RECAP: Celebration at East Branch Community Trails, Keene

Well over 100 people came out to celebrate the East Branch Community Trails (EBCT) in Keene, NY on June 7th. To all the folks who joined us there – bikers, hikers, and trail runners alike – thank you so much for joining the festivities and our effort to recognize everyone that is making this evolving trail network possible. The forecast was pretty bad, but somehow we were treated to perfect weather!

If you weren’t there, you missed a great day complete with hands-on volunteering (the skills trail we worked on is now rideable with features planned for the future); free drinks and BBQ treats; a few words of appreciation and support from key project partners; the opening of the new enduro-style descent trail Duzzi; and the high spirits that come when people gather to celebrate what’s been created through their hard work, collaboration, and dedication. 
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As we did on the 7th, we want to express our gratitude to all of you who have supported this incredible trail network through your volunteering and donations. This project got started in 2021 thanks to the initiative of the Keene Youth Commission. The preliminary vision that BETA helped create led directly to an inspiring outpouring of support from individuals and foundations. Great trails aren’t easy to build nor inexpensive – we’ve invested or committed $178,000 of private funds and $145,000 of public funds for a total of $323,000 into this network so far. But once you’ve ridden here you know that trails this fun and well designed are worth it!  Thank you to the Cloudsplitter Foundation and People For Bikes for support with this phase!

As always, we hope you can join us at another BETA event in the near future. At East Branch we have an upper mountain trail already planned so we’ll have more to celebrate here before too long!