CAMBA Festival of the Trails to Move to Memorial Day Weekend

The fourth annual CAMBA Festival of the Trails will take place this year on Memorial Day weekend, May 25-27, 2012. This is a departure from the event’s traditional date, which had been one week later. The change in the date is, in part, an attempt to attract more participants to the Festival. The Festival has seen steady growth since its inception in 2009 and last year attracted 135 riders to the three days of trail-based events. While the Festival’s level of growth has been satisfactory, CAMBA would like to see it expand to up to 200 riders.

Prior to deciding on the change of date, CAMBA discussed the Memorial Day weekend option with both the Cable Area Chamber of Commerce and Hayward Lakes Visitor and Convention Bureau. Their feedback was supportive. The chamber and VCB thought it was a good idea and would give people an actual event in which to come participate that weekend. Despite being a three-day holiday weekend, it is still generally a quiet time in the area.

The 2012 Festival of the Trails will get underway at noon on Friday and continue through 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, with one additional event that evening. There will be no Festival activities or events on Memorial Day Monday.

CAMBA’s Festival Committee has been meeting for the past several months to develop new events and fine-tune the Festival offerings for this year. CAMBA has worked to add something new or tweak things a little every year to help keep the event fresh and interesting for new and returning participants.

New aspects of the 2012 Festival of the Trails include:

• Guided rides – Several guided rides will be offered in addition to the usual self-guided rides as part of the Festival’s “Tour de Trails,” where riders tour the various CAMBA singletrack trails in the Cable, Hayward, Namakagon and Seeley area. They punch a tally card along the way to gain points toward a huge prize drawing, the Swag Fest, at the conclusion of the event.

• New Friday evening social and Night Ride venues: The Festival’s first social event, a Meet & Greet, will take place this year on the shores of Lake Namakagon at Garmisch Resort. The Friday evening Night Ride will follow the Meet & Greet and depart from the nearby Namakagon Town Hall Trailhead.

• Taste de Trails New Format: In the past the Taste de Trails toured a five to eight mile route where along the way riders could sample specialty foods from several area restaurants. This year all food samples will be available at a single, central location along the designated route. It is planned to have music and a generally festive atmosphere for the riders as they emerge from the woods to a “Food Fest in the Forest.”

• Sunday afternoon Barbecue and Swag-Fest – All Sunday afternoon events will take place this year at the OO Trailhead in Seeley. In the past this event had been held at Hatchery Creek Park in Hayward.

• Camping: A limited number of campsites will be available near the OO Trailhead on Sawyer County Forest land. The County recently adopted a policy permitting camping on the county forest, which has made this possible.

• Pedal Driven – a mountain bike advocacy film will be shown on Sunday evening at 7:00pm at the Park Theater in Hayward.

The 2012 CAMBA Festival of the Trails promises to be another great event and CAMBA is excited to be able to kick off the summer vacation and mountain biking season with a large number of trail riding activities and events. The Festival is both a promotional event to help attract visitors to the Cable-Hayward area and a fund raising event to help support CAMBA’s ongoing singletrack development initiative, which has seen the creation of over 75 miles of singletrack mountain bike trails over the past eight years.

Of course an event of this magnitude would not be possible without the assistance of numerous area businesses and bicycle industry sponsors that have provided support for the event. CAMBA is extremely grateful to this year’s cast of Festival of the Trails sponsors that includes: Platinum Sponsors SRAM and Trek; Gold Sponsors Becker Law Office, Mt. Borah, Bontrager, Famous Dave’s Light & Motion and The Rivers Eatery; Silver Sponsors: Angry Minnow Brewing, Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival, Freewheel Bike, Keen Footwear, Maplewood Cycling, New Moon Ski & Bike, OutThere, Riverbrook Bike & Ski, and Trek Bicycle Store; and Bronze Sponsors Cresthill Resort, Fits Socks, Garmisch USA, King Realty, KOA, Outdoor Ventures, Park Tool, Saris, Smith Optics, and TS Events. Taste de Trails sponsors include: Brickhouse Café, Delta Diner, Lakewoods Resort, Mooselips Java Joint, the Rivers Eatery and the Rookery Pub.

Additional information about festival registration will be announced soon and posted on the CAMBA website, www.cambatrails.org .

Approximately 40 to 50 volunteers are needed to organize and present the fourth annual Festival of the Trails. Anyone interested in assisting should contact Ron Bergin at (715)798-3599 or camba@cheqnet.net.