October 2, 2011
Drug myself outta bed to go see the grand opening of the pump track that marks the first stage of the new skills park in Rockburn Park; a smaller park butting right up to Patapsco State Park here in Maryland. It was mad boring but really great to see happen. Lots of families out there; a good thing for our sport. Marla Streb was present as was Jeff Lenosky for a trails demo.
M.O.R.E and Howard County Parks and Rec. have been terrific about seeing this project through. It’s the first of its kind in the mid-Atlantic and everyone, IMBA included, plans to use this skills park as a benchmark to show other communities what can be done to bring families together in nature doing something healthy, safe and physical.
———> Read first two comments at bottom for a correction on this next paragraph….
Shocking, really, that Parks and Rec. got behind this, seeing as they used chain saws and bobcats to tear down the (rogue) skills section that organically found its way into the Patapsco / Avalon trail system. There were families hanging out there too…..and they damned up a natural flowing stream with that bobcat. BAH. Whatever. We have the start of something really cool here so I’m behind it all the way. Planning on donating cash to the effort as well. For those that are interested, the plans are here. There will be three skills lines added between now and June. Word on the street is that the berms will be three times what is seen on the pump track. Sounds really awesome. I hope the difficult line requires a full face. : )
Mike, great post and great to see you at the opening day at the pump track. I just wanted to shed light on the parks’ positions….the state park systems goal for people is an escape to nature, quiet, pure….fewer structures, no infrastructure beyond trail systems and water fountains. They don’t want to manage any kind of facilities like sports fields or constructed-feature laden bike trails.
The county is totally different, they have tons of ball fields, disc golf, lit stadiums, basketball/tennis/volleyball areas etc – they are all about recreation and the infrastructure to facilitate it. The fairly progressive seeming mindset of Howard County helped, they were receptive to the idea from the beginning.
Realizing these differences in their missions helped me understand why the state park manages MTB the way they do, and why it’s so critical to support groups like MORE that nurture relationships with parks systems to allow stuff like this rockburn project to get off the ground.
Thanks Jon. I never knew there was such a divide in ideologies or even that the two parks were managed by totally different governing bodies. This is very good to hear and it makes so much more sense why one area was torn down and another was built. We obviously have some strong allies in the Howard County community. Right on, suburbanites! You guys are the shit.
PS – Correction noted in original post