New partnership aims to enhance trails in Lethbridge river valley

The City of Lethbridge has teamed up with the Lethbridge Trail Alliance to ensure the proper maintenance of coulee pathways.

For some cyclists, the trails never close, even in the winter.

“We have this wonderful resource here in the river valley and just to stay active, and now, I’ve got kids of my own, I’m involved in coaching to a certain extent, we have a lot of young riders coming in,” said Marc Bomhof, an avid cyclist and member of the Lethbridge Trail Alliance.

“It’s great to see their excitement, it’s great to see them being physically active and have these opportunities for recreating in the coulees.”

Bomhof has been cycling in Lethbridge since the 90s, but trail degradation has taken him off course.

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“We do see a lot of trail erosion from the rainstorms that come through, and it wrecks the trails and you get ruts in the trails,” he said.

“As a mountain biker, that can trap you and increase the likelihood of crashing. So, if we do have regular maintenance and volunteers coming out to work on these trails and prevent erosion, then, that will ultimately help with safety.”

This new partnership will also have a limited burden on taxpayers.

“A lot of the maintenance is pretty cheap,” said Ralph Arnold, president of the Lethbridge Trail Alliance. “It’s basically shovels and rakes, … and volunteers to do it.

“When we start talking about, perhaps a new connector pathway or something like that, and if we bring machinery, that could be expensive. But a lot of it can still be done by hand.

“If you look at a lot of the rogue trails out there, some of them were really well done and it was just some dude with a shovel.”

Despite the Lethbridge Trail Alliance taking the lead on this ongoing project, the city said the pathways are still for everyone.

“Those trails represent recreational opportunities for all users,” said Andrew Sommerville, parks planning manager at the City of Lethbridge. “It’s for trail runners, hikers, mountain bikers, families, photographers, nature lovers — it’s really for everyone.”

Currently, the city is not planning to add new trails, but simply maintain the current ones.