Mountain Bike Festival starts small, enthusiastic

Indian summer made one last appearance this weekend for the inaugural Sisters Mountain Bike Festival presented by the Sisters Trails Alliance.

Despite the lower-than-expected attendance, riders enjoyed cruising the trails of the newly revamped Peterson Ridge Trail System and its infinite variety of loops, circuits and cutoffs through the pine and juniper trees.

Ken Serkownek, event organizer and member of Sisters Trails was disappointed at the turnout but hopes to use this as a learning experience to make the event more successful next year.

"It's a good start for our first year," he said. "Riders are out there pedaling the trails. We had 30 participants from all over the region... Hillsboro, Molalla, Bend and Portland. There was even an exchange student from Switzerland."

A staging point, information and registration tent was set up at the Village Green, with maps, apples and oranges, bagels, beverages and evaluation forms for riders to plan out their routes and decide which of the many options their legs and stamina were up for. Cyclists were asked to wear a piece of bright orange clothing or armband of wrapped orange tape as they ventured out onto the trails, as the race coincided with the opening day of the general hunting season.

"Everybody grabbed their maps and sack lunch this morning and headed into the woods," Serkownek reported. "The epic rides left at 9 a.m. One group was going 55-60 miles, the other one was riding 35-38 miles. I believe the all-women's ride was doing 22."

The festival itinerary had to be modified due to the limited turnout, and a banquet buffet was changed to simple meal vouchers for each rider, good for redemption at either Thyme Restaurant or Three Creeks Brewing Company. Sunday morning's schedule offered a 9 a.m. breakfast and giveaways. Vans with bike trailers shuttled single-track fanatics up into the Three Creeks Wilderness area to glide back down through the Peterson Ridge system, where a poker run let riders gather cards to make their best poker hand.

Everyone reconvened at 2 p.m. back at the Village Green for the poker run results, prizes and final good-byes.

Thirteen-year-old Zack Jones of Sisters participated in the poker run on Sunday with his dad.

"We started half-way up Three Creek Road at the top of the trail network," he said. "We did about eight miles. It was fun. There's one spot with a great lookout view of the Rooster Rock Fire and where it burned. Everybody was excited to see what their next card would be. I ended up with a hand of two pair: sixes and nines."

Serkownek intends to re-evaluate things and move the event back next year to the last weekend of September, coinciding with the Sisters Fresh Hop Festival and further away from general hunting season.

"That gives us a chance to cross-promote both events and give our festival a better chance to succeed. We'll be back, better than ever," he said.

Improvements to the Web site and more focused publicity are also on the agenda.