Off-road adrenaline

Bikers ride through a wooded path at the park, which has more than 22 miles of trails.

Story by Neal Wagner and photos by Jon Goering

When Stacey Davis hops onto the seat of her Gary Fisher or Niner bicycle and begins soaring through the woods of Oak Mountain State Park, she can immediately feel a change.

Gone are the long day and the stresses it caused, gone is the bustling traffic of the Birmingham suburbs and gone are the bright lights of modern civilization. For the moment, it’s just Davis, her bike and a thin line of dirt and rocks winding through a sea of leaves and tree trunks.

“I love being out in nature every chance I get. I just love the feeling of being so far away from the city,” she said. “It’s a good time to really think about what’s going on in your life. It’s definitely a stress reliever, and it’s just fun.”

Davis is one of hundreds of mountain bikers who spends free time traversing the more than 22 miles of bike trails stretching through the largest state park in Alabama.

Last year, the International Mountain Bike Association confirmed something Davis and her friends have known for years, when the organization named the park’s bike trail to its “must ride” list. The Oak Mountain trail is one of only 52 in the world with such a designation, and is meticulously maintained by volunteers with the Birmingham Urban Mountain Peddlers.

“It’s unreal that we have that in our backyard. That trail is super well-maintained, and IMBA loves it,” she said. “There are technical sections, fast sections, climbing sections – it’s a mixture of everything. We are so lucky to live right here by it.”

Every week, Davis spends her free time pedaling between 60 and 70 miles on the park’s complex trail network. However, she wasn’t always able to ride such extreme distances.

Davis did not become involved in riding rail and road bikes until she began leading local spinning classes about seven years ago.

“At first, I really did it as a way to get fit. I didn’t want to have to fake it while I was leading the spinning classes,” Davis said.

After she spent some time traveling Oak Mountain State Park’s trails, she quickly became hooked on the sport. Today, Davis works at Cahaba Cycles in Pelham and leads two group rides at the state park every week.

The state park remains open later than it usually does every Thursday and Friday night for the group rides, which usually begin at the park’s south trailhead off Terrace Drive a few hours before sunset.

The Thursday group rides usually focus on experienced riders, and the Friday rides are held for beginner riders. After peddling through the forest for a few hours, the riders usually meet back at the south trail head, circle their camp chairs and share their ride experiences.

“Trail riding is a real social experience. I have met a lot of people through trail riding,” she said. “The beginner group rides are always interesting. It’s fun to watch them discover something that they will enjoy for years to come.”

One of Davis’ co-workers at Cahaba Cycles, John Dikis, started riding his bike as a simple means of transportation to and from school in Hoover before he was old enough to drive. From his humble cycling beginnings, Dikis, a 2007 graduate of Shelby County High School, now rides between 60-80 miles every week.

“If it can be done outside, I’m going to do it,” Dikis said. “Mountain biking can be pretty intense, and I just do it for the fun.”

Dikis admitted his bike got put aside for a few years when he received his driver’s license, but he said he could not stay away from the adrenaline-fueled sport for long.

For Dikis, the trails at Oak Mountain State Park are a dream come true.

“There are not many places that offer the diversity of Oak Mountain,” Dikis said, noting he rides the Oak Mountain trails about two or three times a week. “There are really technical sections, flat, fast sections, stuff for beginners, stuff for families, it doesn’t matter. It’s all out there.”

And through its partnership with BUMP and Shelby County, the state park is planning to add even more to its already world-class bike trail. When the new trails are completed, the park will boast more than 25 total miles of bike tracks, said Oak Mountain State Park Superintendent Michael Jeffreys.

The new trails will give the state park what Jeffreys said was a “highly sought-after” stacked loop trail network, which will create seven different trail loops of varying difficulty with multiple entry points.

Because the loops will range in difficulty levels, beginners and experts alike will feel at home on the new trail network, Jeffreys said. The new network will also keep congestion down on the highly used trails, he said.

The park is also planning to build a “pump track” and a skills park near the current BMX track off Terrace Drive.

“The pump track will basically be a continual loop with several obstacles, like rollers and berms, that can be ridden without peddling,” Jeffreys said.

Even without the planned upgrades, riders flock to the state park every week to enjoy the off-road offerings. Jeffreys estimated between 65 and 70 percent of the park’s weekly business comes from mountain and road bikers.

The park also draws some of the biggest events in cycling, such as the annual XTERRA America Tour, which comes to the park every spring.

“The XTERRA race is based out of Hawaii, and every year several athletes tell us this is their favorite place to compete,” Jeffreys said.

During last year’s event, South African native and race winner Conrad Stoltz called the park “a real novelty,” and said it was “really (his) favorite race.”

Jeffreys said the reputation of the park’s bike trail network has grown over the years because of a strong community effort to maintain and expand the trails.

“The support we get is great. BUMP is the main backbone of our trail system,” Jeffreys said. “And we couldn’t do half of what we do without the support we get from Shelby County. Shelby County and (County Manager) Alex Dudchock go above and beyond to make sure we have a world-class park.” l

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