In the nearly four years since members of Real Life Church discovered mountain biking trails on its property near Black Diamond an unlikely number of partnerships have formed.

Rick Heinz, the property development lead for RLC, was with a work party which included Joan Burlingame of Friends of Rock Creek that was eradicating Scotch broom.

“I was there the day that the pastor and I and a couple others went out and found this are area on the church property where there were all these wooden structures and spikes in tress,” Heinz said. “It looked like someone had torn the place up. I was one of those bad guys who tore everything up.”

What a difference four years makes.

When Pastor Steve Murray started the church, he hadn’t envisioned mountain bike trails being a part of the ministry, much less on the property when the church bought it in 2007.

Instead Murray saw the land as a place for Real Life to have a church building to call its own — the congregation of 400 meets at Kentlake High for now — and the rest of the property could be used for recreational purposes and be open to the community.

After some time and thought, any resistance on the part of church leaders melted away, and a meeting of the minds was set up at a bike shop in Black Diamond.

From there, things happened quickly, faster than anyone had anticipated.

And as the work on the property between the mountain biking community as well as other trail users has progressed, it’s changed Heinz’s life in ways he couldn’t have imagined.

“There’s a lot of people in Real Life Church who don’t really get it,” Heinz said. “But, I’ve become consumed with it where I’ve developed really good relationships with the guys at King County Parks. I’ve really got some great relationships with the guys that ride and I even run with some of the guys on the trails.”

In April 2011, the church property was the site for a BuDu Racing Series event that brought hundreds of mountain biking enthusiasts to the land.

“This year, we got hooked up again with BuDu Racing, so we did another mountain big racing event,” Heinz said. “Last summer we did a trail running event. In the first part of June we did Mountain Bikepalooza, which was more of a fun, non-competitive event.”

With nine miles of trails on RLC’s land that is part of a larger trail system that covers 50 to 60 miles from Four Corners to the church property to Lake Sawyer, there is plenty of opportunity to partner with the county as well as with Friends of Rock Creek, the Evergreen Mountain Biking Alliance and the Backcountry Horsemen.

And as Plum Creek Timber Co. prepares to sell off land near the church’s property, Heinz sees an opportunity to work with the new owner.

“I’ve been in contact with the potential new owners hoping that once everything goes through and they do their clearing, we’ll be able to form a partnership with them and re-establish a legitimate trail system,” Heinz said.

Heinz has also worked with EMBA, the Backcountry Horsemen, cycle cross enthusiasts and King County staff to see if there might be a way to create mountain bike park underneath some power lines near state Route 169.

“The cycle cross guys had been looking for another place where they could set up a course to practice and do races,” Heinz said. “The county has offered this spot … for a bike park. Things kind of got slowed down a little bit (due to lack of funding). So, we’re looking for some funding sources from investors who would be willing to come in and help us develop that area.”

Heinz said he has found a great deal of support from bike shop openers in the area, particularly Ron Flores, who owns Bike Masters & Boards in Maple Valley.

Flores and Heinz envision the bike park under the power lines as a destination ride center.

“You can come out and spend the whole day or even the whole weekend and ride your mountain bike because there’s such a large trail system,” Heinz said.

In the near term, Heinz noted, King County is working to put in parking on both sides of SR 169 near the church’s property. It will add more than 100 parking spots.

“We’re still hoping that parking will get knocked out before winter,” he said. “That was something Joan and myself felt was important. With the usage you need the infrastructure to back up the activities out here. We were concerned about safety.”

Another unexpected result of the relationships he’s formed with King County Parks staff has been offering opportunities for Boy Scouts to use RLC’s property to complete projects in order to earn the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest rank a Scout can achieve.

“The county guys will get a hold of me and they’ll connect me with kids,” Heinz said. “It’s been cool to see the kids getting out there. It’s been fun for me to get involved with that.”

Through all of this, an informal group Heinz called the Black Diamond Trail Coalition has formed, with about 100 people involved.

“It’s really just trying to pull together the folks who use the trails out here all the time, who appreciate them, stay connected and make sure we don’t lose this,” he said. “It’s this great connector to go out and be in the woods, kind of be a kid. I feel like it’s a hidden treasure in our community.”