On a former softball diamond in Elk Grove Regional Park, a 2.4-acre BMX, or bicycle motocross, park is morphing into shape with loop and jump trails, pump and flow tracks, and areas for freestyle riding and skills training.
"In all of California, there are not a lot of these in public parks. They're few and far between, so we're lucky," said Keith CoBen, one of a group of Elk Grove parents who proposed the bike park. "The entire Northern California biking community is waiting for this."
Free to the public, the Elk Grove Bike Park has a grand opening scheduled for Oct. 15, but some features are being opened in phases as they are completed. The pump tracks – a series of hills that allow cyclists to propel the bike forward by pumping and not pedaling – were opened Thursday, with plenty of young bikers itching to try out the freshly groomed track.
The Cosumnes Community Services District spent $460,000 on the design and construction of the facility from a fund for new parks, said Fred Bremerman, management analyst for the district. The district hired Hilride Progression Development Group, an East Bay bike park and trail planner, to design a master plan.
The park is a "volunteer-build" project, meaning community members are pitching in to build it. Heavy construction began this summer, and since then 250 volunteers have gathered on five days to move, rake, haul and sift dirt, pack trails and shape mounds at the park, Bremerman said.
He said many of the volunteers have been fathers and their sons who are anxious to see the park completed. The district has scheduled more volunteer work days in September – every Thursday evening from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon.
Parents approached the community services district about building a bike park four years ago, Bremerman said. While there's a similar park in Folsom, the sport's growing popularity drove interest to build a bike park in the Elk Grove area, he said.
"When we held our first design session two years ago, more than 100 people showed up," he said. "It was our biggest attendance at a meeting yet. We usually get 10, maybe 20, people at a park design meeting."
Bremerman said the bike park has sparked interest because it caters to a new and growing niche sport.
"We have 90 playgrounds in Elk Grove, but no bike playgrounds," he said. "We have a lot of traditional sports opportunities in Elk Grove, such as baseball and soccer, but no facility for these alternative, more extreme sports."
The park will not be a site for races, but a "freestyle," or "free riding" park, he said, meaning it's for recreational use only.
"We designed it to appeal to all levels. You can be a 4-year-old with no skills, or an 18-year-old professional rider, all the way up to a senior," he said.
CoBen's two teenage sons are active in BMX riding, and he used to take them to Folsom to participate in the sport. He said not only youths, but adults who are mountain biking enthusiasts can use the park.
"Until now, there was no legal place for people to ride in an off-road type environment," CoBen said.
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