It hurt a little...and I was hungover
It's September...finally.
We love this time of year. After a long hot summer, we are ready for the change of season! Temps are cool, dirt is damp and tacky, sweaters are getting unpacked, and the riding is as good as it gets!
The Evergreen team enjoyed a full summer of trail work, camps, education programs, campouts, and rides going on all over the state. During the ride, or afterward hanging out with our friends, we often found ourselves reflecting on how good mountain bikers have it here in Washington, and how much work that takes.
Fall is also the time where we reach out to the riders of Washington to ask for their support and to become a member of the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance. We tell stories about how your support leads directly to great trails for you to ride. But rather than we tell you, we're going to leave it to Evergreen member Scott Edison. Scot has been a member since 2005, with over 140 personal contributions to Evergreen. It's an amazing level of dedication and support that we appreciate so much.
Scott's story offers a great perspective of how our sport, the riding, the equipment, and the capability of Evergreen have improved over the last 30 years, and how valuable your membership is. Although Scot's story applies specifically to his local riding area, Tiger Mountain, the same can be said about your local riding area. We've seen the same thing play out in every chapter and on so many trails around the state, including yours.
It's a story that we love to hear, we think you'll enjoy it too.
*This is a copy of a post first shared by Evergreen Member Scot Edison in the Tiger/Raging River Mtb Facebook group, we've reposted it here with his permission.
"I first rode Tiger Mountain in the summer of 1994. I vividly remember hauling my electric blue GT Karakoram up the road for what felt like an eternity. Halfway up the road, I started to second guess my decision to ride mountain bikes as it hurt a little and I was hungover.
When I finally got to my destination- the Preston railroad trail I remember reading the trail sign that described the seasonal closures and then I made my way onto the singletrack and my relationship with riding bikes changed forever.
The feeling of ripping through the woods down a sustained downhill trail was magical and I'm pretty sure I laughed, hooted, and hollered all the way down. Needless to say, I came back for more and would do my best to ride Preston as often as I could until the October 15th closure each year.
Fast forward a bunch of years and I had the opportunity to ride Extra-Terrestrial last night. I made the same approach to Preston that I did that first ride, but as I made the climb I couldn't help but get kind of emotional about the countless hours our community has spent advocating to keep trails open, to earn grants and donations to build more trails, and of course to do the hard work necessary to build and maintain world-class trails in our backyard.
The trail (ET) is phenomenal, but what stands out to me about Tiger is the way this collective dream of developing a network of trails that allow for progression and year-round riding has come to fruition. Do you want tech? You got it. Got a newbie to introduce to the sport? No problem! Looking for flow? Got that too. Want to stitch together an epic day? So many ways to do it.
We are so fortunate to have access to this amazing playground and I'm thankful to each and every person that brought Tiger (and our other great trail networks) to life.
Are you an Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance member? If so, thank you! If not...what are you waiting for? These trails came together over a period of decades through the hard work of many, and if BBTC/Evergreen didn't build trusted relationships, earn grants, hire and retain talented people, and organize volunteers we would not be riding trails like ET, Close Encounters, EBAD, Predator...the list goes on.
Join today. Make your membership/donation recurring, and give a little more than you did last year, please. I'm going to do the same."
Scott Edison
Thank you Scott! And thank you to all our members who helped make great rides like this possible!
During the month of September we are asking members to renew and upgrade their membership, and new riders to join at the $100 Builder level. When you choose to #BETHEBUILDER you ensure that stories like Scot's happen again and again, and when you upgrade your membership we'll upgrade your ride with some really cool Evergreen gear. Hit the button below and let's make it happen.