New Quarry Park pump track in El Granada is a hit

After a decadeslong community-led effort, a new mountain bike course and pump track opened in Quarry Park in El Granada last month.

The track represents a win for the local mountain bike community, which has long struggled to gain legal places to ride on the coastside.

With three routes, the flowing course with sweeping turns allows riders to “pump” to gain momentum. The track was designed to be appropriate for all skill levels, and has drawn everyone from those still on training wheels to experienced riders who catch air between features.

“It may not be the X Games jumps, but it’s a good start for our community,” said Ric Barker, who heads Coastside Mountain Bikers, a nonprofit that led the effort to establish the track. “It’s really opened up communications and goodwill between the mountain bike community and the parks department.”

He said while efforts to build the track had been ongoing for years, things ramped up in 2019 when a group of riders and parents, frustrated with lack of progress, hand built a similar track on a nearby plot that had recently undergone fire prevention related clearing.

When the county came to bulldoze the illegal course the community protested, and an ensuing Midcoast Community Council meeting drew hundreds demanding a sanctioned track.

“Moms got in front of the dozers,” Barker said. “As soon as we got moms and kids involved, we started to get momentum.”

The Granada Community Services District contributed $100,000 to the new track, Coastside Mountain Bikers raised $15,000, the San Mateo County Parks Foundation another $11,000 and REI pitched in $6,000. The county made up the rest of the $300,000 price tag.

Barker said the project has helped smooth a rift between the park service and some local mountain bikers who build and maintain unsanctioned trails within park land. San Mateo County parks prohibit mountain biking on trails other than fire roads, he said, yet in Quarry Park, there are several miles of single-track trails exclusively for mountain bike use.

“There was always a cyclical nature of jumps on trails,” he said. “People build jumps, the jumps get big enough, the authorities tear ‘em down.”

But he said he’s hopeful that in the near future some of those trails, with their jumps, could become legally recognized, added to maps and assigned difficulty rankings. He said his group has monthly meetings with county parks to discuss the subject.

San Mateo County Parks Director Nicholas Calderon said the department is working to sanction the trails, many of which were there before the county acquired the land in 2014. He said some will require modification for drainage or to meet other standards.

“The San Mateo County Parks department recognizes that people recreate differently,” he said. Quarry Park, he added, is the ideal spot to incorporate mountain biking as a recreational activity.

Another pump track is slated to open in Menlo Park’s Flood Park next year, he said. There is also a bike park, to include a pump track, in the works in Pacifica.

For the Quarry park track, it occupies roughly an acre in the 517-acre park. It also features seating areas and a bike repair station. Barker said the layout, formed with a hardened dirt mixture, will likely evolve over time as riders learn what works and what doesn’t.

In the meantime, Pacifica resident Vaclav Batlik said he’s been bringing his son almost every day.

“It’s a good place to come and get his energy out, and it helps that he’s excited to come here and do it, instead of just being on the iPad,” he said. “Now he’s getting into doing the pumps and all that, now I’m thinking about doing it too.”

corey@smdailyjournal.com

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