By the end of this weekend, Pembertonians of all ages will be able to pump the handlebars of their bikes over a series of dirt rollers in the new bike Skills Park, just one of the many projects the Pemberton Valley Trails Association (PVTA) is tackling this summer.

Located adjacent to the future skate park that is to take shape beside the new community centre, the Skills Park will feature a series of “pump tracks” — aptly named because of the pumping motion required to drive the mountain bikes up and over each of the dirt rollers.

Hillary Downing and Nigel Protter, chair and executive director, respectively, of the PVTA, were on hand to receive the news from PVTA director Lon Martin.

“It’ll be great to have for the kids,” said Martin, “and should be ready for when the kids get out of school.”

The park will be for kids from as young as five years old to “as high as you want to go,” said Martin, adding that the park will be free for anyone to use.

“This is an entertaining, fun way to learn how to ride a bicycle,” he said.

Traditionally, pump tracks help mountain bikers develop the techniques to become more fluid riders in a safe environment. The dirt rollers are only a few feet high, and small walls are built at various corners to help riders learn proper body positioning.

“Right now we are just starting with a couple of pump tracks, but our goal is eventually to have some bridges, some wall rides, and some jumps — but for now we’re just going to start small and that will be a couple of pump tracks for beginners to advanced,” said Martin.

PVTA secured grant funding for the park from the Pemberton Festival, and is getting a helping hand for the project from various expert organizations who are donating machines and time, including Whistler Blackcomb.

Both Downing and Protter are pleased that the park project is coming to fruition, and hope that it will be just one of the many projects that are completed by the end of the summer.

Also on deck to be completed in 2009 are three of what the PVTA has called excursion trails, which will, as Downing said, “open up old trails in some exciting areas.”

“They’re designed not to get you somewhere but to (allow you to) enjoy the journey,” said Protter.

All three of the historic trails are loops that will take bikers and hikers on a climb to notable viewpoints.

The first, Nimby, has just had bridges put in by a group of skilled riders, and is now ready for use.

Protter likens Nimby to Whistler’s well-known and challenging Comfortably Numb trail. It begins at Happy Trail and climbs up through a series of double-black-diamond switchbacks to the Paragliding Launch. The loop takes 3.5 to 4 hours to complete on a bike. It was created to begin shifting the centre of trail-riding gravity in the area away from Mosquito Lake, said Protter.

The second loop trail, the Chain Link, won’t be completed until at least the end of the summer.

The trail begins north of Pemberton, at Mount Currie, following the Owl Creek drainage along the Chain Links, and finishes near the Birkenhead-D’Arcy area. Riders will then return to Mount Currie on the highway.

“It’s a beautiful traverse through the mountains, (past) some beautiful lakes. It’s going to be an epic cross-country loop,” said Protter.

Although much of the trail is in existence now, PVTA members need to clean and link a series of old hunting and animal trails together before they can declare the full trail usable. To help with the debrushing, Protter has enlisted the help of a well-known trail designer. He expects Chain Link to be available by the end of August.

The third trail, PHD, is to be shared with Whistler, and climbs into the alpine. This summer, PVTA is hoping to improve the lower sections of the trail and prepare for an eventual link to the alpine section. The future vision is to have the trail connect all the way to the Soo Valley, said Protter.

While the success of the effort to build the Skills Park and excursion trails puts a smile on both Protter’s and Downing’s faces, it does little to ease the sting of the project they passionately want to see come to fruition, that of the Valley Loop Trail.

On standby yet again because of land-use challenges, primarily with the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC), the Valley Loop Trail is the one project that holds the potential of connecting the Pemberton Valley.

Last month, with the support of the SLRD, the PVTA built a dog-proof fence around one of the two farms whose owners feel the Valley Loop Trail will be disruptive to their cattle operations.

“I think most of us thought that we were going to be able to put an end to the conflict and just enjoy that trail,” said Downing.

Unfortunately, said Downing, the ALC has now “upped the ante” and given the PVTA a new list of complicated requirements to meet.

Both Downing and Protter are frustrated with the obstruction they have received from the ALC.

“The SLRD would really like to see this resolved,” Downing said. “I think after many years of disputing, everyone wants to see this resolved.”

While Downing believes that the Valley Loop Trail will happen at some point in the future, Protter is ready to take the bull by the horns.

“The PVTA intends to take on these issues and address them. They’re not giving up,” he said.