PTAG Annual Party & North Park Dr J Freeride Trail Opening Gala

A shot of the new Dr J Trail by Jon Pratt

PTAG Annual Party and Dr J Trail Celebration

Saturday, October 23 · 1:00pm – 11:00pm
Sharon Shelter, Pie Traynor Field parking lot, North Park

Come out to the annual Pittsburgh Trails Advocacy Group Party to help PTAG celebrate the year’s accomplishments and the grand opening of the Dr J freeride trail! We’ll toast to PTAG’s hard work. There will be a trail dedication and thanks for the trail crew, riding, food and beer. Some of the build crew may be freeriding in Halloween costumes so please feel free to join them! We will also run some cross country rides around the South Ridge area.

Rides will start at 1pm and we will start the party at 3pm.

What is the Dr J Trail?

The Dr J trail was started by Jamie Pfaeffle, Nick Pointon and Tony Urbanek two years ago as a rogue freeride trail build in North Park. When PTAG and Allegheny County discovered the trail they asked the builders to come forward and work with them to make it into a legal, sustainable trail built within accepted standards. Tony initially came forward and when asked by PTAG who built the trail he said “Some guy named Dr J” (which is the nickname the rogue trail build crew had given to Jamie).

From Jamie:

We then worked with PTAG, the County and a team of local freeriders to make a plan to meet this goal. We were fully approved by the County parks director Andy Baechle to re-build the trail one year ago. I went from being a rogue trailbuilder to a PTAG board member and organizer of a team of trail builders with the help of the trail design team.

We (the design team plus 20 other guys who have been psyhed to build) have spent the last year re-building the trail into what it is now with wooden ladder drop-offs, jumps, bridges, a rock garden and elevated skinny features. More work is planned to add additional features along the bottom section of the trail. A skills area is planned for installation beginning this month. We hope in future years to be able to build other freeride trails in the North Park South Ridge area, making a collection of trails into a freeride area.

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