By Adam Williams
Kamloops This Week
The Thompson-Nicola Regional District has approved a $7,500 request for funding to expand the Harper Mountain Trail Network.
The request, brought to the TNRD last Thursday by the Kamloops Performance Cycling Centre (KPCC), will fund a three-kilometre downhill expansion to the mountain-biking trail system on the mountain above Paul Lake and about 25 minutes from Kamloops.
The funds will be paid out of federal gas-tax monies.
The downhill addition will complement Ket’R Done, the 10-kilometre cross-country climb developed by the KPCC in 2015 and will be an unrivalled addition to Harper, according to the KPCC. It will be be accessible both at the end of Ket’R Done or by shuttling or biking Paul Lake Road to the trailhead.
The KPCC manages 75 kilometres of trails in Kamloops, including those at Harper, at the Kamloops Bike Ranch in Juniper and in the Pineview Valley system.
The addition of the downhill to Harper’s 25-kilometre network comes with a price tag of $12,500, the other $5,000 of which the KPCC will contribute.
The KPCC hopes to open the trail in the spring. The project will take about a month to complete once construction begins.