WHITE ROCK RECREATION AREA’S NAME IS NO MYSTERY

What is today the White Rock Recreation Area began life as a gypsum mine, operating near Hillsborough from the 1850s to 1980. When the mine closed the land was used by the local school district for its Outdoor Pursuits program.

The property, filled with tunnels and sinkholes, was eventually deemed unsafe for students.

The land reverted to the village of Hillsborough. The village made a portion of the land available to what is today the Hillsborough Golf Club; the remainder stayed as trails, although they were not extensively maintained.

In 2016, a new organization entered the picture.

Recalls president Jean-Guy Babineau, “we formed a group called Codiac Cycling Trails. We wanted to maintain access to mountain bike trails in the Greater Moncton area. We approached the village of Hillsborough with a plan for how we would revive the trails, maintain them, get more people coming to the trails, and they signed us on as the managers of the property.”

Babineau notes that when the Codiac club first began to restore the trail system, it needed a lot of work. “People would end up on a dirt road or get lost. We began to fix that by developing trails and putting up signs, building new trails, and mapping the trail network.” Initial work began with the help of a grant from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA).

“We spent a lot of time walking through the woods with GPS to map out the trails.”

The result is that land that could not be reclaimed for other uses – particularly not for housing or commercial buildings as mining rendered the land unusable for structural purposes – has been reclaimed as a natural space.

“It is perfect for park land,” says Babineau.

Some of the trail names reflect the area’s natural beauty and wild inhabitants –like Porcupine and Raccoon; some the area’s history – like Gesner’s Dream, named after New Brunswick geologist Albert Gesner, who first distilled kerosene from a mixture of local mineral Albertite and pitch in the 1840s.

Others display no small amount of whimsy. A trail builder once found a pair of sunglasses on a trail, which brought to mind the 1980s pop hit Sunglasses at Night, and led to the trail being named Corey Hart.

Half Pint is the first trail Codiac Cycling Trails built. White Rock features a mix of beginner, intermediate, and expert trails. Although used primarily for cycling, the trails can also be walked. Most are designated non-motorized, with some access for motorized vehicles in selected areas. Throughout, anyone cycling or walking these trails will be immersed in the area’s natural beauty.

And will notice the gypsum. It is still visible in large quantities throughout the White Rock Recreation Area, including underfoot as part of the composition of the trails themselves. Its prevalence gives the recreation area its name.

“When you think of how much gypsum they would have hauled out of here during the time the mine was open, and how much is still left, it is pretty impressive,” notes Babineau.

The area’s uneven terrain, created partly by the natural landscape and partly by sinkholes and quarries left over from the mine, is perfect for testing the fitness and skill levels of cyclists. The trails are built entirely by volunteers, many by hand, some with the moderate use of equipment. The trails are built to be challenging, but also scenic, and always safe.

Says Babineau, “when we build the trails, we usually hike them first to get a good feel for what is there, and if we see something interesting, we will either (build the trail to) the interesting spot or to somewhere we have a good view of what we want to see.

“So, even though we build them as mountain bikers ourselves, they are also nice to walk.”

He acknowledges, however, that “some of the more challenging trails are, shall we say, a bit of a hike!”

White Rock Recreation Area remains the primary focus of Codiac Cycling Trails. Babineau says, “we always have great people. Next, we plan to look for sources of funding to build new trails. We always like to build trails.”