Pittsburgh Trails Advocacy Group (PTAG)
Presents
Our 4th Annual Mountain Bike Fest
July 16 -20, 2009
Pittsburgh Trails Advocacy Group (PTAG) was formed in 2001 in an effort to lend a hand to local park managers to help build and maintain area trails for mountain biking, horseback riding and hiking. The Greater Pittsburgh area has arguably the best mountain biking in all of the USA. Some of the areas include – North Park, Hartwood Acres, Moraine State Park, Bavington Gamelands, Laurel Highlands, Frick Park, Boyce Park, Deer Lakes, Harrison Hills, Settler’s Cabin, South Park, Schenley, Riverview, Seven Springs, Apollo and Brady’s Run. Most of these parks are within an hour’s drive of downtown.
PTAG focuses on one BIG workday per month to help maintain trails in some of the higher usage parks. We also work in smaller teams during the month to keep on top of issues that don’t necessarily need the BIG group. Our numbers have ballooned from a small group of 5 to over 100 strong. Our work hours logged in area parks average about 1500 per year. In North Park alone, we have already worked over 350 hours this year.
A big part of our growth came from several visits by the International Mountain Biking Association. This helped show local shops, park managers and area riders that we plan to be here for the long haul.
In the past 3 years, we have sponsored a local Mountain Bike Festival to help build our “tribe” as we like to call ourselves. During this time, we let people know how they can get more involved and show them what we have accomplished during several days of riding.
We average about 300 participants each year at the MTB fests. There is no charge to join in the fun. We have planned to make our event this year even bigger. From July 16-20, 2009, we will have our 4th Mountain Bike Festival. We will be adding some new twists to this year’s event to showcase some of the other areas that we work and play.
Over the Bar Bicycle Café will host the start of the festival this year. There will be a party that offers the opportunity for people to meet the organizers of PTAG and its members to get an idea about us. There will be a limited supply of free microbrewery libations supplied by Troegs Brewing.
We are part of a non-profit group if you would like to offer your support to help us out. You can check us out at www.ptagtrails.com to verify our 501(c) 3 status as a non-profit group.
Please mail any donations or guide any questions to:
Mike Connors – Board of Directors
Pittsburgh Trails Advocacy Group
405 Stag Horn Drive
Wexford, PA 15090
724-934-9293
NEWSLETTER