Mountain bikers hit new trails

MAT-SU — With fresh single-track trails near Government Peak, Valley cyclists now have more riding options than ever before.

Although summer is coming to an end, the cycling scene is still going strong after more than 4 miles of single-track trail have been added to Government Peak Recreation Area (GPRA). The new trails have been open since late July.

Nate Nicholls, the outgoing program director of Valley Mountain Bikers and Hikers (VMBAH), said they’ve had “lots of community support” for the project, evidenced by the number of volunteers and financers who have contributed. For phase one, VMBAH was granted roughly $99,000 by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources’ Recreational Trails Program, the Mat-Su Borough, and the Mat-Su Trails and Parks Foundation, plus an additional $4,000 from REI and $40,000 to come from the state for phase two.

Part of the appeal of the Government Peak trails likely has to do with sustainability, Nicholls said. “Renegade trails” like those of the 30-something-year-old Matanuska Greenbelt, basically formed “by kids on bikes” in the 1980s, he said, were built more with the idea of getting from point A to point B, and didn’t take into consideration things like erosion.

“When you cut a trail into the dirt basically, you’re roughing up the dirt, disturbing what’s there,” he said. “On the uphill side of the trail, we call it the backslope, you have to be careful that when you finish it, once the cut is made, you have to shape it in such a way that (the dirt) won’t slough off.”

Drainage is also important, Nicholls said. If heavy rainwater soaks straight down into a well-traveled trail, over time, it will deteriorate. The Government Peak trails are designed so that excess water runs off in a thin sheet into a kind of ditch and carried away into soil off the trail, he said.

On Sunday, mountain biker Jeff Susel of Palmer took an evening spin on the tours despite a persistent rainfall that made the trails “kinda greasy.” Susel – who moved to Alaska from Colorado four years ago – said single-track mountain bike trails are exploding in popularity nationwide.

“It’s growing exponentially,” he said.

Susel said he’s been hitting the Government Peak trails about twice a week since they opened.

“They’re definitely nice trails,” he said.

Eddie Kessler, a former VMBAH board member, has been involved in the planning process of the trail system since 2012, first as a volunteer. As co-owner of Ptarmigan Ptrails, LLC, Kessler and his co-workers were contracted by VMBAH, in partnership with the Mat-Su Borough, to hand-finish the initial construction completed by Fairbanks company Happy Trails, Inc. last year.

The bike trails — not yet named — are open and managed for hiking, snowshoeing, skiing and walking, but they’re designed for mountain biking, Kessler said. That means lots of hills, twists and turns in one narrow lane, so all users should use caution and be ready to yield to oncoming traffic when necessary.

The Government Peak trails come with a wave of additions, such as the Palmer Bike Park and new and extended routes in the Matanuska Greenbelt system, that have been completed in the last couple years.

“There’s kinda been this big push the last few years to develop more mountain biking trails in the Valley,” Kessler said. “What it’s doing is it’s creating this like center for cycling that basically sits in the middle of Southcentral Alaska. … People can just come and visit all these places in one day or just stay in our community.”

Which means bigger business for Mat-Su, he said.

“It makes people wanna stay in the Valley and spend money in the Valley,” Kessler said. But it’s important for current residents, too.

“For locals, it’s really just something that’s been a long time coming,” Kessler said. “We need places to recreate and we need high-quality recreation just like (we have) high-quality mountains and rivers.”

Backcountry Bike and Ski owner Tony Berberich — also a VMBAH board member — said cycling in the Valley has been growing by “leaps and bounds.” VMBAH has certainly contributed to this, he said, but the Mat-Su Borough has been even more instrumental in making facilities available to bikers.

“They’re building a lot of trails,” Berberich said, of the borough. “Politicians in the Valley realize we have a pretty good gem here and the trails we build bring people here.”

Nicholls agreed, saying that the location of the Government Peak trails in particular will draw people from Anchorage and beyond, not only because of course itself — which he and Kessler said they can see becoming “world-class” mountain bike trails — but because of the views.

“It’s a new and different place (to ride) but it’s a gorgeous place,” Nicholls said. “It’s right at the foot of the Talkeetna Mountains, you can look out over the Valley and see the Chugach Mountains, you can see the (Knik) glacier from some spots on the trail. …That’s gonna bring even more people.”

People like Jeff Susel, who after taking a wet, muddy tour around the trails said that he’s stoked to see the new layout so close to home.

“It’s really nice you don’t have to drive an hour,” into Anchorage to ride, he said. “I’m just excited to see new trails being built.”

Nicholls said VMBAH hopes to have another 2.3 miles of trail finished at GPRA by this time next year.

Frontiersman editor Matt Tunseth contributed to this report. Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.