Abel will keynote tonight’s kickoff party.
(Photo © J. Maus)
In case you haven’t noticed, off-road riding is the new commuting in Portland.
Our regional mountain bike advocacy group, the Northwest Trail Alliance, is hitting their stride and there are a lot of new trails being built and talked about in and around Portland. To bring it all together the Northwest Trail Alliance will kick off their first annual Trail Fest tonight.
The keynote tonight will come from the executive director of the International Mountain Bicycling Association Mike Van Abel. His talk will be on “the current state of affairs and the future of mountain biking across the globe and in our backyard.” Emcee for the evening will be none other than author/activist/adventure dad Joe “Metal Cowboy” Kurmaskie (who will almost certainly share his tale of being chased by elephants on a recent bike trip in Africa).
The party takes place at the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory of the bike world — the mysterious and wonderful headquarters of one of the world’s coolest bike companies, Chris King Precision Components. Mr. King (Willy Wonka) has completely renovated an old MJB coffee roasting warehouse into a mecca of sustainable manufacturing and green corporate practices (including a large cafe and full-time gourmet chef for employees).
Tonight’s event is the first time the Chris King factory is being opened to the general public.
Tonight’s event is mainly about socializing with fellow riders and getting to know people in the off-road scene here in Portland. This is your big chance to get in on the ground floor of Portland’s burgeoning off-road riding movement. Doors open at 6:30, speeches at 7:00 and socializing will follow. The Trail Fest continues with rides and events through Sunday. Full details at NW-Trail.org.
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John Zilly will also be there and will be available to sign copies of his books Kissing The Trail!
too cool! great work, seeing the need to get dirty ;)* i use to live in norcal so
finding trails here is tricky.
peace,
Joe
Good times.
Thanks for coming to Portland, Mike.
Zilly signing autographs…that’s rich. Does offer a re-write to the High Prairie Loop as part of it?