The new bike park in Green Street Woods has opened with a soft launch, with a grand opening event planned for Sunday, May 28.
“The signs are up, the woods are open for riding,” announced Pat Milner with Friends of Green Street. Milner has been a driving force behind the bike park. “This is a soft opening because we still need to get dirt in there to finish the features and berms and there is some final cleanup to do…”
The park’s opening is the culimination of two years of heated public meetings and setbacks. The New England Mountain Bike Associatiation has signed a five-year agreement with the Marblehead Recreation and Parks Department to build and maintain bike trails on the site, on the corner of Green Street and West Shore Drive.
Hopes for a bike park began during COVID when a group of teenagers started searching for places to ride their mountain bikes. In January 2021, they built small bike jumps at Lead Mills, which is conservation land. The Conservation Commission flattened the jumps, frustrating the teens and their parents. Supporters have been looking to build a bike park around town.
“The park will be about eight or 10 acres,” Frank Lane, the president of NEMBA’s North Shore chapter, told the Current in December. “It will be kind of a looped trail with some dirt and natural features. You can contour the dirt into what’s called a berm turn. We’re not looking for huge wooden jumps. We’re going to make it somewhat natural.”
Lane said the park will be for beginner and more advanced riders.
“We’ll have a small dirt jump, and then something that’s a little larger so people can learn on the small one and move along to the larger one. We’ll have signage directing the people as they go down the trail, similar to ski trail colors–green would be the easy direction, and black would be more challenging.”
For more information, email Milner at friendsofgsw@gmail.com.
CURRENT PHOTO / LEIGH BLANDER
Leigh Blander is an experienced TV, radio and print journalist who has written hundreds of stories for local newspapers, including the Marblehead Reporter. She also works as a PR specialist.