This Saturday, the Portland United Mountain Pedalers will break ground on the first bit of new mountain bike trails in Forest Park since 1988.
With a major assist from the Friends of Forest Park—who spearheaded the grant and permitting process—PUMP is holding a work party to make the new Firelane 5 trail a reality.
According to PUMP’s Roger Louton,
“By doing this, showing we care about the park, helping out, etc, we hope that the Parks Department will be open to adding more trails in the future. This weekend we’ll be adopting Firelane 5 and maintaining it to demonstrate that bikes can be ridden on a trail like this. It (adding MTB trails) does not happen overnight, but slowly but surely riding opportunities for mtb’ers will improve in Portland.
We would not have this opportunity if it weren’t for the hard work of Friends of Forest Park. We look forward to collaborating on more projects with them in the future.”
After this Saturday, there’s another work party planned for August 26th to finish the project.
PUMP will supply the tools and the guidance…and you need to do is show up! If you’ve never been on a trail work party, I highly recommend it. It’s a great feeling to ride on a trail that you’ve put your own sweat equity into.
If you’d like to help out with this exciting effort, go to the PUMP website for all the details.