WINONA LAKE - The second annual Winona Lake Trail Fest is like a scaled-down version of the popular Fat + Skinny Tire Festival, and it’s this Saturday and Sunday.
Greg Demopoulos, Kosciusko County Velo (KCV) Cycling Club vice president and co-founder, said, “We tried it last year to see if people enjoyed it. We try to do a bit more of a low-key version of Fat + Skinny where it’s multiple days, multiple events, but everything is focused on raising awareness for the trails, meaning typically the mountain bike, off-road, hiking trails, but also expansion of the trails.”
He said their goal with the Trail Fest is to raise money for the maintenance of the Winona Lake trails, but also to raise awareness for the future bike park they want to build.
“So we’ve got the additional land that we’re in the process of purchasing - we purchased it but we’ve got to pay it off - and then build the bike park,” Demopoulos said. “And then we also have land access available to where we want to be able to provide that access for the greenway to continue south of the trails into those neighborhoods off of like Cherry Creek and that area.”
He said the Trail Fest is really just to bring everyone together for trail runs, mountain bike races, kids’ clinics, live music and a food truck.
“We’ll have prizes and everything, but it’s much more low-key than Fat + Skinny, but still a fun event. Kind of an ‘end of the season,’ if you will, event, while weather is still decent, we hope,” he said.
The trails are a great amenity, Demopoulos stated, but most of the time people don’t realize it’s private land, not public, but everyone is able to use it. KCV provides the insurance, the man hours, maintenance and sustainability of the trails.
“We want to be able to keep doing that, so this allows us to do that, but also to be able to provide the expansion of the trails, the bike park we want to be able to have with the skills lines, the pump track, all those kind of things we’ve been promoting the last year. So we want to continue to provide this event at the end of the year just to get people together and celebrate a great amenity that we have and continue to raise funds to keep it around and take care of it,” he said.
Some of this weekend’s events have a cost to participate in them because there’s prizes and medals - like the trail run and kids’ race - but others - like the poker run, kids’ clinics and night ride - are all free, though donations will be accepted. The live music is free, but you’ll have to pay to eat at the food truck. Any fees goes back to the trails.
For more information, including dates, times, registration and locations, visit the websites at kcvrecycling.org or winonalaketrails.com.
“Come on out, it’s rain or shine, and we’ve got a big tent out there, so even if you’re not running or riding, with the live music, we’ll have picnic tables out there and the food truck, so if you just want to spectate and hang out, we just want to have everybody out there and come celebrate this great amenity we have in our community and work to expand it,” he concluded.