attended a public open house at Malden Park with about 100 people on Tuesday night and told the crowd the existing hiking trails will stay the same for dog walkers.
Truelove said the new world-class trails will be asphalt for winter use and will be built by a specialized contractor.
"Some of the knarlier or advanced features we're looking at are dirt jumps, wooden jumps, drops, rollovers. We're going to have big boulders in there as well that riders will be able to jump over or roll down," said Truelove.
Truelove said the Little River features will be limited to beginners because users are mostly children and seniors and the land is very flat and waterlogged.
The final report is set to go to council in June with the project to be done by 2020/2021. The work should begin soon but a budget hasn't been set yet.
Truelove said the huge park on Toronto's lakefront cost $1.8 million.
Executive Director of Parks and Recreation Jan Wilson said there's also talk about connecting the bike lanes on the new Gordie Howe International Bridge to Malden Park.
Truelove said the city can tinker with the trails to best suit the users moving forward, but they will be linked and will leave a lasting legacy.
"Very flexible, there's a lot of leeway to play with. These GPS coordinates are going to be the best recommendations for trails but there's a lot of leeway where these trails can go and where the users can interact with the trails themselves," he added.
Truelove said there's enough space to expand Malden Park with new trails in the future.
"There is only about one to 1.5 kilometres of dirt trails. There are all those grass pathways that are mowed down. So, those could be inclusive of that experience eventually," Truelove said.
