Mountain bikers from across Colorado will be converging on the City of Rifle this weekend for the 6th annual Grand Hogback Extravaganza. KDNK’s Mike Lemmer tells us more.
ML: The Rifle Area Mountain Biking Organization - RAMBO “Pedal To The Metal” event takes place this Saturday on the recently-completed Grand Hogback Trail. Here’s RAMBO Board President Ari Philipson on the origins of the trail.
AP: It was the BLM that approached us about the Rifle Arch area, the Grand Hogbacks, and proposed a trail development in order to build a trail system. RAMBO at the time then partnered with the City of Rifle. They went out for a CPW non-motorized grant. We were able to build out nearly 20 miles of trail over the last five years over in that area, and then from there we've been continuing to help grow, build, and maintain that partnership with the City of Rifle. They've been phenomenal supporters of our system, and we've also just helped to grow our community through the existing trails. And just it's really comes from the stoke and the community of people that are so excited to ride. They wanna get involved in any way that they can, and we're happy to welcome and invite any and everyone. Biggest thing, come, enjoy, ride your bike. It's great.
ML: The build phase of the Grand Hogback Trail took place over the past 5 years, with help from the City of Rifle and a dedicated team of RAMBO volunteers, who also maintain other trails in the area.
AP: Now again, we're partnering with the City of Rifle. They help fund some annual contract maintenance, so when we need heavy machinery to get in there and help rebuild some of the eroded trails or some issues that we have, like with drainage, they've been able to come out. Usually, we do, like, spring contract work, and then we have at least spring and fall organized volunteer days. So we try to post those, again, like, on our socials and get the word out as best as we can. But aside from that, you know, we've got a group chat. We've got email threads. Anytime that there's a downed tree, an issue going on, you know, it's a call to arms, and, you know, people get out there with whatever equipment they can. And, similarly, people have a couple passion projects, a couple trails that they wanna see some alternative lines or different jumps, you know, or different riding styles on. And so people have been going up and helping to kind of cater the trails and improve them in their own ways. Really, it comes down to riding bikes. We like riding bikes, and occasionally, we work on trails in order to ride our bikes more. And when we're not riding bikes, we get together, we talk about bikes, we talk about the trails, and you know, there might be a beer or two involved.
ML: Saturday’s Grand Hogback Extravaganza is RAMBO’s biggest fundraiser of the year.
AP: We have an adult ride that starts at 9:00, where you can go and hit up seven stations throughout our trail network, and this year is a poker run. Each year kinda has its own theme, but this one's just kind of more of a straightforward: you grab a card, and you try to build the best poker hand that you can. You make your way back around at 12:30 to claim your prizes, and we rank our scores. We also have a kids ride that goes on, starting at 11:30. Steve is helping to work on organizing that. So we bring out volunteers from our immediate ride community to help run some of those stations, as well as other folks that are passionate. We've got a couple folks that are organizing some barbecue, so we'll have some food at the venue. This year's theme is Pedals to the Metal, so we try to make it a new theme. We encourage costumes, and with a punk rock metal kind of a theme, we had to invite some local area high school bands, so this year we've got Schlagaholics coming to perform, as well as Mid-Sentence Silence, both from the Parachute and Rifle area.
ML: To learn more about Saturday’s event, or to register, you can visit Ride-Rifle-dot-Com. RAMBO also hosts a mountain biking film tour at the Ute Theater every Spring. You can also learn more about the organization by checking out their social media pages.
