Construction begins on McKay Community Bike Park in Greater Eureka
Earth moving has started in McKay Community Forest, where a four-acre bike park will add a pump track, skills features and jump lines for riders of all ages.
Dirt has started moving in McKay Community Forest, turning years of planning near Northridge Road into the first visible stage of the McKay Community Bike Park. The project is aimed at riders who have long lacked a beginner-friendly place to learn and progress in Greater Eureka, especially kids, families and newer mountain bikers.
The site sits on county-managed land southeast of Eureka in the Ryan Creek watershed, inside a forest the county says covers about 1,194 acres. Humboldt County established the forest in 2014 for public access, recreation, timber harvest and watershed and resource conservation, and the county’s trail plan adopted in December 2020 laid out a 31-mile network that included five miles of mountain-bike-specific trails and a proposed bike skills park near Northridge.
Redwood Coast Mountain Bike Association has a signed memorandum of understanding with Humboldt County to fund, design and build the park. Its conceptual plan carries a proposed budget of about $185,000, and the organization says the park was designed by Cam Zink’s Sensus R.A.D. Trails. The county says the McKay forest is intended for residents and visitors of all ages and abilities, and mountain biking is one of the uses built into the larger vision.
The bike park itself is planned to cover about four acres and will include a dirt pump track, skill-building obstacles and jump trails built over redwood stumps, logs and wooden tracks. The first stage got underway with dirt hauled in from a College of the Redwoods construction project, and the dirt move alone cost $34,000. The contractor, Sensus R.A.D. Trails, was expected to begin shaping the site after the delivery.
Even with construction starting, the work remains tied to volunteer labor and ongoing fundraising. RCMBA’s fundraising page showed $9,096 raised of a $127,000 goal for the project, while the organization said it still needed another $80,000 to finish the park. Volunteers are welcome, which keeps the effort rooted in local trail stewardship rather than a top-down county build.
The bike park also reflects a larger question in Humboldt County: which outdoor projects become everyday public amenities, not just headlines. McKay has been building toward this point for years, from the county’s 2014 land acquisition to draft trail plans in 2019 and the 2020 trail plan that envisioned a mountain-bike skills area near Northridge. With dirt finally moving, Greater Eureka is getting a new place where residents can ride, learn and gather on county land built for public use.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Know something we missed? Have a correction or additional information?
Submit a Tip
