Anyone who has used the Mountain Bike Park at Posse Grounds Park over the last month has no doubt seen some improvements on the trails.
Those come courtesy of a project thought up by bike park maintenance supervisor Jordan Reece and quickly put together by Reece and a number of volunteers.
When the COVID-19-related shutdowns and quarantines were imposed, peoplevbegan trying to find ways that they could get outside for exercise and fresh air while maintaining a safe social distance. One of those ways was using the city of Sedona’s Mountain Bike Park. Having a park like that available was good news for a lot of people.
Unfortunately, there was bad news attached, as well. The dirt was never that stable, with Reece calling it “junk dirt.” With the extra use, the trails began to show wear and tear and started breaking down. People using the park for unintended reasons — such as remote-controlled cars — only made matters worse.
So, in early-December, Reece began looking for clay, which, when mixed with the dirt, creates a far more sturdy surface. In a two-week window, he raised $2,000 through private donors and business donations. That went a long way towards purchasing six 20-cubic-yard loads of clay.
“I said I need to get this much money and started making phone calls,” Reece said. “Those people spread the word.”
Once the clay came in, the next step was actually renovating the track. Fortunately, as Reece noted, “a lot of people that donated the dirt also donated their time.” That included Keegan Kuhn. He was not only the biggest financial contributor but also spent so much time working on the project that Reece gave him a key to his toolshed. Before Christmas, the project was largely done. In the subsequent weeks, Sedona Parks and Recreation manager Steve Richardson has received positive feedback from many people, both Sedona residents and out-of-towners.
“We’ve heard some nice comments about it, Richardson said. “It wasn’t a major change but they tweaked the flow in the flow trail a little. Any update like that is well received here. We’ve had visitors from all over the place. I see a lot of different license plates here and a lot of the people are mountain biking.”
“What people will do is use the mountain bike park as the warm-up,” he added. “They’ll be here for an hour and hit the trails from there. It’s a good meeting place. Any day the weather is nice, people are out there.”
Reece, in particular, was happy to get the aid of a local mountain bike shop due to its involvement with the Sedona Mountain Bike Festival.
“It was helpful because they put together the largest mountain bike festival in the country every year — including maybe this year,” he said. “And they host it at Posse Grounds.”
There are still some challenges facing the trail. One is that people are using it for reasons other than biking. While the new and improved surface is better equipped to withstand those, it still creates problems for the dirt.
“We’re seeing a lot of RC cars out there,” Richardson said. “It causes a lot of harm to the bike park. That’s not what it was built for so we really want to keep it to bikes only out there.”
Additionally, while most of the recent renovations were completed in a short period of time, the overall project remains ongoing. Reece is continuing to look for people willing to help make even more improvements.
“If anyone wants to volunteer time and donate money, contact Sedona Parks and Rec.,” Reece said. There’s a special area for donating money for the bike park. We can certainly use a lot more dirt and help if people want to donate time and or/money to help the bike park.”
