'Definitely an economic impact': Residents want to draw more mountain bikers to North Cowichan
'Definitely an economic impact': Residents want to draw more mountain bikers to North Cowichan
A town on southern Vancouver Island is looking to attract more mountain bikers to its doorstep.
Community members in Crofton, B.C., are making a concentrated effort to bring cyclists to the area, which could bring economic gains to the community.
"I do believe that we're an opportunity just waiting to be found," said resident Dan Robin.
"I see them riding even on the seawalk here," he said. "They ride here into town, even Chemainus is only a 25 to 30 minute bicycle ride [away], so there's lots of opportunity for riding in the area."
He and Rick Martinson with the Cowichan Trail Stewardship Society say the municipality of North Cowichan already has ideas for nearby Mount Richards.
The pair point to a 2017 municipal masterplan that highlights hiking and equestrian use on the mountain, but not mountain biking.
"Five years ago it may not have been a big issue, now it is," said Martison.
He says that nearby mountains have become crowded with mountain bikers, and that expanding trails onto Mount Richards would benefit both riders by easing trail traffic, and the local economy.
Martinson points to the nearby town of Cumberland as an example of what Crofton could bring in with mountain biking.
He says a recent economic impact study in Cumberland shows that cyclists are happy to spend money at small communities when they come for a bike trip.
"They said each visiting mountain biker drops more than $80 a day in town," he said. "Ones that stay overnight, it's more like $100 a day, so there's definitely an economic impact."
Josh Lichti, who works at Dodge City Cycles in Cumberland, says the community has become a national biking hotspot.
"We're the fourth most visited biking community now in the country, so tons of people are coming from all over the country just to ride the trails in Cumberland," he said.
Martin Ready owns a guide company that welcomes international visitors to ride in Cumberland and across the island.
He says the industry has peripheral benefits that are noticeable, with some people moving to the island "to be close to the trail network."
Some local businesses are also thriving because of the interest.
"There's a company that's building wheels here and a company building bikes," said Ready.
In Crofton, Robin says there are 300 volunteers who are prepared to build more trails in the area to attract visitors.
"If there were better trails here it would attract more people, and being that it’s right adjacent to Maple Mountain, it’s kind of a slam-dunk for people to be able to ride two mountains in the same day," he said.
A presentation was made to North Cowichan council on Wednesday night to get the wheels turning on bringing more tourists to the area.
The parents of young Ontario hockey player Ben Teague have been searching for answers since he died while at a team retreat in 2019. The mystery about what happened and the code of silence in hockey culture is explored in CTV W5's 'What Happened to Ben,' on CTVNews.ca and W5's official YouTube channel.
In an effort to keep the foreign interference story at the forefront, and to do an apparent endrun around the Liberal filibuster blocking one study from going ahead, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is forcing MPs to debate and then vote on a motion instructing an opposition-dominated House committee to strike its own review.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump's calls for protests ahead of his anticipated indictment in New York have generated mostly muted reactions from supporters, with even some of his most ardent loyalists dismissing the idea as a waste of time or a law enforcement trap.
Officials are still looking for victims after a fire ripped through a building in Old Montreal last week, killing at least one person. At a press conference Monday morning, spokespersons for the Montreal police and Montreal fire department said six people are still missing. They come from various locations in Quebec, Ontario and the U.S.
Bargain hunters are one step closer to seeing sales at Nordstrom's closing Canadian locations. At a hearing at Osgoode Hall in Toronto on Monday, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice gave the U.S. retailer's Canadian branch permission to start liquidating its merchandise.
Some of the world's largest central banks came together on Sunday to stop a banking crisis from spreading as Swiss authorities persuaded UBS Group AG to buy rival Credit Suisse Group AG in a historic deal.
People who rely on transit to get around parts of the Fraser Valley are scrambling to find alternatives as workers with BC Transit walk the picket line.
Vancouver firefighters were called to the Downtown Eastside Sunday evening after a fire destroyed multiple tents in an encampment and spread to a building near Main and East Hastings streets.
An Ontario woman has launched a lawsuit seeking $500,000 from Tim Hortons after she suffered major burns from an alleged ‘superheated’ tea. The company has denied all allegations and said she was ‘the author of her own misfortune.'
Autopsies confirmed gunshot wounds as the cause of death for two constables responding to a domestic dispute Thursday, the Edmonton Police Service says.
Ontario employers who withhold foreign workers’ passports or work permits could face steeper penalties under new labour laws, with maximum fines setting them back up to $200,000.
The Town of Strathmore and Siksika Nation hosted the first Lead By Example Powwow this weekend in honour of a young Indigenous man who was shot to death four years ago.
Autopsies confirmed gunshot wounds as the cause of death for two constables responding to a domestic dispute Thursday, the Edmonton Police Service says.
Officials are still looking for victims after a fire ripped through a building in Old Montreal last week, killing at least one person. At a press conference Monday morning, spokespersons for the Montreal police and Montreal fire department said six people are still missing. They come from various locations in Quebec, Ontario and the U.S.
Quebec provincial police (SQ) announced Monday morning that a third person has died in connection with the tragedy in Amqui, in the Lower St. Lawrence region, where a driver drove his pickup truck into pedestrians a week ago.
The University of Prince Edward Island Faculty Association says its staff has gone on strike after what it says are failed attempts to enter additional negotiations with the university's administration.
The student union president at Cape Breton University said food insecurity has become a concern for many students and the on-campus food bank cannot keep up with demand.
A community is in mourning after a 10-year-old girl was killed earlier this week when flames tore through her family’s camping trailer southeast of Brantford.
Waterloo regional police say they arrested nine people for impaired driving over the course of nine hours between 6:30 p.m. on St. Patrick’s Day and 3:30 a.m. on March 18.
Some residents of Saskatchewan's capital city have been vocal with their disapproval of Tourism Regina's latest rebrand, prompting an apology from the organization.
A 46-year-old man has been taken to hospital with serious, life-threatening injuries after a single-vehicle crash on MR80 near Donaldson Crescent in Val Caron.
