Wister Woods sign. (Photo: Rasheed Ajamu)
Northwest District Park Ranger Supervisor Sahlee Brown has a vision. And it includes bikes in a big, big way, right in the heart of East Germantown in Philadelphia.
He wants to help create a mountain biking destination for beginner, intermediate, and advanced bikers in Wister Woods, located in East Germantown, right next to the La Salle University campus.
Brown is from Northwest Philly and has been working in parks since he was 19 years old. He’s 45 now. His experience growing up in Philly and as a park ranger has given him an insider’s perspective on how different parks are used. He believes Wister Woods is underutilized in its full potential and overused in unhealthy ways.
“So the thing about Wister Woods that’s so great is that, where it sits, it doesn’t sit in somebody’s backyard, in a sense, where it’s going to disturb an uprooted community if we start bringing people there,” says Brown.
He says the spaces are already being used to congregate, but not in the best ways – including illegal dumping and vending, as well as parking for big trucks and tractor-trailers.
Brown doesn’t want to stop family cookouts or parties, which you may commonly see while riding by. He sees Wister Woods as a real possibility to create a mountain biking destination that can not only attract people to the neighborhood but also foster a healthy sense of sporting community for Philly’s youth.
He has already worked with Gravity Logic, a Canadian company that helps design bike parks, to conduct an entire trail feasibility assessment around the Wister Woods spaces.
According to their assessment of Wister Woods, Wakefield Park, and the adjacent green spaces, through careful design, there is room to construct:
- Upwards of seven miles of modern, bike-specific trails
- Both excavated and singletrack trails
- A family area
- A large asphalt pump track
- A large dirt jump park
A nearby example of what Brown is thinking about is the Phoenixville Bike Park, which features three bike trails suitable for all ages to enjoy from May to November each year.
His vision is centered around how sports and sporting activities bring people together.
“My bike park idea is basically an understanding that I’ve had living in Philadelphia and living in a lot of different places… that biking is something that brings a lot of different cultures and people together that would never meet each other unless they were just connected on the fact that they were riding bikes,” Brown says.
Brown grew up doing a lot of sports and remembers the camaraderie of kids from all different neighborhoods being able to connect through sports and healthy competition. And he thinks kids today really need an outlet for releasing their energy.
He sees what he calls the “wheelie culture” – where folks, usually city youth and young men, are only doing wheelies on bikes.
He thinks if they learn new skills (in addition to the wheelies and tricks you can do on mountain bikes), and have access to an environment where they could practice all the skills freely and safely, it would really become a place for athletic and emotional growth, and a place where they can take ownership.
He cites the example of the Belmont Plateau Trails, saying those areas used to have more problems with littering and dumping. With new areas cleared out, a 17-mile bike trail can thrive, and bikers are now taking ownership of the park and cleaning up the areas.
Brown thinks the same thing can happen at Wister Woods.
“People like me and other friends of mine that are skilled riders that can do things on these bikes that make the kids say, hey, you know, how’d you do that? That gains respect, that gains listening, that gains their attention. And therefore, now that opens their mind for us to start teaching,” says Brown.
The ranger also believes that young adults will want to be part of the clean-ups and maintenance of the park because it will make them feel like they are a part of something, gaining respect for the kind of biking they can do there.
Kathleen Paulmier grew up in the area and lives one mile away from the park.
She used to play touch football in the Wister Woods as a child. She started the Friends of Wister Woods group three years ago after retiring to ensure the park she loved was well-maintained. They try to host regular clean-ups of the park weekly.
While she says she can’t speak for the group, she is open to the idea of the bike park if it uses the spaces carefully, naming plenty of room for different activities in the woods. She likes that Brown is a park ranger and understands how parks are used, and is further interested in connecting with him as the vision is mapped out.
But, she definitely wants to ensure that there is still space in Wister Woods for children to play and for hikers and birdwatchers.
“We’re at the point where, you know, we like our quiet loop. We kind of designed it for dog walkers. Dog walkers go up there. It’s a bird-watching paradise during migration. But it’s a vast woods,” says Paulmier.
Brown wants to connect with the Friends group and other nearby neighbors to discuss his idea with them. He wants to ensure that the neighbors and community will really support and love this idea.
He has already presented his plan to Parks and Recreation and has the master plan and trail feasibility assessment from Gravity Logic. He has ideas for sponsorships and for whom he needs to connect with in the city to make it happen.
The idea has been in his head for about five years, and he is excited about all the possibilities.
“As a kid, I mean, I was a great rider. I could jump over a car off of maybe a three-foot ramp, when I was probably [in] about third or fourth grade. I was a really good rider, but I never could afford the sponsorship that it would do for me to ride on the BMX raceway and could never afford the bike that I may have needed to ride there,” says Brown.
He continues, “And I understand what that feels like, being a very good rider. And I know it’s a lot of kids in Philadelphia feeling the same, you know, wanting that same exposure, deserving that same exposure, but [there’s] no platform out here that’s actually giving them a place to actually show their skill set.”
Overall, Brown hopes Wister Woods could be that place.