SEPTEMBER 12, 2025 | FEATURES | By Nalani Wood
At Goose Gossage Bike Park, tucked just past where the Tiger Trail meets Midland Trail, is a hidden gem for both aspiring and skilled dirt jumpers. From the top of the starting hill there are a multitude of options: a flowy pump track to practice gaining momentum, a berm to practice tight turns, a track with slightly more dramatic lips where you can get some air and wooden ramps and steep jumps with gaps and multiple pathways to choose from.
Lucas Donahue ‘26 encountered the Goose Gossage Bike Park three years ago as a freshman. Back then, it was still a diamond in the rough, with crumbling lips and poor drainage eating away at jumps. Though officially under the management of Medicine Wheel Trail Advocates (MedWheel), the non-profit behind many of the single-track trails in Colorado Springs, Colo., the dirt park appears to remain low on their list of priorities. While MedWheel’s manpower is not directed toward the Bike Park, Donahue and other volunteers receive water and dirt from MedWheel to build and take care of the park as they see fit. With a shovel and a rake, Donahue and a few locals from Colorado Springs have built up this Bike Park and made it safe and fun to ride again.
Donahue describes the bulk of the work he does as “dirt management:” moving dirt around rather than hauling new dirt in. Deliberate dirt work means digging drainage routes and moving the dirt to build and change the park.
Destruction and creation often go hand in hand at the Bike Park. Rain erodes the carefully built paths and jumps, but wet soil is also necessary to build and reshape the park. Inspired by destruction, in part because the rain makes a more malleable work material, Donahue and other volunteers engage in a cycle of creative rebuilding at the Goose Gossage Bike Park.
While Donahue and a few other volunteers have carried much of the weight at Goose Gossage Bike Park with little more than a shovel, a rake, and occasional supplies from MedWheel, the non-profit’s broader work stretches beyond a single bike park. MedWheel trail advocates have spent nearly 30 years building and maintaining singletrack mountain biking trails across the Pikes Peak region. MedWheel also organizes volunteer days, supporting their mission to not only build and protect sustainable trails but also to build community.
MedWheel continues to be politically involved in debates about the use and accessibility of outdoor spaces, most recently speaking to various publications about the expanded trail access for class 1 E-bikes that came into effect this summer. Their support for e-bikes on trails stems from a mission to improve accessibility in the world of mountain biking, but MedWheel Executive Director Cory Sutela has also said that more data collection and open house sessions would have given the people clarity and perhaps alleviated some of the outrage.
For Donahue, the hours of digging at the dirt park may seem far removed from MedWheel’s city-wide projects or policy debates, but both efforts point towards the same truth: trails and parks do not maintain themselves. Whether through a person with a shovel or an organization mobilizing sponsors and volunteers, Colorado Springs’ riding community depends on people willing to show up, move dirt, and keep building.