Gravity Pirate volunteers whip the park into shape.
A funny thing happened to the Valley Center, first-of-its-kind in San Diego County, mountain bike park. Well, maybe not, but the bike park promised for the start of the year continues to languish for lack of funds and available volunteer time.
Steve Ford along with many of the Gravity Cycling Pirates bike team have contributed a lot of time and energy to getting the project finished. GoFundMe account has raised $7,330 of the $20,000 needed to finish the job. People have donated machinery and equipment even, just not enough.
Ford was scheduled to brief the Valley Center Parks & Recreation Department this week past Roadrunner deadlines on whither the proposed bike park and whatnot.
Yesterday, all our troubles…
It seems like only yesterday that Crow’s Nest was so close to opening organizers held an open house. Mountain bike enthusiasts came from near and even very far far to sample the facility at 28751 Cole Grade Roa, just off Valley Center Road behind the softball fields.
Work, for all intents and purposes has been slow to none since then. The last major finishing touches were applied a couple of months ago. Organizers still needed to run pipe and finish the course.
Ford’s volunteer group, the Gravity Pirates, a part of the non-profit Gravity Cycling Inc. organization, have been building the park with lots of sweat equity, donated equipment and as much funding as they’ve been able to obtain.
“The feedback from all levels of rider has been encouraging,” Ford said. “And its been amazing fun testing it out.”
The park will be the first of its kind in San Diego County and one of the few such facilities in the U.S. About $10,000 and many volunteer hours have been sunk into the efforts. Ford said nearly $100,000 worth of park was built for the money and sweat equity.
Interested parties can help out by visiting http://www.gofundme.com/hhrkmw or by visiting GCI at http://gravitycyclinginc.com.
