Between 400 and 500 people participate in Brown County Epic mountain biking festival each year, raising around $40,000 to invest in maintaining the trails.
The Brown County Epic mountain bike festival is back for another year tomorrow through Sunday. The event is the primary fundraiser for Brown County Mountain Biking, the organization responsible for maintaining mountain bike trails in the Brown County State Park, Yellowwood State and Hoosier National forests.
“The whole charity is about maintaining the trail system in Brown County State Park primarily, but then Yellowwood and Hoosier National,” Brown County Mountain Biking Vice President Tom Marsh said. “That’s the whole reason we have the organization, to maintain and pay for the trails. The park maintains the facilities the mountain bike users use like the restrooms, but fundamentally the trails the park does not touch. We do all the sawing, maintenance, we keep them clear.
“The storms caused chaos out there. We have people out there every day. The park management see it as a partnership event, we’re putting all the money back into the trails for them. With us being a charity, that’s all we spend our money on basically, working on the trails. We give some of the money back to the park through camping and everything so they can maintain facilities. Every penny spent is going back into the park in some way.”
The organization raises approximately $40,000 each year during the festival with between 400 and 500 people in attendance, according to board member Chase Smith. People travel from other states, primarily within the Midwest, but have been seen in recent years from Utah and Colorado.
Campsites open tomorrow. Around 95% of attendees either tent camp or stay in an RV during the weekend, Smith said. Camping is set up in the lower lot of the park and while RV spots are completely booked, tent camping is $10 for the weekend.
Registration costs $155 for the entire weekend and includes food, drinks, bike support, meal tickets, raffle tickets and live music. Bikers can register online at www.browncountymtb.org/store/epic-registration or in person on Friday.
Event registration and check-in begins at noon on Friday with bike clinics starting at 10 a.m.. Group rides are set to begin at 1 p.m. and leave at various times throughout the day. The night typically ends with live music, food and beer.
Saturday starts with coffee and breakfast available, expo vendors and the main rides, which take off at various times between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m.
“The goal is to help people who come from out of town find friends to ride with and create a little bit of community at the start of the ride,” said Smith.
The festival has four official courses, short, medium, long and a gravel route. Courses are posted at www.browncountymtb.org/brown-county-epic.
The short course is 26 miles and stays within the state park; the medium course is 44.9 miles and takes bikers to Crooked Creek Lake, where the organization has a barbecue; the long route is 73.1 miles and takes riders to Hoosier National Forest, said Marsh.
“We like to say, make your own epic,” said Smith. “You don’t have to do all of one of the routes if you don’t want to. You can scatter and do whatever you want, but we have our suggested routes as well.”
Marsh said that their goal for the community is to give people a chance to get together at the end of mountain biking season and ride with friends.
“It’s generally the biggest festival for mountain biking in most of the Midwest, you have to go to Arkansas for a bigger festival,” said Marsh. “We make it about being a fun weekend, the music is all bluegrass music, local groups. We have music out on the trails all day Friday and Saturday so people could be biking a trail and there’s someone sitting out with a banjo. It’s about giving people exposure to this area, what Brown County and Nashville’s about. It’s a lot different than just going to ride a race. It will be set up like a campfire environment, people can sit around the campfire at night. It’s a friendly environment compared to just showing up to a race and going home.”
Brown County Mountain Biking is looking for volunteers to help with the event, and people interested can sign up on the website. All updates for the festival will be made on the Brown County Mountain Biking Facebook page.
