Use the form on the right to contact us or email us: info@bikehinton.com
Hinton, Alberta
Hinton Mountain Bike Association. Our goal is to develop, maintain and promote the best possible mountain biking opportunities around the Hinton area, while ensuring responsible and safe practices in environmental conservation, trail construction, trail maintenance and riding.
Filtering by Category: Trails
You may see some CAUTION notices on our trails.
The Rock Band trail is awesome, but the bottom section is still very wet. Best to avoid this trail until the wet area is re-mediated later this summer.
The Lower Bighorn, between the Beaver Boardwalk and the powerline right-of-way is eroded, so please ride with care, especially when going in the downhill direction.
Thanks!
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We are SUPER excited to announce the donation of $15,000 from Pembina Pipeline Corporation's Community Investment Program. This amazing donation has funded our newest trail in the Hinton Bike Park, unofficially named "Pembina Sprockids Trail".
This BIG cheque was presented by Clint Walker, of Pembina Pipeline, to Jay Hore (HMBA President) and Julie Duval (HMBA Treasurer). Jay Hoots from Hoots Inc., and his crew were hired to build this sweet new trail. Hoots Inc. has also donated over $3,000 of labour towards the building of the Pembina Sprockids Trail. Revenue accumulated from our Hinton Sprockids Program registrations and donations have also contributed to this trail build.
The trail is over 600m of gently sloped terrain and is suitable for younger bikers and novices.
Thank you Hoots Inc. and crew for this new addition and THANK YOU Pembina Pipeline for investing in our community!!!
A new trail well suited for riders of all abilities!
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Hoots Inc. and crew have completed three weeks of maintenance and trail building work at the Hinton Bike Park!
Thanks!
The HMBA would like to thank Jay, Alan, Dalan, Fraser and Ben for the awesome work done!!!
The HMBA would also like to thank the Town of Hinton for the Community Grant received in April. This grant ensured that the Drop Zone, Fo'Shore and Slope Wars skill areas got inspected, re-shaped, and buffed.
Business Time
Other areas in the park that received similar maintenance include the Skills Area, Dirt Jumps, Business time, Midway Pump Track and Jodoin's Journey. Funds for this work was provided by the HMBA, the Town of Hinton's Bike Park Annual Maintenance Fund and from donated services/labour by Hoots Inc.
Dirt Jumps
Midway Pump Track
Lastly, the Hinton Bike Park now has a new trail!!! This trail is freshly built over approximately 600m of gently sloped terrain. It was designed with the younger bikers in mind, to allow easier access to the mid-areas of the park. This trail was funded by a generous benefactor which we hope to announce soon! Registration revenue and donations from the Hinton Sprockids program also contributed to this build!
New trail
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We have been very busy putting valuable grant, donation, and maintenance dollars to work on buffing the Hinton Bike Park. There are still some closures marked with Red Tape throughout the park.
PLEASE RESPECT CLOSURES marked by red tape - the dirt jumps, upper pump track, drop zone, slope wars need time to set. Once they have set they will be rock solid for the season.
Thank you for your patience, the rain has been slowing the process but we will be there soon!
Ride DIRT not MUD!
Let's all do our part and avoid these kinds of situations!
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It has been brought to our attention by some of our members that someone has been cutting down trees along some of the HMBA trails. Although folks might think they are doing the right thing and helping maintain the trails or making riding them easier, please refrain from cutting down any standing trees.
Our ability as an organization to keep using these trails and bringing an unreal riding experience to Hinton is based on preserving the forest and minimizing our impact on our natural surroundings as much as possible. If you feel the need to cut down trees or do some work on trails, stand by! We will be announcing a work bee soon where there will be no shortage of work.
If you have any questions regarding the trails or if you see an issue or dangerous trees please send us a note and we can always come and take a look.
Thanks everyone! Get out and ride!
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The HMBA has been in touch with West Fraser regarding the Mountain Pine Beetle work being done near Hinton. They have a huge undertaking ahead of them and have begun work already. They will have approximately 1500 trees to fall in the HMBA trails area - both in Jacks Trail System and Happy Creek Trail System. The trees will not be burnt, but they will be felled, limbed and peeled.
The results will be very noticeable, especially on the Bighorn trail and a few other trails that have a large number of trees infected by the beetles.
Infested tree
Popcorn-like pitch tubes created by the beetles.
