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Fifth-grader Erica Diggins rides on the new Aldo Leopold Park bicycle pump track at a celebration of the park Aug. 2. Students from Leopold Elementary School came up with the idea of a bicycle track and the city with other partners completed the project.
As a couple of fathers watched children try out a new pump track for bicycles, they considered how Aldo Leopold Park’s new feature could be a difference-maker for the community.
“It’s nice. It brings the community together,” Jimmie Sole said. “It gives them exercise off TV for a change, off video games.”
The parents and their children were attending the Aldo Leopold Park Reimagined Celebration last week to dedicate the Saris Foundation Bike Park and celebrate 10 years of the Healthy Kids Collaborative. Besides offering the chance to ride the new pump track, the event featured other opportunities such as arts and crafts, a chance to pick up some books, fitness activities and the showing of the film “Luca.”
Fifth-grader Jurrian Ronnekleiv-Kelly, left, and third-grader Zander Ronnekleiv-Kelly ride for the first time on the new Aldo Leopold Park bicycle pump track at a celebration of the park Aug. 2.
DreamBikes provided bikes and helmets for participants to use if they didn’t bring their own. The organization also provided helmets from Safe Kids to anyone who didn’t own one.
In addition, Capital Off Road Pathfinders created a mobile bike park in a grassy area and did some informal coaching for the bike riders using the track. The bicyclists also could use the single-track mountain bike trail that has been created in the park by mowing a managed meadow area.
The main feature of the night was the new asphalt pump track, which is designed to be ridden by pumping — or generating momentum by up-and-down body movements on the hills and banked curves — instead of pedaling or pushing.
Sole brought his children, seventh-grader Jonas Johnson and fifth-grader Erica Diggins, to the event.
“A lot of kids ride bikes but they have nowhere to ride a bike,” Sole said.
Preston Tokheim, who came with his children, fourth-grader Fiona and first-grader Sienna, said he has lived in Madison 40 years and didn’t know about the park. But he plans to bring his family back and thinks the pump track will attract others who have never been there before.
Next door to the park at Leopold Elementary School, a temporary path will be replaced by the “Shred to School” trail. Named for a term that means to ride a trail at a particularly skillful level, or to ride a trail very fast or with passion, the trail will also take riders to school. It is expected to be completed by Nov. 1.
Matt Pahnke helps his daughter, Ella, a preschooler, over a mobile bike park set up for people to experience mountain biking during a celebration of the new Aldo Leopold Park bicycle pump track.
The trail will run on the south side of Cannonball Path on land owned by the city. While the Cannonball is designed purely for transportation, the new trail will have about a dozen features made by working with native materials such as boulders and tree trunks to create obstacles and other challenges.
“Instead of just riding to school you are going to have fun,” said Ann Shea, public information officer for the Madison Parks Division. “But it is also going to get you from (point) A to B with some challenges along the way.”
Interest in bike amenities in Madison parks has been building and led to the temporary, mowed path several years ago. Later improvements were made by adding wooden features such as bridges and it has allowed users to experience mountain biking.
But more biking opportunities in parks were sought by the community, and the city’s 2018-23 Park and Open Space Plan calls for the development of additional off-road bike amenities throughout the parks system. In 2020, Parks completed the Madison Bicycle Adventure Trail, or MadBAT, planning project that systematically identified locations throughout the city where bike amenities could be placed.
So while the idea for adding bike amenities has been longstanding, the ideas that came from a partnership between Healthy Kids and Leopold Elementary were the final push and the reason the amenities were created at Aldo Leopold Park, which is less than half a mile from the school. The 11-acre park tucked off Fish Hatchery Road on Traceway Drive also had the needed space.
“They kind of hit the perfect spot,” said Corey Stelljes, project engineer for the Parks Division and a bike enthusiast himself.
Healthy Kids, a program of UW Health, partnered with children in the Aldo Leopold Park neighborhood to reimagine the places where they live, go to school and play. It also joined with partners at Leopold Elementary to create the Youth Empowerment Program.
Envisioned as a way to empower students to be advocates and leaders in their school and community, Healthy Kids equipped third through fifth graders with cameras to capture the world through their eyes and posed the question, “What makes it easy or hard to be active in your neighborhood?” This resulted in students saying that it is much more enjoyable to bike if you have somewhere fun to go such as “a dirt bicycle track.”
The group then presented its findings to city planners, elected officials and, ultimately, the Parks Division, which turned the dream into reality.
The International Mountain Bicycling Association provided consultation on the project, and funding was provided by the Dane County PARC and Ride grant and the Saris Foundation through the Madison Parks Foundation.
Fifth-grader Jurrian Ronnekleiv-Kelly said he got some tips for riding the pump track, such as learning to pull up on the jumps to give him more momentum. He came with a group that included his brothers, third-grader Zander and preschooler Soren, and they rode from 4:30 p.m. until the time the movie started around 7 p.m.
Fifth-grader Abbie Little said she had been coming every day to ride the pump track after it was completed ahead of the celebration. It has given her something to do this summer and fueled an interest in riding her BMX bike, which is suited for doing tricks, and perhaps racing.
“I’m a little scared. I’ve been falling down a few times,” said first grader Teddy Winzenried about riding the pump track. “I don’t really feel like doing it but I just try to do it because I want to be good at it.”
Stelljes said this is just the second bike amenity in Madison’s 270 parks. The other is a small dirt trail with some jumps at Quarry Park, although it is not well known.
“This is just the start,” Stelljes said about the Aldo Leopold park amenities. Mountain biking “is a huge sport that is growing exponentially here in Madison. ... All these kids and families in Madison are looking for a place to ride.”
Capital Off Road Pathfinders, which is an International Mountain Bicycling Association chapter, helped the city develop the MadBAT idea, president Jon Augspurger said.
“Madison doesn’t have any big tracts of land to do any large-scale biking. But there are lots of unused little pockets,” he said. “They are also connected by a bike path if you wanted a bigger adventure.”
Each Monday, the Wisconsin State Journal features a story about learning in Wisconsin. Here are School Spotlight stories from the past year.
Each Monday, the State Journal features a story about learning in Wisconsin.
Send story ideas to Sandy Cullen at scullen@madison.com or 608-252-6137.
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Fifth-grader Erica Diggins rides on the new Aldo Leopold Park bicycle pump track at a celebration of the park Aug. 2. Students from Leopold Elementary School came up with the idea of a bicycle track and the city with other partners completed the project.
Fifth-grader Jurrian Ronnekleiv-Kelly, left, and third-grader Zander Ronnekleiv-Kelly ride for the first time on the new Aldo Leopold Park bicycle pump track at a celebration of the park Aug. 2.
Matt Pahnke helps his daughter, Ella, a preschooler, over a mobile bike park set up for people to experience mountain biking during a celebration of the new Aldo Leopold Park bicycle pump track.
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