Bristol’s Rockwell Park became a hot destination for skateboarders when it added one of the state’s first skate parks in 2007, and it’s on course to do the same thing with mountain biking.
The city recently opened one of the state’s only pump tracks, designed as a training ground for young children before they explore several miles worth of trails that snake through the park’s forest.
It all makes local teacher Brian Archibald proud of his city.
“This is bringing people from all over the state, and it’s great,” said Archibald, president of the nonprofit Bike Bristol organization. “We’re getting kids outside, and that’s such a huge priority for all of us. We’re getting kids on bikes, getting people and doing exercise.”
Bristol last year landed a $66,000 grant from the National Recreation and Park Association to build the pump track, a short dirt-and-clay series of steeply banked curves and tight hills called rollers. The parks department opened it this summer, and riders have come from around the region, said Archibald and Parks Director Josh Medeiros.
“It was designed so that all ages can use it, but we’ve seen a lot of younger kids to teens. Younger families gravitate to it — the parents will sit while the kids go and play,” Medeiros said Tuesday.
Pump tracks, long popular in Europe and Australia, are still scarce in Connecticut. One is operating in Madison, organizers in Groton are fundraising for another, and people in at least one other town are in the planning stages, but such tracks are still a rarity in public parks.
Bike riders pull, push and shift their weight to keep momentum as they whip through the course; braking and pedaling aren’t part of a successful loop. The track enables them to practice maneuvers and techniques they can use on the mountain bike trail network just a few dozen yards away.
When Archibald and a few mountain bike enthusiasts in Bristol looked for places to ride a few years ago, they didn’t realize Rockwell Park would soon be home to a network of trails. Through the Bike Bristol group they met with city leaders who agreed to build trails through unused sections of Rockwell.
“I just love that we continue to introduce new initiatives at the park that meet the needs of our community. Bike riding has really taken over, even before COVID,” Mayor Ellen Zoppo-Sassu said.
“Now we have the mountain bike trails and this companion piece where people can learn how to use the trails safely in a controlled environment,” she said.
Archibald, a teacher at Bristol Central High School, was looking for sports four years ago for his son Lance, who was then 12.
“He didn’t take to ball sports, but when we drove by the local bike shop and saw a sign for a mountain biking team, he was interested,” Archibald said. “Four years later it’s his life — we have a motorhome, we tour New England for his races, he does things on his bike that his mother can’t watch.”
But Archibald emphasized that Bristol’s trails and pump track are for people of any skill or interest level.
“It’s a great way for kids to get the skills for turning and going through different types of terrain so they’re not overwhelmed by what they see on the trails,” he said. “They get some exercise and adventure.
“The trails connect people with nature,” Archibald said. “It’s all about kids, kids, kids.”
