Trails Festival Tales

The original poster as it appears above my dresser today.

I was up in my room getting ready for work the other day. Nothing unusual about that. I've done that 1000's of times before, but this particular day I took note of an old poster I had tacked up on the wall with that white, tacky dope stuff you could get to quickly mount images on your walls. Well, this particular poster has been above my dresser for 24 years. The poster was issued to commemorate the first annual Cedar Trails Festival. 

This was the brainchild of a group here in town that was in charge of coordinating the different government jurisdictions that the trails ran through. Their job was to help make sure the trails were maintained and promoted, amongst other things The name of this particular group is ICOG. They worked with the local city and the state governments to come up with this festival to promote the trails systems and even the soft trails were included in this plan. 

The first trails festival was to be held in August of 1996. At that time I was the lead mechanic at a shop called Advantage Cyclery in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The ICOG man in charge of organization of the Cedar Trails Festival had contacted my boss, Tom Webb, to help with running the soft trails part of the Festival. It was agreed that Advantage Cyclery would sponsor this  and Tom downloaded the responsibility of  all the organization of this end of things to me. Fantastic! This happened in June, just as we were ramping up for another RAGBRAI season and repairs were at their highest levels. Like working 10-12 hour shifts wasn't enough of a work load. 

I remember that ICOG wanted us to lead two group rides. One in the Green Belt and one in George Wyth State Park. Now remember- at this point there was no other organized group to take care of the soft trails. Nothing was being done on any scale to clear trails, mow back weeds, or assess conditions. So I required that the ICOG guy get the State to handle the George Wyth end of things because, well- the State wasn't about to let me walk around with a weed whacker! So, I ended up with getting that part done and off my back. 

The Green Belt was another story. The City of Waterloo Parks and Recreation Department, at that time, mowed the Green Belt once a year. They usually did this in mid-August, but this wasn't scheduled to happen until after when the trails festival was to take place. They said I could go in there and use manual tools to clear weeds, but that they "didn't want to know about it". Essentially, I was on my own. 

So, I had to go out there in mid-July, after working a full day, and use a scythe to knock down a few sections of seven foot high weeds in a few places. It was hot, muggy, insect ridden, and a thoroughly unpleasant affair with no pay. I'll never forget that Summer. Then the ICOG guy started leaning on me to do more, and well, I kind of came unglued. 

These bandanas were given to each rider on the soft trails ride.

The conflict got a little heated, but my boss stepped in and smoothed things over. At any rate, the soft trails part ended up being two excruciatingly slow rides which saw upwards of 40-50 riders on each ride take part in a single track tour of the Green Belt and parts of George Wyth. I had some help leading the riders through, which was great. All volunteer help, totally unrecognized. I don't remember seeing anything mentioned by the organizers about who did all the work, it was just "sponsored by Advantage Cyclery". WooHoo! That kind of bugged me at the time. 

At any rate, it was all deemed a success. Even the other hard surface trails events were well attended, but it was the night ride that was obviously the big hit. The organizers set up a night time ride with candle pots set along the entire length of the main paved trail from Cedar Falls into Waterloo. This was probably about five or six miles worth of trail that was lined- both sides- with candles. 

That ride was complete chaos! People didn't understand that they needed to have lighting on their bikes to see the road/trails by. They thought the candles would shed enough light to ride by. Then there were groups starting on the Waterloo side coming to Cedar Falls and vice-versa.Erratic kids on tiny bikes with parents were everywhere. People were stopping randomly. There were several trail-side "beer and alcohol stops" arranged at unawares to the authorities. It was a complete mess, but it was super popular and well received. 

There was an after-party at a place on 18th Street in Cedar Falls and I recall the place was packed. I folded a 40 spoke wheel trying to trackstand that night in the parking lot. Ha! Anyway, it was quite the scene. Later years proved to be popular, but the soft trails experiment was not repeated and eventually the night ride was really the only draw for the festival. The last 'annual' trails festival happened in 2014. Nineteen years it lasted, but interest and participation waned until at the end, hardly anyone noticed the event. 

Since that time a "Pedal Fest" has taken up where the annual Trails Festival left off, but it hasn't gained the traction, nor the widespread appeal, that the original Trails Festival had. Those early years brought out all sorts of people. Not cyclists- people. Folks that were bicycle-curious. The Pedal Fest cannot lay claim to such an appeal like the CTF had. Too bad. In the times we are in now, such a festival would have major impacts on the citizens of the town. 

So, there is my tale about the Cedar Trails Festival (CTF), such as it was. Those were far different times in the late 90's and the Trails Festival was a really big deal back then. I am glad to have been a part of the first one.