VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) – Virginia Beach Parks and Recreation has been hard at work improving trails for mountain bikers at one of the city’s parks. It’s an adventure in the making.
It was July of last year when we first shared the news of crews working to create mountain bike trails at Marshview Park, which is just two miles from the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. Now, a little more than a year later, the project is almost complete.
“I’m excited to see the whole thing come together,” said Jordan Adamof of the non-profit Eastern Virginia Mountain Bike Association (EVMA).
Adamof organized volunteer days to help Virginia Beach Parks and Recreation turn the trail into a fun and challenging ride for mountain bikers.
“We’ve had lot of hours put into these trails,” said Ethan Cason, a Recreation Specialist with Virginia Beach Parks and Rec.
He credits the volunteers with making the trails a success.
“Hundreds of hours have gone into this, with EVMA, which is our partnership with Eastern Virginia Mountain Bike Association. We’ve had VolunTrail Club, REI, which is local.”
Cason says they are just a couple months away from completing the Marshview Park Mountain Bike Trails. Over the last year, the team worked to make the flow of the trails more enjoyable for riders.
“So maybe you had a trail that was kind of steep, that maybe went up and down, we kind of smoothed that out to make it more of an enjoyable ride, more of a flowy ride. We put in some technical features like this drop behind me, this hill. We have a nice berm. We have a few different really nice features coming I think mountain bikers are really going to enjoy here on the Southside.”
All mountain bikers have to travel in one direction, according to Cason. Volunteers are working to install signage over the coming weeks to clearly show that, as well as the difficulty levels of each mountain bike trail.
“Green circles are easy, nice and flat, learn them, enjoy these nice, smooth, flat trails, and we have more difficult trails. We even have some black diamond trails.”
Cason emphasizes these trails are multi-use.
“So, when we say mountain bike trails, it doesn’t mean mountain bikes only. If you want to come out here and hike, great. If you want to walk your dog on a leash, that’d be amazing.”
Marshview Park boasts areas for hiking, areas for picnics and play, and so much more.
“When you think Virginia Beach, you immediately think the Oceanfront, and we’re right next to the Oceanfront. A lot of people don’t know about this 100-acre park just literally less than two miles from the Oceanfront. Not only that, but there’s four and a half miles of trails here. A lot of our biking systems, or trails that we have in Virginia Beach, are relatively small. Maybe a mile into the woods, something to enjoy nature, but you can come back here, and spend the whole day riding different levels of trails, and you can re-ride them over and over, and connect different loops, to really make it a fun, challenging day.”
As soon as the project is complete, which Cason anticipates will be around the start of fall, WAVY.com will let you know it’s time to get your bikes ready!
