In case you didn't know, before FORBA was founded in 2016 to organize the local mountain biking community, our local trails were built by a handful of dedicated folks and over the years maintenance proved to be a lot for individuals to handle. We needed an organization to help maintain our existing trails and build bigger and better stuff. With the help of new volunteers and some trail veterans, we have been able to share the load of routine maintenance, crowdsource funding for trail work, and establish a working relationship with the City and County.
Last year, after several years of effort, we finally got a memorandum of understanding signed with the City of Winston Salem which names FORBA as the local organization that coordinates building and maintaining trails, ensuring the city's standards for safety, access, and sustainability are met. A monumental step for the MTB community! This allowed us to bring in heavy equipment to rebuild the jumpline at Hobby Park in 2023 and officially sanction a section of trail at Salem Lake called the Jesús trail (pronounced - hey-soos). And now we're partnering to tackle even more trail at Salem Lake.
On April 11, City Parks and Recreation leaders hosted an outreach session to share info about the partnership with FORBA and next steps for trails at Salem Lake. The meeting went great and the City is in support of building fun and challenging trails for all skill levels. We will be working in phases to address issues like erosion, bringing trails back on City property, utilizing the full topography and available property. We will incorporate as much trail that already exists that we can while also bringing everything up to City standards.
The goal is to make Salem Lake trails a destination for bikers of all levels, from little kids and beginners to intermediate and advance riders. Changes will be rolled out in baby steps over the course of this year and next and we hope you'll get involved. Check out the slideshow for details on how the partnership will work and ways you can contribute to the future of local mountain bikes trails.
