The Boreal Cycling Club currently maintains over 25 kilometers of trails in the Hershey Lake Preserve.
When the first snow falls, most people put away their bikes for the winter. But a new local club is trying to make cycling a year-round activity.
The Boreal Cycling Club has been in existence for a full year and currently maintains approximately 25 kilometers of bike paths within the Hershey Lake Preserve. During the winter, volunteers remove dead leaves, remove brush, and maintain the trails to keep them smooth and suitable for biking.
“If you look at the city of Timmins, you see snowmobiles, four-wheel drives, dirt bikes, cross-country skiing. There's a lot out there, but there was a lack of competitive cycling,” said club president Eve. Viel says.
“We want to continue the sport of cycling, and ultimately we need a cycling club to hold events and such. It's nice to sit on a bike or snowmobile and have fun, but from a health perspective cycling ,” he says.
Viel himself has been cycling for years with his family and is also a certified spin instructor at Rehab Plus, where he teaches classes five times a week. He is a paralegal at his Kelly law firm in Gironnes Bourdon and began grooming the trails in his spare time in 2020. With the incorporation of his cycling club, Boreal now has several volunteers from the club joining him and working with his group in other communities to keep the trails in shape.
This year, the club has 35 members, and Viel hopes to see more cyclists join in the future. The trail sees much more regular ridership during the summer, with about 80 cyclists, but only about 20 in the winter.
“Not all of them are members of a cycling club, and we want everyone to be members, but without a club, the trails won't be maintained,” Viel said.
Club membership is $50 per year and covers insurance, trail maintenance, and also helps cover the nonprofit club's operating costs.
In addition to attracting more new members, Viel hopes to eventually expand the club's network of cycling trails.
“We only have trails here that we maintain. We have a wish list of new trails and of course we have to work out agreements with landowners etc. So our wish list is complete. There's a lot of work going on in the background by the time you do that,” he says.
The club plans to host an end-of-year gathering in April, and Viel is planning an informal event soon to try out fat bikes (bicycles with wide tires suitable for off-road and winter cycling). ing.
For more information about the club, please visit our Facebook group.
