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Duthie Refresh Plans & Updates for GiveBig 2024
Women-led build of GHY
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Duthie Refresh Plans & Updates for GiveBig 2024

29 | Apr | '24
Jarrett Ziemer

 

The pump tracks get a refresh, Jubulani gets a refresh, 12 Step gets a refresh, and Semper gets a refresh! Big Tree gets a refresh! Everyone gets a refresh! But only if you GiveBig this May 7th and 8th, 2024!

Donate to your trails today!

GiveBig is the only time of the year that we raise funds for shovel-ready projects, and that includes the Duthie Refresh! 

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What exactly is the Duthie Refresh? 

The "Duthie Refresh" is all in the name! Evergreen approached King County with the idea of updating the park's trails in a substantial way with a "refresh" years ago, and as of its approval and official launch in 2022 (with an end date of 2027), it's the first time we've had dedicated funding to "refresh" the entire park.

Check your baggage and pay your airfare. Voodoo has some new booters. Space Coaster is now a table for da kids and the adults and everyone in between. Paramount is paramount. All other trails are envious. There's a new entrance and exit trail?! And that's not even close to all of it! 

If you take your bike pilgrimages to Duthie every weekend, chances are you’ve noticed a lot of work at the park in the last couple of years, especially this season. If you’ve been up in the hills getting gnarly, maybe you’ve just heard the buzz. We’re here to assure you that your eyes aren’t deceiving you and that the buzz you’re hearing coming from the park is real. Evergreen Trail Builders and Duthie regulars have been burning hours refreshing old trails and building new ones. The progress is impressive.

There have been literally thousands of hours of maintenance worked by staff and volunteers, but this is the first time we’ve been allowed to put that extra jam on your Duthie sandwich.

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What it means for the park

 Since the refresh is beyond the maintenance contract, a contract that aims to be less invasive and more focused on things like cleaning drains and repairing small sections of trails on a needed basis, this is the first time we've all been allowed to step back and look at the park and see what we’d like to change in a substantial way. 

Mountain biking as a sport has changed; the bikes have grown in size, squish, and capabilities, and the ridership has changed. The sport has progressed since the parks last update in 2010 into an expansive, inclusive, and all-encompassing beast, and the refresh means one of the most popular bike parks in the country can pivot to keep up with these changes and maybe even allow new ways of progression for new and old riders.

 img 5339Photo Courtesy of: Matt Blossom

 

Where we’re at today 

The Duthie Refresh is essentially Evergreen, and our volunteers “dreaming big” on a budget. Riding through the park today, it's evident that’s the case.

 

Since 2022,  Evergreen staff and volunteers have: 

  • Widened Bootcamp to accommodate adaptive bikes
  • Designed and built a new entrance and exit trails from the main parking lot
  • Transitioned Space Coaster into an entirely new table line
  • Redesigned and built the two central pump tracks
  • Redesigned and built almost the entire freeride section of the park including Voodoo Child, Semper Dirticus, Paramount, 12 Step, Rehab, Flying Squirrel, Jabulani, and the dirt section of Deep Water
  • Completely redesigned GHY and built Big Tree
  • Improved featured on HLC and Gravy Train



What's left

 Unfortunately, all the amazing work at the park recently means the initial modest budget of $130,000 isn't only low, it's a zero! 

We've spent what we've had on so many important things around the park, and volunteers and employees have put in the work, but we're not quite done. What's left on the Duthie Refresh besides three years of opportunity, though? 

 

Deep Water Horizon still needs a new structure!

There will be a dual slalom race on Take a Kid Mountain Bike Day and the course could use a refresh

We need to finish the building of a new practice DH line

We have a few more years! Is there anything more you’d like to see? Message us HERE

img 6669Photo Courtesy of: Gunner Loveland

 

How you can help

Right now, through May 8th, we have our single largest trails fundraiser of the year: GiveBIG. Your GiveBig donations go directly to our trails and ensure they are built the BEST they can be for riders like you. Our goal is to raise $20,000 for the Duthie Refresh with this year’s GiveBig fundraiser, and we need your help to make this happen. Supporting Evergreen means improving your favorite trails. So why wait? 

 

Donate today!



In work and in funding Evergreen is volunteer powered. 

Last year in King County alone, we logged 7,866 hours of volunteer support and that's only including folks at work parties! Volunteers like Orange Bike Guy, all the sawyers clearing trails on the weekends, and anyone who slides a tire into the edge of a drain on their water break aren't even being counted in that number. 

 image000000 1 Photo Courtesy of : Sean Sweeney

 

7,866 is a substantial amount of volunteer hours! Thank you all for the continued support. With the Duthie Refresh budget down to nothing, that means we’ll be relying again on volunteers at the park to keep things running and dialed. If you’d like to help in that way, please sign up for a work party HERE, clean a drain on your next ride, or do both.

And again, volunteering on your weekends will help with the maintenance out on the trails but to button up those last few tasks on the Duthie Refresh and maybe take on some new ones we’ll need your help financially as well. It’s asking a lot but if you’ve been feeling the buzz at the park now's the time to GiveBIG or little. Everything helps.

 

Where we’re going 

“Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads.” 

For real, though, where we go from here at Duthie and for the next few years of the refresh isn't just up to Evergreen! It's up to you, our riders and volunteers. Our community. 

On our end, we'll be pestering King County for funding, running campaigns like GiveBIG, and leading as many work parties as we can within the maintenance budget on the trails.

On your end, it'd be great if you could give big now to tackle what's on the list and volunteer for a work party this summer to keep the new work dialed. And in the future, maybe think about letting King County and your representatives know how much you love the park and mountain biking. I'm sure they'd love a letter or email letting them know how much you appreciate the park and how you'd like to see more like it.

Thanks to all the trail builders and volunteers for the amazing work out there, and thanks to you for the support!

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Donate today!

Duthie Refresh Plans & Updates for GiveBig 2024
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