Devil’s Toenail Bike Park Grand Opening This Weekend
This Saturday (April 13th) sees the official opening of a fantastic and free mountain bike park in Wetherby, West Yorkshire, built entirely by volunteers.
The Devil’s Toenail Bike Park, made with over 500 tonnes of stone, transforms a triangle of wasteland, where two railway lines once split.
Now after almost a year of building, literally thousands of hours of people’s free time, and amazing council and grant support, over one kilometre of trails, a jump line and pump track are now ready for riding.
Volunteers from Wetherby Bike Trails, have worked alongside expert Yorkshire volunteer trail builders, SingletrActon, digging all weathers and seen their goals literally get closer and closer, meter by meter. The DT, as we call it, has gradually come to life each weekend, making a facility for the community with the community, especially our young people.
The bike park offers challenges for all abilities, with a blue section for basic riding, red for proficient mountain bikers and black for experts. The trail is a loop around most of the site, including a rock garden made from recycled stone. The jump line is an opportunity to get some air and the pump track is a continuous loop of features to help maintain mountain bike riding skills.
Key sections reflect the area’s history, such as ‘Flying Ginger’ for the jump line named after Wetherby’s WW2 fighter ace Ginger Lacey and the central trail, ‘The Mainline’ recalls the days of steam. Watsons Meadow is named after the Watson family who owned much of the site and sold it to Wetherby Town Council for a nominal fee of one pound, so the project could happen.
None of the park would have been possible without £32,000 allocated by the Sport England Community Asset Fund and £5000 from the Leeds Outer North East Community Committee Fund as well as key support from Wetherby Town Council, every step of the way.
Located right by Sustrans Route 67, on the Harland Way between Wetherby and Spofforth, the park is perfectly located in the town and easily reachable from outside the area, with CCTV monitored carparking nearby at Stations Gardens, Wetherby, LS22 6YR. From there it’s a short ride under two bridges, a turn to the left and you’ve arrived, ready to shred the DT.
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