CANTON, N.C. — A North Carolina man has raised more than $200,000 for a mountain biking park just outside of Asheville.
What You Need to Know
Berm Park will be a 10-acre mountain biking park free to the public
It is part of the 448-acre location known as Chestnut Mountain
The park is located 20 minutes west of Asheville in Canton
It is set to open in the fall
Since the age of 3, Seth Alvo has been riding on two wheels. He said other kids often did sports like soccer, football or baseball. His sport was mountain biking.
“It’s an adrenaline-based activity, and it’s not boring,” Alvo said. "I think it is the most fun you can have with the amount of input you put into it."
His hobby turned into a viral YouTube channel when he started making videos while he lived in Florida. His most popular video now has 14 million views. Eventually, he decided to move to a location where there was a bigger mountain biking community. He settled on the mountains of western North Carolina and started building his own biking trails in his backyard.
“I don’t know how many videos I have made, but it is a minimum of 400,” Alvo said.
Those videos gained the attention of mountain bikers across the world. He became so popular that people figured out where he lived, and strangers showed up at his door to ride.
“People were always really bummed that they couldn’t ride,” Alvo said. “I can’t have fans on my property riding all the time.”
But Alvo had an idea up his sleeve. He parlayed his YouTube fame into something even more exciting.
“I just woke up one day and made a post and said, 'Hey, you guys are paying me for early videos and things like that today, tomorrow you are paying me to build a bike park,'” Alvo said.
He started calling around to find out where this bike park could be built and connected with the town manager of Canton, Nick Scheuer, who also is a mountain biker.
“Just on town staff, we have the mayor, the chief of police and me who are all avid mountain bikers,” Scheuer said.
Turns out the town was already working on a larger project called Chestnut Mountain. The 448 acres of land were obtained by the Southern Appalachians Highlands Conservancy (SAHC) for public use. Alvo and Scheuer started working together to create Berm Park at Chestnut Mountain.
“It brings quality of life, it brings economic development,” Scheuer said. “It brings conservation and protection to our mountains that we love.”
Alvo used his sponsorships and a website known as Patreon to raise about $200,000. Patreon is a membership platform where subscribers pay a certain amount each month for special content.
“We are the ones taking the risk in this community to prove to everyone that it works, and once we show that it works, they are going to build them everywhere,” Alvo said. “Every town is going to be racing to do this.”
SAHC was able to obtain the land on Chestnut Mountain thanks to a $1.2 million reward from the North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust. It will also have hiking and wildlife for the public to enjoy. Berm Park is set to open in the fall.