Over 1,000 people came out to show support for and participate in the opening of Powell River’s newest park Saturday afternoon to the delight of City of Powell River’s parks, recreation and culture department.
Riders of all ages and abilities attended, sampling the park’s jumps, bumps and ramps—some more successfully than others.
Powell River General Hospital’s emergency room saw something of a surge in patients that afternoon as doctors and staff attended to those who had taken on a bit more than they could handle. The majority of riders, however, left unscathed.
The park not only gives residents the ability to improve their biking skills, it also improves Powell River’s attraction for tourists.
The threads creating a web of mountain bike trails in and around our backyard combined with this park will be a considerable draw for mountain bike tourism, a sector which has seen phenomenal growth over the past few years.
This summer 500 cross-country mountain bike riders from around the world once again will be coming through Powell River as participants in the BC Bike Race.
That’s not to mention all the tourists coming to challenge themselves on the Sunshine Coast Trail and its promise of hut-to-hut hiking.
Combine that with the number of arts-related events coming to town this spring, including the Performing Arts of BC provincial festival, Powell River Fibre Fest and Pacific Region International Summer Music Academy (PRISMA), and Powell River will be in the spotlight for many out-of-town visitors—something that surely bodes well for the city’s resident recruitment strategy.
As the city’s recruitment website points out, it all starts with a visit in this town that is coastal by nature. Ask any new resident about how they came to call Powell River home and they’ll more often than not tell a story about how they first fell in love with it after “discovering” it on holiday.
There is a wide range of talented, forward-thinking people who call this place home and want to see the Upper Sunshine Coast continue to be a viable place in which to live. So in the face of uncertain economic times it is important that the community continues to invest in itself and support innovation and new ideas that bring Powell River to a wider audience who have the potential of adding their own interests into the vast tapestry of coastal community life.
