Maybe it was the free pancakes. Maybe it was the glorious weather. Seventy people showed up for Pemberton Trails Day the other weekend, including out-of-towners, locals and kids.

“That’s a huge number for such a small community,” said Dean Linnell, one of the directors of NIMBY Fifty which will incorporate 37 kilometres worth of local trails into its 5^th annual marathon XC race on Saturday May 31.

My friends went to Trails Day with shovels, rakes and kids in tow – something that struck me as pointless. In my experience, productivity is profoundly hindered by the presence of kidlets with their non-linear brains bent on engaging all senses, particularly taste and touch, no matter what the mission.

Still, despite a general ambivalence for outcomes, that gang of three to six year olds and their folks worked on two corners of the Dark Forest Trail, got good and dirty, and seeded something more valuable over the long-term than completing an entire new trail: a sense of stewardship.

Those kids, and the rest of us, earned this wisdom from the crowd that showed up to give back: it’s not someone else’s job to fix a crumbling corner or to pull a fallen branch off the trail.

That mentality seems pervasive – not just in the new trails everywhere around Pemberton. You can also see it culminate May 12-24 with the Barn-Raising downtown, at Pemberton BMX Track Days, or this past weekend as a group of families installed the new intermediate playground at Signal Hill.

As volunteer Timber Framer and Downtown Barn project lead, Randy Churchill said, it’s the kind of energy that makes an impression. “I’ve been through Pemberton several times on trips to the interior, often on a motorcycle. On every trip I was inclined to spend some time and enjoy the atmosphere of healthy living and outdoor activity I see in all the residents there. Every time I visit now I am impressed with the number of people walking babies and dogs and the number of kids playing creatively outside.”

For those wee folk, the next playground space will be a PVTA summer project, now approved, to build a kids loop/training loop off the Sea to Sky trail, just south of One Mile Lake near the disc golf course.

Tracy Napier, the Wellness Almanac’s new trails correspondent, reports in her first TrailWatch post that “the idea with the new loop is to tie in with the growing network of climbs and descents off Overhill and up towards Lumpy’s and K2 to create a really nice training area with various riding options that increase in difficulty and length.”

As Dean Linnell says, “The sheer amount of bike-crazy folks who live in Pemby is a joy to behold.”

Creating more opportunities to ride is a no-brainer.

That is the idea behind the Lil’wat Youth DH mountain bike team, too. Clint Andrew took on the coordinator role for the club when the program founder moved away, about four years ago.

“I wish I had started when I was young,” says the 43 year old actor and former radio host, “when downhill mountain biking was starting in Whistler. I just love the sport.”

Andrew has ridden around Pemberton a few times with his friends but admits dryly, “we prefer the chairlifts. We’re strictly downhill. We got spoiled, I think.”

Although the program’s original funding has dried up and the bike fleet, after 7 years of downhilling, has succumbed to the inevitable, the passion is still strong. Almost a dozen folk turned out to a casual meet and greet last week to kickstart the season.

Thanks to the support of Whistler Mountain Bike Park providing 16 passes to the team, “if there are new riders, at least we can help them get over the little hurdle of not having to spend all their money on the pass. I want to get them up there as much as they can,” says Andrew. “It’s so nice having the #1 bike resort in the world in your backyard.”

Nice backyard indeed.