Melissa Da Silva, certified mountain bike coach, was chosen by the Sun Peaks Recreational Trail Association (SPRTA) to fill the brand new paid position of trail crew lead.
Da Silva has been working for Sun Peaks Resort LLP (SPR) in the winter as a snowboard instructor and spent last summer as the supervisor of the bike park. Now, she’s eager to spend more time on the trails.
“Even though these trails fall within the resort boundary, they don’t get as much love as the bike park trails do,” she said about SPRTA’s network on Mt. Morrisey. She’s excited to provide them with some love and attention for the increasing number of riders.
How Da Silva came to Sun Peaks
Before leaving her home in Ontario eight years ago, she did interior design but was drawn toward more outdoorsy activities and started teaching snowboarding, eventually moving to Sun Peaks to continue this work.
The small, close-knit community drew her to Sun Peaks, where she felt she could make connections.
“I didn’t want to just be a number,” she said. “I liked the idea of knowing my coworkers and stuff like that.”
The job: Sun Peaks Recreational Trail Association trail crew lead
Along with trail work, she’s going to be helping with events, such as organizing volunteer trail nights, which are usually once a week during the season.
“People will come out and help do what I do,” she explained. “It’s more hands, which means we can get way more done.”
Working in the forest alone can be isolating, a stark contrast from a winter of teaching snowboarding and summer of managing in the bike park, which Da Silva said is more sociable work.
Being alone can lead to some challenges if there’s a problem she can’t solve herself, such as removing a big rock from a trail, but that’s where volunteer build nights come in.
“If you like biking and you like being in nature, just come out,” she urged. “It’s only two hours, you can learn a lot and you can feel really accomplished.”
When you’re walking a trail, you can see new lines that you may not have noticed on your rides, she added.
“You also get to ride a section of trail that you worked on, which is kind of a cool thing.”
While everything is still wet on the trails, she said it’s looking good.
“I’m stoked for people to get out and see the trails once they are open.”
She can’t say when the trails will be open, given the rainy weather recently, but once the sun dries the dirt out, they’ll be ready to ride. For now she’s content to prune and prepare for the summer rush of bikers.
“I love being out in the forest, I love being out in nature,” she said. “Even if it is snowing, it’s just nice to be out there walking around, getting exercise, breathing fresh air.”
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