Celebrate Duthie Hill Mountain Bike Park This Weekend

Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance and King County Parks celebrate the completion of Duthie Hill Park's Mountain Bike Park with a Celebratory Mountain Bike Festival, Friday and Saturday, June 8-9.

The event is open to the public and will feature racing, free bike demos, live music, great food and more.

After more than three years and 12,000 hours of volunteer labor, the final phase of construction at King County’s Duthie Hill Mountain Bike Park in Issaquah is slated to be finished by June– just in time for Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance’s annual Mountain Bike Festival, June 8-9.

The festival is open to the public and is free. It also coincides with National Get Outdoors Day, and is listed as one of the handfull of official get outdoors locations in the state, thanks to Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance.

The festival kicks off with a volunteer appreciation celebration on June 8, featuring live music and food. Evergreen will also be sharing information about its recent and upcoming projects, as well as information for those interested in volunteering. 

On Saturday, the all-day festival starts at 8 a.m. and features more than 30 vendor and sponsor booths, free bike demos, racing and jumping competitions, bike demonstrations, events for kids, food concessions, raffles with prizes from sponsors and more. Families are encouraged to attend.

Parking for both events will be at the adjacent Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Directions and a map can be found at http://tinyurl.com/duthiehill. 

The park officially opened for mountain biking in 2010, following completion of the first phase of construction. Since then, Duthie Hill Mountain Bike Park has seen more than 75,000 rider visits per year. Riders of all ages and skill levels can find the perfect trail for them at Duthie Hill. The park was built through a partnership between the non-profit Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance and King County Parks.  

Funding came from a combination of grants and overwhelming community support, including $225,000 of private donations and thousands of hours of volunteer labor. The Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office also funded a portion of the project, and recently awarded King County Parks an additional grant for a much-needed parking lot, to be completed in 2013. 

“Evergreen has been a perfect partner on this project, and the thousands of volunteer hours that the mountain biking community have given to building this remarkable amenity are a testament to their commitment to the recreational community in King County,”  said Kevin Brown, King County Parks Director. 

“We are thrilled with how popular the park has become,” said Evergreen’s Executive Director Glenn Glover. “It is now a nationally-known mountain biking destination that serves as a model for communities across the country. Equally important for area riders, Duthie serves as a hub for the entire mountain biking community and is a wonderful place for families to introduce kids to biking, and to ride together in a beautiful, wooded setting.” 

King County’s 130 acre Duthie Hill Park is located at 27101 SE Duthie Hill Rd., on the Sammamish Plateau, 30 minutes from downtown Seattle. It includes six miles of cross country bike trail, two miles of free-ride trail with jumps and built features, a central clearing with a shelter, kids’ biking area, opportunities for skill building, and more.

Trail users range from children and first-time riders to expert mountain bikers. Duthie’s trail system is connected to trails on more than 2,000 acres of public open space, including King County’s Mitchell Hill Forest, and Grand Ridge and Preston Ridge parks. 

For more information about the festival visit: www.evergreenmtbfestival.com; for more information about the riding area at Duthie Hill Park visit http://evergreenmtb.org/wiki/index.php?title=Duthie.