If for some reason you run into any issues from crew members or just the public at large, you may contact Hal Jackson at 780-865-8741 and point him in the direction of the issue.
Please note that similar pine beetle control is being done within town limits, but under a different contractor. Their methods may differ. Contact the Town of Hinton if you have any concerns of the beetle control work being done within town limits.
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Spring is indeed upon us! Current conditions in the Hinton Bike Park and many of our trails are very wet and muddy. Please refrain from riding in these poor conditions as it deteriorates our trails. It won't be long before we can all go out and enjoy riding!
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Video compilation by Justin Davidson of the Hinton Growler Race Course, filmed and edited on February 21st, 2017.
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Want to know which trails get groomed? Check out our map!
Please note that these trails are 100% groomed by volunteers. Grooming depends on snow conditions, weather, volunteer availability and equipment functioning (they do break down!). More info about our grooming...
Get access to a georeferenced and printable pdf map here (8.5"x11", 1400dpi, 4.3GB)
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The Hinton Mountain Bike Association recently acquired a new essential tool to help with year-round maintenance of the Hinton Bike Park and trail systems. The Rokon Trail-Breaker is a powerful yet versatile multi-terrain vehicle that will allow our trail maintenance volunteers to access all our trails. It can also be used during the winter and has proven to be an awesome trail-grooming tool on it's own!
Expect to see HMBA's grooming volunteers on both the Rokon and the winter sled out grooming many of our trails this winter!
Rok'on HMBA!
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Amp test
The Happy Creek Trail system has a new addition in the form of a short but sweet 0.6 km technical downhill trail option. Similar to "Fast Trax", this trail is located along the Bighorn Trail (town connector) and deposits onto Happy Creek East. This is an advanced trail, walk before you ride!
"Rock Band" started as a mapping day-dream, with layers derived through GIS to spot a clearly elevated band of bedrock. Once in the field, some of the rock was exposed with protruding ledges and faces with features that a few riders commented would make for some gnarly drops. Rock Band is designed as an advanced trail that can be rocked or rolled, depending on the amps you're cranking! Thrash it or groove it, whatever way you choose it, just don't blow your speakers!!
Making it official!
The band at work
The trail will evolve as it is ridden with new lines and potential, so watch for changing conditions and additional work. Big thanks to a solid crew of builders led by Rock Star Mike Langford who did the bulk of layout and building!
The last 40m of Rock Band, before connecting to Happy Creek Trail, challenged (and keeps challenging) our rockin' crew. A wet area made very wet during the last few months with many frequent rain events amped up the band's efforts in finding a sustainable solution. The final phase is 'slated' to be completed by the end of September if the weather finally cooperates!
Once onto Happy Creek (East), you can choose a longer ride (left) or continue the descent back to the town trail (right).
Rock Band is a black diamond trail that descend from Bighorn Trail to Happy Creek East.
Rockin`Start
Rockin' Drop
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After two years of inventory and planning, map signage at the Hinton Bike Park and on the Happy Creek System trails have been refreshed! This important project had many phases, including:
All our awesome signs!
In total, over 200 volunteers hours and community support via donations made to HMBA have made this project possible.
RBC Vollunteers
Six staff members from Hinton's RBC Branch came out on June 8th to volunteer their time. They helped with staining and gluing at the Hinton Bike Park.
A special thanks to all the volunteers who have helped getting the signs out on the trails!
Julie Duval
Gabrielle Duval
Bill Heir
Maureen Harper
Tim Trahan
Jeff Morris
The handy bike trailer has seen a lot of mileage in June! A special thank you to Bike Boy who had donated the trailer to HMBA over 5 years ago.
The sign caddy!
Going up!
An up!
Great travels under summer sunshine
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Just a reminder to all our bike park and trail users! Please don't ride when conditions are unfavorable.
Thank you!!
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With the warm spring weather quickly drying up our biking playgrounds, a few work bees have been put in motion starting this Tuesday April 12th, from 5:30pm until dusk. The work bee will continue on Wednesday and Thursday as well. So if you have some time to spare this week, come on out to the Hinton Bike Park, pick up a broom or a rake and lend a hand! There will be lots of different tasks.
No matter how small...
On Tuesday, April 12, Wade Forester will be falling dangerous trees at the Hinton Bike Park. Please either avoid the Park or give a lot of distance for Wade to work. Big thanks in advance to Wade and his skilled labour volunteer hours!
