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CAROGA — The second annual Wheelerville Trails Mountain Bike Festival will take place Saturday and Sunday.
The event will range from beginning-level skills clinics to wheelie and skills tournaments, along with many other activities — as well as food.
“The festival idea was really started by our Town Supervisor Scott Horton,” said Wheelerville trail manager Jeremy Manning. “After seeing the growth in the trail system over the years, the town wanted to hold an event to showcase the trail system to the community.”
After a successful weekend in 2022, Manning is looking to build on what was started last year.
“For me, just seeing how far people traveled to come to last year’s festival was really cool,” Manning said. “The first guy there came all the way from northern Maine. Overall, the best thing about it was just seeing so many people out there having a great time on their bikes.”
In a statement announcing the festival, Horton — also chairman of the Fulton County Board of Supervisors — praised the development that’s been done to enhance the trails over the past few years.
“Just over three years ago we didn’t even have a shovel in the ground,” Horton noted. “In such a short time this evolved into one of the premier downhill mountain bike trails in the northeast.”
Saturday’s events feature a beginner skill clinic, intermediate group rides, skills clinic, races and competitions.
Sunday will start out with an intro to jumping and dropping clinic, as well as more group rides and a clinic for children later in the day.
A specific itinerary for both days can be found online.
“While the downhill race and jump jam are definitely the highlights for the crowd, this year we are adding more of an educational component,” Manning said. “We are offering more skills clinics and are also partnering with LL Bean and Saratoga Shredders to offer coaching to kids and new riders in our newly developed ‘Wheelieville Skills Park’ on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.”
Stathis Greek Restaurant and El Cielo Mexican Food will be on site on Saturday, while Megabites Food Truck will be there on Sunday. Drinks will also be offered from Upstate Coffee, Common Roots Brewing and Stump City Brewing.
“We’re excited to have so many new vendors participating this year,” Manning said. “LL Bean, Red Bull, Thule, Caroga Lake Marina, Unior Tools and Avision Pads will all be there for the first time.”
While parking at the Wheelerville trailhead is expected to fill up quickly, a map is available online with approved parking locations.
“We recognize that parking space at the Wheelerville trailheads is limited and will fill up quickly,” the instructions read. “Therefore, many event attendees have to do a little bit of pedaling to get to the trailhead. The east shoulder of NY-10 will serve as a dedicated bike/pedestrian lane connecting parking areas and both trailheads.”
Visitors can also park at the Caroga Town Hall, Highway Garage, on the west side of NY-10 and on the east side of Kasson Drive.
