Last Sunday was a day of celebration as leaders and volunteers gathered together at Chris King in NW Portland for our 2022 planning meeting. There was palpable excitement and energy in the room. Why? Not only was it the first in-person meeting of the year, but there was much to celebrate with more miles of trails being built, establishing new partnerships and agreements, and sharing plans for 2022.
The morning started off with NWTA President Juntu Oberg reminding the room full of listeners of our mission:
- To Advocate For New Trails
- To Protect & Improve Trails
- Build Sustainable Mountain Bike Trails
- Create Recreational Opportunities for Mountain Biking
Throughout the day, much of what was shared and discussed continued to point back to our mission. This was one of the reasons for celebration, as new trails were being established while other trails were protected and upgraded. Through our Trail Sustainability Institute, trails are also being built with better skill and knowledge. Through community outreach, we’re seeing more recreational opportunities for new people to enter into mountain biking. Those opportunities range from our women’s rides, a recent BIPOC mountain bike event, to other social events that help introduce new people to mountain biking.
After lunch, we dove into talking about education and training. As mentioned, our Trail Sustainability Institute continues to provide opportunities for training volunteers in bike trail building and maintenance skills. This happens through our trail school as well as crew leader training. As NWTA gathers more tools and equipment, we offer heavy equipment training in an apprentice-style program. The future of our trails is in great hands!
As a volunteer-powered organization, we were able to talk about how volunteers spend their time. We’re anticipating breaking last year’s number of hours volunteered, from building new trails to maintaining existing ones to event planning and more. As our membership grows, so does our volunteer trail building force.
Because of our growing membership and the help from sponsors, we heard about upcoming trail projects for 2022. From Klootchy Creek to CLIMB in Cascade Locks to Falls Creek to Eichler Bike Park (and more!), we’re moving forward to not only make our trails systems better but to continue to expand them. There’s never been a better time to be a mountain biker in Portland!
We concluded our time together with Happy Hour. This day wouldn’t be complete without all of the sponsors and supporters who helped make this possible. Shoutout to Chris King for hosting us and everyone else who provided swag for giveaways. Thank you to our sponsors: Fat Tire Farm, Cyclepath, Hopworks, River City Bicycles, Trek, Metropolis Cycles, Lolo Racks, Showers Pass, Bread Winner Cycles, Portland Design Works, Acme Construction, BTI, Lumberyard, Sugar Wheel Works, Oregon State Parks, Modus Sport Group, Trans-Cascadia Excursions, Trimet & Nossa Familia