Parking for some of Squamish’s most famous mountain biking trails just got a whole lot easier.
On Friday, April 19, Squamish Off-Road Cycling Association (SORCA) reopened the expanded parking lot at the bottom of the Stl'lhalem Sintl' and Pseudo-Tsuga trails on Garibaldi Park Road. With the expansion, the lot can now hold approximately 105 vehicles versus about 20 previously.
“SORCA is super stoked about it,” said SORCA’s executive director, Ian Lowe, at the ‘ribbon-cutting’ for the opening that, of course, used recycled bike tubes instead of a ribbon.
“I think all community members are going to be stoked about it. We know from our intercept surveys we did last year that 50% of the people who park in this lot are actually not from Squamish. And so from a tourism, economy perspective, this is also really critical.”
Perhaps a sign of its incoming popularity, mountain bikers and trail runners were already using the new lot just minutes after its official opening.
Lowe said the work could not have been completed without the help of many people in SORCA and others, including the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District, Surerus Murphy Joint Venture, Chartwell Resource Group, Coast Valley Contracting and Silverback Treeworks.
Many representatives from these groups were at the official opening ceremony.
“The really enjoyable part about it was all the community members coming together and helping out,” said Mike Hedberg, the chief operating officer with Chartwell.
The start of the climb trail, Stl'lhalem Sintl', has shifted slightly into the lot to keep riders and other users away from the Garibaldi Park Road. Additionally, a lower section of Pseudo-Tsuga was under repair alongside the parking lot and it is now open for business as well.
Overall, the large expansion of the parking lot only took about five weeks of construction, though Lowe said they had talked about it for years beforehand.
Some minor improvements will also still occur at the lot, such as adding identifiers for accessible parking spots. For now, drivers can park at an angle and travel in a counterclockwise circle in the lot.
