Updated on June 30, 2022
New Mountain Bike Skills Trail
For years, mountain bikers have been moving to Asheville from all over the country, and the sport has only increased in popularity since the pandemic. For new riders living in Asheville, honing skills used to require driving out of the city, but not anymore! Pisgah Area SORBA and the City of Asheville recently teamed up to build a new mountain bike skills trail in West Asheville’s Richmond Hill Park. Richmond Hill has an existing trail network of approximately 5 miles for hikers and bikers, along with a popular disc golf course. The mountain bike skills park will add an additional 2500 LF to the trail system, along with 15+ bike-specific features designed for riders living in Asheville. These obstacles will enable beginner riders to build the confidence they need to tackle more challenging trails in Pisgah National Forest and Dupont State Forest south of Asheville.
International mountain bicycling association
The Richmond Hill Park trail will be broken into two segments, allowing beginner riders to learn the skills concepts on the beginner loop and advance to the intermediate loop. On the intermediate loop, riders will be challenged with skinnier skinnies, taller drops, and bigger rolls. As a bonus, each of the Richmond Park trails will also feature adequate viewing space, so excited parents can watch or snap awesome photos while kids put their new skills on display. The best part? The mountain bike skills park will be completely free to anyone wanting to ride in the Asheville area!
How Asheville Communities Work Together
Richmond Hill Mountain Bike Skills Park in Asheville, NC was a new type of trail build for Pisgah Area SORBA. The organization spends most of its time maintaining trails in Pisgah National Forest. Working in partnership with the City of Asheville, the two entities were able to pick the perfect location for a new mountain bike skills trail. Trail builder Nature Trails LLC helped design the concept, and it was funded with a mixture of private donations, corporate donations, and money from Pisgah Area SORBA and the City of Asheville. We found out that people love to donate to positive initiatives in their local community. The best part will be that the Richmond Hill Park bike trails are free to access. Especially for our many student athlete groups like the Pisgah Rage NICA cycling team.
Construction
Construction began on the Richmond Hill mountain bike skills park in July 2020. Pisgah Area SORBA volunteer sawyers cleared the trail corridor. Next, the crew of Nature Trails made quick work of removing trees and brush from the trail. Without a doubt, August 2020 was a wet month building in Asheville. Fortunately, the Nature Trails crew remained steadfast and continued to shape the trail. After the team constructed water mitigation measures, the features began to take shape. These included earthen berms, boulders, various rock, and wooden features, and even a drop or two.
Craig Ruhland was the leader from beginning to end. Asheville home builders, Abby and Jonathan Landry of Kaizen Homes, were instrumental in fundraising and sourcing materials. In addition, we have to thank the generous local suppliers who helped donate to the cause, including Newcomb Tree Service, Hedrick Quarry, Sunrise Sawmill, Hipps Stone, and T&K Utilities.
Ride Your Bike
The projected completion date for the Richmond Hill mountain bike skills park in Asheville is October 2020. You can visit pisgahareasorba.org or their Facebook page for updates on the park. By the time you’re reading this post, the park will be complete. Visit and enjoy a place where young, old, advanced, and completely new riders can all ride alongside one another without ever leaving town.
280 Richmond Hill Dr, Asheville, NC 28806