Flagged tree for falling.
Photo credit: S.Pelley, HMBA facebook group. Local member contributing many volly hours on our trails!
THANKS!!! to all the volunteers who have worked hard this past week picking garbage off trails, clearing deadfall and getting the other Hinton area trails ready for riding.
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In an effort to manage an inventory of sustainable trails in our area, HMBA has outlined some key steps that are needed before new trails, or re-routes to existing trails, are built. There is also concern that, although more trails would be super cool to add to our existing trail systems, they do increase the amount of trails HMBA's volunteers have to maintain!!
If enthusiastic trail builders would like to build an authorized trail:
These steps ensure that renegade building does not become a liability for HMBA and that the responsibility for maintenance does not fall back on HMBA to expend resources and energy on a potentially poorly built trail. We are aware that certain illegal trails have been grandfathered in the HMBA systems but moving forward, there is a process in place that will be followed. In extreme cases, renegade building may be reported to the ESRD and the Town of Hinton.
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Last November, students and instructors from the NAIT Forest Technology Program began a harvest project around the Jack’s Trail System, specifically Christine’s Cutline Cruise and Dan’s Deadly Downhill. They had contacted HMBA as part of the formal notification process for groups/interests in the area, a process managed by the Province to minimize conflicts on the land base.
The NAIT project is clearly visible from .Christine's Cutline Cruise". They did a great job of removing debris from the trail. It's a little wet but good overall (see header photo)
Note the harvest block (yellow) indicated on the above map. Even though the project occured over winter, trails were buffered up to 30 meters and caution signage was placed. NAIT will also inspect trails for any unlikely debris.
Did you know that the NAIT Forestry Program performs a “Cache Percott–Give Back”? Upon completion of their field camps, 30 students cleaned-up around the Cache Percott Forest, removing general garbage i.e. dumped couches, washing machines, garden detritus, household garbage etc. AWESOME!!, thanks NAIT!
BIG THANKS! to whoever cut all the downed trees over winter. There's a few new ones down but overall Jack's is riding great and surprisingly dry.
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Posted by Greg Heil from Singletracks on December 7th.
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The groomed winter trails continue to be in great riding condition! Get out and get active!
Winter signage has been posted up on our winter trails. There are even a few extra trails that have been broken-in with fat bikes to create fun alternatives until the next big snowfall! Vigilante and Happy Creek can be included in your fun winter adventures.
Check out our Winter Trails page for more information about winter trail grooming and a winter trail map.
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The Hinton Mountain Bike Association (HMBA) will be grooming select trails in the Hinton area (West of Happy Creek) for non-motorized activities such as cross country skiing, snowshoeing, bicycling, hiking, dog walking and trail running.
A specialized groomer, the same type used by nordic centres, is towed behind a small snowmobile . The groomer is 30 inches (76 cm) wide, ideal for creating winter trails for our non-motorized recreationalists.
Grooming is a slow process, the snowmobile runs approximately 5 kms/hr towing the groomer as it rolls and packs the trail down.
Once groomed, it will take a few hours to harden before it is ready for use. Grooming will be done mostly at night when there are less trail users. This will give a better chance for the snow on the trail to set.
Visit our Winter Trails page for more info and the latest groomer report!
Winter Grooming is 100% run by HMBA Volunteers!!
Just Get There
The J
EZ
Ranger
GS
Halloween
Halloween Connector
Cleo's
Signage that will be posted on the winter trails. Click to enlarge.
Map showing trails that will be groomed over the winter. Click on image to enlarge
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A year ago in September, the Hinton Mountain Bike Association was awarded $30,000 from Hinton's 2014 Participatory Budget. The grant was used to revitalize Hinton's amazing signature trail, Happy Creek, which needed some major work done on two large sections of boardwalks. This project not only benefited mountain bikers, but runners, walkers, hikers, and visitors alike!
Hoots Inc. was contracted for this project. Crews were onsite by mid-August and by early September, the work was done! The construction was done with sustainability in mind with the goal of durability and longer lifespan.
For those familiar with Happy Creek Trail - this new upgrade will be well received!
Thank you to all trail users in the weeks during construction. Your patience and understanding were appreciated!
Before...
Rebuilding, 1st phase
Rebuilding, 2nd phase
After! Boardwalk 1
After! Boardwalk 2
Boardwalk repair area indicated in green. (2011 map)
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