When Quesnel, B.C., realised it was falling behind the province’s trail boom, the city did something unusual. It did not hire a big-name trail company. They did not launch a flashy branding campaign.
It hired a paramedic.
Officially, Ian van Leusden is the contracted trails coordinator for the City of Quesnel and the Cariboo Regional District in the North Cariboo rec area. Unofficially, he is the guy who connects everyone who cares about trails in Quesnel. Riders, city staff, regional directors, Rec Sites and Trails BC, First Nations and volunteer clubs. Then he turns their ideas into shovel-ready trail plans.
And he does it on the side.
“This isn’t my regular job. I work for the ambulance service full time here in BC,” he says.
Back in 2018, then mayor Bob Simpson and council could see Quesnel was missing the trail boom sweeping the rest of the province. Along with the Cariboo Regional District, they put out an expression of interest for a contracted trails coordinator role. Van Leusden, who had already been quietly helping resuscitate the local cycling club, put his hand up.
“I think they just took a leap of faith,” he says. “It’s been a ton of fun and I give a lot of credit to my working team with the city. Like without their support none of this would be happening.”
His contract is funded through the North Cariboo Recreation Commission, which brings together Quesnel council and Cariboo Regional District directors. Van Leusden is not a city or CRD employee. That gives him rare freedom to sit between government and grassroots groups.
From “falling behind” to building a destination
When van Leusden started, Quesnel’s riding scene was lagging badly.
“Back in 2017, 2016 the riding scene was kind of falling behind the rest of the province. We were missing out on the big boom of that trail expansion of the trail industry really taking off,” he says. “I give a lot of credit to the city that they recognized it and the CRD recognized it as well that like hey Quesnel’s falling behind communities like Williams Lake and Valemount and larger centres like Kamloops.”
At the time, Quesnel had two small, underdeveloped riding areas and a local club, the Gold Rush Cycling Club, that had effectively gone dormant.
“My first job was to work with them and try to get them back to life,” he says.
He helped the club re-register as a non-profit and then started stitching together a bigger vision: how the club’s dreams and the…
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