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Trail Building
One of my favorite podcasts is Trail EAffect, hosted by Josh Blum. It’s my go-to when I ride laps at our local in-city bike park in Portland. In the podcast, Josh interviews various people involved in trail building. At the end of an interview, he often asks, “What do you look for in a trail town?” I love that question and think about it often. I have my answer, but I am curious: how would you answer it?
When it comes to trail building and preferred beverages, there are only two options … (1) coffee before trail building and (2) beer after trail building. Who doesn’t love a hot cup of coffee on a cold, damp morning before heading into the woods for a day of digging? We've got you covered. In fact, we’re giving away a 2lb bag of our Trail Builder Blend coffee to YOU! Whether you’re a professional trail builder or lead a group of volunteer trail builders, here’s how to win a big bag of coffee.
THREE different ways to win …
There’s something about backcountry trail work. Out of cell service, away from the crowds, and rough and raw trails that see very little use. That was what the Orogenesis Klickitat Sisters Stewardship Campout was all about. Two days of trail work on the remote Kilckitat Trail. What’s the goal? To piece together the longest mountain bike trail in the world. That is the vision of Gabe Tiller and Orogenesis.
At Loam Coffee, we’ve always supported trail building in small ways behind the scenes. Most of the time, that involved sending coffee to work parties for trail builders to enjoy. Other times we’d send bags of coffee to be raffled off for fundraisers for trail projects. We also support a small non-profit trail building organization monthly. But now that Loam Coffee and Trail Builder Magazine are figuratively under the same roof, we’re leaning into this more.
Access to trails is not evenly distributed from community to community. In some places, your town is your trailhead. All you need to do is simply hop on your bike at home and pedal over to one of a myriad of trails nearby. One typically has to drive 45-60 minutes to get to a trail system in places like Portland. While that’s slowly changing with a few new little trail systems within the metro area, we’re definitely not a place where our city is the trailhead.
It should be no surprise when we talk about building new trails as a potential catalyst for economic development in rural communities. It is met with opposing views. Some embrace it, particularly those who’ve been impacted positively by it. Then others decry it arguing it could very well lead to rural gentrification. Look no further than the Whistlers or Vails to validate this. Which is it?
